78 
THE GARDEN ALBUM AND REVIEW. 
finer crocks, with a layer of fibre or moss to 
keep the soil from choking the drainage. A 
compost of 3 parts loam, i part leaf-soil, with 
a fair sprinkling of silver sand, will be most 
suitable. To this may be added a dusting of 
basic slag—a fine cement-like manure, that 
will begin to get soluble, and useful for the 
roots two or three months later, and when the 
plants can do with a little extra food. 
After potting, the plants should be placed as 
close to the glass as possible and sprinkled 
morning and evening. The proper watering 
should at first be done with a rosed water-can 
until the soil becomes sufficiently firm to take 
it from the spout without having holes made in 
it. This treatment goes on day after day, until 
the end of May or early in June, care, however, 
being taken to give each plant enough space, 
so that it may receive abundance of light and 
air. 
Disbudding. —When plants are intended for 
winter blooming it is essential to suppress the 
flowers that appear with persistence during the 
summer months. One could hardly expect the 
same plants to bloom during the summer and 
again during the winter months. By pinching 
out the young flower trusses as soon as they 
appear, however, the energy of the plant is 
conserved and stored up in the tissues until the 
flowers are required. 
Pinching. —Closely related to disbudding is 
the practice known as pinching. This consists 
in nipping out the tip of the leading shoot or 
shoots in the early period of growth, the object 
being to start buds lower down into growth, and 
thus produce a symmetrical, sturdy and bushy- 
headed plant. This bushiness and sturdiness, 
however, can only be secured with plenty of 
air and light. In the absence of these the 
plants would become leggy and drawn to one 
side more than another. 
Re-potting. —Where large plants are re¬ 
quired as specimens, it becomes necessary to 
pot them on quickly from one sized pot to 
another when each becomes full of roots, but 
the last potting should not be later than June 
or July, as each shift means a check to the 
plant for a short time. The compost mentioned 
above will do in each case, and the richer it is 
the better at the final potting. 
Summer Treatment.— From the beginning 
of June until about the middle or end of 
September, according to the weather and the 
locality—the plants may be grown in the open 
air. They may be stood on boards or slates 
along the pathways, running north and south 
if possible, or the pots may be plunged up to 
the rims in sifted ashes made up in beds of 
convenient size. This has the advantage of 
keeping the pots in a moist and cool medium 
during the summer months, and the roots are 
not likely to get shrivelled up with the heat. 
Watering of course must be attended to 
regularly about twice a day as a rule when 
very hot, and each plant should receive a good 
soaking when inclined to be dry. 
Liquid Manure. —When well-established 
liquid manure may be given about 3 times a 
week. That made from cow or sheep manure 
is very safe, if well diluted. Special manures, 
if given at all, must be given in very small 
quantities, as much as will cover a threepenny 
piece being quite sufficient for a plant in a 
yin. pot. 
Housing.— Before the approach of the first 
frosts in autumn the plants should be taken 
into the greenhouse or conservatory and placed 
in their flowering quarters. Disbudding may 
be discontinued, so that the plants shall now 
commence to throw the flowers which they 
were prevented from doing during the summer. 
In this way the plants will be made to yield 
up their reserve forces in the shape of large 
trusses of well formed flowers during the 
most cheerless period of the year. 
IS GARDENING A LUXURY ? 
It is frequently asserted that “ Gardening is 
a luxury.” There is such a plausible air about 
this assertion that it is usually allowed to pass 
unchallenged. As a rule the phrase is used 
more or less as a hint to gardeners that as they 
are only engaged in an occupation which is a 
“ luxury,” the wages paid for it must conse¬ 
quently be much lower than that paid for 
labour in other branches of industry. A 
proper consideration of the subject, however, 
will show that gardening, far from being a 
luxury, is just as important a business as 
many others. 
Does the nurseryman, market gardener, seed 
or bulb merchant, look upon gardening as a 
“ luxury ” when he invests his capital in it ? 
Certainly not. He looks upon gardening 
strictly as business. And where does the 
“ luxury ” for the market grower come in when 
he has to be up early and late getting his 
produce to market ? Many men are out of bed 
at one o'clock in the morning at least three 
days a week, and often six, so as to reach the 
market by four or five o’clock, thus putting 
into practice the well-known proverb of the 
early bird and the worm. But while they do 
this week after week, and year after year, it is 
safe to say that not one of them regards the 
process in the light of a “ luxury "—especially 
if prices are low. 
If it is thus with many employers, what is 
it with the employes—the gardeners who also 
have to work long hours in growing plants, 
flowers, fruits, or vegetables to such perfection 
that they will find a ready sale ? Surely they 
do not look upon gardening as a “ luxury ”— 
especially when their wages are lower and 
hours longer than that of an ordinary unskilled 
labourer. 
It may be admitted that all this is true, 
but it does not apply to the lady or gentleman 
who has a large garden establishment, and who 
employs several gardeners—not from a business 
point of view, but purely for the “ love of 
flowers.” 
