The culture of the Verbena is not nearly as well understood by the average gardener or florist as it should be, and I believe that most of the more successful cultivators have yet much to learn. It is therefore with the hope that I may be able to throw a little light on an important topic which may be of benefit to some that I am about to attempt to give my ideas on the subject. I am often somewhat surprised to find that otherwise successful florists do not even attempt to grow their own Verbena stock plants. And just here let me say, that though this might not aid any practical florists, it will probably be read by some amateurs who will be benefited thereby. There is too much reluctance displayed by some practical men in disseminating horticultural knowledge. I hold that success in culture by the consumer of plants makes increased demand for our products. We therefore do ourselves an absolute injury when we pass an opportunity by to disseminate knowledge, without availing ourselves of it.

To begin with, I wish to find fault with a statement made by Mr. Henderson in his " Practical Floriculture." He says, "Verbenas, whether grown for sale or for private use, if we would have plants in fine health and vigor in May, should not be propagated sooner than January. The stock plants propagated in October or November become exhausted by spring and are inferior to later propagations." The above is all very true if you propose to keep the older plants in small pots until May. The Verbena delights in cool weather, and if planted out early will do far better through the summer. It is my practice to select nice bushy plants free from rust and green fly (but there is no excuse for green fly to make its appearance among plants in the houses), and plant them out as early as the first week in April if the ground can be worked to advantage; planted thus early they will become well and deeply rooted before the hot, dry weather sets in.

I have often heard the opinion expressed that seedling Verbenas do better than greenhouse plants. So they do if sown early and the usual long starved plants are put out late in May. It is very natural that they should, being full of vigor and life, while it takes the sick pot plants a month to get ready to begin to grow. Not so with a nice thrifty pot plant; it has the advantage over the seedling that it can be planted when the seed is sown and thus it has at least three weeks the start of it.

My plants at this date (June 25th) which were planted out early in April have an average of fifteen fine large blooms to each and are in all the full vigor of growth as usually seen in August. Last year the stock plants were covered with three inches of snow after they were set out, and I never saw better ones in May, although the outer edges of the leaves were nipped a little. The rapidity of their growth was remarkable after they took a start.

Verbenas require an abundance of nourishment, and I find the use of liquid manure applied to plants in pots a decided benefit to them. As to the stock plants which I do not require for planting out, they are shifted into 3-inch pots and plunged into a hotbed where they make fine large plants that will bring double the price of ordinary 2-inch pot plant Verbenas. We thus provide something nice for our best customers who have failed to set out early. Plants thus grown will be provided with from five to eight branches and look far from being weakened.

Zanesville, Ohio.

[This is a very timely communication. In this part of the world the Verbena has almost disappeared from cultivation, growers protesting that they soon become diseased and worthless. And it has become a sort of by-word that only those buy them that know no better. There is no gainsaying that they are far more liable to disease than they once were, and it is worth inquiry how far the methods of propagation may have had an influence in giving us a stock with a weakened power to resist disease. The Verbena is too beautiful and too useful a plant to be permitted to sink to oblivion without an effort to save it. - Ed.G.M].