24 
OPERATIONS FOR FEBRUARY. 
fires, it is additionally hurtful. Fire-heat, therefore, is alone to be used when frost or cold winds 
prevail ; and then but scantily, and with due caution. 
Our remarks would yet fail much of their point if we restricted them to artificial heat. A 
very warm day, or even a week, occasionally happens at this season ; and if the houses are kept 
closed on such occasions, the plants will certainly suffer by being prompted to grow. It is neces- 
sary, then, in all such weather, to throw open the sashes, and reduce the temperature as low as 
possible, that the external influences may be counteracted. And perhaps this is the matter in 
which cultivators err more than in regard to the application of artificial heat. They who perceive 
the impropriety of employing fires, save in severe weather, will allow the temperature to rise to 
almost any height from natural causes, conceiving that to follow nature is the correct mode of 
proceeding. It should be remembered by such that a heat occasioned by the sun in February has 
as bad an effect on plants as a temperature raised by other means ; inasmuch as it is the undue 
excitement which both produce that constitutes the evil. 
A second means of keeping exotic plants comparatively dormant is by retaining their roots and 
the atmosphere in a moderately dry condition. They must, of necessity, be more or less 
watered in proportion to the temperature ; but where this is rightly repressed, they should have 
very little fluid this month. And on their supply of water, the dampness of the air will in a great 
measure depend. So that, to preserve them tolerably dry at the roots, is to provide for the dryness 
of the atmosphere. 
The third remedy for premature development will scarcely be wanted if the two former ones 
are consistently practised ; as it is the positive removal of the shoots that have begun to expand, 
or rather, have acquired two or three inches in length. Sometimes, however, this will arise in 
spite of the utmost care ; and when it does, there are few plants that will not be benefited by a 
check of that description. To take away a weakly shoot is not merely to put a temporary stop to 
the plant's progress. It is to secure a subsequent growth at a more favourable period, and, in 
most instances, to promote dwarfness and bushiness. 
In the preceding observations, the management of all exotics that have been housed, or that 
are always kept in houses, may be said to be comprised. Where specimens have to be forced, 
or Orchidaceous plants to be grown, a different course must necessarily be pursued ; and a 
moisture, such as is ever given off by fermenting leaves or bark, is unquestionably best for forced 
plants. 
With regard to sheltered plants that are growing in the open soil, the way of keeping them from 
starting too soon, or becoming blanched, is to expose them, to the fullest practicable extent, when- 
ever the weather is at all mild or propitious ; and a plan should be adopted for giving them a 
circulation of air, by having opposite apertures in the covering, when that covering cannot be 
entirely taken off. 
The warmer parts of this month, towards its close, are by some thought the most suitable for 
digging flower. borders, as the bulbous plants in them, being now mostly above the ground, can be 
seen, and are not so liable to be injured. It is a rule which will hold good in the majority of cases, 
that shrubs should be pruned before their buds are unfolded. Whatever may be said to the con- 
trary, it is notorious that the uppermost buds of roses expand first ; and hence if the shrubs are 
left unpruned till such expansion takes place, it will be found that the lower buds, and those which 
are to be preserved, will have been very materially impoverished. We have frequently noticed 
roses so treated, forming the most imperfect shoots, and hardly flowering at all. 
A few tender annuals may be sown for the greenhouse ; and a succession should be provided 
by a sowing each fortnight. Tulips and other bulbous plants ought now to be effectively guarded 
from slugs. Hyacinths, grown in windows, should be daily turned, that their stems may not 
incline in one direction. Dahlia roots maybe examined, lest they should get too dry or rotten. A 
decaying root, if taken away in time, will do no injury ; but if suffered to remain, it may spread 
decay amongst the others, and do a large amount of damage. 
