THE SUMMER TREATMENT OF GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS. 



87 



stances afford a good many gardeners a very 

 self-satisfying apology for downright indo- 

 lence and neglect. 



My object in writing this paper, is to say 

 something on the summer culture of green- 

 house plants — an expression which has as 

 different meanings as a horse chestnut and a 

 chestnut horse. The majority of gardeners 

 explain it by turning all and every moveable 

 plant, (wholesale and retail,) out of the 

 green-house, and huddled together sans cer- 

 monie, under trees, hedges, back walls, and 

 out-of-the-way corners ; the affair is finished 

 by putting an embargo upon the green- 

 house door, the place is forthwith proscribed; 

 like a sleigh, it is laid away until winter, 

 when it is again stuffed full of its former oc- 

 cupants. Some people have associated 

 such a tropical idea with the sight of a 

 green-house, that they positively shrink 

 from entering it on a warm day ; and this 

 idea is fostered by the custom of turning 

 out every object that would induce them to 

 enter it, and all under the absurd notion 

 that nothing will thrive in it during the sum- 

 mer months. If gardeners would study for 

 a moment the effects of this method, they 

 would soon see the propriety of abandoning 

 it for a better. Nothing can be more in- 

 jurious to themselves or to their profession. 

 If we would create in the minds of our em- 

 ployers a lively interest for the subjects of 

 our labor, we ought to render those subjects 

 as interesting as possible. We must give 

 a visible polish to the productions of our art. 

 The flower garden may be parched with 

 drouth, but the green-house ought always 

 to be in a blaze of beauty. Show them, 

 that after all, it is really comfortable and 

 pleasant to walk into the green-house or 

 conservatory, and view the floral beauties of 

 different climes, and breathe at the same time 

 a cool and agreeable atmosphere. 



But can this be done ? Certainly. Noth- 



ing is more easy. To effect it successfully, 

 however, the gardener must not only have 

 a "weather eye," but also a philosophical 

 one, so as to discern the time, and the sea- 

 sons, the transitions of nature, the nature of 

 the plants, and the atmosphere we place 

 them in, as well as the quality of the soil and 

 of the water with which we supply them. In 

 short, we must do things in the proper man- 

 ner and at the proper time, in close imita- 

 tion of the teachings of nature. We ought 

 to have that confidence in our operations 

 which is learned only by close practice and 

 strict observation, and without which plant- 

 growing is both a profitless and a pleasure- 

 less business, unsatisfactory to our employ- 

 ers and discreditable to ourselves. 



I have lately visited a considerable num- 

 ber of places where gardeners are kept, and 

 almost without one single exception, their 

 green-houses were empty; perhaps a few old 

 and immoveable and unsightly subjects were 

 standing here and there, covered with dead 

 and dying foliage ; making the wretched 

 appearance of the house still more wretch- 

 ed, and its confusion worse confounded. 

 What would an English gentleman think of 

 the gardener who kept his plant structures 

 after such a fashion ? It would not be tol- 

 erated a single day. Nor is there any rea- 

 son why it should be tolerated here, while 

 plenty of good gardeners may be had by 

 sending for them. It is a well known fact, 

 that with some honorable exceptions, this 

 country is supplied with the scum and re- 

 fuse of foreign gardeners, the very sweep- 

 ings of the craft. Impositions and decep- 

 tions, quacks, pretenders and shams ; men 

 who hardly know a cabbage from a cucum- 

 ber, or a bean from a beech tree. Yet they 

 are employed as '-gardeners," and many of 

 them regarded as the standard of garden- 

 ing ability. 



It is impossible the time should be far 



