HARDY BAMBOOS. 
3G3 
In the following remarks I am taking it for granted that any 
one who attempts planting Bamboos on a large scale will import 
his plants either from the south of France or even from Japan. 
Up to the present time few of our own great nursery gardeners 
have given much attention to this family : indeed, there are not 
a few varieties which it is impossible to procure in England, 
and the fog which has surrounded the nomenclature has made 
it difficult in many other cases to procure the true sorts. 
As a matter of course, the proper time for Bamboos to travel 
is during the autumn and winter, when the plants are at rest. 
I received my first large consignment of Bamboos in the month 
of November. They arrived in excellent state from the south of 
France, having hardly lost a leaf. Trusting to their apparently 
healthy and vigorous condition, I put them at once into carefully 
prepared beds in the open ground, mulched the roots heavily 
with well-rotted cow-manure, and covered them well over with 
dead leaves. In spite of this precaution, such treatment was 
almost tantamount to signing their death-warrant. In a very 
few days the leaves had all withered and disappeared. During 
the long winter months I had nothing but bare canes to show, 
and when the following spring came those that were not killed 
outright were slow in sending up perhaps one, or, at most, two 
meagre and enfeebled shoots. It was a great disappointment, 
and the more provoking in that, since those plants were received, 
we have not had a single really favourable season. They were 
put out in the autumn of 1891. In 1892 they were struggling 
for bare life against a total rainfall of only 21*86 inches. In 
1893 we had again a most cruel drought, with a total rainfall of 
23'82 inches. In 1894 no sun, though we had a rainfall of 31*01 
inches ; of the winter I have already spoken. It is not surprising 
that up to the present those unhappy Bamboos should have 
made little or no progress. However, if they have had but a 
sorry chance in life themselves, they have taught us a lesson. In 
the average climate of the Midlands it is absolutely useless to 
plant out Bamboos until they have recovered from the fatigues of 
the journey. 
We now treat them very differently. When a consignment 
of Bamboos is received w^e soak the roots well for twelve hours. 
We then pot them, taking great care not to disturb the roots. 
They are then placed for the winter in a cool house. Very little 
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