CULTURE OF THE SALVIA SPLENDENS. -547 
ARTICLE VI. 
ON THE CULTURE OF THE SALVIA SPLENDENS. 
BY G. A. L. 
The observations of your correspondent Sage, p, 437, on the culti- 
vation of the Salvia Splendens, may be useful to individuals pos- 
sessing large hot-houses ; but can be of no service to those who, 
having only the convenience of a gi'een-house or conservatory, are 
yet desirous of growing and flowering this fine plant, I will there- 
fore subjoin a few directions, by which the wishes of this last class 
of persons may be easily and readily accompUshed. 
Your coiTespondent recommends plants from four to eight feet 
high ; and to obtain this object, he strikes his plants in the middle 
of March, and throughout the summer keeps them in the heat of 
the hot-house. Now it strikes me, that the neglect into which this 
Salvia has of late fallen, is attributable to the size which the plants 
attain when propagated so early in the year, and afterwards heated 
in the way advised by Sage. For, if the cultivator is desirous to 
prevent them from becoming so large, and therefore confines them 
at the roots, they grow tall, straggling, and unsightly, and moreover 
will seldom flower. To avoid the inconvenience of large plants, and 
to obtain handsome flowering ones, put in the cuttings about the 
third week in August, place them in a gentle hot-bed or in the 
green-house, (they do not require to be covered with hand or bell 
glasses) and after they have struck root, which will be in about a 
fortnight ; pot them off into forty-eight sized pots, using any rich 
light soil ; afterwards keep them in the green-house, and when about 
six inches high, nip off their tops, they will soon shoot out again, 
and will come into flower in October, at which time they will be 
about two feet high, and will continue in full bloom till December, 
The S. Splendens cannot be preserved through the winter in the 
temperature of the green-house ; therefore, after the plants have done 
flowering, throw them away, unless you have the means of saving 
two or three to serve for stocks next season ; otherwise you must 
depend for cuttings on your more fortunately situated friends. 
To Sage, individually, I would say, that he may grow large plants 
of the S. Splendens with much less trouble, by the following plan, 
than by the one he at present practices. Let him strike his cuttings 
in March, pot them off, place them in the green-house, harden them 
3x3 
