VARIOUS TENDER PLANTS IN THE WINTER SEASON. 
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to grow at some particular time, and if they are assisted at that time by (if in 
the winter season) a little additional heat, a closer or moister atmosphere, or in any 
other way the experience of the cultivator may suggest, it is very likely that he will 
attain his wishes at a time and under circumstances which previously he had no 
conception of. This points out the importance of close and diligent observation, and 
the indispensability of great experience and untiring study, to make a man a first-rate 
cultivator. It also accounts for the marked success of many men who force 
themselves into public notice as superior gardeners, and who know nothing of the 
theory of their success, except what they have gathered from their daily practice, 
but who sometimes rise up and put to shame those whose superior scholastic 
attainments ought to have placed them in a more forward rank. 
In endeavouring, however, to assist a delicate-growing plant, more especially in 
the winter season, it must always be borne in mind that plants which are consti- 
tutionally delicate do not like extreme changes at any time, or of every kind ; and 
consequently, though a plant may be benefitted by five or six degrees additional heat, 
very possibly an increase of ten or twelve degrees in the temperature of the house 
would be positive destruction to it. It will therefore always be wise, in subjecting 
greenhouse plants, especially delicate-growing ones, to more heat than what it is 
customary to give them, to do so gradually, and so that they experience no sudden 
change — at least not until such time as you have satisfied yourself by experiment 
that what you are about to do is quite right. As a singular illustration of what may 
be effected with a very difficult plant by increased temperature at what would appear 
a very unseasonable time, we have for some years past been in the habit of subjecting 
the whole of our Gompholobiums to the temperature of a cool stove, or intermediate 
house at this season, and we find that they will make more growth under such 
circumstances during the winter, than it is possible to induce them to make in double 
the time in the summer season. This is more especially the case with the most 
difficult plant in the whole genus, G. splendens, the beautiful bright-yellow species, 
which every person admires, but which at the same time very few, even among the 
best cultivators, can succeed in getting into anything like vigorous growth. Some 
time back, however, we put a plant, as a kill-or-cure remedy, into regular stove 
heat, and, to our great surprise and gratification, it directly started into vigorous 
growth, and continues to progress at the rate of three or four inches per week, the 
shoots being strong and healthy, and what is more remarkable, the foliage particu- 
larly strong and fine. Generally, the foliage of this species is small, crumpled, and 
diseased, which made it very objectionable; but grown in stove-heat, the plant 
promises to become not only manageable, but really a very great acquisition to 
collections. We keep the plant at the coolest end of the stove, and when it has 
finished its growth we shall remove it into the intermediate house, and from thence, 
after a time, to the greenhouse. Here, then, is the key to the cultivation of one of 
the most beautiful climbers in creation, a plant which every one admires, and which 
every person who has a stove may now cultivate with success. 
