290 Remarks on the Cultivation 



Art. II. Remarks on the Cultivation of Ericas or Heaths, 

 their propagation and general management. By J. W. Rus- 

 sell. 



[Continued from p. 166.] 



Treatment of the plants through the summer months, in the 

 open air. — If I mistake not, the practice of taking the plants 

 from the green-house to the open air, in the summer months, is 

 allowed by all practical men to' be highly conducive to their 

 health and strength. The locality selected for them, and the 

 mode of preparing the ground on which they are to be placed, 

 is, or ought to be, the first consideration. Therefore it may not 

 be out of place to state the aspect to which I should give the 

 preference; a North-west aspect I should choose in this climate 

 before any other; but if this was not easily to be obtained, one 

 as near JYorth as possible would be the next taken for this pur- 

 pose. 



After deciding upon the ground, the first necessary process is 

 to cover the surface with coal ashes to the depth of four or six 

 inches; then level the whole, and rake it over perfectly smooth, 

 for the pots to stand on; this done, a quantity of pit or fresh 

 water sand should be procured, to plunge the pots in. This may 

 appear, to those persons who are not well acquainted with this 

 family of plants, to be altogether superfluous, and of no kind of 

 use whatsoever, to go to the trouble and expense of making such 

 a preparation, when the plants can only remain there three or 

 four months; nevertheless, it is my humble opinion, that what- 

 ever is worth doing at all, is worth well doing. The ashes will 

 be the means of keeping the worms from the pots, and by plung- 

 ing them in sand down to the rims, it will be a great saving of 

 time that would necessarily have to be spent in watering. It 

 would also undoubtedly save the lives of some of the most valu- 

 able kinds which are of a weak and slender habit, and, conse- 

 quently, confined in small pots.* 



If the pots are exposed in hot dry weather, they dry up very 

 quick, but more particularly the small ones; and if even the 

 small pots were regularly watered morning and evening, it would 

 not be sufficient. The finely netted roots that are closely woven 

 round the sides of the pots, soon perish if the earth is not kept 

 regularly moist; in fact, moisture, (as well as drought,) has the 



* These directions should be carefully attended to. Mr. Russell, in 

 his practice, adopts nearly the same method as tliat so lonir and suc- 

 cessfully tried by that experienced cultivator of heaths, Mr. McNab of 

 Edini)urijh, who published a treatise upon the manajj^ement of heaths a 

 few years since. More plants are lost by bad treatment in the summer 

 than at all other times. — Ed. 



