56 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS, 
get full of roots, keep them driey and cooler, and give 
plenty of air, which will soon cause flowers to appear ; then 
select plants with best flowers, rub every flower-bud off 
them, fresh pot, disentangling the roots a little as you 
proceed, and grow them on as advised above; and what 
you lose in time you will make up in selectness.” These 
directions provide for a check by allowing the plants to 
become pot-bound, and for another check by the process 
of rubbing the flower-buds off, so as to compel the plants 
to produce another crop. And what is the result? Tall, 
attenuated plants, with poor flowers on the side stems, and 
no fine flowers anywhere. We see numerous wretched bal- 
sams at flower shows that have been grown in this way. 
Now, let us ask Nature about it, and her reply will be that 
the finest flowers are the first produced, and appear in the 
centre of the plant; therefore the removal of the buds is 
a mistake, and the imposition of any check is a mistake, 
and there is no balsam so beautiful as the one that has 
been generously grown and allowed to Hower at its own 
time and in its own way. 
