December 81, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
575 
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COMING EVENTS 
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Sale of Orchids at Stevens’ Rooms. 
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Sale of Orchids at Protheroe’s Rooms. 
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2nd Sunday after Christmas. 
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CHOICE WIJSTER FLOWERS. 
HERE are plenty of choice winter-flowering plants 
—so many, in fact, that it is difficult to make 
a selection. It may not, however, be unseason¬ 
able to call attention to a few of the most worthy, 
and I will take the old Double White Camellia as 
fitting for a first place—a plant long known in 
gardens and everywhere admired. The wax-like 
flowers may be twisted from their place without 
a particle of wood attached, mounted on wire 
stems, and finally become a centrepiece in some choice 
bouquet or other floral arrangement, lasting fresh longer than 
many flowers which are cut with woody stems. That they 
may last as long as possible I use two and sometimes three 
wires to pierce the bloom, depending on its size, bending the 
ends downwards, and so form a stem by binding with a small 
piece of wire previous to closing in the stem, arranging a 
pinch of fresh green moss immediately under the calyx, by 
which means the flowers will retain all their original fresh¬ 
ness, especially if placed for a short time in water up to this 
point, and so you may continue till the whole of the season’s 
blooms have been utilised without the loss of wood. This is 
a great gain, for between the flower buds the growth bud for 
next year is already prominent, and to lose these first buds 
simply means to throw the plant the following year much 
later in flowering, since the ensuing year’s bloom is dependent 
on axillary instead of terminal buds. Those nurserymen who 
possess very fine specimens secure annually without fail a 
good Christmas supply of these flowers, and I know some 
plants which carry 2000 blooms annually, from which not a 
particle of wood is detached except by accident. Unlike 
many midwinter flowers the Camellia will not endure forciug 
into bloom. The time to force it is in its growing season, 
and that not to an extent generally understood by the term. 
Encourage them to make an early growth and mature the 
wood as early as possible. Setting the buds will follow if all 
be well, and in reality the “ winter ” forcing has been done 
in spring. Besides the old Double White Camellia there 
are other excellent whites of fine form and substance, which 
must not be passed unnoticed. Among these are C. fimbriata, 
candidissima, Mathottiana alba, of fine form, pure in its 
whiteness, and massive in its bearing. Pearl is one of 
exquisite form and beautifully cupped; Montironi is also 
very pure white, and the same may be said of The Bride. 
Among deep-coloured and showy varieties Donkelaari, Chand- 
leri, Mathottiana, Monarch, Bealii, Imbricata, and Reine 
des Fleurs stand out among the best. Then we have a 
superbly beautiful flower in Lady Hume’s Blush, well known 
to all; and yet another, not so well known perhaps, is found 
in the semi double reticulata, of which a magnificent specimen 
may be found in the Botanical Gardens, Birmingham, laden 
annually with very large flowers of a rosy lake colour. 
Bouvardias are of considerable importance, and year by 
year are gaining public favour, for no matter whether in 
buttonhole or spray, bouquet or vase, Bouvardias are sure 
to be prized, not more, perhaps, for their chaste and elegant 
No. 288 .—Yol. XI., Third Series. 
appearance than for their delicious fragrance—a fragrance 
not overpowering, but sufficient to please and to be welcomed 
by all comers. The culture of the Bouvardia has during the 
past few years been greatly simplified, and the genus has 
been enriched by many fine additions, including some excel¬ 
lent double scarlet varieties. Bouvardias, whether they have 
been grown in pots or the open ground, should now be 
accommodated with a temperature of from 55° to 65°, with 
a proportionate rise by sun heat, but which we get little of 
at this season. Plants which have been thoroughly ripened 
during the growing season will not fail to produce in great 
profusion their exceedingly useful flowers, especially if 
assisted with artificial manure. About one-half of a tea¬ 
spoonful of any approved fertiliser to a plant in a 48-sized 
pot once a week is good, and I prefer using them after giving 
water, as they are not then so liable to be washed out of the 
pots as when applied immediately before watering. 
The Epiphyllums are attractive and highly interesting 
plants for many purposes, but still seem generally overlooked. 
I do not regard them in the light of useful flowers for bouquet, 
buttonhole, or spray ubo, since their somewhat quaint forms 
do not adapt them specially for such use. Still they possess 
qualities which place them among the most valuable of winter 
flowers. As basket plants for the warm conservatory they 
are especially useful just now, their naturally pendant habit 
of growth admirably adapting them for this purpose, and 
being so distinct from all other winter flowers would seem to 
claim for them a position from which they are now almost 
excluded. The present is a good time to secure the plants 
and make a start. In some establishments there are varieties 
which seldom flower; these should be cut down to the point 
at which they commence branching, obtaining some pieces 
of any of the better forms of E. truncatum to graft on the 
branches of the old trunks, and by the ensuing year a fine 
specimen will be obtained. The grafting is very simple, as the 
stock and scion quickly unite. Simply split the growth of 
the stock asunder, and with a sharp knife push back the bark 
of the scion on either side, inserting this in the usual way, 
securing it either by tying or with the sharp spines of 
the Pereskia. Pereskia aculeata makes the best stock, and 
those required for baskets should be stout and firm, not 
more than a foot high at the graft. A greenhouse tempera¬ 
ture suits them well, and a comparatively dry atmosphere. 
In summer a cold frame will be found the best place for 
them, or a cool house where abundance of air may be ad¬ 
mitted. The soil should consist of strong fibrous loam, to 
which is added one-third its quantity of lumpy peat and a 
similar proportion of old mortar rubbish, with little well- 
decayed leaf soil and silver sand. Very little water is needed, 
for they do not root so vigorously as some, but when growing 
they will be benefited by an occasional syringing. Much the 
best collection of these plants, either as regard numbers or 
varieties, which I have met were grown some twelve years since 
in the Exotic Nurseries at Tooting. Speaking from memory 
I am of opinion that there were fifty varieties of E. trun¬ 
catum, which every season made a grand show. A few of 
the best are album violaceum, Ruckerianum and the variety 
rnbrum, Russellianum superbum, violaceum grandiflorum 
and violaceum superbum, Salmonianum rubrum, and 
grandiflorum marginatum, with spectabile and its forms. 
Euphorbia fulgens at this season is one of the brightest 
occupants of the stove, excelling even the Bouvardia for 
brilliancy. The flowers, produced in wreath-like racemes, 
are at once ready for use, and its pleasing glaucous leaves, 
sometimes accompanied by a tinge of bronze, seem to 
harmonise more favourably with it than even Maidenhair 
Fern. It is a lovely plant, and where planted out and 
trained to the roof near the glass it flowers with remarkable 
freedom. Even after the main racemes have been removed it 
produces laterals freely, and these, though small, are very 
welcome. Be careful not to give this plant too much water, 
and provide thorough drainage. 
No. 1944. — Yol, LXXJIT., Old Series. 
