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OPERATIONS FOR OCTOBER. 
The unusually warm and dry weather that has prevailed up to the middle of this month, 
September, has been highly favourable to the interests of the culturist ; whether it is regarded as 
having permitted the autumnal beauties of the garden to have been enjoyed without interruption, 
and uninterfered with, or as having been extensively beneficial to the welfare of the multitudinous 
objects of his care. If the future alone is taken into account, the latter consideration is the most 
gratifying to reflect upon. It will be advantageous to briefly devote attention to the many ways 
in which the fine weather has been serviceable to that with which we are more directly concerned. 
It has been unaccompanied by rain, and the high temperature has not been of itself sufficient to 
induce vegetation to commence a new growth. There are exceptions to the correctness of this 
general assertion, but they are of minor importance. As, then, it has not been able to effect what 
would be of mischievous and injurious consequence, it may have had a contrary effect, and done 
much to ripen and hasten into seasonable dormancy vegetation generally ; this it has accomplished 
to a great extent, and it will be wisdom to second its acceptable service in the case of all plants and 
shrubs or trees of a tender nature, by proceeding to shelter them from wet and against frost, 
while they are in so desirable a condition. It will be a pity, of course, to carry this hint out to a 
rude extent, by introducing into the flower-garden or pleasure-ground any material which, com- 
pared with the beauty genial weather may still permit to exist, is of an unsightly character. Good 
judgment will not do this. The weather has this autumn been of the proper kind to induce late- 
flowering plants to bloom earlier, and shy-flowering things, some of them, perhaps, from the stove 
and greenhouse, but planted in the open air, to develope blossoms ; the shelter of such, or their 
removal under glass, it may be, where practicable, should have attention. 
Fine opportunity has existed of propagating by layering, and by cuttings ; there should not, 
consequently, now remain any to be done that could have been attended to previously. Layers, as 
it is found they become sufficiently rooted, must be dealt with as their nature requires : those of 
many hardy things are frequently potted ; when they are, they may be taken to their winter 
quarters direct, and plunged, to keep the soil about their roots uniformly moist, and also to prevent 
the pots being broken by frost. All late struck, and recently potted-off flower-garden plants must 
continue to be hardened, by getting their wood as ripe as possible. It will have been, or soon will 
be, necessary to arrange them in their winter quarters ; it is well to have them safe in the situation 
they are to occupy soon enough ; exposing them as heretofore, if requisite, and opportunity of 
doing so occurs. Cold frames, as lately recommended, we consider the most proper for their 
preservation ; when placed in them they should be plunged up to the rim of the pots in some 
material that wet can readily escape from. 
Greenhouse plants that may have remained in the open air up to this period, it will now 
probably be best to house : they might be suffered to continue there as long as injurious cold and 
extreme wet holds off, where any advantage is gained by their so doing, but where there cannot, 
and as the plants are not deriving any benefit from continuing, they should be taken in. Orange 
trees, Camellias, &c, whose beauty as much consists in their fine foliage as in their flowers, will 
be benefited by being henceforth subjected to a warmer temperature than can be expected in the 
open air. In other words, where they have stood out up to this time — in some places it is the 
practice to place such things, as objects of ornament, near the dwelling and about the pleasure- 
ground ; Ave have specimen plants principally in view — they ought to be taken in, to prevent the too 
cold temperature starving them, rendering their foliage paler than it ought to be ; in some instances 
we have known it to become quite of a yellow hue from this cause. These remarks apply to all 
plants, cultivated in pots, too tender to withstand the coldness of our climate in winter, but sub - 
jected wholly to it in summer. 
Nothing is more simple than the management of general collections at this season, whether 
orchids, stove, or greenhouse plants. The business is to give each plant all the room it requires 
if possible, and all the fresh air the weather will permit exposure to ; prevent on the one hand 
exciting influences, heat in conjunction with over-much moisture prevailing, and on the other, do 
