174 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



secure situation at night. In the spring they will be 

 fit for planting again into the borders, and by this 

 means a constant succession may be obtained, leaving 

 the old plants to perish. If any are desired to be 

 kept in pots after they have ceased flowering, their 

 stems should be cut down to within an inch or two of 

 the main stem, and the shoots made into cuttings. The 

 old plants should then be repotted, and kept through 

 the winter as before directed, taking care not to water 

 them unless they require it, and never watering them 

 over the leaves at this season. 



The same system of treatment may be advantageously 

 adopted with heliotropes, alonsoas, fuchsias, shrubby 

 calceolarias, and all other plants of similar habits, except 

 that none of these require so much pruning as gera- 

 niums, and they may be conveniently kept in pots 

 throughout the whole season if desired, adding to the 

 soil in which they are potted a little peat or heath-soil, 

 and a small portion of white sand. The various species 

 of heath, though very ornamental, require great care 

 and attention to grow them successfully, and are not 

 well adapted for cottage-gardens or windows. They 

 must be potted in sandy peat, or heath-soil, with a slight 

 addition of light sandy loam ; and some small pieces of 

 soft grit-stone should be mingled with the soil to pro- 

 mote drainage. They will not succeed well when turned 

 out in the open border in the summer months, as the 

 operation of removing them to pots in the autumn 

 would injure them; they should therefore be kept in 

 the window of a dwelling-room, and placed in the open 

 air in the summer months, removing them to a shaded 

 situation when the heat of the sun is very powerful. 

 Great care and attention is necessary in watering them, 

 as they are very liable to perish when supplied with too 

 much or too little water. They are propagated with 

 difficulty by cuttings, which are so extremely delicate, 

 that few cottagers need attempt this operation, as they 

 will seldom succeed without great attention. 



Camellias are much more ornamental than heaths, but, 

 with the treatment which cottagers are enabled to afford 

 them, they are very liable to shed their flowers when in 



