232 General Notices. 



tings of begonia nitida will make nice flowering plants. Begonia floribunda 

 is a most excellent plant for flowering through the winter ; B. insignis is a 

 splendid thing, and nearly as good as floribunda ; B. manicata is also a 

 beautiful thing ; B. fuchsioides, although not so good as some of the others, 

 its scarlet flowers look well, and the plant also, when it is grown dwarf and 

 bushy. B. albo-coccinea is really a splendid little plant, and ought to be in 

 every collection ; it is almost a permanent flowering tiling — it is in flower 

 nine months out of the twelve. These plants can be grown well in a mix- 

 ture of rotted turf, leaf-mould, peat, and sand. I quite agree with your cor- 

 respondent, that the night temperature should be lower than is usually given 

 to stove plants ; also, that tliere is much to be done in crossing and pro- 

 ducing interesting varieties. — (76. p. 84, 1850.) 



Forcing Flowers. — Having read Mr. Ford's letter of the 12th of Janua- 

 ry, also your own remarks on early flower-forcing, it occurs to me, tliat if gar- 

 deners would, (through the medium of your Journal,) communicate to each 

 other their experience on that subject, it would, doubtless, prove as interest- 

 ing to many of your readers, as the discussion on bedding-out plants in the 

 flower-garden, has done. And as the producing of cut flowers in winter, is 

 a subject I am obliged to give a considerable share of my attention to, I 

 will, with your permission, offer a few remarks as to what tilings I find most 

 useful for tliat purpose, my method of treatment, &c., hoping that some of 

 your more able contributors will be induced to take up tlie subject. I will 

 begin with the rose, the universally-acknowledged queen of flowers, and 

 few plants are better adapted for the purpose of forcing, providing, always, 

 that they are Avell established in their pots, in suitable soil, &c. With the 

 tea-scented varieties, (on which I principally depend for midwinter supply,) 

 my practice is to keep them plunged in cinder-ashes, on tlie north side of a 

 wall, during tlie summer months, pinching out the flower buds whenever 

 tliey appear, until about tlie middle of October. I tlien put them into a 

 lio-ht forcing-house, keeping them pretty near to the glass, and in a night 

 temperature not under 50 degrees, giving air during tlie day, when the 

 weather permits, stimulating them with weak liquid manure. By this treat- 

 ment, I generally induce tlieiii to produce blooms, more or less abundantly, 

 throughout the winter and spring months. Witli the hybrid perpetual and 

 Provence roses, early blooms are more difficult to produce. I, this season, 

 introduced a quantity of these varieties into a moderate heat, about tlie 15th 

 of November, and the first blooms were cut on tJie 21st of the present 

 month (January.) The Provence, or common cabbage-roses, will not ex- 

 pand before the first week in February. I may further add, tliat the latter 

 have been forced every winter for the last four years. Hardly second to 

 the rose, in point of request with me, is tlie Anna Boleyn pink, which I find 

 possible to have in flower ten months out of the twelve, by pursuing the fol- 

 lowing system: — I layer them about tlie same time and in the same manner 

 as carnations are generally increased ; when well rooted, about the begin- 

 ning of September, they are cut from the stools, and planted in rows, on a 

 sheltered border. About tlie end of March following, they are potted into 

 eight-inch pots, and plunged in a north border ; whenever they show flower, 



