156 IIow TO Grow Ct:t Flowers. 



know of no plant, seeminglj' of such easy cultivation, 

 that requires more careful study than this, and this fact 

 is coming to be generally recognized more and-more 

 each year. So important has it become in the eyes of 

 cultivators, a national society has recently been formed, 

 through moans of which, it is hoped, an interchange 

 of thought and experience will result in greatly ad- 

 vancing the interest and value of this general favor- 

 ite, as well as stimulate all to a closer study of both 

 its nature and needs. This is well, and everyone 

 should avail himself of every means at his com- 

 mand relating to its wants, through intercourse with 

 others, and knowledge of their experience; and still, 

 perhaps more than with any other flower we culti- 

 vate, are we at last obliged to fall back upon our own 

 resources. And this, because varieties and conditions 

 wh ich succeed with one fail with another, so there is 

 no certainty without a trial — however popular or per- 

 fect a plant may be in one section of the country — of its 

 reproducing itself in these respects in another. It is a^ 

 study absolutely necessary for each grower to make for 

 himself. Onlj' a few general principles can be laid 

 down as a basis of growth, and some of these must be 

 varied to meet the want produced by variety, soil, or 

 climate. 



With the writer, the following conditions have been 

 conducive to the greatest degree of success, though 

 failures have sometimes come where they have been 



