Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/154

144 for the roots are too slow in finding their way into the fresh soil, and the whole mass will in consequence get sour.

For a compost use two parts nice fibry loam, and one part thoroughly decayed manure with a little rotten leaf mould and a good sprinkling of silver sand. If the loam is deficient in fibre, it is best to have one part of rough peat and two of loam. A little cocoa-nut fibre refuse is very well to mix with the soil; it keeps it open and porous, and assists the formation and easy extension of the roots; but it is not advisable to add much of the refuse, for it will not afford much nourishment to the plants. The soil should be used rough; the larger the pot, the more lumpy should the soil be. The pots should be moderately well drained and the plants potted firm, but not rammed too hard. If the plants do well, they will make good-sized specimens, suitable for exhibiting in September; but it is advisable not to allow them to flower the first year when they are intended exclusively for exhibition, and then they make good plants for the following season.

The best shape to train them to is the pyramidal, and every care must be exercised to get them well furnished to the very bottom. Sometimes the plants will throw side shoots close to the soil, and at others they will not do so without stopping. But at all times it is as well to nip the top out when they get about a foot high; it strengthens the side shoots. As soon as these shoots are three or four joints long they must have their tops nipped out, and as they grow again they must be regularly pinched, to get them into a good shape, and if the leading shoot is inclined to rob the side branches, it is best to stop it, and let another young one run up. The main stem must have a good stout stake to keep it upright. For standards no training is required beyond rubbing off the side shoots, and letting the main stem run up to whatever height is required. It must then be topped and allowed to throw out shoots, which must be pinched twice or three times to form a handsome head. For dwarf bushes, the young plants must be stopped when eight or nine inches high, the young shoots again stopped and then trained out neatly with sticks.

The plants should be stood out of doors for a month or so to ripen the wood in the autumn, but they should be housed before any severe frost sets in, for though a few degrees will not do much harm, they are quite as well without it. It is a bad plan to store the plants away for the winter in outhouses,