ON GROWING BALSAMS. 
589 
eighteen inches deep and six inches in diameter, and keep them in 
a hot or greenhouse. The plants may be better protected by this 
plan, and are much easier to cany about to exhibitions, &c. but I 
do not think the blooms are any better than those in the beds. 
The best time to plant Hyacinths is about the first or second week 
in November, and when they have done flowering, they should be 
taken up and put into boxes similar to those used for tulips, and 
kept in a dry place until the time for jjlanting them again. 
A Subscriber. 
Manchester, Zrd May, 1832. 
ARTICLE VII. 
ON GROWING BALSAMS TO GREAT PERFECTION 
BY X. V. Z. 
Balsams being general favourites, and grown in almost every cottage 
window, I beg to submit to their admirers a system, for very much 
improving their flowering. In page 70 of your Register is mentioned 
a method of growing them to great perfection, by "Mr. J. Reid, 
Bridgewater Nursery ;" whose plan I follow until the bloom makes 
its appearance. I then select the best plants, rejecting all the in- 
ferior, and, with a pair of grape scissors, clip oflT all the blooming 
flowers, and far advanced buds, being careful to cut them off close to 
the flowers or buds, thereby leaving as much of the flower stalk to 
the plant as possible. I then shift them into larger pots, and place 
them in their former situation. By these means the plants throw up 
their lower branches to gi-eat perfection. If the flowers are allowed to 
remain on the plants as they appear, they injure their growth, and 
still remain seperate ; and, being hid by the leaves, are prevented 
from being seen to advantage. If my method be adopted, the plants 
will require shifting again in a fortnight, only then clipping off the 
flowers, but leaving the buds, and, in a short time, they will be en- 
tirely covered with one complete mass of flowers, for where the flow- 
ers were clipped ofi, they will throw out three for one ; the plants also 
grow double the strength of those treated in the usual way. To pro- 
long the flowering season, I take ofl' both seed vessels and flowers as 
soon as they begin to fade. Thus new flowers are produced in suc- 
cession for a considerable time. 
X. Y. Z. 
Thoniei/, ('onihrlflf/fishifp, April 21s/. 18-')2. 
