HINTS FOR THE CULTURE OF POPULAR FLOWERS. 
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when full of roots, they must be shifted to 
large sixties, and in them be wintered ; other- 
wise, if planted out, they have to be potted 
up, or frames and glasses placed over them. 
Pink. — Several years since the Pink was 
more cultivated than it has been more recently; 
but the shows of the last two or three years 
have given an impetus to the cultivation, and, 
in all probability, it is destined to make great 
advances even during the present season. 
The culture of the Pink, as a stock plant, is 
the least difficult of any; but the preparation 
for showing requires constant watchfulness 
and close attention. Plant the rooted pipings 
in a bed of loam and dung, where the garden 
is well drained, and they will grow and give 
increase, and you may take off all the bottom 
shoots, or grass, as it is called, and strike them 
under a hand-glass, with as little attention as 
anything we know of requires ; but if you 
cultivate for show, you must first begin by 
reducing the blooming stems to one each 
plant ; then you must reduce the buds on each 
to two, or, at most, three. When they are 
swelling, so as to approach the bursting of the 
pod, you must tie a piece of bast matting, or 
some other handy ligature, half way up the 
pod, and tear down the calyx to the tie. As 
the larger petals are developed, they must be 
brought down neatly, to form the bottom row 
of petals ; as the others open, they should be 
brought down over the joins of the first row, 
and the third row be brought down over the 
joins of the second ; the rest of the petals 
should be made to form a crown. In fact, all 
the difficulty lies in the preparation of the 
flower for show, and not in the cultivation, 
which is as simple as can be. People who 
exhibit must be careful of run petals, split 
petals, and flowers two of a sort. It is aggra- 
vating to be in all other respects right, and to 
commit some little trumpery oversight that 
throws us out altogether. Again, the bast 
matting must be taken off; if one of them be 
left on, there is an end of the chance ; and many 
a stand of noble Pinks have been thrown out, 
because one of the ties had been left on till 
the last moment for fear it should split, and 
then, though fully intending to remove it, the 
excitement of the last minute put it all out of 
the exhibitor's head. 
Polyanthus. — The Polyanthus requires 
good strong, but not heavy loam — that from 
rotted turfs is the best ; two-thirds this, and 
one-third rotted dung, will bring them to per- 
fection. Many of the successful exhibitors 
simply plant out the Polyanthus from six to 
twelve inches apart, in beds of this stuff, and 
on the day of show pot them up for exhibi- 
tion. If they are to be grown in pots, size 
twenty-four is the proper kind to keep them 
in, but generally they are far better in the 
open ground. The treatment of the Auri- 
cula, in all other respects, will do for this 
flower, not only with regard to old plants, 
but seedlings. It is propagated by parting the 
roots, and but one truss ought to be allowed 
to grow. 
Ranunculus. — The Ranunculus is what 
the florists call a teaser. A man fancies he 
has just got into the way of conquering all the 
difficulties, and all at once he finds he has as 
bad a season as his neighbours ; and the most 
experienced man has been the victim of a 
total failure, without being able to account for 
it other than an unfortunate angler accounts 
for catching no fish. We have seen and 
admired many splendid beds one year, and the 
next seen little or no bloom ; and yet, to all 
intents and purposes, the treatment similar as 
the grower could make it. Perhaps the very 
best thing they can be grown in is rotted turfs 
without dung ; proper turfs rotted into mould 
are the same as half loam and half leaf-mould. 
But then the danger of this soil consists, 
nine times out of ten, of being infested with 
the wire-worm, which there is no dependence 
in eradicating except by picking them out, 
a job of no slight labour in a large quantity. 
It has been a practice to use cow-dung, well 
rotted, and to put a good layer of it about a 
foot under the surface ; but nothing beats 
fresh mould formed of rotted turfs. A writer, 
not long since, recommended saturating the 
ground (every six-inch layer, as the bed was 
rilled up) with new cow-dung, thinned with 
water to the consistence of cream. A nice 
mess for a cleanly person : of course, the 
unfortunate people who followed this advice 
have to thank the author for a considerable 
reduction of stock. If a few hundred turfs 
can be got, and be laid together to rot, and 
this be chopped up with half its weight of 
thoroughly decomposed cow-dung, and be laid 
together a good twelve months, chopped about 
occasionally, and then used, there could hardly 
be a better thing ; but people have generally 
got the soil they are obliged to use, and they 
merely prepare it as well as they can. Richness 
and lightness are considered indispensable, 
and we know of nothing better than old dung- 
perfectly rotted to mould. Mix this with the 
earth of the bed, if you can do nothing else, and 
plant the roots in drills, covering up a clear 
two inches when patted down with the back of 
the spade. When they are up, stir the earth 
between them, bruise the lumps, and press the 
earth all close down to the roots. Ranuncu- 
luses require plenty of water ; when they 
begin to show colour they must be shaded 
from the sun, as it would certainly destroy their 
beauty in a few hours. When the prime of 
the bloom has gone, you may let them have all 
the weather ; and if you save any seed, be 
