28 THE FLORIST. 



GENERAL REMARKS FOR THE SEASON. 



At the time I am writing, January 15th, a long continuance of dry- 

 weather has been succeeded by a great fall of rain with mild southerly 

 winds ; the effect of w^hich is the presence of a great amount of 

 moisture in our plant-houses, to counteract which, it is well to have 

 the fires lit, whilst air is most freely admitted from those parts where 

 the rain will not drive in, or, as the seamen say, "from the lee-side." 

 By this means, tender and succulent plants, like seedlings, will be 

 preserved from shanking, or their leaves from fogging off. It is in 

 such weather as this, when continued rain stops out-door operations, 

 that glass so far elevated from the ground as to admit the gardener 

 to enter and work, shews its superiority over the common low frames, 

 which have always appeared to me, when every thing is taken into 

 consideration, as the dearest of all protecting contrivances. Our 

 bedding-out plants, housed this year in a cheap lean-to erection, 

 instead of in frames as before, are in superior condition, and have 

 lost scarcely any of their number ; and this condition will enable us 

 to provide for them out of doors much earlier than usual, previous 

 to planting them out. We owe this to the free admission of air, 

 and that better attention M'hich can be given to plants so placed as 

 to enable the gardener to see the neck of the plant as well as the 

 foliage, a most important point in cultivation. No sooner are they 

 removed to a part of the garden, where a mat thrown over them will 

 be a sufficient ju'otection, than their place will be supplied with 

 seedling Pelargoniums, which will thus have the necessary room 

 given them. These in their turn disposed of, the tank, which serves 

 to exclude the frost, will become a propagating bed until a sufficient 

 quantity of plants are struck and potted off; when the open racks, 

 replaced upon the tank, will receive them for the winter months ; and 

 thus the circle of usefulness of this elevated frame, if I may call it 

 such, wall be completed. 



And now for February. How have the dark days been employed 

 by plant-growers f Are we all well provided wdtli labels, sticks, and 

 other materials ? Or have we neglected these essential matters, and 

 have to provide them just as they are wanted } There must now be 

 no delay. Pelargoniums, whether for exhibition or the home stage, 

 should be well opened out for the admission of light and air; the top- 

 soil should be removed, and a fresh dressing given them, leaving 

 more space for water than when they were first shifted. All seed- 

 lings should now be placed in the situations they will bloom in with- 

 out crowding. Break up unsparingly all that throw blind shoots, or 

 which have cankered stems or leaf-stalks. On no account let your 

 plants be overcrowded; remember, if you get them drawn at the 

 early part of the year, you commit an irreparable error. 



Worton Cottage, Isleworth. Edward Beck. 



