1879.] DECORATIVE GREENHOUSE-PLANTS. 69 



NOTES ON DECORATIVE GREENHOUSE-PLANTS. 



THE CAPE HEATH. 



Equal in importance to the Azalea, as a decorative plant, we must 

 reckon the Cape Heath ; and perhaps first in importance as regards 

 details of culture. Indeed, to produce a healthy well-flowered speci- 

 men Heath, especially one of the hard-wooded varieties, may be 

 almost considered a test-point in plant culture. And very few culti- 

 vators indeed can produce good specimens of any considerable size, 

 and keep them in health for a number of years. In order to succeed 

 in the cultivation of Heaths, a man's care and watchfulness must be 

 continuous, and not spasmodic, as no plant will sooner testify to 

 neglect or carelessness in watering or other details of management ; 

 and when once the damage is done, no after-treatment can rectify it. 

 If possible, this genus of plants should be under the care of one 

 man about a place ; and in whatever house the plants may be placed, 

 he should still have the care of them, and no one else be allowed to 

 touch them. He will thus get to know the wants of each plant, and 

 can administer to them as required. Great damage is frequently 

 done to plants through being handed from one man's charge into that 

 of another, as they may be* changed from house to house. A man 

 thus loses interest in the plants ; and they are very likely to suffer 

 from being either over-watered or under-watered, unless the man 

 should be extra careful, which, we are sorry to add, is frequently not 

 the case. Of course, to small or moderate-sized places these remarks 

 do not apply, as in such places the whole of the glass will probably 

 be under the master's care, or under the charge of one man ; and it is 

 oftenest from such places that we see really good plants of all kinds 

 turned out — not to speak of other branches of gardening, which goes 

 to prove the correctness of our remarks. We are of opinion that in 

 large places especially, instead of having a man to take charge of a 

 certain number of houses, whatever may be their contents, or how- 

 ever often changed, it would be a far better plan to let the man 

 have the charge of certain kinds of plants wherever they may be 

 placed, either temporarily or otherwise. If that were the case, we 

 do not think so many dead-alive-looking plants would be seen as one 

 does find in going through many places. A man would come to take 

 a pride in seeing the things under his care doing well, knowing that 

 if anything went wrong with them it would be known where the 

 blame lay. 



Unless in the raising of new varieties from seed, Heaths are propa- 

 gated from cuttings. The young growths, after they have got a little 

 firmness in them, should be slipped off with a heel, trimmed with a 



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