184 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[December, 
years’ blooming throw them away. They may 
be propagated by dividing the plants, but this 
is a clumsy method, not to be recommended. 
A very satisfactory way to get a good display 
is by raising seedlings. Sow the seeds on a 
hot-bed the first week in March. The young 
plants will soon be up and ready to prick out, 
and by growing them on under glass for a week 
or two, and planting out when the young 
plants are about 6 inches high, they will 
flower strongly the first season. If the seeds 
are saved from the best varieties there will not 
be a bad one amongst them, but it is necessary 
to flower hundreds before you can be sure of 
any that will be an advance on existing sorts. 
Plant in beds a foot apart the first year, and 
two feet the second. — J. Douglas, Loxford 
Hall, Ilford. 
FORCING INDIAN AZALEAS. 
I WILL suppose the grower who wishes to 
produce early flowers to be in the pos- 
r^\ session of healthy young plants suited to 
his requirements, and of the right sorts 
for this special work. The plants need not 
be large to begin with, say three years grafted, 
and growing in 5- or 6-inch pots. Plants of 
this age will have a sprinkling of flower-buds 
ready to open in March, which month, by the 
way, we will suppose ourselves to have arrived 
at. They should be placed in a moist tem¬ 
perature of 65°, where they will soon open 
their buds. If flowers are in great request I 
would allow them to flower, but would cut 
them as little as possible. I would prefer, 
however, to nip off the flower-buds, and con¬ 
centrate the energies of the plant on the 
produce for the following winter. 
Supposing them to be permitted to remain 
in heat they should be encouraged to grow 
vigorously by every art that can be brought to 
bear upon them. The syringe should be kept 
at work morning and evening, and they should 
be watered with weak guano-water, or the 
surface of the pots sprinkled over with a pinch 
of Standen’s manure, or other preparation. As 
they are not intended to be shifted, such a 
stimulative regimen will be of use to prepare 
them for the debilitatin process of forcing, 
for, depend upon it, however carefully we 
conduct this work of forcing, it impairs the 
strength of plants such as those we are now 
considering very much, and the art of the 
grower will consist in averting this as much as 
possible. If any shoot threatens to grow 
beyond the general outline it should be pinched, 
but this pinching should be indulged in but 
sparingly, nor prolonged beyond the first week 
in May, else the result will be disappointing. 
The drainage must be kept right, and any 
green matter growing on the surface of the ball 
picked off; but, above all, the water must pene¬ 
trate through it evenly and thoroughly. The 
plants should be kept fully exposed to the sun 
on all sides, and towards midsummer removed 
to a cooler temperature, say the front stage of 
a greenhouse or an airy pit. The pots will be 
quite full of the most delicate roots, in fact, 
pot-bound, and to preserve their activity to 
the full, it will be necessary to protect them 
from the action of the sun. I place the pots 
at this stage in empty pots a size larger than 
those in which they are growing. This cool 
jacket will benefit the plants in more ways 
than one : it will protect the delicate fibres, 
whose welfare we have at heart, from the 
enervating influence of excessive evaporation, 
which must take place with pot-bound plants 
fully exposed to the rays of the sun; and it 
will save them from the fluctuations of tem¬ 
perature which this same evaporation and its 
consequent heavy waterings will entail; which 
evils, if not obviated by some means or other, 
will assuredly lead to more frequent visits 
from their insect enemies than will be con¬ 
ducive to their well-being. 
An idea is or used to be prevalent that 
Azaleas and such plants, in process of matura¬ 
tion, should receive a reduced supply of water 
at the roots, the more surely to attain the 
object in view. I have been under this delu¬ 
sion myself at one time, and its victim as well, 
but happily I have come to see the evil of my 
ways. The best and earliest Azaleas I am 
able to produce are growing all the summer in 
an old greenhouse, where they bask in the 
summer’s sun, and breathe the freest of fresh 
air night and day, the pots protected as I have 
described, and copiously supplied with water. 
We will now suppose ourselves to have 
arrived at the middle of September, with a 
batch of plants, hard as ebony, having buds 
palpable to the touch, if not to the eye. Those 
