WINTERING PLANTS 



very time when it ought to be ready for strong, 

 vigorous development. The space such a 

 plant would occupy in the window might 

 much better be given up to plants from which 

 bloom can reasonably be expected. 



These plants ought to go into cold storage 

 by the first of November. It is well to keep 

 them in cool rooms until about that date, in 

 order to give them ample time to ripen off 

 their annual growth. While in cold storage 

 they should be given very little water, as 

 advised in the chapter on The Rest of Plants. 



They should be stored in a place that is 

 cool — one in which the temperature ranges 

 but a few degrees above the freezing-point 

 will be much better for them than a warmer 

 one. Light should be excluded so far as pos- 

 sible. A cellar that is quite warm, and to 

 which light is admitted freely, is a poor place 

 to store plants, as it constantly encourages 

 them to make attempts at growth, and these 

 attempts are not only failures in themselves, 

 but very weakening in their effect vipon the 

 plants. If water were to be applied liberally, 

 the disturbance would be still greater, as it 

 does much to increase the excitement result- 

 ing from light and heat. Therefore be 



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