52 



PLANTS FOR WINDOW GARDENING. 



they will be ready to transplant. Pot them in thumb pots, 

 and re-pot as soon as the roots touch the sides of the pot. 

 Keep them in vigorous growth by affording plenty of light 

 and air, being careful they never suffer from want of water. 

 Pinch off the leading shoots, to cause all axillary buds to 

 break, and in no case allow them to bloom. Train the 

 plant in any form desired, but be careful not to permit it to 

 grow too straggling. When other plants are housed, 

 remove your verbenas to some warm shelf, where they may 

 have the morning sun, and on every favorable day give 

 plenty of air, and fumigate well to destroy green aphis. 

 Your plants will soon be in luxuriant bloom, long before 

 those potted in the common way have shown a bud, and 

 will continue to afford an abundance of flowers until late in 

 the spring. To grow verbenas well in the house in summer 

 is far easier. They may be bloomed in pots of any size, 

 and trained in almost any form, the only requisites being 

 plenty of light and air, careful pruning, and means to 

 destroy aphis and keep off mildew. 



One great fault in growing verbenas is the practice of 

 watering too copiously. The plant, as originally found, 

 grows on dry hills ; and damp not only produces mildew, 

 but rots the roots, and thus destroys or produces disease in 

 the plant. 



