216 
OPERATIONS FOR OCTOBER. 
In removing these and all exotic plants from the ground for the winter, their superfluous 
roots should not be broken or hacked off with the spade, or cut carelessly with any instrument. 
Crushed and mangled roots invariably rot, and spread the decay to other parts. It is proper, 
consequently, that they should be removed cleanly and skilfully with a sharp knife. Indeed, it 
is more necessary to prune the roots with care than the branches, and every one acknowledges 
the importance of attention in the latter case. 
Dahlias, Marvel of Peru, and other exotics with similar roots, need not be taken up, or have 
their stems removed, directly these are damaged by frost. Sometimes a casual frost cuts off the 
tender foliage for several weeks prior to the commencement of the actual winter season, and the 
roots would be much benefited by remaining in the ground this time. If the stems be early 
injured, then a mulching of old bark should be placed round their base, and unless the weather 
be excessively wet, they may be left another fortnight, or till serious frosts ensue. When prac- 
ticable, they should be taken up in dry weather, that their tubers may not be saturated with 
moisture. When they are extremely wet, they should be dried a little before being put away for 
the winter. 
The rooted layers of all half-hardy plants that have been propagated in this way, must at 
once be potted, if they have not heretofore been attended to. Specimens that are to be housed 
for supplying cuttings in spring, ought no longer to remain exposed. It will be beneficial to 
them to have all their outside shoots, as well as many of their roots, trimmed off, since they will 
the sooner produce a greater quantity of laterals, when excited towards the spring. They will 
thus, likewise, occupy less room in the houses. 
Half-hardy stock, or young plants growing singly in small pots, or remaining in the cutting 
pots, as described in a previous page, must now be rendered very hardy. This is to be effected 
by warding off heavy rains, and leaving them uncovered whenever it can be done securely. It is 
of course assumed that they are by this time in pits or frames, and the lights of those should be 
drawn up as regularly in wet weather as when there is likely to be frost. By keeping them dry, 
almost to a degree of want, they will be made more robust, and be better prepared for enduring 
all the uncongenial conditions of winter. 
Of eqaul application to greenhouse and stove plants, of most species, are the observations just 
submitted. The great thing to be guarded against, for the next five or six months, is dampness. 
And where this is rightly kept under, there will be far less susceptibility to cold. Every specimen 
should be scrutinized, to see that it is not suffering or liable to suffer from inefficient drainage ; 
and, even with the most careful potting, there will usually be some plants that need turning out, 
divesting of their soil, and shifting into a fresh or smaller pot at this season, on account of the 
stagnation of water about their roots. These matters cannot be adjusted too soon ; for every day's 
continuance of the evil will only increase it, and render restoration more tardy and difficult. 
In greenhouses, it is a common thing to put a number of half-hardy plants or inferior 
specimens under the stages during winter. The system is a bad one, for several reasons. It is 
prejudicial to the plants themselves, which, if there are no spare frames to hold them, had better 
be placed under a south wall, and covered with thin oiled canvass, or with thicker materials in 
frosty weather. Being beneath a stage, they catch all the water which falls from the plants above ; 
and not only derive injury, but return it to the atmosphere more rapidly than it would otherwise 
evaporate, and so tend to load the air with moisture, to the detriment of the better plants. They 
are also very unsightly. 
It ought to be a principle in every plant-house that nothing should be admitted but what can 
stand conveniently, and be cultivated to perfection. And if more plants are possessed than there 
is proper space for, the least valuable had better be discarded in some way. A limited number 
of really beautiful objects is infinitely more interesting than a larger quantity of indifferent ones. 
Pelargoniums, when extensively cultivated, should be kept in pits and frames in the winter 
months. Having no flowers, they are comparatively uninteresting at that season, and it is far 
easier and less expensive to preserve them in pits. The house in which they bloom, during 
summer, can be filled with more pleasing greenhouse species ; and these, again, may be trans- 
ferred to frames when the structure is wanted for the Pelargoniums ; since, at the period of their 
flowering, general greenhouse plants are mostly out of blossom. 
