CHR YSA N THE MUMS 



— CINERARIA — 



CLE MA TIS 



367 



It is best not to attempt to flower the same plant two seasons. 

 After the plant has bloomed, the top may be cut down, and the box 

 set in a cellar and kept moderately dry. In February or March, bring 

 the plant to the sitting-room window and let the shoots start from the 

 root. These shoots are taken for cuttings to grow plants for the fall 

 bloom. 



Cineraria is a tender greenhouse subject, but it may be grown as a 

 house-plant, although the conditions necessary to the best results are 

 difficult to secure outside a glasshouse. 



The conditions for cinerarias are a cool temperature, frequent re- 

 potting, and guarding against the attacks of the greenfly. Perhaps the 

 last is the most difficult, and with one having no facilities for fumigat- 

 ing, it will be almost impossible to prevent the difficulty. A living 

 room usually has too dry air for cinerarias. 



The seed, which is very minute, should be sown in August or Sep- 

 tember to have plants in bloom in January or February. Sow the 

 seed on the surface of fine soil and water very lightly to settle the seeds 

 into the soil. A piece of glass or a damp cloth may be spread over the 

 pot or box in which the seeds are sown, to remain until the seeds are up. 

 Always keep the soil damp, but not wet. When the seedlings are 

 large enough to repot, they should be potted singly in 2- or 3-inch 

 pots. Before the plants have become pot-bound, they should again 

 be repotted into larger pots, until they are in at least 6-inch pots in 

 which to bloom. 



In all this time, they should be grown cool and, if not possible to 

 fumigate them with tobacco, the pots should stand on tobacco stems, 

 which should be moist at all times. The general practice, in order to 

 have bushy plants, is to pinch out the center when the flower-buds 

 show, causing the lateral branches to start, which they are slow to do 

 if the central stem is allowed to grow. Plants bloom but once. 



Clematis. — One of the best of woody climbing vines, the common 

 C. Flammula, Virginiana, paniculata and others being used frequently 

 to cover division walls or fences, growing year after year without any 

 care and producing quantities of flowers. C. paniculata is now planted 

 very extensively. The panicles of star-shaped flowers entirely cover 



