8 
THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 
full of the roots of grass and tough fibrous peat, with a sixth part of 
the whole hulk of silver sand. 
Azaleas are strictly greenhouse plants, hut they receive immense 
benefit from the assistance of a genial temperature when making 
their growth in the spring. When the stock is fresh potted, place 
it in a temperature of about 65°, and maintain a healthy atmosphere 
by frequently sprinkling the paths and stages ; also syringe overhead 
lightly morning and afternoon. Water sparingly, because the roots 
are too much deranged to take up a large supply ; and, to keep up 
the balance, the evaporation must be checked in the manner pointed 
out above. Hundreds of azaleas are killed annually through im- 
proper watering, for they are remarkably impatient of being 
tampered with at the roots. It is a very common practice to give 
just sufficient to wet the soil to a depth of three or four inches 
below the surface, without troubling to ascertain whether the lower 
portion is wetted or not. When once the lower part of the hall gets 
dust-dry, it is no easy task to moisten it without dipping it into a 
vessel of water. When any plant looks sickly, or evinces any flac- 
cidity in the leaves, and the soil is moist on the top, turn it out of 
the pot, and probably the soil will be found dust-dry at a few inches 
from the surface. The water should always run through the hole in 
the bottom of the pot after its application, and you should continue 
to fill up the space on the surface until it does. Guard against 
giving too much water at the roots, for that is as injurious as an in- 
sufficient supply. 
Give liberal ventilation as soon as the stock has recovered from 
the check received in repotting, and increase it as the growth pro- 
gresses. Although a moist and warm atmosphere is essential to a 
healthy growth, it must not be kept too close, or the shoots will be 
weak and long-jointed. When the growth is completed, harden off 
by opening the ventilators night and day, and then place out of 
doors, in a shady and rather sheltered position, until the middle or 
end of September. A light, airy greenhouse, with a temperature of 
40° or 45°, is all that is required during the winter months ; and 
give the treatment already advised during the following spring and 
summer. Good specimens can be, and are, grown without a taste 
of artificial heat, excepting what is necessary to keep the frost out ; 
but to grow them like the magnificent specimens staged at the 
metropolitan exhibitions, the preceding directions must be strictly 
followed. 
When a nine-inch pot is reached, a shift once in two years will 
be quite often enough, unless large specimens are required at the 
earliest moment possible. Extra care will be requisite in watering 
during the second year, to prevent them suffering from drought, 
without keeping them too wet. Water with rain-water at all 
times, except when they are making new growth the second year 
after a shift, and then water with weak liquid manure, made by 
steeping sheep or cow-manure in rain-water, and allowing a sufficient 
time to settle before using. It should be diluted with soft-water 
until paler than pale ale. 
With regard to training the specimens into shape, the pyramidal 
