November 7. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
97 
root, and dies down, or should die down, to the surface 
every autumn. If kept growing, and in a somewhat 
shady place during the autumn, it will very likely serve 
you, as many bulbs would,—give you plenty of shoots 
and leaves the following season, but no, or few, flowers. 
Commencing from the present time, the plant, if not 
already drying up its stalks, should be placed in the 
airiest and sunniest part that can be commanded ; a 
temperature not much below 00° should be given to it, 
and water be gradually withheld until the stems get 
brown aud the leaves fall. Give them then almost no 
water, and by keeping the plant full in the sun the 
stalks will either fall, or give you, by their appearance, 
a hint that you may take them away with perfect safety. 
All this would have been better attended to six weeks 
or two months ago; but better late than never. The 
keeping the plant green and growing through the 
winter is next to completely fatal to your getting it to 
bloom next season. After the herbaceous stems have 
thus died down, the earth in the pot should not be dust- 
dry, but it should be dry rather than wet, but not 
so thoroughly dry as to mummy - shrivel the roots. 
I generally laid the pot down on its side in a moist 
place, or packed it, with other things requiring similar 
treatment, in a little moss not thoroughly dry, such as 
Gloxinias. When in this dry and resting state a 
temperature of from 45° to 50° answered admirably. 
When I had a house, in February, March, or April, 
with a temperature of from 55° to 70°, I used to place 
the pot in it, and gently moisten the ball of earth with 
warm water, say about 75° or 80°. Ere long, the young 
shoots would begin to peep through, and, when an inch 
above the pot, a compost, chiefly of equal parts of peat 
and loam, having previously been prepared and heated 
and aired, the plant was turned out of the pot, a good 
portion of the old soil shaken away, and then re-potted 
with a pot a size larger, or a similar, or lesser size, 
according to the state of the roots. After this, keep the 
plant a little shaded and close for a few days; but, as 
soon as it will stand it, give it all the sun it can get, and 
an average temperature at night of from 55° to 05°, 
with a rise of 15° from sunshine. As the shoots grow, 
give plenty of water, and let it bo weak manure-water, 
two or three times a week; or top-dress with decayed 
cow-dung. Under this treatment the plant will generally 
show bloom freely, when, though the water must be 
continued, the top of the plant must be kept drier and 
more airy. In fact, it flourishes well in a common 
greenhouse in summer, after the flowering has com¬ 
menced. If the plant should grow very luxuriantly, 
and show no signs of blooming by Midsummer, keep it 
full in the sun, give it more air and less water, and the 
check will bring bloom-buds in plenty, if it has not been 
mis-managed as to the maturing part the previous 
autumn. 
;V This is one of those plants peculiarly serviceable to 
amateurs, and those scarce of room in winter; as, 
during its resting period, it may be kept anywhere 
where the temperature does not often descend below 
45°. In fact, I have seen it flourish very fairly in a 
greenhouse in summer, where it had a lift from a 
Cuoumber-box in April, and was kept during winter at 
the bottom of a cupboard near a kitchen fire-place. 
With the exception of liking more heat—a conclusion 
to which we should naturally come, knowing that it was 
introduced to us from no great altitude in Bolivia— 
Ginnabcirina requires much the same treatment as the 
cottager’s Begonia, which is grown so plentifully in 
windows, and which has generally been named Evan- 
siana, or Discolor. I previously directed attention to 
this somewhat rough, yet splendid, old plant for a green¬ 
house, when it can previously receive a little help from 
a Vinery, or a Peach-house, or any place where a tem¬ 
perature of from 5° to 10° higher than the greenhouse 
can be given it for eight or ten weeks in spring. In 
such circumstances, as soon as the young shoots riso 
two or three inches in height, fine strong ones, with 
their tubers attached, are placed in rough loam and 
leaf-mould, or dried cow-dung, in a large pot; and these, 
with the encouragement of the extra heat above 
alluded to, will yield a mass some three-and-a half feet 
in height, and as much in diameter, that will be covered 
with pink flowers, and bo no mean object in the finest 
greenhouse. 
2. “I have a large plant of the Stephanotis Jloribunda, 
growing round a Globe trellis; it grows freely, but does 
not bloom ; it is three years old. How can I get it to 
bloom about next August?” I suspect that the plant is 
too thick on the trellis; that it has been kept growing 
too long in the autumn, and too hot and moist during 
winter; and I suspect that a remedy in these particulars 
would give you more success. In the eighth volume, I 
mentioned that I had tried this plant in a warmish con¬ 
servatory, the heat seldom falling below 45°, unless in 
very cold weather. Last winter, it was frequently below 
that point, and this made this fine Madagascar plant 
kick up its heels at the insult, and there is only a por¬ 
tion of the plant near the ground alive. I mean to try 
it again, however. I there mentioned two modes of 
growing and pruning, and in both, the thinness of the 
shoots is an essential to success, as well as full exposure 
to sunlight. By the first modo, the shoots made this 
season, after being duly thinned and tied iD, are in¬ 
tended to bloom freely next summer. Nothing, there¬ 
fore, should be done to them except stopping their points 
in the autumn. As the days shorten, water should be 
gradually withheld, so that during the whole winter, 
enough and no more should be given, just to keep the 
plants from flagging; and a temperature from 45° to 
50° at night will be quite sufficient, allowing the plant 
all the light aud air possible. In the spring, take means 
to give the plant a rise in temperature of from 10° to 
20°, and water in proportion; aud you may expect the 
buds to swell, and to yield a good profusion of bloom. 
The other mode, and which, for general purposes, I 
prefer, is to bloom the young plant on the young wood 
of the current year; and then, though the mass of 
bloom may not be so great at one time, it will continuo 
for the most of the summer. A plant so treated, that 
was very gay in Juno, after resting a little, has been 
very well supplied with bloom during the last two 
months. Here the same autumn treatment must be 
given as in the last case, to ripen the base, at least, of 
the shoots ; the same rest in winter, after cutting them 
back a little in autumn, to give more light for the 
maturing process; and even disbudding backwards, as 
I recommended some time ago for Vines. During 
winter, or rather just before you subject the plants to a 
higher temperature, cut back to within two, three, or 
more buds of the base of each shoot, according to the 
room you can give them to grow; and, just as in a Vine, 
the flowering of the young shoots during the summer 
will depend upon the ripening of last year’s wood 
before the dark days came; and then comparative rest 
during the winter months 
With such plants, we are all apt to go wrong; from 
an unwillingness to thin and prune out, when grow¬ 
ing ; consequently, w f e allow the young shoots to get 
into a mass instead of keeping them some six inches 
apart. Some practitioners recommend a good portion 
of peat in the compost; but after the plant is fairly 
started, and large enough to be transferred to a 
twelve or eighteen-inch pot, the compost should chiefly 
consist of sound fibry loam, as that will have a ten¬ 
dency to produce stout, short-jointed shoots. A plant 
may remain in such a pot a number of years, if the 
drainago is all right, merely by picking off the decayed 
surface soil, and adding fresh, with a top-dressing of 
