106 
FLORICULTURE OF THE MONTH. 
Place these in a dry frame, for they will be 
already top-dressed to your hand ; keep the 
frost off by covering up with cloth or mats 
for the night, which covering must not be 
taken off in frosty days ; give air on warm 
days, but when the sun is veiy hot, which it 
frequently is in March and April, prop up 
the lights all round, and lay a light coyering 
on to shade them ; water them regulai'ly as 
soon as they approach dryness, and you will 
have the pleasure of seeing them advance 
rapidly. But we cannot do better than refer 
the reader to a treatise on the auricula in a 
former part of the Horticultural Magazine, 
a treatise which was founded on actual 
practice, and which will enable anybody to 
grow them with success. The polyanthus 
has perhaps been neglected more than the 
auricula, but there is the same excuse, — they 
will not grow in the smoke of towns, and 
possibly it will require to be five or six miles 
from London to do well. The manner in which 
it has been shown at several places near town 
is a positive caricature on the flower, enough 
to set any one against it ; but we believe if 
some of the northern growers would be at the 
pains of sending us a few pips to show the 
difference, thei'e would be many persons wil- 
ling to cultivate a plant that requires so little 
trouble. They should be grown in the open 
border, in a shady place, and in strong loam 
from rotted turves ; the greatest care must be 
taken to keep off slugs and snails, and, as the 
flowers rise, earwigs also, for they devour the 
bloom before it is half grown. It is a common 
practice to show these in pots, and in some 
places they stipulate that the plant shall be 
grown in pots. If so, you must act accord- 
ingly. They will require the protection of a 
frame if in pots, because, if the frost get 
through the side of the pot, it would damage 
the bloom if not the plant altogether. The 
best sorts of these flowers are reported in the 
Garden Almanac ; we might here also refer 
back to the treatise on the polyanthus. 
The chrysanthemum has had a start ; there 
are no less than from thirty to forty sub- 
scribers to the Newington Society for the 
encouragement of that flower, and the chief 
growers have approved the standard of perfec- 
tion laid down in " The Properties of Flowers 
and Plants." Nothing conduces so much to 
the advancement of a flower as a standard to 
go by in judging its merits. The varieties 
bought in are purchased with a reference to 
what is likely to win, they are set up by the 
same rules, and as nothing is loft to the taste 
or prejudice of a judge, the showers know 
what they have to expect, and there is no 
chance of disappointment from a difference of 
opinion. The camellia growers are a little 
disturbed at the constant influx of foreign 
plants, to be sold at what they will bring, and 
the consequent reduction of price on all they 
have to sell here. In fact, the auction busi- 
ness has been so incessant, and the prices of 
some things so low, as to glut the market. 
V/hen we observe that particular plants, among 
the coniferse especially, selling freelj^ among our 
nurseries at three shillings and sixpence each, 
have been bought at tenpence each, we may 
judge the ruin that is taking place somewhere, 
especially as the auction expenses have to be 
taken from those low prices. But our gentry 
should take a lesson from the following- 
simple fact ; while the trade were picking up 
three-shilling plants at tenpence, gentlemen 
in their ignorance were buying larger and 
commoner plants at three half-crowns, that 
any nurseryman in the metropolis would have 
sold them at half-a- crown. Nothing can be 
more unwise than for gentlemen to attend 
sales, unless they know what they are buying. 
Last year, hundreds of dahlias were sold at 
the smallest prices under good names, but 
turning out, as many did, erroneous, they 
deceived the buyers altogether. Every grower 
may rest assured that the safest way to pro- 
cure flowers is of respectable florists. If they 
are somewhat dearer than others appear, they 
may nevertheless be cheaper in the end. 
Roses should be planted this month as early 
as possible, for they are greatly weakened by 
late removals ; nevertheless, if they are ordered 
directly, and planted the instant they arrive, 
and that in good strong loam with a little 
rotten dung mixed at planting, they may do 
well. We should refer to back numbers, or 
to the almanac, for the sorts, but nobody 
should be without plenty of standard and half- 
standard ro.ses; they hardly interrupt the har- 
mony of the beds, stick them where you will. 
Buy none but the perpetuals, hybrid Chinas, 
and smooth -barked kinds : the summer roses 
are only fit for those who show in the month 
of June ; the others give bloom at all seasons. 
You are never without a rose until the frost 
beats you by cutting everything off, nor is it 
a slight frost that will do it. It is as common 
to see the China and perpetual kinds in flower 
at Christmas as it is to see chrysanthemums. 
We would strongly recommend pink and 
pansy growers who are wanting new things, 
to order them at once, and plant instantly; 
and moreover we would have them get enough 
to plant half in a proper bed, and the other 
half in a pot of rich soil — half loam and half 
cow-dung or leaf mould, and if you are obliged 
to add sand to render the adhesive soil lighter, 
let there be as much cake dung or leaf mould 
as there is sand. We merely give these hints 
to persons who have driven it off: we do not 
defend late buying nor late planting. The 
pink growei's, who have not got Read's Jenny 
