JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 11, 1882.] 
377 
nth 
Tn 
Boval Society at 4.80 P.M. 
12 th 
F 
Quekett Club at 8 P.M. 
13 th 
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Royal Botanic Society, 3.45 P.M. 
14th 
SUN 
5Tii Sunday after Easter. 
15 th 
M 
16th 
TU 
17th 
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Royal Botanic Society’s Summer Show. 
ALPINE AURICULAS. 
OVERS of hardy flowers are greatly indebted to 
the florists for one thing—they have secured 
grand strains of flowers for furnishing seeds 
to those who are pleased with less perfect forms 
than is the florist proper. Of no plant is this 
truer than of the Alpine Auricula. Fanciers 
grow only named kinds I suppose, unless, per¬ 
haps, a few seedlings with a view to raising some¬ 
thing that will add to their fame. Some of them save 
seed and sell it to the seedsmen, who retail to those 
who are not florists but lovers of flowers. This seed, if treated 
as I shall presently direct, will produce plants that will be 
better in some respects than fine named kinds. The latter are 
not always very robust, and the flowers, though exquisitely 
beautiful, are not always abundantly produced. Seedlings, as 
a rule, especially in the second generation, are hardier, more 
robust, and more floriferous, than named sorts, and when care 
is taken they are not less beautiful. Indeed, the flower-lover 
who is not a florist may consider his flowers more beautiful, 
and so far as robust health can contribute to this probably he 
is right. Possibly numbers may be pin-eyed, but unless some 
troublesome fancier shows him that he will never notice it. 
He will notice, though, that his flowers are in many instances 
the size of a crown. Possibly the eye may not be exactly cir¬ 
cular nor very evenly defined, but he will have such a wealth 
of beautifully coloured flowers that he will have no time to 
speculate on such trifles. 
Alpine Auriculas, like most Primroses, like a good heavy 
loam, opened a little with rich well-decayed manure. They 
are not so particular as to site so long as their roothold and 
food are suitable, but rather like to be shaded from the mid¬ 
day sun, especially when the soil is at all light or gravelly. 
But do not try to make anybody believe you love Auriculas if 
you do not provide a good loamy soil for them. 
They are very easily propagated by offsets, and the time to 
do it is just after they are out of flower, and when showers are 
frequent and the air moist. Plants with half a dozen shoots 
may be divided, and in all cases planted with the soil up to the 
lower leaves. On light soils this should be done every year, in 
heavy ground once in two years. When not lifted a top-dressing 
of half loam, half manure, should be placed on 1^ or 2 inches 
thick, just up to the leaves. This will insure a fine growth 
and a glorious display the following year. 
Plants may be raised from seeds, and when the seed is from 
a good strain that is the best way by far. Seed from a good 
named collection is best, as you are at once sure of good flowers 
and a variety. Some people sow the seed immediately it is 
ripe in a cool shady place out of doors, or in boxes in a frame. 
As soon as the seedlings are fit they are pricked off into other 
boxes, or on a bed of earth very near the glass, and wintered 
there. In spring the following year they are planted out, and 
after a year's growth is made they flower. Having tried both 
plans I recommend the following to those who can command 
the heat of a vinery at work, a stove, or a hotbed. Sow the 
seed in a wooden box thinly as soon after the new year as 
possible. Use medium loam, leaf soil, and sand, and keep it 
moderately moist. As soon as possible prick the plants out 
and keep them growing as rapidly as possible till April, when 
they can be again pricked out, this time in a prepared bed of 
the same kind of soil. Choose a rather shady place on a hard 
bottom, and in this spread 3 inches depth of the soil. Place 
the plants 4 inches apart, and cover them with a light for a 
few weeks. Supply water when necessary. 
In June plant them 8 inches apart, either in beds or rows. 
If good loam be used and a liberal amount of thoroughly de¬ 
cayed manure be forked into the surface the plants will soon 
become strong. As soon as they are fairly rooted give thorough 
soakings of very weak liquid manure in dry summer weather. 
In September give a little top-dressing and press it very firmly 
down. Next spring you will have some fine Auriculas, but 
two years hence you will have them finer. 
To still further improve your stock remove every plant that 
has stalks too weak to carry their heads erect. You want stout¬ 
stemmed plants. Deal the same with bad-coloured ones. 
Next save seed from every strong-stemmed plant that had 
flowers of a good colour, and treat this seed as before advised. 
—Single-handed. 
P.S.—The above plan is the best for anyone who wishes to 
have a glorious display of Polyanthuses. Giving them a long 
season the first year by starting early, aided by artificial heat, 
produces results attainable by no other means. If after Auri¬ 
culas are planted a carpeting of some Sedum be put between 
the plants it will prevent the rain washing up dirt upon the 
flowers.—S. H. 
[Some very vigorous and beautiful trusses of Alpine Auri¬ 
culas accompanied this communication.] 
These are charming in spring, and should be grown largely 
in all gardens where spring flowers are appreciated. Those 
who only grow about a dozen plants, and these probably with 
a single truss each, can form only a poor conception of the 
attractiveness and beauty of a good mass of various colours 
I have a space of about 25 to 30 square yards planted with 
Auriculas, and many of them are bearing from ten to twenty 
trusses of flowers; in fact, the whole bed is a mass of bloom, 
and the air is highly perfumed with their fragrance. The 
beauty of these plants last year, although they were not so 
good as this year, impressed me so much that I raised several 
hundreds of seedlings, which are now producing small trusses 
of flowers. 
The effect of plants in herbaceous borders cannot be com¬ 
pared with a number of plants grouped together. These Auri¬ 
culas, to display their real beauty and true character, should 
be planted in a rather large bed cut out in the grass in some 
suitable position in the pleasure grounds, and I am confident, 
if the effect such plants are capable of producing could be 
generally known, they would soon become popular for the orna¬ 
mentation of gardens in spring. It is not necessary that the 
No. 98.— Yol. IV., Third Series. 
No. 1754.— Yol. LXVII., Old series. 
