The end of this month should see all hardy bedders into their places. It is better for the plants to have them established early; and it is easier to manage than to leave all plants, irrespective of hardiness, to be put out with the tenderer flower. Just try putting out the quite hardy flowers now - Echeverias, East Lothian Stocks, and Calceolarias in April; Geraniums and other tender bedders early in June, and the very tenderest, as Coleus, a month later, - and you will find how it eases the crush at bedding-out time. Practically there is no "hurry-scurry " at all at any one time. Such a system of planting requires to be arranged beforehand; but a plan is necessary in any case to get the work done with certainty and speed, and should have been at least roughly prepared the previous autumn. Always remember in propagating tender bedders that it is better to leave them till the latest moment, than to strike them slowly and to have the young plants dwindling in hothouses. Leave as much of the striking of cuttings therefore till the end of the month and April. The great majority of our plants pass only thrice through the hand in spring : first, cutting of the slips, then inserting them in boxes where they are struck in a few days, then transplanting them into frames.

What a business it used to be when almost every plant, even to the Calceolarias, were potted singly ! What an amount of watering, and what shabby plants after all! That used to be heaping up work with a vengeance.

R. P. B.