182 
LIST OP GREENHOUSE SHRUBS. 
varieties. The best time for taking off the cuttings is in the month of May ; when 
the young shoots have become about an inch and a half long, slip them off and 
plant them in pots filled with a mixture of light sandy soil and leaf mould, either 
with or without being covered with a bell-glass. 
3. After the cuttings are planted, plunge the pots in a cucumber frame or other 
gentle hotbed ; in the course of a fortnight they will have struck root, and may be 
potted off. 
4. In potting, place each plant in a 60-sized pot, with as good a sized ball as 
can be obtained, and fill the pots with a soil composed of heath mould, light rich 
loam, and very rotten dung, well mixed together in equal proportions ; drain the 
pots well with potsherds, and give the plants a good watering overhead with a rose. 
5. When potted, replace them in a brisk heat for a short time until they have 
begun to form new roots ; they may then be gradually exposed to the air, until the 
middle of June, when they may be taken out and placed amongst the greenhouse 
plants ; but previous to this, it is advisable to repot them in 48-sized pots, and 
those intended for the borders should now be turned out ; it is, however, best to 
keep them in pots for the first year, and plant them in the borders when a year old, 
because they are then fine showy plants and flower very finely. 
6. When the plants have been a summer in the open ground and are cut off by 
frost on the approach of winter, either take them up and pot them, or cut them down 
to about six inches of the ground ; turn a pot over them filled with sawdust, and 
draw the earth a little round the pot^ then covering the hole securely to prevent 
the entrance of water, the plants will endure the most severe winters without 
injury. 
7. In spring, when the weather becomes fine, remove the covering gradually ; 
first, by drawing away the soil from the side of the pot ; then, by taking out the 
sawdust ; and lastly, by removing the pot altogether. 
8. In consequence of the plants being cut down in the autumn they will put up 
many young shoots ; these must be thinned to three or four of the strongest, and 
the shoots taken oflt may be planted for cuttings. 
9. Notwithstanding we have recommended the plants to be headed down on 
the approach of winter, it is only in the event of their first being cut off by severe 
frosts ; for, if they will endure the weather, it is best not to mutilate them at all. 
In some situations, both in England and Ireland, they appear to suffer little from 
the most severe winters ; we have seen some plants established in the open borders 
in the north of Ireland at the seat of Roger Hall, Esq., Warrenpoint, which appear 
to endure the winter almost as well as any other hardy border plant. 
10. In propagating by seed, take it when well dried, and sow it in pans of light 
soil sifted fine ; place the pans in a gentle hotbed, and water carefully until the 
plants appear ; when they have attained three or four leaves, transplant them into 
thimble pots, and treat them in the same manner as recommended for rooted 
cuttings. 
11. Several of the species, as gracilis, virgata,microphylla, &c., form excellent 
standards ; in a large and lofty conservatory nothing can surpass the loveliness of 
