THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 
223 
flowers. When done blooming, cut back the branches, in order to 
induce the plant to acquire a bushy habit ; and when the young 
shoots have just made their appearance, turn it out of the pot, and 
reduce the ball of soil and roots ; when repotted, let it be placed in 
a frame until it has made fresh roots, treating it in the same manner 
as plants from cuttings. If a few plants were placed along with 
early-forcing pelargoniums, etc., the treatment which suits them 
would forward the blooming of Sparmannia ; and if placed in the 
conservatory, or where flowering plants are required, it would form 
no mean ornament in the collection. 
Sparmannia is an old and much-neglected plant, but it neverthe- 
less deserves a place amongst our spring flowers. 
REMINDERS EOR GARDEN WORK IN JULY. 
AHL1AS. — Never trim off a single branch, unless it is in the way of 
others ; train them out of each other’s way, and take the neighbour- 
ing buds off any branch that has a promising flower on it opening for 
show ; but a plant is as much distressed by the loss of its leaves and 
branches as it is benefited by the reduction of its flowers. The 
instant you see a flower will not do for a show, remove it ; most of the early 
flowers should come off. 
Geraniums may be cut down and the cuttings put in, if you want young 
ones ; a common border and a hand-glass are sufficient. 
Heartsease. — Propagate from small side-shoots whenever you can take 
them, ihey make better plants than older cuttings, though the latter will do. 
Plant out seedlings that are large enough in rich and strong soil, but not too 
heavy. 
Carnation's and Picottees. — Eegulate the number of buds and tie up the 
advanced ones, as directed for pinks, only that when you have tied them you 
may tear down the calyx from the top to the tie, and thus release the petals 
all round alike ; prepare the card also, and regulate the petals as they perfect 
themselves. The shoots at the bottom may be either layered, if they are long 
enough to bend down under the soil, or pulled off and piped, like pinks, if they 
are short, only that they must be struck with a slight bottom-heat under a hand- 
glass, instead of in the cold open ground. They are thus layered ; cut off the 
leaves, all but those on the three upper joints, about a third of an inch below 
the second knot or joint under those leaves, which would be three inches from 
the top, and on the bottom side of the stem cut a slit sloping upwards towards 
the middle of it, passing the knife through the joint, but carefully abstain from 
coming more than half way ; then, as carefully, cut off the piece that is below 
the joint so as to cut close up to it ; this done, stir up the soil in the pot, and 
mix some sand with it ; peg this layer down into the soil below the surface, so 
that the plant will, with the split joint attached to it, bo exactly upright, and 
the split will be open ; press the earth gently about it, and so proceed with 
more ; water, and lay them by, to finish their bloom, and till these layers 
strike root. 
Chrysakthmeums, the most untidy of all our flowers, can only be grown 
dwarf by taking off cuttings now ; prepare a little bottom-heat, take off the 
strongest tops three inches long, cut them close under a joint, take the leaves off 
one inch high, and let this inch be set in rich sandy soil, in a pan or pot plunged 
into the heat, the glasses covered close over and wiped every day, occasionally re- 
freshed with water ; they will soon strike with good management, and should be 
potted off into forty-eight sized pots, and after a few days to establish them in 
the shade they should be placed in an open situation where they will have all the 
