Culture of chalk, the buyer will be quite safe. But what of the turf 
Rhododen- itself? Secure it also if possible. If stacked in a heap, grass 
drons side down, with layers of manure, for a few months, then 
chopped up and mixed with leaf mould, a compost will be 
secured in which Rhododendrons will revel. 
So rapidly is the loam theory spreading that there promises 
to come a time when turves and top-spit, with the accompani- 
ment of leaf mould, will be actually preferred to peat. And 
the writer has little hesitation in prophesying that when that 
era arrives Rhododendrons will be grown in greater beauty 
than they have ever been in the past. So far as clay is 
concerned, it is not suitable when in a stiff, crude state, liable to 
be pasty in wet weather, to dry like steel under harsh spring 
winds, and to develop fissures during summer drought. But 
ameliorated clay—clay lightened with road grit (not limestone), 
leaf mould, and, if possible, decayed turves—is by no means 
hopeless. A mulching of leaf mould is of considerable benefit, 
as it prevents the cracking which is such an objectionable 
feature of mismanaged clay. 
While dealing with practical matters, it may be permissible 
to point out how great a help it is in establishing young plants 
to give careful attention to them directly the bloom fades. 
Young, newly purchased plants, perhaps three years from graft 
or layer (new sorts will probably be grafts on ponticum stocks, 
old varieties will very likely be layers) may carry two or three 
large heads of bloom the year of planting. This in itself will not 
hurt them, in fact new growth will perhaps be breaking freely 
while they are in bloom; but if the flower heads are permitted 
to ripen right off, the plants are bound to suffer. The fading. 
trusses should be broken off, and in a particular way. When 
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