ABUTILONS. 



PLANTS FOE GREENHOUSES. 



So numerous are plants adapted for growing in greenhouses that a complete list is 

 impracticable, and indeed if given would not be serviceable to the majority, who need 

 information that they can turn to useful account. A selection, therefore, will be made 

 of kinds that are likely to give the most satisfaction to cultivators, treating those the 

 most fully which arc in the greatest demand. It will be convenient to take them in 

 alphabetical order. 



ABUTILONS. 



Varieties with ornamental foliage of these greenhouse evergreen shrubs receive 

 every attention at the hands of those who are responsible for the beautification of the 

 flower garden in summer, but as much cannot be said in respect to varieties which are 

 cultivated for the beauty of their flowers. Yet they fully deserve a more general and 

 extensive recognition. Starvelings are principally met with, and these convey a poor 

 idea of the merits of flowering abutilons. Unless well grown the plants soon present 

 a shabby appearance, in which condition the rubbish-heap is the best place for them. 

 Strong young plants give the best results. They can be flowered satisfactorily in 

 6-inch pots, but are to be seen at their best planted out in a greenhouse or conservatory, 

 and allowed to grow naturally. Properly speaking, abutilons are summer and autumn 

 flowering plants, but young plants raised from cuttings in the summer, and vigorous 

 old plants, will generally continue to flower freely well into the winter and again in the 

 spring. 



Propagation. — Abutilons may either be obtained from cuttings or raised from seed. 

 The first method is the most common. If stock plants have been kept cool and dry 

 during the winter, they may be lightly pruned in the spring and started into active 

 growth in a moist heat. When the young shoots are about 3 inches long they may be 

 taken off with a heel of old bark and wood attached, and inserted thinly round the 

 sides of well-drained 5-inch pots, filled with a mixture of loam and either peat or leaf 

 soil, with sharp sand added. They will root freely if kept in a close frame with bottom 

 heat and duly shaded from sunshine. Before they have made much progress remove 

 them to a more exposed position, and a week later divide and place them singly in 

 3-inch pots. Young shoots with a heel, or only tops shortened to a joint, may be rooted 

 during the summer and autumn months, these plants flowering in the winter and spring. 



Seedlings are also easily raised. In March prepare either pans or well-drained 



