1068 THE rilACTlCAL GARDENER. [^^i^g- 



tills process will be required to some given extent. The plants 

 being out at this time, their several states can be readily as- 

 certained ; and if all that require it bo now shifted, they will 

 be well established again in the pots before the winter season 

 sets in. This operation is, it must be acknowledged, too ge- 

 nerally put off till too late a period of the season, and, in 

 consequence, the plants shifted have riot time to make fresh 

 roots to support them during winter, which is the real cause 

 of a great loss in some collections, although it be seldom 

 attributed to it. Many cultivators, however, and amongst 

 them too some of the first London nurserymen, adopt a 

 different plan, but one by no means to be recommended, 

 and that is, to shift only at the times of putting out or taking 

 in the plants, and this plan, they tell us, is to save trouble ; 

 but the reward of such a practice is, that many of the plants 

 die, and many more are scorched up by the sun, having few 

 or no roots to support them, and by the end of the season only 

 begin to grow when they are about to be taken into the house ; 

 whereas, if otherwise treated, they would have quite a dif- 

 ferent appearance. By shifting early in the season, say the 

 middle of March, the plants will have filled their pots with 

 roots before they are taken out of the house, and will have 

 made their wood and leaves sufficiently perfect, so as to be 

 little affected by the sun and keener air to which they are ex- 

 posed By shifting at this season, as observed above, the 

 plants will have filled their pots with roots before taken into 

 the house, and so be better fitted to stand the winter. At this 

 time they are also liable to send down roots, which, finding 

 their way through the pots, extend themselves in the ground 

 underneath them, and to the inexperienced eye appears to be 

 lapidly improving, many of the robust growing kinds making 

 very luxuriant shoots and leaves ; but they would be far better 

 without them, as when they have to be taken up in September 

 or October to be placed in the house, their roots are neces- 

 / sarily broken off, and the plants thus experience a check, 

 which they do not soon recover. 



