56 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ April, 
cuttings from these will be ready at least three 
weeks in advance of those from the plants 
growing in the open ground. 
Those persons who can command a hot¬ 
bed with just a little bottom-heat, will have 
a considerable advantage over those who 
have no glass protection. When the shoots 
have grown about 2 in., those intended for 
cuttings should be taken off close to the crown 
of the plant. I insert each cutting singly in 
a small pot, in soil composed of three parts 
loam, one of leaf-mould, and a little sand. 
The pots are then plunged in some cocoa-nut 
fibre refuse over a dung-bed, and the glass- 
light kept rather close for a few days, and 
under these circumstances, the cuttings will 
soon strike out roots. When this has taken 
place, the plants will start into growth, and 
air must be more freely admitted. When the 
plants have grown about 2 in., I pot at once 
into 5-in. or 6-in. pots, and place the plants 
back again into the frame. By this time the 
heat will have declined, and it is no longer 
necessary, as the plants will root freely with¬ 
out bottom-heat. 
When the roots have reached the sides of 
the pots, I remove the plants to a sheltered 
position out-of-doors. A stick must be placed 
to each, as the stems Avill not stand the force 
of a high wind. All the attention they require 
will be to supply the pots with sufficient water, 
using weak liquid-manure as soon as they 
are well filled with roots. Every one of the 
cuttings put in from the middle of Februaiy 
to the second week in March will produce a 
strong spike of flowers the same season, and 
each being grown in a small pot can be removed 
to the conservatory or greenhouse, where the 
delicate perfume thrown out by the flowers, 
and the striking effect produced by a judicious 
arrangement of the spikes amongst other 
plants, cannot fail to be appreciated. 
If it is designed to cultivate them in pots a 
second season, the treatment should be this ;— 
When the flowers fade, cut the spike off and 
remove the pots out-of-doors until November, 
when they may be sheltered for the winter in 
a cold frame. Eepot in February or March 
into 8-in. or 9-in. pots. The compost best 
adapted for them is turfy loam four parts, 
rotted stable-manure one part, leaf-mould one 
part. Each plant will produce from three to five 
spikes, but five ought to be the maximum 
number. The plants must be placed out-of- 
doors by the end of March, and they must also 
be fully exposed to the sun ; water and place a 
stick to each^spike, as alread}^ recommended. 
—J. Douglas, Loxford Hall. 
MAEKET PLANTS.—XI. 
Hydrangeas and Azaleas for Cut Blooms. 
f HE Hudfangea Ilortensia is not only a 
well known, but a thoroughly valuable, 
market plant, because so useful for 
decorative purposes. When visiting Messrs. J. 
and J. Hayes’s nursery at Edmonton, which is 
without doubt one of the largest market grow¬ 
ing establishments in the metropolis, I saw 
some of their Hydrangeas when just going to 
market,—vigorous plants, in the most robust 
health, growing in 48-pots, and carrying four 
splendid trusses of bloom. This firm grows 
annually something like three thousand Hy¬ 
drangeas for market, and in most cases one- 
year old plants, as the method of cultivation 
applied enables the grower to get as good a 
plant in one year as in three or four years. 
The stock of Hydrangeas is obtained from 
cuttings. It has been found in striking cut¬ 
tings that two points are of great importance, 
viz., having the wood of the right age, and 
employing the right temperature to strike the 
cuttings in. The cultivator of market plants 
is a man of keen perception, and constant con¬ 
tact with the subjects he takes in hand enables 
him to know just exactly when the wood is 
ripe for the manufacture of cuttings. Some 
twelve to twenty cuttings are put in a pot, and 
the pots plunged in a brisk dung-bed, Avhere 
they root very quickly. “ If the cuttings do 
not root in a week,” remarked Mr. Hayes, 
“ they simply flag, and will not root at all, and 
are of no good.” 
When the cuttings are properly rooted, they 
are potted off into small pots, and placed out- 
of-doors during the summer months to harden- 
off, but on no consideration are they allowed 
to become dry. The pots are plunged in some 
cool and moist material, which materially 
helps to prevent danger from drought. 
A model Hydrangea in a 48-sized pot has 
four enormous trusses of splendid flowers. The 
plan is to stop the plants till they start with 
three or four shoots, and then allow them to 
go ahead and perfect their flowers. 
Azcdeas for cut blooms .—There is a very 
large demand for flowers of Azaleas during the 
autumn, winter, and spring, especially of white 
and delicately tinted varieties. The best sorts, 
or rather the varieties, that find most favour 
with the growers of cut flowers, are Indica 
alba, Fielder’s white, Triumphans, Souvenir du 
