Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/76

70 the botanist. Of this noble family there are many splendid named varieties in cultivation, but those who understand them are very few indeed; they are usually grown in stove heat, and are propagated from offsets. Now, the right way to enjoy them is to grow them in the greenhouse and raise the stock from seed. If named varieties are wanted, they can be easily obtained: and of necessity the cultivator must wait for off-sets to increase his stock, if desiring to have the named sorts reproduced in their integrity; but seedlings are easily raised, and they are sure to produce fine flowers if the seeds are saved from the best named sorts, and amongst them we shall occasionally find novelties worthy to be named and added to the most select list. We will suppose, then, that you have a few of the best-named amaryllis in flower, and intend to propagate from them.

Light and air are essential to the thorough maturation of the seed; therefore, as the plants go out of flower, they should be placed in a light airy position in an intermediate house where a genial growing temperature is maintained, and where they can be screened from the direct rays of the sun. The seed should be sown immediately it is ripe in light, sandy soil, and well-drained pots or pans, which should be placed in a melon or cucumber frame. After the plants are nicely up, and have from three to four leaves each, prick them off at once into five-inch pots, putting about half a dozen bulbs in each. Keep them steadily growing through the winter in a temperature of about 60°, and give just sufficient water to keep the foliage fresh and green. It is not necessary or desirable to dry the bulbs off in the winter: but should any show a disposition to go to rest, by all means withhold water from them, and place the pots in the greenhouse.

In the spring they will require to be repotted. The soil should be good turfy loam full of fibre, mixed with a fifth part of thoroughly-decayed hotbed manure. The compost should be used moderately rough, excepting for the first potting, as the bulbs are then small, and will not readily root into rough stuff. When they are potted off singly into small pots, the soil should be chopped up rather fine, and of course a liberal quantity of silver sand added. For the first potting from the seed-bed use three-inch pots, and at the spring potting shift into either five- or six-inch pots, according to the strength of the individual bulbs.