192 GREEN-HOUSE — OF SHIFTING, ETC. [^February. 



OF SHIFTING, &c. 



The best time to repot Camellias is in September or 

 October. The most general time in shifting Camellias is in 

 August, indiscriminately with other plants ; and, if then 

 not very gently handled, bad roots eventually are produced. 

 Frequently very fine plants have been killed by probing, 

 and breaking the young fibrous roots, thus causing mor- 

 tification. 



In the process do not, by any means, break or bruise any 

 of the roots; and do not give large pots, with the idea of 

 making them grow fast ; it acts on most plants diametrically 

 opposite to what is intended. A pot one or two inches 

 wider and deeper than the one they have been in previously, 

 is sufficient. Healthy plants, under five feet, will not re- 

 quire shifting oftener than once in two years ; from five feet 

 upward, in three or four years, according to the health of 

 the plants. This treatment, in the opinion of some, will 

 appear insufficient for their support : it will be found enough 

 with a top-dressing every year to keep them in a healthy 

 flowering condition, the soil being according to our de- 

 scription. 



On turning the plant out of the pot, it may easily be ob- 

 served if the soil has, in any degree, been congenial to it ; 

 for, if so, the roots will T)e growing all round the ball ; if 

 otherwise, no roots will appear. 



Therefore, with a blunt-pointed stick, probe away all the 

 bad earth, until you come to the roots ; then put the plant 

 in a pot about one inch in diameter larger than the com- 

 bined roots, previously putting a few small pieces of broken 

 pots, or clean gravel, to drain off the superabundant moist- 

 ure, and give light waterings, as the roots in this case will 

 grow but slowly. 



Top-dress all that do not require shifting, probe out the 

 soil down to the roots, and by the side of the pot, taking 

 care not to break the fibres; then fill up with fresh earth, 

 watering gently with a rose on the watering-pot to settle it. 



