52 ON THK CULTl'RE OF THE CAMELLIA. 



syringe all the plants in it with wann water ; this I find benefits 

 the Camellias very "much. When the flower buds are about the 

 size of a large maiTOw pea, I take the plants into a greenhouse. 

 If it be the summer season, I keep them there for two weeks, and 

 then place them in a shaded warm situation in the open air. Any 

 other period of the year I keep them in the gi-eenhouse till the 

 usual period of remo\dng gTeenhouse plants to the open air, or for 

 forcing if required. 



After the flower buds are fonned, great care is always taken 

 that the plants do not want water, for if droughted but an hour, 

 the buds are certain to drop. On the other hand, if the soil 

 becomes soddened by too free an application of water, the same 

 misfortune will be the result. I occasionally apply manure water, 

 which I find invigorates the plants very much. 



Two years since, I planted out in the open air, two strong 

 plants of Camellia, which flourish so far, and bloom profusely 

 during ]Mav and June. Althousrh the two last winters have been 

 unusually mild, yet I am persuaded that in severer winters, with 

 slight protection, this beautiful genus of plants would be found to 

 succeed equal to many of our out-door 2}lants. 



For your next number I purjiose sending you a list and 

 description of those sorts of Camellias I grow, and which are the 

 handsomest of the varieties I can meet with in the neighbourhood 

 of London. 



An Essex Practical Gardener. 



Feb. 20th, ,lbS3. 



Note. — Thu probability of Caiiielliiis succecdiug in the open air, as stated 

 by our Correspondent, we can confirm by our own experience. 



In the year 1819, three plants of Double Camellias were turned out in the 

 open border in the .c;rounds at Wortley Hall ; the sorts were Double Red, 

 Double White, and Double Striped. At the tinre of turning out, the plants 

 were bushy, and about two feet high. Two of the plants are now from four 

 to five feet high, and one of them spreads about ten feet across. The striped 

 plant produced last spring upwards of one thousand flowers. For the first 

 four years after turning out, each winter the plants had wooden cases, three 

 feet high, placed round them ; upon the top of each case a hand glass was 

 fixed, which was removed at pleasure for air or protection. At the bottom 

 of the case inside, six inches deep of rotten leaf mould, or tanners' bark, 

 was laid over the roots. From the fifth to the eighth year, uo wooden case 

 was used, but iu the severest weather a mat was loosely thrown over each 

 plant. Since that time uo protection whatever has been applied, excepting 

 laying two or three inches of bark or leaf soil over the roots. 



In the same situation where the Camellias are, large Portugal and common 

 Laurels were planted at the same simr ; they have grown well each year, till 

 the severe winters of 1K'2!> and 1830; such being the exposed cold situation 

 in which the Camellias and Laurels arc planted, that the latter were nearly 



