File:Cassell's popular gardening (1884) (20514310156).jpg

Title: Cassell's popular gardening
Identifier: cassellspopularg00fish_2 (find matches)
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Fish, David Taylor, 1824-1901; Fish, D. T. (David Taylor), 1824-1901
Subjects: Gardening
Publisher: London ; New York : Cassell
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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72 CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. see somewliat small and ragged specimens at flower shows, they come as an unusual revelation of the cultivator's skill. Some of the plants are four and five years old, and some as many as eight or nine. One of the most successful of these West of Eng- land exhibitors has furnished us with an outline of his culture, as follows:—"I con- sider the end of March or the beginning of April the best time to propagate the Fuchsia. I select some of the most vigorous cuttings I can and place them singly in thumb-pots, putting them in a cucumber-frame, where there is a brisk bot- tom heat; when the roots reach the sides of the pots I re-pot, and continue to do so until the first or second week in July, pinch- ing out the leading and side shoots, in order to get the plants into the shape I want. Then I allow them to flower in the autumn. These plants I can exhibit the fol- lowing summer. I have shown specimens at eighteen months' of age that were four feet through and eight feet high, well grown and freely flowered. As a rule the plants I exhibit are from one and a half to five years old, accord- ing to the variety; after that age I throw them away and replace them by young plants. About the end of October, when the plants go out of flow-er, I prune them all back to two or three joints beyond where they were pruned
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the previous year. They are then placed in a house to winter and kept moderately dry. In January, or the first week in February, the plants are turned out of their pots, the soil shaken from their roots and re-potted — the young specimens into pots known as 'foui'- teens,' and the larger specimens into ' six- teens,' which are somewhat larger. The compost I use is made up of two parts good fibrous loam, and the third part composed of leaf-mould, a little peat, some rough silver sand, and a fair amount of well-decom- posed cow - manure. This is well mixed together before using, and when potted the plants are placed in a cold house, but from which frost is excluded, where they remain until the first week in June. Then they are placed out of doors on a surface of ashes, standing each pot on a piece of slate, and syringing the plants every day in hot weather to keep the foliage clean and fresh; and at this time I give the manm-e-water once a week. I make my manure-water by plac- ing fresh cow - dung or horse-droppings, or soot, in a tub of water, and allow it to stand ten days Fuchsia vexusta, I give the plants a thorough good soaking when it is applied. In tliis way I grow very fine plants for exhibition, which are the admiration of all who see them."

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