To the Editor of the Florist, Sir: As you invite communications from
practical gardeners, I offer a few remarks on the above; as I think it
a much rarer plant than it ought to be—few plants excel it in simple
beauty, and by proper management it may be had in bloom every month in
the year. Being double, it can only be propagated by cuttings, which may
be taken off at any time, and readily struck in sand under a bell glass.
In about three weeks they are sufficiently rooted to pot into single
pots. I find them to thrive best in a compost of rough leaf mould and
sandy loam, in well drained pots. I repot them as often as they become
well rooted; and pinch off every flower stalk that appears till the
plant is six months old at least. I then let it flower on, and as each
flower truss shows symptoms of withering, pluck it out. By this course
it will continue to flower a whole year. They frequently die out from
exhaustion at this time, and the only way I find to prevent this, is
to divide the plant into off-sets, and so start with them as with new
plants. They always do well with me by this treatment. The double white
is the commonest and most easy to be procured; but I have observed in a
report of the Pennsylvania Society, that the purple exists also in your
neighborhood.
If you think the above worthy of insertion in the Florist, I should be
happy to send you some others when I have leisure.
Yours, &c., HORTUS.