174 THE amateue's greenhouse 



leaves flag, it is thought that no injury is done ; vain delusion 

 for in a month or two, the buds fail ofl" wholesale, and no end 

 of wonder is excited as to the cause, for the plants may then 

 be in the most favorable condition with respect to moisture 

 at the roots. 



Before they are put out of doors they should be freely ex- 

 posed to the air. A shady position, away from the drip of 

 trees, should be selected for their quarters, and each pot 

 stood upon a couple of bricks, to prevent worms getting in 

 through the bottom. The plants should be regularly looked 

 over and watered when required, but without over-doing it, 

 for it is quite as easy to ruin their health with too much water 

 as it is by drying them up. 



The principal points in camellia growing are to pot them in 

 sound fibry soil, to have the drainage perfect, to afford suffi- 

 cient moisture at the roots without any excess, and to avoid 

 all sudden changes and checks. When the pots are full of 

 roots, and it is not considered desirable to repot the plants, a 

 watering with weak manure water will be of immense assist- 

 ance to them. 



We have said nothing thus far, as to the desirability of 

 planting camellias in open borders, but that is the right way to 

 furnish a camellia house. Prepare well-drained borders or 

 stations with a foot depth of rough material, such as broken 

 bricks or tiles and two feet depth of good hazel loam full of 

 fibre chopped up to the size of a man's fist and mixed with 

 a sixth part of old bricks broken to the same size. In such 

 a border camellias will grow grandly if the atmospheric condi- 

 tions are right. The subjoined rough sketch shows how 

 camellias are planted in the house of a cultivator who supplies 

 Covent Garden Market with the double white camellias from 

 October to February. The border is prepared as above de- 

 scribed, but in making it a number of two inch drain-pipes 

 are inserted round the station for every tree. The result is 

 that air is admitted to the rubble and finds its way to the 

 roots, and while the plants benefit by the access of this neces- 

 sity of life, the soil is kept sweet and may be flooded with 

 water occasionally without any fear of undesirable results. 



To propagate camellias is strictly a nursery business, and 

 our advice to the amateur is not to think about it. But a few 

 words on the subject will be consistent with the purposes of 

 this work. Camellias are multiplied by seeds, cuttings, and 



