910 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



tliem to the brim in a hot-bed where there is a little bottom heat. A speedy mode of obtaining stocks is 

 by planting stools in a pit devoted to that purpose, and laying these in autumn ; the following autumn 

 most of the layers will have produced roots, when they may be taken ofFand potted, and used as stocks in 

 the succeeding spring. Inarching or grafting is performed early in spring, when the plants begin to grow ; 

 the chief care requisite is so to place and fix the pot containing the stock, as that it may not be disturbed 

 during the connection of the scion with the parent plant. The graft being clayed over, is then covered with 

 moss, to prevent its cracking. "When independent grafting is resorted to, the mode called side grafting 

 (2031.) is generally used, as in the case of orange-trees (5910.) ; but the operation of tongueing is generally 

 omitted, as weakening the stock, and unnecessan,-, with a view to prevent the scion from being blown oft" 

 by winds. A few seeds are sometimes obtained from the single red and semi-double camellias, and from 

 the single waratah ; these require two years to come up, but make the best stocks of any. The tea-camel- 

 lias are generally propagated by layers, but will also succeed by cuttings. 



6615. Soil. Some cultivators grow the camellias chiefly in 'peat ; but Messrs. Loddiges, who hare the 

 most numerous collection of this genus, formerly used loam, with a little sand and peat for most of the 

 sorts ; and they are grown in a similar soil in the" Hammersmith nurser_v. Of late, Messrs. Loddiges find 

 light loam alone to answer as well or better. In the Count de Vande's garden, at Bayswater, rotten dung 

 is mixed with loam and peat, and the surface of the pots are top-dressed with fresh cow-dung, free from 

 litter. The plants appear to us to grow most luxuriantly in a strong rich loam ; but to be most prolific in 

 flower-buds in loam and peat. Henderson, of Woodhall, is one of the most successful growers of the camel- 

 lia in Scotland ; his compost is as follows : Take one part of light-brown mould, one part of river-sand, one 

 part of peat-earth, one half part rotted leaves. Mix them all weU together, and when the camellias re- 

 quire shifting, put some broken coal-char in the bottom of the pots, and some dry moss or hA-pmun over it. 

 (Caled. Me?n. iii. 316.) 



6616. Camellia-house. Camellias have the best efFect, and are grown to most advantage in a house en- 

 tirely devoted to them. Such a house should be rather lofty, as the plants never look so well as when six 

 or eight feet high, trained in a conic form, and clothed with branches from the root upwards. The 

 plants should be raised near to the glass by means of a stage, which should be so contrived that as they ad- 

 vance in height, it may be lowered in proportion. Only the very best crown or patent glass should be used ; 

 because it is found, from experience, that the least inequality of surface, or thickness of material so oper- 

 ates on the sun's rays, as to concentrate them, and burn or produce blotches on the leaves of the plants. 

 Every cultivator must have obsers'ed that leathery shining leaves, like those of the orange, myrtle, &c., are 

 more or less obnoxious to this solar injury ; but the leaves of the camellia are particularly so'. Some nur- 

 serjTnen recommend a roof which will not admit much light ; others, the use of green glass ; of an oj^que 

 roo'f, with glass in front only ; or, of a house facing the north. Our opinion is, that a light house facing 

 the south, or, better stLU, glass on all sides, is essential to the perfect growth of the plants j and that all 

 solar accidents may be avoided, or at least rendered of no consequence, by using the best glass, and placing 

 the plants as near it as possible. 



6617. To grow the camellia to a high degree of perfection, considerable care is requisite. The roots are 

 very apt to get matted in the pot, and by the space they occupy, so to compress the ball of mould as after a 

 time to render it impervious to water. Hence frequent attention should be had, to see that the water 

 poured on the pots, moistens all the earth, and does not escape by the sides of the pot, moistening only the 

 web of fibres. The same cause renders examining the roots, and' shifting or reducing and replanting them, 

 a necessary measure, at least once a-year. When the plants are in flower, and in a growing state, they re- 

 quire to be liberally watered, and also a degree of heat somewhat more than is usually given to green-house 

 plants. If this heat is not given in November and December, the plants will not 'expand their blossoms 

 freely; and if both water and heat are not regularly applied after the blossoming season, vigorous shoots 

 will not be produced. To form handsome plants, they should be trained with single stems to rods, and 

 pruned so as to make them throw out side branches from everj' part of the stem : to encourage these, the 

 plants should not be set close together on the stage. In summer they may either be set out of doors on a 

 stratum of scorite, or on a pavement, in a sheltered but open situation ; or the glass roof may be taken ofiF! 

