Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/119

Rh be spoiled, for the flowers will be small and crowded and will compress each other out of form.

may be produced by proper management of any of the varieties, but the pompons and intermediates make the best standards. As regards the potting and watering and other routine matters, follow the instructions already given. The special points alone concern us now. Select for standards the strongest plants of suitable varieties, and in the month of March shift them into forty-eight size. Keep the plant straight by means of a light stake and be sure not to pinch the point out. As side shoots appear pinch them back slightly so as to leave one or two leaves to clothe the stem. When the stem is as tall as you wish pinch out the point, and carefully but loosely tie out the side shoots as they appear to form the head of the plant. When the shoots are four to six inches long stop them, and tie with care the secondary shoots that follow. You may go on stopping until the first week in July, and then stop for the last time. Finish the training by the first week in September and house the plants rather early.

.&mdash;For this form pompons and intermediates are best adapted. Select strong autumn cuttings and give them the regular shifts and routine management as directed above. In the training the matter of first importance is to preserve the leader and all the side branches. About the end of May stop all the shoots from top to bottom, stop them all again in the middle of June, unless it be to restrain some shoots that will grow out of bounds. To secure a rich effect the utmost should be made of every shoot, and the final training should be done at the end of August, to allow time for the growth that follows to push beyond the sticks, and produce the happy effect of a perfect plant. In some cases the uppermost shoots will require to be trained downwards, and others must be taken round the sticks which form the outside framework, in preference to stopping them, and if all this is done in good time not a stick or tie will be visible when the plant is in flower.

of a somewhat rough but most effective character may be grown in quantity by an extremely simple method. Plant out well-rooted cuttings in very poor soil in a sunny situation eighteen inches apart every way. Give them water if they want it, but the less water they have the better.