OPERATIONS FOR FEBRUARY. 
23 
no doubt that any method of making- it Hower more abundantly would be well received 
by our readers. Mr. Knight, of Chelsea, has a simple method of causing- this plant 
to flower three times in the year by the following treatment : — After the first 
flowering is over, which w^ill be about the latter end of May, he strips off all the 
leaves, and cuts off all young and superfluous shoots which have been formed 
to within a few eyes of the stem, which causes it to throw out fresh leaves, and to 
flower again in the- months of July and August, and after this flowering is over the 
same process is repeated of cutting off the leaves, and this causes it to flower again 
in the months of October and November ; it may be said that this plant will natu- 
rally flower twice and sometimes thrice in the season, but when it does (which is 
but very seldom) the flowers are so very weak, and there are so few of them, that it 
is never worth notice ; whereas by the above simpjle process an abundant succession 
of flowers may be ensured throughout the whole season. It should be remembered 
that these remarks will not apply to young plants, but only to those that are well 
established. 
OPERATIONS FOR FEBRUARY. 
This is an important season with the practical gardener, amateur, and florist ; 
it is now that these in their respective vocations are called to give play to their 
thinking faculties ; now they must deliberately and judiciously exercise their 
powers of consideration upon what is required to be brought into effect in the 
approaching season ; for each clearly conceives his whole success, in an im- 
portant degree, to depend upon the arrangement made in this and the succeeding 
month or two. He no sooner becomes conscious that spring is rapidly advancing 
than he finds a combined train of operations crowding upon his mind ; to each of 
these he must assign the most suitable season for carrying into effect ; and of 
every individual performance he perceives it necessary to possess a clear idea, or he 
will, when the season arrives in which such and such things are expected to be in 
their greatest perfection, find that he is much behind his neighbours, and himself 
sadly disappointed. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance to set about this 
matter in time, for it is not with the gardener as with the operative in other arts. 
The mechanic may work out a given design to a month or a day, or if he wished, 
by calling more strength into action, he can accomplish the same in even less than 
half the time ; but it is different with the practical gardener, for, whether much or 
little strength, he cannot induce Nature to move out of her ordinary pace ; no, she 
must have time, when, if duly tended, all reasonable expectations will be favoured. 
Many things have to be thought about as to how the flower-garden is to be 
filled with flowering plants ; how these are to be disposed of to keep up a succession 
of bloom, and at the same time produce an agreeable and varied appearance ; what 
new annuals, or other plants, have made their appearance since last season ; of 
these which are worth purchasing. The greenhouse, stove, &c., demand in turn 
their share of consideration ; many, if not all the plants, will soon require examining 
or shifting; others pruning; others inarching; others propagating, and seeds of 
other kinds it will be necessary to sow ; and what is still of greater moment is the 
