233 
FACTS, HINTS, AND EXPERIMENTS ON THE MANAGEMENT 
OF VARIOUS TENDER PLANTS IN THE WINTER SEASON. 
Last month we concluded our remarks with a promise to return to the subject, 
and discuss it in its relation to the classification of plants in greenhouses, &c. We 
shall now proceed to our task, first making some general remarks, illustrative of 
what may be accomplished with certain plants by departing from what are considered 
practical rules in their management, and then offer such general remarks as we 
consider of importance in the winter treatment of certain plant houses. 
In plant management there is not a greater fallacy, or one more calculated to 
retard the progress of good cultivation than that which supposes and inculcates the 
doctrine that plants of all kinds must be brought into a state of rest about this 
season, and that on no account must any attempt be made to excite these to new, or 
even to enable them to complete their growth, after the present time. If the advocates 
of this doctrine would just take time to consider, and would calmly examine the 
collections under their own management, or that of their neighbours, they would, 
in all probability, find that many late-flowering hard- wooded plants, such as the various 
tricolor, ampullacea, and other Heaths, with Dillwynia, Pimelea, Zichyas, and many 
other greenhouse plants, have scarcely commenced their season's growth at this time, 
and that, therefore, to endeavour to stop, or not encourage them — of course, suiting 
the encouragement to the season, and amount of light— would be the height of 
absurdity ; and yet this very doctrine has been inculcated since the days of John 
AJbercrombie, and is annually repeated by the calendar writers of the present day, 
with as much solemnity as if it was not a natural law that evergreen ligneous plants, 
after producing one set of flowers, should commence to make wood to produce 
another set, and that consequently they should receive assistance from the cultivator 
at the very time they require it, be that time mid- winter or mid-summer. 
Every person who has grown the tuberous- rooted species of Tropseolum knows 
how much more freely they grow during the winter than at any other season of the 
year, and those who have been the most successful in their management are aware 
that they grow much more freely even in winter, in comparatively dark, than in 
houses where they are exposed to an excessive amount of light. And why is this ? 
— because in their native habitats they are under- growths, scrambling over low 
shrubs, and partly shaded by trees of larger growth. But, when they come to this 
country, we forget these things, and, knowing they are from countries where the sun 
has more power than with us, we place them under circumstance which we consider 
as advantageous as possible, but which, in point of fact, are positively injurious to 
them. To test the accuracy of this statement, let any one who has two plants start 
one, at the present time, and place it in the darkest corner of the greenhouse, of 
course not too far from the glass, and let the other be started in March next, when 
VOL. XIV. NO. CLXVl. H H 
