167 
OPERATIONS FOR AUGUST. 
After the heavy rains which have fallen during the last month, there will be 
little danger of hardy plants again suffering from drought ; and the attention of 
the culturist will now be necessary to guard them from falling into, a state of 
extreme luxuriance. The flower-beds should forthwith be gone over for the purpose 
of removing all damaged or decaying flowers ; the shoots of half-hardy plants should 
be checked where they are becoming too exuberant ; and the plants in pots, that 
have been exposed to the late storms, ought to be examined, and the soil replaced 
wherever it has been washed away. 
If greenhouse plants that have been placed in the open air show any tendency 
to make a second growth in consequence of the recent abundant supplies of water, 
the young shoots should be at once pinched off ; for many species, when suffered 
to grow twice in the season, are very much weakened, and the first or natural 
development of all must be prevented from duly maturing itself thereby, and 
deprived of much of the strength which would be expended in the formation of 
fresh wood and flowers in the following spring. Some sorts of Heaths, which keep 
growing nearly all the year, are always thus treated by the best cultivators ; but 
the operation has been too generally confined to them, and hence the numbers of 
straggling plants which are apparent in greenhouses. 
From the shoots that are taken from Verbenas and other hardy plants to pro- 
mote their fertility and render tliem less rambling, cuttings should now be 
prepared for propagation. We invariably recommend the commencement of this 
process at the earliest possible period, that the plants may be in some measure esta- 
blished and hardened before that trying season, winter, arrives; for where these points 
are secured, they will require far less tendance, and be infinitely less liable to damp 
off, or be otherwise injured. A little bark or fermenting manure, the heat of 
which has been half exhausted, will, if covered with a frame, be quite sufficient to 
give out a congenial temperature ; and the cuttings should be planted in 
moderate-sized pots, and these plunged in the heating material. The employ- 
ment of pots of this kind is preferable to the use of large ones, or to placing the 
cuttings in a bed of prepared soil ; because, where too many of them are brought 
together, their treatment cannot be sufficiently discriminate, and they are apt to 
suffer from the general manner in which water must be applied, from the want of 
proper drainage, and from the large body of earth thus collected. It is well known 
that even in large pots the cuttings occupying the centre never succeed so perfectly 
as those nearer the outside ; and where they are unavoidably planted out in beds, it 
might be serviceable to divide these into small compartments by pieces of slate or 
tile. With shade during sunshine, and a slight admission of air when the heat is 
excessive, they will speedily emit roots, and may then be placed singly in small 
pots, and removed to a cold frame. A trifling screen will be necessary in 
sunny weather till they have recommenced growing, after wdiich they may be 
