269 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Januaey 31, 1860. 
healthy, and with several shoots instead of one, as it is naturally 
inclined to get tall and leggy instead of branching in the bush 
form. I will suppose the plant is in a 60-sized pot, and 
obtained in March or April. If there were flower-buds on the 
young shoots I should be inclined to sacrifice them the first 
season. I should therefore take a little off the point of the 
shoots, rub off the flower-buds, tie the shoots down with a hasp 
to another string round the rim of the pot, and keep the plant in 
a eloseish moist atmosphere—say from 50° to 55° and 60°, until 
the w r ood-buds on the shortened shoots had broken and grown an 
inch or half an inch in length. Then I should repot the plant 
and keep it in a growing state as before, giving more air and full 
exposure to the sun as the shoots lengthened. 
In repotting three things must be considered in the case of a 
beginner: 1st, to give a small shift; 2nd, to secure thorough 
drainage and prevent all access of worms ; and 3rd, to use a soil 
which will not easily become sodden and sour, nor yet be too 
easily and quickly dried. First, then, I would recommend for 
the first shift a 48-sized pot, because in such a small pot the 
plant is not so likely to be overwatered. In the second season 
I might use a 32, or even larger, because then more experience 
will be gained : that size might be used at once if there were a 
thorough understanding how watering should be done. Were a 
large shift given at once, and the whole of that inappropriated 
soil to be watered thoroughly, the little ball in the centre would 
be pitched in the middle of a morass, and disease or death would 
be sure to follow. When large shifts are given to such rather- 
particular plauts, success will almost entirely depend on watering 
the soil just as far as the roots extend, and keeping up a free 
growth by a little extra temperature. Fine plants are thus most 
quickly formed; but they do not keep in health so long as those 
which are kept growing by smaller shifts. The smaller-shift 
mode renders it more difficult even for the most inexperienced 
greatly to hurt or destroy the plant. 
I need not premise that the pot should be thoroughly clean, 
and if new all the better; but if new let it be soaked in water 
for ten minutes, and then use it when it gets dry: this will insure 
the pot being in a kind condition for nursing the pet plant. 
When new pots fresh from the kiln are used the pots absorb 
more than their due share of moisture, and a vacuum is thus 
often left between their sides and the soil, through which your 
waterings too easily pass without thoroughly moistening the ball. 
The drainage is, the next thing to be considered. A small cap of 
zinc placed over the hole would' be the best security against the 
smallest worm wriggling itself in, if ever you should take the 
plant off a wooden shelf. Failing that, place a nice piece of 
broken pot with its convex side over the hole, so as to fill the 
space neatly. Water will get through, though little else could 
get in. Place a few pieces of crock, or anything else most handy, 
over and round this first piece, or cap, as hollow as possible; 
then nearly half an inch of smaller pieces, followed by at least 
half an inch of smaller pieces still, either of broken pots about 
the size of Peas, from which the dust has been excluded; 
broken charcoal, sifted in the same way, small gravel washed and 
dried before being used, or a mixture of all three. A little moss 
placed over this, or a layer of the roughest of the compost, makes 
the pot ready for receiving the ball. The moss is the best, be¬ 
cause it not only helps to equalise moisture, but prevents the 
earth getting among so as to clog the drainage. When no moss 
is used, I like greater depth of drainage. The compost should be 
two-thirds of rich heath mould, and a good part of that should be 
in pieces, in size from a small to a large Pea ; the other third may 
be of silver sand, broken crocks, charcoal, and freestone in similar¬ 
sized pieces, but from which the dust has been excluded. 
In potting care should be taken that the plant had been 
thoroughly watered, and allowed time to drain itself. In turning 
the plant out remove the large portion of the drainage, but leave 
the finer, if the roots are working in it; gently disentangle the 
fibres at the outside of the ball, and place the ball at such a 
depth that the collar of the plant shall be about half an inch 
below the rim of the pot. That collar should not be covered 
with fresh soil more than the slightest portions of fine materials 
to give all a fresh appearance; and the moving or picking a little 
of the old soil from the surface of the ball will allow this fresh 
covering without burying the root3 or collar deeper than it 
was before. The compost, neither wet nor dry, should be packed 
as firmly round the ball as will not injure the roots, and the 
surface should be finished with finer material (what is left will 
be finer) to prevent air getting to the roots too easily. 
