COLD OR CONSERVATIVE PITS. 



733 



shading is gradually dispensed with, and less 

 water given, as well as a greater amount of air, 

 until they have begun to grow, after which the 

 glass is removed altogether until the end of 

 October or beginning of November, when it is 

 replaced to guard against frost. The soil we 

 use is comparably poor, and in consequence the 

 plants assume a hardier form of texture, which 

 prevents their suffering from damp during win- 

 ter. The tops are continually pinched off, and 

 no flower is allowed to form until the period 

 arrives when they are required, at which time, 

 and rather before, slight waterings of liquid 

 manure are applied to excite them into bloom. 

 During winter they must be kept pretty dry, and 

 as near to the glass as possible, as well as in a 

 very moderate temperature. Suspended shelves 

 near the roof of a glass house are a very fitting 

 place for them. There are other annuals which 

 may be grown for the same purpose, but their 

 cultivation is the same. 



§ 12. — COLD OR CONSERVATIVE PITS. 



These are of great importance in all plant 

 establishments — and especially so to amateurs 

 who may not have the better convenience of a 

 greenhouse, — their use being to protect half- 

 hardy and many greenhouse plants during win- 

 ter — that is, those which would not stand the 

 severity of our winters in the open air. They 

 are not heated artificially, the cold being ex- 

 cluded by covering with glass sashes, and, 

 in very severe weather, with the addition of 

 wooden shutters or sheets of tarpaulin. As 

 dryness is so essential in resisting cold, it fol- 

 lows that their floors should be somewhat ele- 

 vated, the situation well exposed to the sun 

 and air, and that the smallest amount of water 

 should be administered to the plants during 

 winter, and rain or snow prevented from falling 

 upon them. We have given examples in vol. i., 

 figs .671, 672, 673, 674, and 678. The manage- 

 ment of the plants simply consists in keeping 

 them as dry during winter as is consistent with 

 their safety, admitting air freely on all favour- 

 able occasions, removing dampness or decaying 

 leaves where these appear, and, should frost reach 

 them at any time, keeping them dark till it has 

 thawed in the pots. Keeping them close shut 

 up during severe weather for any length of time 

 is to be avoided; and for this reason slight 

 ventilation should be given every day, if only 

 for a few minutes, that motion may be commu- 

 nicated to the air within. Pits constructed as 

 those we have referred to, are capable of pre- 

 serving a great many plants with very slight 

 attention, if the above remarks are followed up. 

 It is important that in autumn all superfluous or 

 gross shoots should be removed from them, that 

 the plants be set thin, so that the air may circu- 

 late freely amongst them, and that air be freely 

 admitted so long as frost is excluded. Again, in 

 spring, air must be increased gradually, and, as 

 the vital functions of the plants begin to exert 

 themselves, water should be gradually given, 

 and this in small quantities at a time, and ap- 

 plied in a tepid state. During spring and sum- 

 mer their treatment is similar to ordinary green- 

 VOL. II. 



house plants ; and as the summer advances, the 

 glass protection, instead of being removed, 

 should be continued on them. Plants thus 

 treated enjoy a period of rest somewhat similar 

 to what they do in their native habitats, where, 

 if cold in all cases be not the predominant cause 

 of this cessation in their growth, the absence of 

 moisture produces a nearly equal effect. Plants 

 in cold pits should enjoy abundance of solar 

 heat during summer, which the glass roof will 

 afford them if properly managed. In spring 

 they should be gradually excited, and in autumn 

 the heat maintained, to ripen their wood and 

 perfect their buds. This is placing them nearly 

 in a corresponding temperature to that of their 

 native habitats, and if attended to, most of the 

 plants here enumerated may be cultivated pretty 

 successfully without the aid of fire-heat alto- 

 gether. But this is not the general rule. No 

 sooner does the cold of winter pass away, and 

 danger from frost is thought to be past, than 

 the glass is wanted for some other purpose, and 

 the plants, at the very time they require the 

 excitement of a genial day-heat, are deprived of 

 it, and exposed to the cold cutting winds of our 

 usual springs. Again, during summer, when 

 they require an amount of solar heat unknown 

 naturally to us, they are left depending on the 

 feeble rays of a sun shining through a dark and 

 cloudy atmosphere, retarding their season of 

 growth till August and September, at which 

 period their full growth ought to have been 

 made, and inducing efforts in them to continue 

 that growth at the very period when it should 

 have been completed, leaving them no time 

 before the return of autumn to elaborate the 

 sap they have accumulated, or to ripen their 

 wood to enable it to withstand the cold of the 

 succeeding winter. Were a contrary course fol- 

 lowed, by means of very slight coverings, the 

 majority of our greenhouse plants would be 

 better preserved throughout winter, both in 

 greenhouses and pits, without the aid of fire- 

 heat altogether, than they at present are. Vide 

 article Heath -House for the management of 

 plants in such pits. 



The following plants form a part of such as 

 may be safely wintered in such structures. 

 The great majority of bulbous, tuberous, and 

 herbaceous exotic plants, which die down to the 

 ground in autumn, and undergo their season of 

 rest during winter, such as most of the genera 

 Oxalis ; Gladiolus ; Alstrcemeria ; Commelina ; 

 Tritonia ; and similar Cape of Good Hope and 

 Peruvian bulbs ; Indian Azaleas, the stronger- 

 growing Ericas ; Camellias ; Chinese Chrysan- 

 themums ; Fuchsias ; Cinerarias ; Cyclamens ; 

 Petunias ; Verbenas ; the tender varieties of 

 roses; Sikkim and tender hybrid rhododen- 

 drons ; European and American ferns ; the 

 more tender herbaceous and Alpine plants ; the 

 pretty and abundant-flowering genus Cistus ; 

 the genus Ceanothus ; Escallonia ; Buddleya ; 

 Clematis; Coronilla; most of Cytisus ; Daphne; 

 Deutzia; Dianthus arborescens ; Enkianthus re- 

 ticulata ; Erythrina ; Eccremocarpus scaber ; 

 Edwardsia ; Eryobotrya japonica ; Fabiana im- 

 bricata; Forsythia viridissima; the genus Garrya; 

 Helianthemum ; Hydrangea; Jasminum nudi- 



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