GLENNY ON THE CARNATION AND PICOTEE. 
311 
taming the plants at a proper height ; now place 
your fingers on each side the plants in the 
small pots, and, turning the pot wrong side 
upwards, strike the edge against the edge of 
the potting-table or bench, and the ball of earth 
will leave whole ; let the loose crocks of the 
small pot fall away, but do not use force to 
remove them, as, if the fibres have got around 
them, it is far better not to disturb them ; 
placing the ball in the left hand, the upper 
surface of the soil of the small pot may be 
removed as far as it can without touching 
the fibres ; then, with both hands, place the 
ball in the centre of the large pot, pressing it 
gently down among the new compost, to bring 
the collar of the plants, which is the base of 
the lower leaves, within half an inch of the 
level of the top edge of the pot, then fill up 
with the compost all round the ball, pressing 
it gently down, but not pressing the ball out 
of its place ; fill up the pot to the top, and, lift- 
ing it level with both hands, strike the bottom 
gently against the table, to settle it all down ; 
and, making it all level, the pot may be placed 
in any sheltered spot, under canvass if possi- 
ble, to keep off heavy falls of rain or hot sun. 
The hoops or irons used for Tulips are well 
adapted for this ; and if the pots are placed 
according to their number, so as to form the 
proper length and width, the irons can be placed 
over them, and canvass or mats be thrown over 
or in front at night,or during heavy falls. Con- 
tinue potting till the whole are done that you 
mean to do, and if there be any over, plant them 
in a bed made on purpose with the same com- 
post; or,if not exactly the same, with a good dress- 
ing of rotten dung (that is, dung fairly rotted 
into mould), in the ordinary garden soil : there 
ought to be three inches in thickness laid on 
the top, and forked in with about six or eight 
inches of the garden-mould ; they should be 
planted in rows, so far apart as to enable you 
to walk between them to layer them — say a 
foot apart in the rows, and the rows two feet 
apart ; or it is better, perhaps, if ground be 
not scarce, to plant two rows eighteen inches 
from each other, and then leave three feet 
between them and the next two rows, because 
that gives very good room to operate, and does 
not waste so much space as if they were in 
single rows. In planting out, the balls should be 
planted whole, the same as when potted ; and 
whether there are two plants or three in the 
pots, the balls should be eighteen inches apart 
in the row. After potting and planting, gentle 
watering is necessary to settle the earth about 
the balls, and they will require but little further 
care until they begin to shoot up their bloom 
stems. 
May. — The potting for bloom, and the 
bedding out of the plants not potted, should, 
of course, have been done last month ; but if 
there be any not yet disposed of, one way or 
the other, no time should be lost, as from the 
instant they shoot up the flower stems, or 
begin to grow up in the small pots, they sadly 
lose strength, until they are released, and 
they mostly commence their growth before 
this month is out. Those in these large pots 
should be placed on boards, or shelves, stand- 
ing on feet, placed in pans of water, to 
prevent earwigs, and otli*r crawling ver- 
min, from getting up the pots to the plant. 
Refresh them with water when they approach 
dryness, but do not keep them too wet. The 
ordinary rain will not hurt them, because 
you have already secured good drainage 
by means of the crocks at the bottom. As 
the plants are very brittle when they begin 
to rise, the proper carnation sticks ought to 
be carefully thrust into the pots without 
damaging the roots, and the end that goes 
into the soil ought to be pitched all over to pre- 
vent its rotting ; the sticks should be an inch 
diameter at bottom, and half an inch at top, 
tapering all the way from the surface to the 
top. Glasses are made, and shades also, about 
a foot in diameter, with a socket in the cen- 
tre to admit these sticks, and a screw to fix 
them at any part of the stick, so that what- 
ever height the flower may be, the shade can 
be adjusted at the actual spot ; these sticks 
are to be put to the plants early, that they 
may not damage the roots, which soon spread 
all over the pots if they go on properly. 
Juxe — Sow seed in large pots, rather 
thinly, the first week, and be careful to water 
and shade it. As the bloom-stems rise, 
they must be tied loosely to the sticks, for if 
tied tightly the stems elongate and bend, and 
not unfrequently break ; the tie ought to be 
so loose that the stems, as they grow, can 
push the tie itself up ; they require fre- 
quent examination and watching, and atten- 
tion. As soon as the buds are large enough 
to lay hold of, they must be reduced, in the 
great majority of cases, to two or three at the 
most on a stem, to the end that those left 
on may have all the strength of the plant. 
There are some exceptions to this, but they 
are few ; the flowers which have short puds, 
and are too full of petals, may be all the bet- 
ter for leaving on every one of the biuls until 
they have swelled considerably, but we do 
not recommend the growth of flowers of this 
description, and experience alone will teach 
people which varieties are strong enough to 
bear such treatment ; in the mean time the 
plan of disbudding, as it is called, that is, the 
reducing of the buds to three on each stem, 
should be adopted. As the buds swell, they 
must be tied round the middle with a bit of 
bass-matting, or coarse worsted, and the tips 
of the calyx, or case of the bud, may be torn 
