ACHIMENES IN BASKETS AND PANS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 9, 26 August 1908, Page 39

ACHIMENES IN BASKETS AND PANS.

Although Achinienes make delightful little pot plants, their fullest beauty is revealed when they are grown in baskets and suspended in the conservatory or greenhouse. In this form of culture there are no great difficulties to surmount, and a mass of bloom is the result. Achinienes have long, slender, catkinlike tubers or corms, by the division

of which they may be propagated, as well as by cuttings made of tops. They love heat, shade, and moisture during the growing season, but when the flowers begin to expand, if desirable, they may be gradually inured to withstand the temperature of a somewhat cool, but close greenhouse. The soil in which they thrive best is a mixture of peat, leaf-mould, well-decomposed manure, and sand in about equal parts, with the addition of a little loam. In order to maintain a succession of these beautiful flowers, a few of the scaly tubers should be planted monthly, from the be-

ginning of August until the end of October. When required for hanging baskets, several Varieties of different colours judiciously mixed in each basket produce the finest effect when in flower, but for pot culture the colours should be kept separate. Achinienes produce the best effect in suspended baskets, but. in order to get them to display their flowers to the greatest advantage the baskets, after being properly tilled and planted, should be placed bottom upwards; the plants will push through the soil and grow erect. As they advance in growth the strongest will be benefited by having their points pinched off, which tends to make the plants more massive through the produetion of laterals. Owing to the check thus received, the weaker-growing kinds are enabled to keep on a more equal footing with the more vigorous growers. When the plants show signs of flow ering, the baskets may be hung up in their proper places; their bottoms will be well furnished, anil the gentle curve upwards, which the shoots are sure to take serves to bring the bloom more plainly into view. When not treated as basket plants. Achinienes are usually grown in shallow

pans, by which means a greater display is obtained than in pots. Treated either as pot or pan plants, they should not. however, be placed in their flowering positions when first started into growth; on the contrary, when some 2 or 3 inches high, they should be transplanted, selecting for removal such as appear to be about equal in vigour; otherwise, if weak and strong plants are taken indis-

criminately. when they come into flower, they are apt to have a patched and ragged appearance. Achinienes being deciduous, will, soon after the flowers are over, cast their leaves, and their stems will decay. During this stage the supply of water must be gradually diminished until they are quite dormant; then the supply should entirely cease.

A— Pot with dormant Corms. B— Corm, flowering size. C— Corm, small size for growing on. D— Flowering Corms, planted in pan. E— Small Corms, planted in seed box. F— Plant ready for potting.