732 



FLOWER GARDEN. 



leaves, they are fit for potting off singly into 

 small 60-sized pots, in light rich soil. They 

 should be grown in a low pit, with a northern 

 exposure, with free ventilation both day and 

 night. They delight in a rich dry soil, composed 

 chiefly of decomposed cow-dung, light loam, and 

 sharp sand, with a due amount, but not an excess, 

 of moisture during hot dry weather. A moist 

 atmosphere around them is advantageous, and 

 this may be secured by watering the floor upon 

 which they stand once or twice a-day. They do 

 not stand the force of the sun well; shade, if 

 not under the drip of trees, is their favourite 

 situation. They may be set in their flowering 

 pots in June, and kept in an uncovered pit facing 

 the north, in most parts of Scotland; but in most 

 of England they may be turned out into a shady 

 border in the reserve garden, in rather a stiff 

 compost, in which they grow stout, and trans- 

 plant safely. When potted in their flowering- 

 pots, in either case they should be plunged in 

 sand or coal-ashes, allowing them plenty of 

 room, in a free airy exposure, and kept at a very 

 uniform degree of moistneas, neither too wet nor 

 too dry. In October they should be placed in a 

 pit under glass, from whence they may be taken 

 into a moderately warm forcing pit or house in 

 succession; but as they will bear neither much 

 heat nor sunshine, these must be guarded against. 



The varieties of Cinerarea are great acquisitions 

 during winter and spring. Seed sown about the 

 end of March will produce plants fit for planting 

 out in a north border, by the end of May, in a 

 pretty rich soil of turfy peat and loam. They 

 should be set 12 inches apart, and encouraged in 

 growth throughout the summer, giving the 

 weaker -growing plants a little liquid manure 

 from time to time, and preventing all from 

 flowering by picking out the flower-stalk as soon 

 as it makes its appearance. They will be fine 

 bushy plants by September, at which time they 

 should be taken up with good balls, and potted 

 in pots of a size corresponding with their growth. 

 They should then be treated as recommended 

 above for Primula sinensis, and like it they are 

 impatient of fire-heat. The seed does not always 

 vegetate freely when sown in pots in the usual 

 manner. To overcome this, we have long adopted 

 the following plan : In March, when the early- 

 grown plants have nearly finished flowering, we 

 select the very finest varieties, and place them 

 under a close garden-frame, covered with glass, 

 and set upon a loose gravel courtyard. The seed 

 naturally sheds itself ; and, falling on the surface 

 of the pots, but mostly on the gravel, vegetates 

 freely, and produces thousands of plants. These, 

 when about a quarter of an inch high — that is, as 

 soon as they can be handled — we take up and 

 plant in store-pans, keeping them still in the 

 same frame ; and these, by the end of April or 

 beginning of May, are fit for potting off singly 

 into small pots, or of being planted out in a 

 border as noticed above. 



The Chinese chrysanthemums are valuable for 

 a late autumnal display, when flowers are most 

 needed, and from their easy production deserve 

 our especial attention. Some propagate them 

 yearly by cuttings taken off in March, or as 

 early as they can be procured ; for ourselves, 



we prefer planting out the old plants in a warm 

 well exposed border early in April. As the 

 plants progress, all the shoots are removed ex- 

 cepting three or four ; these are allowed to grow 

 till they begin to show their flower-buds about 

 the beginning of October, when they are laid 

 singly into pots, choosing only about 18 inches 

 of the points of the shoots of the larger-growing 

 sorts, 10 or 12 inches of the dwarf sorts. These 

 soon strike root, and form compact little plants, 

 and are kept in a cool pit, rather close, for a 

 fortnight or so, after which abundance of air ia 

 admitted, and frost carefully excluded. They 

 are thus kept till required for flowering, and are 

 taken into a moderately warm pit in succession. 



Pinks and carnations, particularly those varie- 

 ties of the old Tree sort now called perpetual 

 flowering, are valuable in early spring. They 

 should be struck as pipings as early in spring 

 as the " grass " — that is, the young shoots — is 

 procurable. They require to be rooted on 

 bottom-heat, and when hardened off should be 

 planted out in a rich warm border, and kept 

 moderately moist until September, when they 

 must be taken up with good balls of earth, and 

 potted in a compost composed of stiffish loam 

 and very rotten cow-dung, and plunged with 

 the other plants prepared for forcing. Some 

 prefer plants produced by the previous season'a 

 pipings or layers, and these no doubt are 

 stronger, and will be in excellent condition for 

 potting in September, if they have been kept in 

 a northern border in rather poor soil, and pre- 

 vented from flowering. 



Some annuals and biennials become very ser- 

 viceable for this purpose, and none more so 

 than the mignonette, particularly the giant vari- 

 ety, the Double wallflower, Ten-week stocks, &c. 

 The wallflower we strike by cuttings in April, 

 having prevented the old plants from flowering. 

 When the plants are rooted, they are potted and 

 plunged in a cold north pit, and only encour- 

 aged in growth towards the end of summer, 

 when they are placed in their flowering-pots, 

 and afterwards plunged in coal-ashea till wanted. 

 It ia unsafe to trust them during winter without 

 protection. 



The seed of Ten-week stock is sown in July, 

 and again in August for a succession. When 

 the plants come up, they require abundance of 

 air and little water, and when fit to handle are 

 potted off, sometimes singly, at other times 

 three in a pot, and for this purpose no pot need 

 be more than 6 inches in diameter. 



Mignonette is by some sown in pots, and 

 afterwards thinned out to three or four plants 

 in each, the season of sowing being the same as 

 the last. In this way the growers for the 

 London market, &c., raise it, some of whom 

 have many thousands of pots annually. We 

 adopt a different course, and sow in the open 

 air upon a bed of rather poor soil at the times 

 above specified, and when they have made 

 three or four leaves, choose a dull cloudy day, 

 and take up the plants on the point of a knife, 

 and set them to the number of five or six in 

 5-inch pots. These are carried as they are 

 potted to a cool close pit, kept shaded, and 

 slightly watered for a week, after which the 



