£72 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 20. 
nicest plants, and will generally be lit to pot off in 
a month or so. If the cuttings are made in March, or 
the beginning of April, small flowering plants may be 
obtained the following year. But, in general, they will 
scarcely be strong enough to bloom until the second 
year. As soon as potted, keep rather close and growing 
freely until September, when they should have more 
air, and nearly all the sunlight they can get. if it is 
desirable to flower the young plants, they should have 
been grown to one shoot, and this from two to three 
feet long, in a five-inch pot, will look nicely with its 
pendant, tapering bunches of bloom. Plants thus expected 
to bloom should be kept rather dry in October and the 
first part of November, until the bloom-buds appear, 
when water should be given rather freely. When in 
this dryish state, the temperature should not be too 
high—about 55° ; when in bloom it should rise from 
50° to 00°, and be rather airy and dry, as the bloom is j 
easily injured by moisture. After blooming, cut off the | 
points of the shoots, and let the plant have little water, ' 
and a dryish temperature of from 45° to 55°, which will j 
bo quite sufficient when the plant is in a state of repose. 
In general, however, unless the cuttings have done well, i 
and been extra well managed, you must be contented 
with hardening the'wood of the young plants, and keep¬ 
ing them over the winter for the first season, giving 
them a sort of rest period by a minimum of water, little 
moisture in the atmosphere, and an average temperature 
of from 45° to 50°. 
2. General Cultivation. — Supposing that you have ' 
some young plants thus wintered, the first thing to do 
is to prune them early in March, so as to leave buds to | 
break into three or more shoots, according to their j 
strength. Allow them to remain a week or two after 
pruning back, and then give them more moisture at the j 
roots and by syringing the stems. If they could get a 
small amount of bottom-heat, it would be all in their | 
favour, until they had broken freely, been repotted, and 
were growing vigorously, when the pots should be raised 
gradually out of the bottom-heat. When the young 
shoots are about one inch long, repotting should take 
place, usually replacing in similar sized pots, after get¬ 
ting rid of a good portion of the old soil and using fresh. 
in six weeks or two mouths they will want another 
shift, if all has gone on well. The soil should be equal 
parts of turfy loam and fibry heath-soil, with .a little 
loaf-mould and silver sand. A closish, moist atmosphere, 
may be maintained, to promote rapid growth, until 
August, when more air must be admitted, and more still 
in September and October. In warm days, in the be¬ 
ginning of October, the plants will relish being fully 
exposed to the sun, and receiving no more water than will 
keep the leaves from flagging. The heat should not, 
however, fall lower at night than about 45°. When 
placed in a cool stove, about 50° to 55°, in November 
the flowers will soon begin to appear. Manure-waterings 
then, and when growing at Midsummer, should be fre¬ 
quently given. 
The chief point in growing, -when more shoots than 
one are allowed to a plant, is to endeavour to have these 
as equal in strength, and as equally exposed to sun and 
air, as possible, or they will either not bloom regularly, or’ 
not at all. In pruning, it is easy to cut so as to have a 
centre shoot, and from two to three or four shoots lower 
down round it; but the chief thing is to have all these 
nearly equal in size. A number of small shoots, or 
twigs, near the base of stronger ones, act just as so 
many robbers, and will not generally reward you with 
a bloom. As already indicated, one single shoot, in a 
nice little pot, looks well in a small house; for these 
reasons, it will seldom be advisable to keep a plant 
more than two or three years. When older, and assum¬ 
ing the bush style, the shoots should be cut back every 
winter or spring, nearly as freely as a willow stool. 
Though this plant has been introduced thirty years, 
it is not seen very often, yet its pale, bluish, small 
flowers, something resembling those of the Ceanothus, 
render it worth growing by those who can command 
the necessary heat. At two periods, when the shoots 
arc very young, and again, when the flower-stems appear, 
the green-fly will nibble it if it can, and must be destroyed 
by tobacco-smoke. The fly, and a damp, stagnant atmos¬ 
phere, when the plants are in bloom, are the chief things 
to bo guarded against. 
CONOCLINIUM TANTHEMUM. 
This is another beautiful light-blue-flowcred plant, 
that generally blooms freely in the late winter and early 
spring months, though it would do so almost at any time, 
according to the treatment it receives. Like the first- 
named, it also requires an intermediate house to do it 
justice. Instead of blooming in anything approaching 
the spikclct form, it resembles more in habit and manner 
of flowering the Ageratum Mexicanum. The latter 
plant, either in its common or variegated form, is no 
unworthy ornament to the greenhouse in winter, and 
makes a fine ornament to the flower-garden in summer. 
It was supposed the Conoclinium would make a good 
bedding-plant; but I am as yet ignorant of any suc¬ 
cessful trials of it. I shall allude to it as an ornament 
for the plant-stove or warm greenhouse in winter. 
Premising that it is rather more woody than the 
Ageratum, the following may sum up the points in its 
culture. 
1. Propagation. —Cuttings of young shoots, or even 
of last year’s that have stood over the winter, will strike 
freely in a little sweet bottom-heat of 75° to 80°, with a 
top temperature of from 55° to 65°. March and April 
are very suitable times, though, if placed in the cutting- 
pots earlier, the plants would be larger before winter. 
2. Potting. —As soon as rooted, the young plants should 
be placed singly into four-inch pots, kept closish, and in 
a moist atmosphere, when they will soon want a larger 
pot, and may again be repotted before the end of July. 
An eight-inch pot will grow a nice little specimen. 
3. Soil. —Peat and loam, with a little leaf-mould and 
silver sand at first, continuing the same with more loam, 
and an addition of about one-fifth of dried nodules of 
cow-dung at the last shifting. 
4. Stopping the Shoots. —If you can manage to get a 
nice, bushy, flowering Chinese Chrysanthemum plant, 
from a cutting iu spring, you will have no difficulty with 
this Conoclinium. As soon as potted, and beginning to 
grow freely ,.stop the shoot, or shoots, so as to cause the 
back buds to break. If these do not yield a sufficient num¬ 
ber of shoots, nearly equal in size, stop them again ; but 
the stopping should not take place after the end of June, 
or there will be a risk of the young shoots not being 
sufficiently matured to bloom, and, therefore, the shoots 
would be so far useless. 
5. Watering. — When growing, this will be wanted 
freely, and if manure-waterings alternately with clear 
water are given, so much the better; when in bloom, 
I it will require a fair amount of water at the roots, but 
I rather a dry atmosphere ; and very little water when 
the plant is in comparative rest after blooming. When 
growing, syringing every afternoon will be relished. 
0. Position, Temperature, and General Culture. —- A 
close, moist position, with a temporature of from 00° to 
75° will suit it best when growing. A shady place will 
do no harm at first. As the shoots exceed six inches in 
length, they should gradually be inured to more light, 
and the plant be brought near the glass, that the shoots 
be not drawn weulc. Secure the shoots as equal in 
size as possible, and fasten them to twigs so far apart 
that the leaves will have room to expand themselves; 
any small shoots should be nipped away, as creating 
