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PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 
6. Relieve plants by cutting off all dead flowers, leaves and branches; this will serve 
to lengthen the season of bloom; but care should be taken not to allow the refuse to 
accumulate on or around the pots or beds. Keep plants that tend to a straggling or spin- 
dling growth, shapely and compact by cutting off all weak and misplaced shoots. 
7. Relieve plants from insects as soon as detected; do not wait till tomorrow, for by 
tomorrow you may have no plant worth speaking of. To keep your collection free, 
examine and, if necessary, purify all new acquisitions. 
8. Keep a few cups of water among house plants, to evaporate; where saucers filled 
with water are used for certain plants, these cups are unnecessary. 
9, Where a plant is grown with a saucer of water underneath, raise the pot above 
the water by little wooden blocks or stones. 
10. Keep the soil sweet by occasionally letting it goa little dry, or stirring it up 
gently with a fork; a table fork will do for house plants. 
11. Never throw away soot; mix it in the soil, which it will help to fertilize, while 
it is very effective in driving away insects; it will also heighten and beautify the color 
of all red and blue flowers. 
12. Never waste soapsuds; it can be applied with advantage to all kinds of grow- 
ing shrubs and plants. Even in winter it can be utilized by being poured upon a manure 
or compost heap, or where plants are to grow the ensuing season. 
13. Use moss freely as a topping for the soil in pots and boxes; if put on neatly it is 
ornamental, besides being useful in retaining moisture and protecting the upper rootlets 
until the leafage is sufficiently developed to discharge that function. Sponges may be 
placed among plants and watered for the like purpose of maintaining moisture, being also 
susceptible of ornamentation by sowing in them the common garden cress or canary grass. 
14, Mix well all soils for plants; making of the several ingredients one homogeneous 
mass, carefuily throwing out all the lumps, half-rotted bits of wood, and other refuse. 
15. Protect plants against heavy drippings from houses, trees, and the like; none 
will thrive under such an infliction. 
16. To insure a pleasing succession of flowers in plants of the same species, select 
different varieties, or set those of the same variety at different times; indeed, nature 
will, unaided, secure a partial continuity, as scarcely any two will bloom at the same time. 
17. Throughout the flowering season, apply alternately plenty of water and weak 
liquid manure to all bulbous and free-blooming plants. Where plants grow too fast, the 
temperature should be reduced. 
18. In watering house plants some discretion should be used to save carpets from the 
drippings; several ingenious contrivances have been devised, and they are purchasable at 
seedstores; but most persons can extemporize their own. 
19. Do not cut off the withering leaves of bulbous plants, but let them die or decay 
naturally and fall off in due season, as while the leaves decline the sap goes back into the 
bulb, replenishing its store of strength for the ensuing season. 
20. Steep new pots to close the pores, but allow them to drain off before using ; 
thoroughly wash old ones, and scald them to kill fungus. ; 
21. In raising plants, sow the seeds unsparingly; it is easy to weed out the poor and 
weakly seedlings, leaving of the strongest as many as may be desired for vigorous growth, 
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