564 
HINTS FOR THE CULTURE OF POPULAR FLOWERS. 
Min and heavy Falls j and when the leaves have 
died down, taken up and Btored in boxes or 
for the remainder of the season, till 
October ; they may then be planted in beds 
of loam and dung, well incorporated, in rows, 
three inches apart, taken up when the leaves 
dry, and planted the next year, six inches 
apart, in rows, and one fool from row to row, 
where they may be left till they bloom. Off- 
sets should be planted out in beds of the same 
kind of Stuff, and taken up every year as soon 
:i> the leaves turn yellow, until the roots are 
large enough ; in the mean time, if a bloom 
rises, pick off all the buds but the top one, 
which must alone be allowed to open. 
Pansy. — The Pansy, like all other florist's 
flowers, thrives best in rich ground; but it 
grows in nothing so well as a compost that 
will do for everything. Turfs cut rather 
thicker than they would be for laying down, 
and allowed to rot in a heap, form the best 
loam, from the quantity of vegetable mould 
formed by the decayed vegetation ; this alone 
would grow florist's flowers in perfection, but 
as it will be found sometimes too adhesive 
alone, one-half of this, one-fourth turfy peat, 
and one-fourth cow or horse dung, rotted into 
mould, will be found as good as any compost 
that can be made for growing them in pots. 
If, however, you have a garden whose soil 
will grow 7 vegetables, and other flow T ers mode- 
rately well, put a good dressing of leaf-mould 
and rotten dung three inches thick all over 
your bed, and fork and mix it well with about 
six to nine inches of the soil, incorporating 
these well together. The Pansy is frequently 
recommended to be grown in shady borders. 
There is no occasion for this. In open situa- 
tions they are less likely to be infected with 
slugs, and they can be shaded from the hot 
sun as wanted for exhibition. The flowers 
come larger and finer in open situations, and 
only require shading during the highest heat 
of the day. By keeping the Pansy well 
earthed up, you may always obtain side shoots 
to propagate from, and they are far better 
than tops. You will also either find them 
already rooted, or so disposed to root, that they 
strike immediately. The cuttings will strike 
well in the same kind of stuff the plants are 
growing in, covered well with a hand-glass, 
and a paper or mat, or piece of cotton, to 
keep off the heat of the sun. They should, 
after striking, be carefully planted out in 
fresh beds, or potted off, according to your 
wants. Potted plants should be shifted from 
the small ones they are first placed in, as soon 
as their roots reach the side, into pots size 
twenty-four, in which they will bloom nearly 
as large as in the open ground, and those who 
have kept them in pots over the winter have 
found that they could depend on them for 
more than half their flowers at the early 
shows. They must be wintered in the larger 
pots ; and, if they have not had time to esta- 
blish themselves first in the small ones, they 
must be potted from the struck cutting at once 
into the size twenty-four pot, in a common 
garden frame and light, on a dry bottom. They 
will stand the winter well, covering them with 
cotton or mats — the former is the best — from 
severe frost only. The Pansy is the same in 
all seasons ; it will strike from January to 
December, and to keep a constant succession 
of bloom, you have only to examine your 
plants every ten days or a fortnight, and take 
off side shoots close to the plant before they 
grow too large. These will strike, and may 
be put into new beds as soon as they have 
rooted. Top-dressing, with leaf-mould and 
rotten cow-dung in spring, or watering with 
liquid manure in the dry parching weather, 
will be found beneficial. Seed may be sown 
from April to July, in pans or boxes, or broad 
pots, and carefully watered and shaded while 
young. As soon as they are large enough to 
handle, they should be planted out six inches 
apart. In the winter time, seedlings and 
established plants will be alike preserved from 
a good deal of the ill effects of frost, by a 
covering of peas-haulm. April, May, and 
June sowings will bloom before winter, and 
choose none for propagation that do not in 
some points approach the standard. 
Petunia.. — This was, perhaps, at one time, 
the least promising of all the tribe of flowers. 
It was a five-winged, deeply divided flower, 
with an extremely pointed petal, very flimsy, 
scarcely able to maintain its form in any 
degree, and altogether, in some people's eyes, 
a hopeless subject ; time and proper directions 
have done much towards improving the form, 
and there are some which scarcely have a 
fault, except the thinness of the petal. Perse- 
verance will overcome this, and we shall see, 
by and by, as much advance in this feature 
as in that of form. The culture assimilates a 
good deal to that of Verbenas, and the striped 
varieties of the Petunia are better in poor 
soil than rich. They strike freely from 
cuttings under a hand-glass ; they bed out 
in any kind of soil ; they will grow and bloom, 
after some fashion, in any sized pot ; and when 
they are undisturbed, they are literally covered 
with flowers for months. They, like the 
Verbena and the Pansy, grow extremely well 
on rock work, where it has been properly 
made, and in all kinds of places fill up their 
whole space with a profusion of blooms. They 
are raised from seed by sowing in April, in 
pans or boxes, and by the time they are large 
enough to do anything with, they may go 
out in an open bed, or, if you have pots enough, 
pot them singly in thumb pots. Prom these, 
