Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/107

Rh gain either as regards size, in preserving the old plants after they have done flowering. The double-flowering primulas, as above remarked, are awkward things to manage, and the inexperienced cultivator had best for a time be content without them. They may be raised from seed, but the usual method is by cuttings obtained by splitting up the old plants. When the bloom is over, allow the plants a season of rest. Three or four weeks will suffice for this if they are kept rather close, and by that time cuttings may be taken in plenty. These should be potted singly in the smallest thumb pots, the end of the cutting being cased entirely in silver sand, and they must be placed on a steady bottom-heat of 70° until rooted, when they must be shifted into five-inch pots, and be again put in bottom-heat for a week, after which they must be carefully inured to a cooler temperature, and be ultimately removed to a cold pit. All the forwardest, that have filled the 48-size pots with roots, may be shifted into 32-size, but it will be folly to shift any, the roots of which have not reached the sides of the pots.

To obtain extra fine specimens, select well-grown plants in flower. Remove the flowers and shake the plants out of their pots, and repot in 48-size. Then put them on bottom-heat to promote a good start in the new soil; and as soon as they have filled the pots with roots, shift into 24-size (eight-inch). If the pots are fairly drained, if the plants have no more artificial heat than is necessary, and the management otherwise is right, you will be well repaid when these large plants come into flower.

is a frame plant, reputed hardy, yet not well adapted for weathering the storm in the open border. To secure fine specimens, put them into rather large pots in a rich, light, loamy soil, and keep them in a cold frame at all seasons except when they are in flower, when they will be treasures for the conservatory. They produce plenty of seed, which should be sown as soon as gathered, and covered very lightly. The seed will probably remain dormant a long time, and there must be no haste in disturbing the soil it was sown in, for the young plants may appear in myriads in the course of six months or so. We have always succeeded in getting the seeds up in about ten days by putting the seed-pans in a heat of 75°. When grown as a border plant this primula should have a shady sheltered situation.