210 
ON THE CULTIYATION OF INDIAN AZALEAS. 
After the sliifting, the house should be kept a little closer for a week or so, to assist the 
plants in rooting in the new soil. They should now be stopped for the first time, or, in 
other words, have their tops pinched off ; this will induce them to send out several shoots, 
which should also be stopped when they have grown about 4 or 5 inches long, selecting 
the strongest of them to form the centre or leading shoot, which may be tied up to a 
neat stake. 
If the plants have grown well, they will by this time require another shift (that is if 
the roots have come to the sides of the pots they are already in), which should be to a pot 
sufficiently large to allow 1^ inch cavity all round, and should be filled with the same 
compost as before. I would here mention that the potting and stopping should never be 
performed at the same time ; there should be the difference of a week at the least between 
the performance of these two operations. On bright sunny days, the plants should be 
shaded for four or five hours in the middle of the day by a thin canvas thrown over the 
top of the glass. 
Water should be applied very sparingly immediately after shifting, until the plant 
begins to root nicely in the new soil, which will be in the course of a week or ten days, 
keeping the house a little closer for that period, as before directed. 
If manure water be applied, it should not be for the first two or three weeks after 
shifting, and then only in a very clarified state, diluted with about four-fifths of clean soft 
water, which should be secured by a tank in connection with the roof of the house : if 
applied by an experienced hand, it acts very beneficially on the plants ; but if otherwise, 
I would not recommend the use of manure-water at all, as an undue application of it tends 
to consolidate the soil, and thereby renders it unfit for the plants to grow in. 
Keep a sharp look out for thrips, as these generally make their appearance on the 
Azalea. I find the best method when the plants are small, is to go over them carefully 
two or three times a week, and bruise them with the finger and thumb. When large 
plants are infected, fumigating with tobacco every fortnight greatly checks them, by 
killing the young ones, but after their coats become black, I have never found the tobacco 
to have the desired effect. 
The second growth of the plant is rarely accomplished with the same equality as the 
first, as two or three of the top-shoots generally take the lead ; they should, however, all be 
stopped as soon as the strongest have gained the required length. The plants should now 
be formed, tying the lower branches with neat stakes regularly round the centre stem, so as 
to form as perfect a cone as possible, which seems to be the generally admired fashion of 
the present day. 
As the centre shoot is stopped with the others, the strongest young shoot of the next 
growth should be selected to succeed it. 
By shifting and stopping, upon the principles here laid down, the plants should be from 
18 inches to 2 feet high, and well furnished with side branches by the latter end of 
September, after which they may be gradually hardened off and taken into the greenhouse 
to winter. 
Azaleas might be kept growing all the winter, but they never make such good specimens 
as when grown in summer and allowed to rest in winter. While wintering in the green- 
house they will require but little water, and if possible, avoid crowding too close together, 
although they might stand much closer without injury than in their growing season, at 
which time they should never be allowed to touch each other. 
About the latter end of February they should be removed again to the stove, and 
placed in a gentle heat ranging from 50° to 55° to start them, and gradually raising the 
temperature from 55° to 60° and 65° when the plants begin to grow ; many of them will, 
no doubt, show flower-buds, which should be carefully picked out as soon as they appear, 
otherwise they will, to a certain extent, retard the growth of the plants if allowed to flower, 
and as these are always situated at the points of the shoots, pinching them out removes 
the necessity of stopping, which should be performed on all the remaining strongest shoots. 
As the first growth in the spring is generally the strongest, the young shoots may be 
allowed to grow a little longer than on former occasions before stopping, previous to which 
