62 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 
thing like dry, to prevent which, some gardeners stand the 
seed-pot in a saucer in which a little water is always kept. 
The seeds germinate in a few weeks, the seedlings being 
at first very minute ; as soon as they can be handled, they 
should be pricked off in pans or boxes of sandy peat. 
After a few weeks under the same conditions, the seedlings 
will be ready to be placed in a close frame, where they 
should be regularly sprinkled with water and shaded in 
bright weather. When they are about a year old, they 
should be large enough to be planted in a nursery bed ; or, 
if they are choice or tender, planted singly in small pots, 
although there is an objection to the use of pots for plants 
at this stage, as the soil in them is likely to get dry. 
Drought at any stage is almost as bad for Rhododendrons 
as it is for fish. There is less danger in the other extreme 
of excessive moisture, provided the soil keeps sweet and 
the plants are not always under water. 
Young seedling Rhododendrons make rapid progress 
when they are planted out ; pot treatment is therefore a 
mistake, unless there is an exceptional reason for it. 
Rhododendron ponticum is almost universally used as 
a stock for the hardy evergreen sorts. For this purpose 
seedling plants are required. These, in places where the 
species is common, may often be collected in the neigh- 
bourhood of the old plants ; generally, however, they are 
raised artificially, the seeds being sown in a little warmth 
in February. The seedlings, when large enough to be 
handled, are pricked out in pans or shallow boxes of fine, 
peaty soil, and kept in frames for a few weeks until the end 
of July, when they are placed in the open, preferably under 
the shade of a hedge or wall, until the beginning of 
September. They may then be transplanted in beds in 
