1876 . ] 
THE AUEICULA.-CHAPTER II. 
137 
their blooming hearts unseasonably. But a few sorts are inveterate autumn 
bloomers, treat them how you will. 
No check is given to Auriculas by repotting them in May. Bather, there is 
much to help them in the gentle stimulus of sweet, fresh soil, which the growing 
roots are not slow to feel; and there are deep sources of health in that soundness 
and cleanliness which can be now secured; for in the work I am to describe, all 
effete matter, all dead, diseased, or useless parts on stem and roots are to be most 
carefully removed. Then will the plant feel light, and free, and young again, and 
soon be on its way afresh. 
There are three important points in repotting Auriculas. Of course, one of 
these is the compost. If you wish long life and health to your plants, trust me 
that the soil for them must be something natural, simple, and sweet, and that 
important as compost undoubtedly is, yet neither this nor any other one matter 
attended to, with neglect of other points of culture, will insure success. 
Florists treat the Auricula more naturally now-a-days. Plants are not ruined 
by riotous living forced upon them. Terrible composts are now no more made 
up, in which such gross surfeits as goose-dung, night-soil, blood, salt, sugar- 
bakers’ scum were used, while nature’s staff of life, in fibry sod and “ nutty ’’ 
loam, were in little more than the proportions of a spice. I name this, not as 
the fat boy in “ Pickwick ” said, when he reported Mr. Tracy Tupman’s ardent 
culture of Miss Wardle’s affections, because “ I wants to make your flesh creep,” 
but to record an earnest caution against perhaps a ready temptation to grow 
these sensitive plants too rich. I never saw any thus overgrown, but though the 
effect is recorded as brilliant in the extreme, yet it was never for long. The rare, 
bright beauty was unnatural, hectic, hollow, like the deathly loveliness of con¬ 
sumption. 
And besides all this, no one now can afford to tamper with this plant; its 
valuable varieties are too scarce.' There are now no “ Freedoms ” by the frameful, 
as there have been. No one now has more of that sterling flower Smiling 
Beauty ” than he can part with, like poor Heap, the raiser, who went home from 
the “ letting-out ” festivities, heavy at heart, with nine more plants of it than 
anybody would take off his hands. 
A variety of composts, so long as they are natural, cool, and sweet, will grow 
the Auricula well. Each cultivator, differing a little from his brethren, gradu¬ 
ally draws aside to his own way, and succeeding, believes it the best. 
The ingredients with me are turfy loam, with that fresh smell about it that 
gives the labourer among it a rare appetite. I get it of medium strength, and 
let it ripen for use in a mellow decay. Much as “ manure ” is talked of in flori¬ 
culture, it should not be forgotten that though old manure has its virtues, yet 
turfy loam is plant-food, with the mutton, beef, and horse-flesh left in. What 
manure I want I use from hot-beds of the previous year, or sometimes two years 
old. It is turned over under shelter. The third material is pure leaf-mould. I 
do not make the proportions minutely exact; I am content to have about one 
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