Gardening for Amateurs 



783 



Boronia. The Boronias are a free-flower- 

 ing race of small-growing shrubs, natives of 

 Australia. Of the different species Boronia 

 raegastigma is justly valued for the sake of 

 the delicious fragrance of its small, drooping, 

 bell-shaped flowers, chocolate 

 without and yellowish within. 

 It blooms during the first 

 three months of the year. 

 A second kind B. elatior 

 is later in flowering, being at 

 its best as a rule in April. 

 The drooping flowers of this, 

 which are very freely borne, 

 are of bright rosy-red colour. 

 In B. heterophylla the flowers 

 are purplish and lie close to 

 the steins. They are borne 

 in spring. Boronias are pro- 

 pagated by means of cuttings, 

 formed of the half-ripened 

 shoots whenever they are 

 available, say about the end 

 of May or in June. The pots 

 prepared for their reception 

 must be filled to within a 

 couple of inches of the top 

 with broken crocks, the upper 

 layer being very small. Upon 

 this is placed a mixture of 

 peat and silver sand, which 

 has been passed through a 

 sieve with a J-inch mesh, 

 and thoroughly incorporated 

 together. This must be 

 pressed down very firmly and 

 the pot finished off with a 

 thin layer of pure sand. The 

 cuttings, for which 1J inches 

 is a very suitable length, are 

 severed at a joint with a 

 sharp knife, when they are 

 ready for insertion. In dib- 

 bling them in, care must be 

 taken that each cutting is 

 securely fixed in position and 

 not overcrowded. The pot, being filled, 

 is watered through a fine rose, in order 

 to settle everything in its place, and 

 then covered with a bell-glass. After this 

 it should be placed in the warmest part of 

 the greenhouse and kept shaded until the 

 cuttings are rooted, which will take some 



considerable time. As soon as they are well 

 rooted, the cuttings are potted singly in 

 small pots, using the same kind of compost. 

 When sufficiently advanced they may be 

 shifted into larger pots. For this shift the 



The rose-purple Boronia heterophylla. 



peat must not be sifted, but broken up with 

 the hand. Pots 3J inches in diameter are 

 suitable, and from these the plants can be 

 shifted into 5-inch ones in the second season. 

 The points of the young plants should be 

 pinched out two or three times in order to 

 ensure bushy specimens. Though this is 



