52 PIGTOBIAL PBACTICAL BULB GBOWJKG. 



copied the fashion of our kidy friends and gone in strongly for frills 

 and laces ; in other words, we have the heavily crested Begonia. 

 Further, mated with some of the winter-flowering sjDecies the 

 Tuberous Begonia has been the means of providing us with a race 

 of plants that brought brightness and beauty into the winter of 

 our discontent. Messrs. Veitch and Sons and M. Lemoine bear off 

 the honours for this new race. 



The advice given for raising Gloxinias from seed (p. 114) applies 

 with equal force here, but alter the seedling stage is passed the 

 Begonias require an intermediate rather than a stove temperature, 

 and in due course they will find a happy home in the greenhouse, 

 en route for the conservatory, or reach the flower garden via a coid 

 frame. Begonias are liable to damp off while still in the seed pan ; 

 the remedy is air and not too much moisture, coupled with the 

 transference of the tiny plantlets to other pans at the earliest 

 moment possible. Delay of a few hours only may mean all the 

 difference between success and failure, for the dreaded " damp 

 will clear off" a pan of seedlings in a night. 



February, or early March, is a good time to start old tubers into 

 growth, and there is no better plan than just covering them with 

 leaf soil or cocoanut fibre refuse in a warm greenhouse or on a 

 hotbed under a frame. With the production of roots and the 

 commencement of stem growth pottino' must proceed apace. Select 

 the tubers for pot culture, and provide them with a substantial 

 compost of loam, leaf soil, dried cow manure, and sand ; Begonias 

 love good living. From now right on to the conservatory or the 

 exhibition tent should be a steady march of progress. As the 

 weather grows warmer air should be more freely given, and if there 

 is a deep, unheated pit at disposal, it is the right place for the plants 

 during the early summer. Thinning and tying out the growths 

 are details upon which time is well spent, and liquid feeding is an 

 item that must on no account be overlooked. Liquid cow manure, 

 the colour of pale ale, is the best and safest food for Begonias, but 

 soot water given occasionally adds colour and vigour to leaf and 

 branch. 



' For summer bedding the started tubers give the best results for 

 a minimum of trouble if planted in a warm pit, in a bed of moderately 

 rich soil. Sturdy plants are now the aim rather than large 

 ones, and this method enables the grower to inure his stock to 

 outdoor conditions in the easiest and best manner possible, so as to 

 be ready for planting out iu e.irly June. 



Winter flowering varieties are chiefly the children of a species 

 named Socotrana. Those having a Tuberous Begonia as one parent 

 are propagated annually from cuttings of young growth produced 

 by plants that have been rested and then started in brisk heat. 

 Such cuttings are put singly into small pots filled with sandy soil 

 and placed in a close propagating frame. What may be called cool " 

 stove treatment is well suited to their needs until about midsummer, 

 but thence on to September less fire heat and more ^^ir will give the 



