Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/144

134 and those in five-inch into pots eight inches in diameter. No further shift will be required until after they have done flowering. After the end of February the young shoots will make vigorous progress, and should be tied neatly, and their points nipped out. In succeeding years, when the period of flowering will be more under the control of the cultivator, the specimens intended for flowering in May must receive their final stopping in January; for June, in March; and for July, some time towards the end of April. Those required for May must receive their final shift in October, and be placed in a temperature a few degrees higher than that required for the remaining portion of the stock. After the first season’s growth the plants should, as soon as they are well established in the pots in which they are to flower, be watered with weak liquid manure until the flowers open and with clear soft water at all other times. They winter best in a temperature ranging between 40° and 50°, according to the weather, and with just enough fire-heat to keep the frost out and the atmosphere dry.

A compost consisting of three parts sound turfy loam, and one each of well-decayed hotbed manure and leaf-mould, and half a part of sharp silver sand, will grow all the large-flowering varieties to perfection. The soil must be used in a moderately rough condition, and the loam and manure be well mixed together. The compost should, if possible, be prepared six months beforehand, by placing the manure between the layers of loam when it is stacked up in a heap, as it comes from the pasture or common.

Cuttings of well-matured wood cut up into lengths of two joints each, with a young side-shoot proceeding from the top joint, strike freely. Prepare by cutting them close under the bottom bud, and remove the lower leaf. Insert in cutting pots, prepared in the usual manner with a layer of dry sand on the top, and then place in a cold frame. Keep rather close and shade moderately during the first week or ten days, and then ventilate freely, and expose to the full sun. Pot off as soon as nicely rooted, and if they are stopped when well established and shifted into five-inch pots about a fortnight or three weeks afterwards, they will make good specimens by the following season.

The fancy varieties are more difficult to strike than the show kinds, and therefore require more care and attention, and it is as well to give them the advantage of a mild bottom-heat, if