256 



CULTIVATION OF GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS. 



To receive a satisfactory answer to these 

 questions, it is not absolutely necessary for 

 us to ransack the foundations of every im- 

 practicable whimsicality and physiological 

 theory that we may hear of. Acute obser- 

 vation will quickly develop principles that 

 will form the groundwork of true and prac- 

 ticable theories. An experienced gardener, 

 or any person acquainted with plants, is 

 seldom at a loss to account for any particular 

 effects upon his plants after he has carefully 

 examined them ; and he can form a pretty 

 correct idea what they have been subjected 

 to. I do not mean to raise the question, — 

 although it might be interesting enough in 

 a country of so varied climates as this, — 

 how long, under ordinary circumstances, 

 would a gardener require to make himself 

 master of all the peculiarities of locality 

 and climate, in any given situation where 

 he may be called on to exercise his practical 

 skill ? Certain it is, that these peculiarities 

 must be learned ; for we are all aware that 

 locality and climate act upon plants in a 

 very striking and remarkable manner. It 

 is no less certain, however, that plants are 

 changed in an equal, if not greater, degree 

 by good management. Indeed, it may be 

 said that the science of gardening, if car- 

 ried out to its legitimate end, either does, 

 or ought, in the hand of experienced gar- 

 deners, to set aside in a great degree such 

 local causes and their effects. No one that 

 has witnessed the splendid specimens of 

 flowering plants, brought forward at the 

 London exhibitions, and compared them 

 with the wretched looking objects of the 

 same sorts to be seen in many private col- 

 lections, will fail to assent to the justice 

 and truth of the above assertion. In this 

 particular, the best exhibitions I have yet 

 seen in this country are immeasureably be- 

 hind, — not in quantity, indeed, for their 

 number in some collections is legion, — but 



in quality. Like causes, however, produce 

 like effects. The management of green- 

 house plants is no mystery, although many 

 are too apt to look upon green-house plants as 

 having something mysterious about them. 



In the culture of plants, as in every other 

 department of gardening, it is necessary 

 that there should be line upon line, and 

 precept upon precept, to keep us in con- 

 stant remembrance of the important fact,, 

 that nearly all the plants, from the tempe- 

 rate regions of the globe, make and mature 

 their growths at different periods and under 

 different circumstances from those which 

 popular belief generally receives. We are 

 too apt to treat plants as if they just com- 

 menced with the periodical return of spring, 

 and continued to grow and shoot until they 

 were checked with the colds of autumn. 

 Different kinds of plants grow and ripen their 

 shoots at different periods of the year ; some in 

 early spring, some at mid- summer, and others 

 in autumn. This fact alone will show the vast 

 importance of bestowing all possible care 

 upon plants in pots during the short period of 

 their growth ; for it will generally be found 

 that the bloom of the future year will de- 

 pend chiefly upon the manner in which the 

 growths of the preceding year have been 

 treated. There may be solitary exceptions 

 to this rule in neglected plants blooming 

 abundantly; but these exceptions only prove 

 its truth. 



When plants have been turned out into 

 their summer situation, they in many cases 

 receive little more attention (except water- 

 ing,) till the approach of frost renders it 

 necessary to return them again to the green- 

 house, by which time they have not unfre- 

 quently become soured, and saturated with 

 the autumn rains. The soil in the pots 

 will be charged with stagnant moisture — 

 the particles disintegrated, and reduced to 

 a soft, pulpy mass. The moisture having 



