243 Oleander Culture. 



the beginning of September the young plants are placed in pots 

 proportioned to their size. Formerly gardeners used to layer at once 

 into pots, thinking that by adopting the method thus described 

 they would lose their plants. They also used to cut the branches, 

 as they would do with pinks, at the places where they wished to 

 secure the formation of roots. But after a time, it was found that 

 this practice was unnecessary. It was even seen to prevent the free 

 development of the plant, which thus became less vigorous than 

 when layered in the soQ. Although layering secures the formation 

 of strong plants quicker than propagation by cuttings, the plants are 

 not of such good habit, and are not multiplied so rapidly as by 

 cuttings. These may be obtained at any season when the two 

 principal requisites for the formation of roots — heat and moisture — 

 can be secured ; the best cuttings, nevertheless, are those raised in 

 April, in pots or pans filled with good light soil mixed with a little 

 peat. The cuttings should be taken with little shoots obtained 

 from the two-year-old wood, and the whole should be placed on a 

 brisk hotbed. Under such circumstances the cuttings will root 

 in from fifty to sixty days. As soon as they are rooted they are 

 exposed gradually to the air ; they are repotted so that they may 

 be placed during the summer in the open air. As soon as the 

 plants attain a height of about twenty inches the shoots are stopped 

 in order to induce the formation of flowering branches. To form 

 a clean little stem, all the buds formed on the lower eight inches 

 of its base are suppressed. The shrub especially delights in copious 

 waterings and should be kept perfectly free from the insect pests 

 which infest it when under negligent cultivation." 



The above is part of a leading article from the Gardener's 

 Chronicle. In addition I may remark that pretty little free- 

 blooming oleanders are grown about Paris in small pots, say 48's, 

 in sandy soil, and these pots they of course soon fiU with roots. 

 They are plunged all the summer in the open air, and grown at all 

 other seasons near the glass in those low houses so much iu vogue 

 in Parisian nurseries and gardens. The large plants you see in 

 some of the public gardens are in great tubs, evidently undisturbed 



