GENERAL TREATMENT OF PLANTS. 35 



GENERAL TREATMENT OF PLANTS. 



To give a concise direction for the management of all 

 plants in general cultivation would be extending this arti- 

 cle beyond proper limits, and be too prolix in the detail to 

 make it interesting. I shall therefore confine myself to but 

 few plants which will apply more or less to others. 



In the spring plants can never be placed out of doors 

 with safety before May ; even then we are sometimes visit- 

 ed by frost which may do incalculable injury ; it is better 

 to err on the safe side than lose valuable plants. If not 

 placed out of doors before that time, the plants should have 

 the benefit of fresh air on all favorable occasions. The 

 Rose is probably one of the most hardy pot plants in culti- 

 vation, will bear considerable frost, and may, to save trou- 

 ble, be planted in the open ground in March and sustain no 

 injury, and be potted off in October and brought into the 

 house. But that management never would suit the Gera- 

 nium, which should never be placed out before May. The 

 fine varieties are hybrids and very tender in their nature as 

 well as delicate, and will not bear the least frost. Those 

 that have duplicate plants would do as well to plant one in 

 the ground ; by that treatment they will frequently flower 

 again in the fall, and may then be cut down, potted, and 

 brought into the house about the fifteenth of September. 

 In placing this plant (Geranium) out of doors it will be ne- 

 cessary to water the ground at times with lime water, to 

 kill the worms, or they will find their way into the pots 

 and do considerable injury to the plants. The pit is not a 



