FLORICULTURAL HINTS. 
187 
they can be kept rather close for a week two, it will help them 
very much ; a cold pit that will hold them is the best place, and 
next to it, the stage under the awning where they bloomed, and 
by keeping the paths damp and the side-cloths close, much may 
be done for the wounded layers. 
By the end of the month, the pink pipings of last month will 
be rooted fit for removal; a bed should be made for them, and 
the plants stationed as soon as possible; a very great proportion 
of next year’s success in blooming depends on getting the plants 
well established in the bed before winter, and if they can be 
allowed September to grow in, this point is properly secured. 
The bed should stand in an open place where it can be well 
drained, and should be composed of rich turfy loam two parts, 
rotten hotbed manure one part, and a similar quantity of road- 
scrapings, that taken from a macadamized road where there is 
plenty of traffic being the best; and in the absence of such ma¬ 
terial, sea or coarse river sand should be used. 
Pansies recently struck should be planted out whenever the 
chance of a shower of rain occurs; and preparation must be 
made for striking the winter store to be kept in pots. 
The middle of this month may be regarded as a very good 
time to sow a bed of seed to bloom early next spring; if these 
are got forward, there is a good chance of their standing through 
the winter. The large plants in beds should have three or four 
small sticks thrust down beside them, to guard them from the 
effects of wind, which frequently injures or destroys the strongest, 
by blowing them to and fro till the stem is broken. 
Dahlias will require a good deal of attention, the shoots must 
be thinned, and those selected for blooming should be tied out 
separately; from three to five stems are generally considered suffi¬ 
cient, and beyond this, any laterals proceeding from the main 
stem, except near the top, should be rubbed off, so also the coarse 
shoots proceeding from the bottom of the principal laterals may 
be dispensed with, as they only tend to crowd the plants with 
useless foliage. The blooms will now be coming in some order, 
and here also a little judicious thinning maybe beneficial, though 
I would caution the beginner against going too far with it, 
especially among the uncertain or hard-edged kinds, as it often 
tends to make bad worse. 
