ON REARING FLOWERS. 



173 



whom it is intended. These plants are usually kept in 

 pots throughout the whole season ; and as few cottagers 

 are enabled to purchase pots of a size sufficient to grow 

 the plants to perfection in, they are but rarely seen 

 producing their flowers so large and so abundantly as 

 they would, if the roots were not too much confined, 

 and had sufficient room to extend themselves. To 

 obviate this evil, we propose that the plants should be 

 turned out into the open border in the spring, after all 

 danger from frost is over ; where, if the earth in the 

 border is prepared for their reception, and is composed 

 of light loamy soil, and a small portion of well-rotted 

 manure, they will flower in great perfection during the 

 summer months, and there will be no danger of their 

 being injured by the bad potting or injudicious water- 

 ing, to which they are liable when kept in pots. If it 

 be urged that this system is only applicable to the 

 common and inferior sorts, we reply, that it may be 

 practised with advantage with all the sorts that can be 

 procured by the classes for whom this is written. We 

 have practised this system with the most perfect success, 

 and have not the slightest doubt of its practical utility. 

 Plants thus treated will grow in the richest luxuriance, 

 and continue flowering during the whole of the summer. 

 But, as they cannot be retained in this situation all the 

 winter, it is obvious that some means must be devised 

 for preserving them through this period, and these 

 means we shall now detail. 



To take up the old plants, and place them in pots for 

 the purpose of keeping them through the winter in a 

 dwelling-room, would, besides greatly injuring them, re- 

 quire as large, or even larger pots, than if they had been 

 constantly kept in pots; besides which, as it is well 

 known that young plants flower best, and occupy much 

 less room, a quantity of cuttings should be struck early 

 in the autumn, according to the duections given under 

 the head of cuttings, in a former part of this little work ; 

 and these, when rooted, should be potted into small 

 pots, and kept as much as possible in the open air, pre- 

 serving them in frosty weather in the window of a 

 dwelling-room during the day, and in a somewhat more 



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