PERSIAN CYCLAMEN. 



267 



better kept together in groups. If the stagings are low or the sides 

 of the house high, raise the Cyclamen on inverted pots, keeping 

 every plant clear of its neighbour. In any case keep a close look- 

 out for greenfly, and subject these to nicotine fumes on the slightest 

 signs of an attack. I have seen hundreds of good plants spoilt, 

 ruined in fact, owing to a fortnight's too long delay in dipping 

 or fumigating them. 



Water the plants carefully and always round the sides of the 

 pots, not right in the centre of the corms. Plants with their 

 pots well filled with roots will be benefited by occasional supplies 

 of clear soot- water or other weak liquid manure, taking care to 

 keep it off the foliage. All flowers and any leaves to go with 

 them should be drawn clean away from the corms, never cut. 

 When stumps are left, they rot down to the corms, and decay 

 quickly spreads all round. Remove all old flower-stalks in the 

 same way, early seed- saving weakening the plants and being other- 

 wise undesirable. No forcing ought to be attempted, the plants 

 flowering grandly in a temperature of 45° by night to 50° or 55° 

 by day, accompanied by a gentle circulation of warm dry air. 



The Second Season. — Hitherto my remarks have been 

 strictly orthodox, but when we come to discuss the treatment of 

 Cyclamen that are to flower a second time, then it will be found 

 I am not on the side of our authorities. For several summers I 

 tried the plan of only partially resting the crowns, and planting 

 them with many of their old leaves intact in frames on mild or 

 nearly exhausted hot-beds. Some were also planted in well- 

 prepared soil in both sunny and shady places, with the result in 

 each case of only a limited number of plants succeeding suffi- 

 ciently well to pay for carefully lifting and re-potting. These 

 experiments, then, were not satisfactory. It was subsequently 

 proved to my satisfaction that completely drying off the plants, 

 re-starting and re-potting, was thebest practice, and since adopting 

 it a failure has never taken place. As a matter of fact, my two- 

 year-old plants are frequently of more value to me than well- 

 grown younger ones, and at the present time I could point to 

 numbers of them in perfect leafage and a foot through. Old 

 Cyclamen should never be turned out of doors, but after flower- 

 ing ought to have water gradually withheld from them prior to 

 literally baking them in the full sunshine. It is the half-hearted 

 drying-off that is most likely to end badly. Lay them on their 



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