70 
THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
tively safe against the exhaustive action of a hot sun. As to 
watering, one or two liberal doses may be given within the 
first ten days after planting, but it is far better to give none 
at all if only the ground is moist enough to carry them on 
safely until the next rains occur. A considerable quantity of 
bedding plants are killed every year by watering them, or 
rather, by tormenting them, with a pretence of watering. As 
for varieties, there are not many good ones, but the few that 
are most worthy of attention are wondrously brilliant if they 
happen to behave well. Amplexicaulis is the tallest in growth* 
the flowers are palest yellow. Aurea Jloribunda , Canariensis, 
Gaines's Yellow , and Golden Gem have deep yellow flowers,, 
and in habit are dwarf anl compact. The red and brown 
varieties are simply useless. 
Centaurea. ; —The silvery-leaved centaureas are among the 
most striking and valuable of the leaf plants we possess, and 
especially to contrast with the crimson and chocolate-coloured 
coleus. Fortunately they are very hardy and quite easy to 
grow, though there has been much said about the cultivation 
of them by folks who sought or imagined difficulties. Tbe 
best way to raise a stock is by sowing seed. Many culti¬ 
vators find it an easy matter to strike cuttings in autumn, and 
others cannot accomplish the feat. But any one may strike 
them in the spring and insure a stock w r ith ease and rapidity. 
Before spring-cuttings can be obtained, however, a sufficient 
number of old plants have to be housed and carefully attended 
to throughout the winter, or a large proportion will rot off 
just above the soil, and, as a matter of course, perish. Having 
brought them safely through the winter, we have to place 
them in a genial temperature of between 55° and 60° soon 
after Christmas to start them into a steady growth. If all 
goes on right, they will produce a nice crop of cuttings, 
which, if taken off with the smallest heel possible, inserted in 
cutting pots, and the pots plunged into a brisk bottom-heat 
in the propagating pit, a large proportion will soon strike and 
in time make plants. This manner of dealing with them in 
large gardens is by no means difficult, as there will be a 
peach-house or vinery at work in which the old stock plants 
can be placed, and also a cucumber bed or a propagating pit 
in which the cutting pots can be plunged. But what can the 
owner of a greenhouse and a few pits do with them ? Simply 
nothing ! 
