268 GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 



insignis, and Sequca sempervirens, that were in many situations half-killed 

 with the extraordinary severity of last winter, may require slight protection 

 with mats and boughs this spring. Sickly hollies, succulent growths of sweet 

 bay, and Laui-ustinus, might be saved by similar treatment. 



723. Magnolias, delicate roses, and other scarcely hardy plants on walls, should 

 receive some shelter from the stern bite of March frosts and winds. Care 

 must be exercised not to keep them too close and warm, or the remedy will 

 prove more disastrous than the evil. For walls, nothing answers better than 

 a thin layer of straw, covered over with a mat, and kept dry, if possible. This 

 not only keeps out the cold, but keeps out the heat. Protection against the 

 exciting energy of the sun's rays during this month is almost of equal import- 

 ance to warding off the effects of extreme cold. The later in the season tender 

 plants can be kept in a dormant state, the better, and nothing secures this 

 object more effectually than a thin covering of dry nonconducting material, 

 such as straw. The utmost caution must be exercised in removing protection 

 from plants. Uncover them a shred at a time. Nothing affects them more 

 injuriously than sudden transition from semi-darkness to perfect light, or from 

 kindly shelter to full exposure. Often such a shock to the vital energies in- 

 duces either death or constitutional debility, puny growth, and lingering 

 disease. The safe practice is a straw at a time : ours need not be so tedious ; 

 but it must be in harmony with this principle. 



724. Rose-Garden. — Finish planting all hardy roses at once, if bloom is ex- 

 pected this season. The excited state of the shoots from this mild winter 

 must not make you impatient to finish pruning. The more excited they are, 

 there is the greater necessity for delay, as the expenditure of the sap in the 

 terminal buds will preserve the buds near the base of the shoots the longer in 

 a dormant state ; and it is upon these buds we are dependent for next year's 

 blossom. In pruning roses, every bit of old wood, loose bark, &c., should be 

 carefully removed, as it is exactly amid such debris that the larvae of cater- 

 pillars, aphides, &c., are deposited. Whenever trees have been much affected 

 with these pests, they might be coated over with a similar mixture to that 

 recommended for vines, at page 232, This would remove all moss, &c. from 

 the stems and branches, and prove an effectual preventive and eradicative 

 measure : it is less troublesome and unpleasant than hunting all the summer 

 for fat green caterpillars, buried deep in fine rosebuds, or wrapped up in glossy 

 leaves, and driving away the delicious perfume of the roses with the noxious 

 fumes of tobacco- water, or other horrid-smelling compounds. When the green 

 fly does make its appearance, a strong infusion of carbonate of ammonia 

 (smelling-salts) is the only remedy that ought to be admitted among choice 

 roses in bloom. This will not only destroy the aj^his, but supply the plants 

 with useful food, and heighten, by its volatile aroma, if that were possible, the 

 perfume of the rose. In small gardens, a number of trees might quickly h& 

 cleaned with the aphis-brush. This implement is made in the shape of a pair 

 of large sugar-tongs, only at the end for taking hold of the sugar a pair of soft 

 bi-ushes are introduced. The shoot, with its living freight, is firmly grasped 



