MANAGEMENT OF GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS AT THE SOUTH. 



managed green-house, all throughout this season. Next comes the summer division, the 

 season of extreme heat, with strange contrast in its efiects. The rich gum of j'our soft 

 wooded plants will, if plants are exposed as they would be in England, change into a 

 sickly yellow appearance, which will soon deprive them of nearly all their foliage, leaving 

 the whole in such a feeble condition as to be hard for them to exist. Then is the time the 

 gardener enters upon his difficulties. Then is the time that the unacclimated practitioner 

 and the unskilful amateur will be confounded. They naturally suppose that something 

 must be done to bring them back to their usual condition, and to stay them from getting 

 any worse; putting in fresh soil, and a little cutting to excite them into fresh growth, is 

 resorted to, but instead of getting better they get worse, and many of them die. Perhaps 

 soil and situation are supposed to have been unsuitable, and all is again changed, but they 

 will gradually drop oflf till probably all perish. Such is the result of applying common 

 practice to green-house plants in the south. Your hard-wooded plants, and all that are not 

 the growth of a few months, will not be effected so visibly, and you may venture to repot 

 such in the event of additional room being required. But it should be law among the 

 plant growers in the southern United States, not to destroy root or branch during this 

 season, for just as sure as they do so, certainly they will loose their plants. They may 

 look shriveled, yellow, or leafless, but be glad if you can save the wood, and to do this you 

 must be strictly careful that everything stand in the shade — a place in the shade of trees 

 but not under them will do very well — but the north side of a building is much better. 

 The most delicate ought to be protectible from the destructive rain-storms. The summer 

 site being chosen and the plants placed in it, they must be kept moist by watering them 

 twice a day — morning and evening. Do not become uneasy and think, because they are 

 looking tolerably well, that a repotting or some other process, would assist them. If you 

 do so, the chance is ten to one that you will make the worst of a good job. As the sea- 

 son grows cooler, they will show signs of commencing to grow, but even then do not be 

 in a hurry; let all dangers and hazards of the hot season be over, before you prepare for 

 winter and its entirely altered condition. 



As to the various plants that are sown throughout summer for winter bloom, such as 

 the Chinese Primrose, Mignonette, and other annuals, in four seasons out of five, you fail 

 to bloom them here before February, because you cannot get a sowing to stand before late in 

 September or October, but to overcome the difficulty, I sow as late in spring as possible, 

 and let them remain in the seed pot, in the shade, with all the rest, till the growing season 

 commences at the south, and the gardener must be wide awake to get his plants ready for 

 it. There is something to do and to be done, as well after the heat of the season has so 

 far declined as to allow the plants, which are still in their shaded situation, to commence 

 their growth; let them be fairly started to prove that the season of rest is complete and 

 the season of growth has begun. Then is the proper time to commence potting. A great 

 part of the collection will want their balls examined and divested of nearly all the soil 

 in which they grew last year; others must be reduced to suit the condition of their roots. 



I wish here to make a few remarks on soil, drainage, and watering, as they form part of 

 the general system of culture. Compost, according to nearly all writings and practition- 

 ers, must be of as many kinds and natures as you have genera in your collection, and 

 many pages, and much time, are spent in collecting and mixing them. In all this rou- 

 tine I was educated; I have, perhaps, seen as systematic a practice as any body, but expe- 

 rience has taught me that all such detail respecting compost, is unnecessary. A theorist 

 may suppose, and may state, that each variety of plant must have a different soil, or mix- 

 ture of soils, and quite natural it may appear to be; but I have satisfied myself it is but 



No. V. 



