HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 37 



HEATH CULTURE. 



I am glad to see the attention of your correspondents directed to 

 the culture of this beautiful exotic. Of a certainty there is no class 

 of flowering plants more worthy of cultivation, combining, as they 

 do, flowers of dazzling brilliancy and unsurpassed diversity of foli- 

 age to a degree unknown in any other tribe of plants. It is there- 

 fore a matter of astonishment that they are not the most prominent 

 feature in all greenhouses. To say that they cannot be grown here 

 is an apology which, I am certain, experience will prove untenable. 

 The true reason undoubtedly is, that they have never been fairly 

 tried, We are too much inclined to run into extremes. The Ca- 

 mellia is a good illustration of this fact. Truly it is a noble plant, 

 either with or without flowers ; still I think it is often cultivated to 

 the exclusion of other plants equally beautiful and decidedly more 

 interesting. It is a valuable winter flower, but in a collection of 

 heaths we have flowers every month in the year. In a nosegay or 

 small bouquet, a few sprigs of heather, (there is a volume of pasto- 

 ral poetry in the name,) imparts a charm to which the Camellia can 

 lay no claim. And I have observed that when procurable they are 

 preferred for this purpose before any other flower. 



We are told that the difficulty lies in unsuitable climate and want 

 of proper soil ; or ft t her, there are a series of undefinable obstacles 

 in the way, summed up in the sentence, " They can't be grown 

 here." I have no doubt that when the Peach was first introduced, 

 some one, " more learned than the rest," predicted its failure ; but 

 peaches are plentiful and so will heaths be. " But we have no good 

 peat to grow them in." True. Nevertheless, there is plenty of 

 soil in America in which the heath will luxuriate better than it ever 

 will do in peat. It is part of the Horticultural faith in England that 

 Azaleas, Kalmias, Rhododendrons, Heaths, &c, require a peaty soil. 

 Indeed it is heresy to say otherwise. I wish some of these t( Ame- 

 rican Nurserymen" you alluded too in a late number, could accom- 

 pany us into the woods and see the Kalmias growing on strong clay. 

 The fact is, none of these plants incline to root deep. Their small 

 fibrous roots ramify on the surface in the debris of decayed leaves 

 and vegetable matter, and before we commence the extended culti- 