 The hardier sorts, as the double reds, blush paony, flowered, &-c., answer very well when planted in the 

 bed or border of a conservatory, provided the roof or entire superstructure can be removed in summer to 

 admit the full influence of the weather. Where this cannot be done, the camellia and most other plants 

 are better in portable utensils, which admit both of examining their roots, and placing them in the open 

 air, or in a greater degree of heat at pleasure. The single and double red camehia will endure the open 

 air, when trained against a south wall, and protected by mats in winter ; and there can be no doubt that in 

 time these and other species will be more perfectly inured to our climate. 



6618. Henderson, of IVoodhall, gives the following account of his mode of treating the camellia. " The 

 best time for a regular shifting of the camellias is the month of February or beginning of March. After 

 shifting all those that require it, put them into the peach -house or vinen,-, where there is a little heat ; 

 if there be no peach-house, vinerj-, nor pinen-, set them in the warmest part of the green-house. They 

 will soon begin to make young wood. From the time they begin to make their young shoots, till they 

 have finished their growth, give them plenty of water. They may be kept in the vinery or peach- 

 house till they have formed their flower-buds at the extremity and sides of the young growths, wlien a 

 few of them may be removed to a colder place, say behind the stage of tlie green-house ; for the camel- 

 lias are fond of being shaded during strong sunshine. In three or four weeks after, a few more of the 

 cameUias may be brought from the vinery or peach-house, and put into a cooler situation. This may be 

 repeated three or four times, which wiU make as many different successions of flowering. Those that 

 are wanted to come into flower early, may remain in the warm house till they are beginning to flower, 

 when they should be taken to a cold place, say the coldest place of the green-house ; then give them 

 plenty of "light only, and they will open their flowers well, and stand long. A camellia cannot stand 

 heat when in flowe"r, indeed they seldom open their flowers fine when in heat, and, at all events, the 

 flowers soon fall off. Those that are kept all the summer in the vinery, will come into flower by the 

 first or middle of October, and a pretty large plant, having perhaps fifty or a hundred flower-buds, will 

 continue in flower till the month of Ja'nuary. Those plants that are removed early from the vinery, 

 will now be in flower, to succeed those that" were in flower in October, and have now done flowerin"g. 

 These last should be immediately taken into the heat. They will make tlieir young wood early, and 

 they may remain in heat till they come into flower, which will perhaps be a month earlier next year. 

 By attending to shifting the camellia-plants from the wann house to the cold, a regular succession of 

 flowers mav thus be had from the first of October to the middle of July. I have even had them all the 

 summer, biit the flowers are best in the winter. Those produced in summer are far from being so 

 fine, and do not stand half the time of those that come into flower in November, December, Januarv, 



-February, March, and April. Camellias delight to be kept damp all the summer montlis, and a little shaded 

 from the strong sun. Give them plenty of water while they are making their young shoots; they may 

 also get a gentle sprinkling over the leaves once every week during the summer season, except when they 

 are in flower. Camellias will stand a great deal of cold without being much injured, but they will not fonii 

 many flower-buds without some artificial heat. I find they flower best when kept in rather .small pots or 

 tubs. I never shift them but once in two years, or often once in tliree years. There are several very large 

 camellias here that have not been shifted these five years, and they are still in high health, having 

 always produced above a hundred fine large flowers every year. Six years ago, I shifted a single camellia 

 from a twelve-inch pot into a tub seventeen inches wide by seventee'n deep, and grafted it with two dif- 

 ferent sorts of double red, one double striped, and one double white : it is still in the same tub, and all tlie 

 four sorts in high health. I have had all the four sorts in flower at once on it, producing a fine contrast 



