890 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



{Apr. 



The season of propagating them by suckers, begins about 

 llie first of October, that is, immediately after the plants have 

 done flowering; at which time they send up from the old 

 roots a great many suckers. These young plants being taken 

 off', are potted into small pots, and preserved under frames 

 till the spring, when they are planted out, where they are to 

 remain to flower. We have often practised the following 

 mode of protecting and propagating these splendid plants. In 

 autumn, before the first approach of frost, the old plants are 

 taken up, with a considerable portion of the surrounding mould 

 attached to them, together with all the suckers or young plants. 

 These are carried into an open shed, and placed upon shelves, 

 Trhere during the winter they are kept sufficiently moist by occa- 

 sional waterings, so as to keep the plants alive ; but care must 

 be taken that they become not either too dry nor too moist. 

 During frost, they are protected sufficiently by being covered 

 with mats and straw. In spring they are taken out, and the 

 young suckers taken off* and potted into large sixties, and 

 placed in a cold frame ; here they remain until fit for planting 

 out. When it is not convenient to pot the whole stock of 

 them, they may remain in the shade, and be occasionally wa- 

 tered and kept clear of damp, until the proper season for their 

 being separated and planted out. The shelves in this shed 

 were fitted up similarly to the shelves in Oldacre's mushroom- 

 house, and fronted the south. The r^of being slated, it was 

 perfectly free of damp. In this way we preserved many plants 

 which would not stand our winters without some protection. 



Mr. Sabine, in the London Hort. Soc, Vol. II. p. 400, 

 details the practice of Mr. Hedges, late gardener to Lord 

 Mansfield, at Caen Wood, who managed to cultivate the 

 Lobelia fulgens in a way which produced plants and flowers 

 of an astonishing size and splendor. In October he takes 

 off* the suckers from the old plants in the usual way, and puts 

 them into small pots, one in each pot, and keeps them in a 

 cold frame till the middle of January. He then removes them 

 into a cucumber-frame, where the heat is kept up to 65° of 

 Fahrenheit's scale, by linings of hot dung. A pine succession- 

 stove of the same temperature, will equally suit them. In the 

 middle of February they are shifted into pots a size larger. 



