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The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 09

Note A — Amaryllis Sarniensis. Guernsey Amaryllis.

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"They love a light earth, made with dung and sand, and a little lime rubbish with it does very well, it keeps the roots sound; for if the earth be too stiff or wet, you may keep them for many years before they blow. If they are in pots, they should be put in the house in Winter, to keep them from the severe frosts, which are apt to rot the roots. The time of moving them is when they have no leaves on the root, that is from June to August: those that come with six leaves this year, seldom fail blowing the next year: they need not be put in fresh earth above once in two or three years: by this method of management I have had the same roots blow again in four years time. The many miscarriages that happen to the Guernsey Lily, are by letting the leaves be killed by the fierceness of the frost in Winter, or by cutting them off, as some people do, when they are green, which will so much weaken the plants, that they may keep them twenty years and not have them blow; by the above management, where there is a stock, there will be continually some blowing.

"Miller recommends for these roots the following compost: Take a third-part of fresh virgin earth from a pasture-ground which is light, then put near an equal part of sea-sand, to which you should add rotten dung and sifted lime rubbish, of each an equal quantity."

The great business in the culture of this flower, next to a proper soil and situation, seems to consist in giving the plant as much air as possible, and in preserving the foliage in the Winter from the injury of frost.

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