INDIAN AZALEAS. 
101 
plant in a close, moist atmosphere, where it can be shaded till its 
re-establishment. This may be regarded as the outline of all the 
future shifting, though, as the plants attain a great size, it is cer¬ 
tainly advisable in every respect to place them, when too large to 
turn over by hand, into the West Kent Garden Pot, an invention 
deserving every praise, as it enables the cultivator to examine, 
shift, and return the heaviest plants with the greatest ease. As 
it now becomes desirable to increase the size of the plants as 
rapidly as is consistent with their future welfare, they should be 
placed in a temperature of about 55 or 60°, such as that of a 
vinery, where they may have plenty of moisture ; and here they 
will grow amazingly. The points of the shoots should be taken 
off when they have grown two or three inches, and, if this be 
continued through the summer, they will by August have become 
handsome bushy plants ; indeed, they will sometimes increase so 
fast as to render another shift or repotting advisable by the be¬ 
ginning of July, but it should never be done later than this, and 
the plant’s action should cease in a month after, or there will be 
some trouble to get it properly ripened for the winter; in August, 
therefore, they should be set out of doors, where they can be 
sheltered from excessive wet, but open to the influence of the 
sun. This will mature the increase of the past summer and pre¬ 
pare them to stand through the winter without injury. Azaleas 
only require protection from excessive cold, and therefore may 
be safely trusted in a well-built pit. 
The same round of management should be followed through 
the succeeding year, removing all the flower-buds as they appear, 
after it is known that each sort is correctly named. The third 
year will then see them in a fit state for flowering. 
The temperature in which they are kept in spring must be 
regulated by the period at which the blossoms are desired : thus, 
if they are required early, the plants should stand in their old 
situation, the vinery ; but, if they are only wanted to bloom in a 
natural manner through April and May, they may continue in 
the pit or greenhouse. After flowering it is desirable to encou¬ 
rage the growth by repotting and keeping them in the house till 
it is nearly complete, which will forward it so far that abundant 
time will be left to mature it in the open air, and for this pur- 