A little nice, sweet, dried leaf mould, 60 as to bo sure there ia 
no likelihood of worms being in it, will help the plant in this 
young state; and when larger shiftings are given, this and a little 
sweet fibry loam may be added with advantage until it amounts 
to about one-quarter of the compost. When larger shifts are 
given, the pieces of the compost may be proportionately larger. 
In watering , the water should always be a few degrees higher 
than the temperature of the house. Care should be taken that 
the whole ball is moistened, without allowing the water, espe¬ 
cially in winter, to play against the collar of the plant. The 
safest plan is to pour the water on a crock, or on an oyster-shell, 
so that the surface of the pot is soiled over with water without 
bringing it with force against the collar of the plant. After 
shifting, less water will be needed until the roots are working 
freely in the fresh soil. A little shading in bright weather, and 
a syringe overhead to lessen perspiration, will often be better 
than heavy drenchings at the roots. The soil, however, must not 
be allowed to get unhealthily dry. 
Pruning, Temperature, and Position. — These may be varied 
according to circumstances. If we bear in mind that the blooms 
are produced most freely in clusters near the axils of the leaves 
this season on wood made and ripened last season, we have pre¬ 
sented to us the whole theory of management. It is not often 
safe with this plant to prune back further than near the base of 
last season’s shoots. If the plant is kept all the year round in an 
airy greenhouse or conservatory, the pruning must not be ex¬ 
cessive ; but a number of short shoots must be preferred to fewer 
and longer shoots. The best plant that ever I saw had been 
managed very much like a Willow-stool; only in pruning, instead 
of cutting close to the stump, or rootstock, a bud or two had 
been left at the base of each shoot. Such a plant, however, could 
not have been grown in an airy greenhouse. Most likely, shortly 
after being pruned back it was put into a eloseish, moist atmo¬ 
sphere, and a temperature ranging from 50° to 65°. By June or 
July the pot would most likely be put on a slate in a cold pit, or 
better still on two bricks, to let the air circulate beneath the pots. 
By keeping the pit somewhat moist by syringing the walls, and 
giving no great amount of air, and shading in the middle of the 
day, the shoots would grow rapidly ; and if a little air were left on 
all night, they would not be drawn. At the end of August or 
September, and the first week or fortnight of October, the plant 
should be gradually used to more air and sunshine, until it can 
bear the latter even without glass, so as to harden the young 
shoots. The pit would protect the pot from the sun’s rays; if not, 
a piece of cloth or mat should be placed on the side next the sun. 
The plant should be in its winter quarters by the middle of 
October, and an airy, light place should be given to it all the 
winter, and the average temperature ranging from 40° to 48°. If 
in bloom, a few degrees more will bo advisable. It is better for 
the plants when not encouraged to bloom in winter. If similar 
conditions can be secured in the growing time, I should prefer 
a span-roofed house to a pit, though the latter will answer 
well. An attempt at similar conditions, by keeping the plant 
along with others requiring similar treatment, even in a green¬ 
house, will be gratefully received. But if this plant is kept in 
the greenhouse, the aim should be to grow a number of short, 
stubby shoots every summer instead of fewer and longer ones, as 
the short ones will be more easily matured. At no time should I 
leave it out of doors without means of protecting the pot from the 
sun, and from heavy, pelting rains. A plant turned out against 
a wall will have better chance to thrive than a plant standing 
out in a pot exposed to take its chance of the variable weather 
of our summers. 
Propagation. —This is most easily done by seeds. Moisten 
them in water for six hours at a temperature of 120°. Sow 
in sandy peat in a hotbed, and prick off three or four of the 
seedlings round the sides of a four-inch pot, when two or three 
inches high, and harden off by degrees. Nip the points out 
when three or four inches in height. Cuttings of the points of 
the shoots may be struck in sand over sandy peat, and covered 
with a bell-glass. But the best cuttings are obtained after the 
plant has received less or more pruning, by slipping off a few, or 
thinning the new side-shoots when between two and three inches 
long, taking them off close to the older stem, inserting in sand as 
above, covering with a hand-glass, and keeping a little cool until 
the base of the cuttings begin to swell, when a little bottom heat 
will cause them to.root more quickly. When that is done the 
plants should be gradually hardened. 
Insects. —The most troublesome is a white scale. I once 
cleared a plant much infested by laying a cloth over the pot, and 
dipping the whole plant in a vessel of thin clay paint. The plant 
