PRESERVATION OF BEDDING PLANTS. 
241 
THE PRESERVATION OF BEDDING PLANTS. 
There is a method of preserving tender bedding plants, such 
as Verbenas, Scarlet Geraniums, &c. through the winter, which, 
though not new, deserves mention, and much more general 
adoption than it receives at present; from its universal applica¬ 
bility, and the great success attending its employment, I 
think this neglect can only arise from the method not being 
sufficiently known. 
It is simply to build up a bed of peat, about eighteen inches 
or two feet in height, in the manner of a common hot-bed, only 
continuing the outer sods a foot higher than the interior, 
to form a wall on which the lights are to rest; these walls must 
be made secure with stakes driven through them, and a slight 
curb placed on the top, and the job is complete ; the plants are 
then planted at regular intervals over the bed, and with the 
lights on and the attention to covering, &c. usually given to 
pits, will bid defiance to the severest weather of our winters. 
It will be seen the method is inexpensive, as the peat will be in 
an excellent state for using in the following summer, and the 
plants themselves occasion far less trouble, as they require no 
water after the first application at planting, and from being well 
established in the soil are enabled to withstand uninjured a 
degree of cold that would be fatal to them in pots ; in fact, 
though it should happen that some of the branches catch a little 
frost, it is next to impossible that the roots or lower parts of 
the stem can, from the amount of radiated heat that will be 
given off from the body of the bed whenever the external tem¬ 
perature is below that of the bed. 
The plan is one which seems peculiarly suited to the amateur 
cultivator, as it simplifies and renders easy one of the most 
troublesome points in his practice. 
ITortulanus. 
ON FORCING FLOWERS. 
Being of opinion that a seasonal hint is of more value in a 
practical sense than the most elaborately written treatise pre- 
VOL. VI. NO. XI. 
z 
