Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/222

204, and potting the rooted pieces in small pots in compost consisting chiefly of silver sand.

.&mdash;This is the “grass tree” of the Australian bush. They are decidedly ornamental and very peculiar. Grow them in equal parts peat, loam, and bricks broken to the size of walnuts and the sharpest siliceous grit obtainable; give abundance of water in summer and very little indeed all the winter.

.&mdash;The well known Adam’s Needle represents one of the most interesting groups of plants in our gardens, and one which has peculiar claims on the attention of the amateur who can take interest in plants of noble forms while awaiting patiently for their full development. It is no small recommendation of the yuccas that there is very little to be said about their cultivation, for the fact is, it is difficult to kill them and it is a delightfully easy matter to grow them properly. They must have light always, and our sunshine is never too strong for them even in the height of summer, when they should be out of doors. In potting them take particular care to drain the pots well, and let the compost consist of about equal parts of the best turfy loam obtainable, bricks broken to the size of walnuts, and the drift from a gravel road, or lacking that, the finest siftings from the sweepings of gravel walks. Give plenty of water in summer but very little all the winter, taking care that they do not go quite dry. They are all nearly hardy and therefore need but little fire heat. For a beginner the best will be Y. aloifolia, of which there are two forms, the green and the variegated; Y. concava, Y. filamentosa var, and Y. recurva. The last is a hardy plant, but good enough for a place in any conservatory.

Yuccas vary considerably in their frequency of flowering. The cheap and very hardy Y. flaccida and Y. gloriosa bloom early in life and often; while Y. aloifolia, Y. recurva, and Y. plicata are in no haste to flower. Cultivators do not usually repine when they see the stately flower stems rising, because when the flowering of the plant is over, it loses its single stem and unity of character, and throws up a number of crowns. These new growths afford ready means of multiplying the species if removed, and if allowed to continue as parts of the old stock, will in time add to its dignity and massiveness. Therefore the flowering need not be all loss, and as for the flowers themselves, so beautiful are they that, in one respect at least, it is all gain.