Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/135

Rh there would not be room for a balloon. Small feathery sticks, like the tops of pea sticks, about eighteen inches in length, may be employed instead of wire trainers.

The fibrous-rooted garden varieties represented by T. Lobbianum are invaluable for supplying winter flowers. To have them in full bloom throughout the winter, it is necessary that the plants should be well established previous to the end of the autumn, and also that an intermediate house be available for them. Specimens intended for furnishing cut flowers should be trained within about six inches of the glass, to expose the growth to the light as much as possible. Those intended for the conservatory and other purposes, must be trained to trellises or stakes fixed in the pots, and so long as they make new growth they will continue in bloom. Where the temperature of the conservatory is maintained at or about fifty degrees during the winter, a few permanent specimens may be grown in it, and trained up the pillars and rafters, where they will be fully exposed to the light.

The cuttings should be struck in July in the stove or the cucumber house, and potted off as soon as possible after they are rooted. Short-jointed side-shoots should be selected for cuttings. A considerable saving of time will be effected if the cuttings are inserted singly in small pots, as they can then be shifted on without suffering any check. When it is desired to have specimens of extra size for the purpose of obtaining a very large supply of cut flowers, it will be an advantage to commence with plants well established in three or five inch pots, and then remove all the flowers until a few weeks before they are required, so that the energies of the plants shall not be unnecessarily taxed.

Tropæolums do not require so much pot-room in proportion to their size as many other plants, and therefore it is necessary to guard against over-potting them. Specimens trained as pyramids or standards should be put in six- or eight-inch pots, and those intended for training to pillars or rafters in either nine- or ten-inch pots. They bloom more profusely when rather confined at the roots, and exhaustion can be easily prevented by watering them with weak liquid manure.

.&mdash;The shrubby Veronicas are much to be desired for conservatory decoration, for they are easy to grow and keep, and eminently effective. With proper management, they