SUMMER TREATMENT 



fourth, the production of cuttings. But though we keep distinct 

 before us these four ends, they imply, collectively, no differentiation 

 in the general treatment, except that the work of disbudding applies 

 only to number one. They are all entirely bound up in the health 

 and well-being of the stock, and it is this 

 and this alone that must have our greatest 

 consideration. What we have to do then 

 is to give our charges the best possible 

 conditions : plenty of light, a moderate 

 warmth, fresh air, abundant nourishment 

 without over-feeding ; full attention to their 

 detailed requirements. We have to sedu- 

 lously guard them against disease and, later, 

 against insect pests ; to supply them with 

 fertiliser as the strain upon them increases ; 

 to top-dress them with new compost in the 

 later winter, and keep them up to concert 

 pitch all the time they are in bearing. 

 Between their crops of bloom (for their 

 are slight intervals) they may be cleaned 

 over and assisted, but never driven, for we 

 must always remember that they are hardy 

 plants, and impatient of exotic conditions. 

 Remember, too, that this< their] first^winter, 

 is their best, is indeed the time of their 

 lives, when they make the finest efforts of 

 which they are capable, and produce larger, 

 brighter, more substantial and more abund- 

 ant blooms than ever they will again. From an economical point 

 of view it matters but little if they go all out at the end, after 

 having given a sufficiency of stout, healthy cuttings, for on the 

 whole we incline to the opinion that it is more satisfactory to work 

 on young stock every year and to depend less upon two-year-old 

 plants which, while giving an abundance of highly coloured blooms 

 are, on the whole, of second size and quality valuable, doubtless, 

 but still distinctly below the younger ones in value, especially in 

 times of plenty. 



FIG. 7. Pot Plant 

 in October 



