MAR.] 



THE GARDENER. 



101 



Storms from the south-west, or cutting blasts from 

 the east, accompanied with sleet or penetrating rain, 

 may now he expected ; therefore, though the sun may 

 shine brightly and warmly at intervals, do not indulge 

 the delusive hope that fires and matting may be dis- 

 pensed with for your glass-houses and frames : do not 

 relax your vigilance, for you will probably have many 

 severe days to contend with yet* 



Stoze and Greenhouse. — Put cuttings and seed- 

 lings of the tender and choice annuals sown last month 

 into thumb-pots, from which they are to be shifted at 

 a more advanced stage, and shift all plants that require 

 repotting (leaving the most forward to the end of this 

 or until the succeeding month), and make cuttings of 

 Hydrangias and Fuchsias, and keep up a moist tem- 

 perature of about 70*^ for a few days, until the repot- 

 ted plants acquire new roots in the fresh mould, and 

 the cuttings strike theirs in a mild bottom heat. For 

 almost all the plants the mould may be composed of 

 rich maiden earth (rotten turf preferable to any other), 

 leaf mould and sand in about equal proportions ; and 

 f )r the lower stratum in the pots charcoal is excellent, 

 for it acts as a drain below, and if a charred stick be 

 placed vertically in a pot, it becomes a conductor of 

 moisture to the roots of the plant, which, without some 

 such management, are so frequently in dry earth. 

 Groijmd bones mixed with the charcoal have a per- 

 manently good effect. The depth of these porous 

 substances should be a third of the whole filling for 

 very delicate plants, such as heaths, and indeed for 

 cuttings of almost all house plants.* 



• The Gardeners' Chronicle recommends, for nine young* 

 plants out of ten, one-third peat, one-third leaf mould, and the 

 remaining third of loam and sand ; and for Heaths and Epacrises, 



