THE MIGNONETTE TREE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1417, 18 January 1879, Page 5

THE MIGNONETTE TREE.

Take a pot of ordinary mignonette. Pull up all the plants but one ; and, as mignonette may be treated without any delicacy, this single plant may be rigorously trimmed, leaving only one shoot. This Bhoot you must attach to a slender stick of white osier. The extremity of this e>hoofc will put forth a bunch of flower-buds that must be cut off entirely, leaviog not a single bud. The stalk, in consequence of this treatment, will put out a multitude of young sh.oot3, which must be allowed to develop fieely until they are about three and a half inches lone;. Then select out of these four, s'x, or eight, according to the strength of the plant, with equal space between them. Now, with a slender rod of white osier, or, better, a piece of wha'ebone, make a hoop, and attach your shoots to it, supported at the proper height. When they have grown two or three inches longer, and are going to bloom, support them by a hoop like the first. Let them bloom, but take off the seed pod« befor«Jthey have time to i> rm, or the plant may perish It will not be long before new shoots will appear, just bolow the piacea where the flowers were From amontj these new shoot* choose the one on each branch which is in the best situation to replace what you have nipped off. Little by little the principal stalk, and also the branches, will become woody, and your mignonette will no longer be an herbaceous plant except at its upper extremities, which will bloom all the year without interruption. It will be truly a tree mignonette, living for an indefinite period, for with propi r treatment a tree mignonette will live from twelve to fifteen years.