FORCING FOR THEIR FLOWERS. 
241 
exposed roots with rich flakes of leaf-mould or rotten dung, and plenty of line sand or 
sandy peat, in which they will freely make new rootlets. This operation is likewise 
applicable to large bushes that may have been long-established, and which it may be 
desirable on a emergency, to take up for forcing ; it must, of course, be performed several 
months previous to forcing, otherwise there will not be time enough for the roots to find 
their way into the new compost. 
Another operation of the greatest importance to be observed, is the protection of the 
plants from an excess of natural moisture towards the completion of their annual growth, 
whether in pots or in the open ground. This is not easy of accomplishment where plant- 
forcing is carried on, extensively, especially as the plants should receive every atmospheric 
influence apart from actual wet. 
The principal difficulty, however, resides in the extent to which this is required ; and 
surely in these days of “rough plate glass,” “oiled calico,” “composition bunting,” and 
more recently “ patent frame lights at Id. or 8 d. the superficial foot,” something might 
be done for the protection of a lot of plants intended for forcing from an excess of 
moisture. Greater expense is sometimes bestowed upon a less deserving purpose ; but 
however this may be, protection of some kind is indispensable to success ; for if plants 
are exposed to all the rain which falls from Heaven in a “ wet English season,” their 
annual growth will not ripen sufficiently to flower except, very imperfectly, when artificially 
excited. 
Perhaps the most economical protection that could be devised, would be a tent-like 
erection on the ridge-and-furrow principle, similar to that erected last spring over the 
exhibition of American plants in the Botanic Garden, Regent’s Park, where the pro- 
tecting material is supported on a skeleton frame of strong posts inserted into the ground, 
with stout wires stretching from ridge to furrow to retain the supporting frame-work in 
position. The sides and ends should of course be left fully exposed to a free circulation of 
the atmosphere at all times ; and in fine, or only partially wet weather, the covering should 
be altogether removed, or rolled up whilst the frame might remain to be used again in case 
of need. ' 
I have been thus diffuse upon this subject, because it is an all-important one, and a 
circumstance that too much escapes observation in the treatment of both fruit-trees and 
flowering shrubs that must undergo artificial excitement, at a period, too, when every 
natural influence is but fitfully present in a very modified form. 
Pots as deep, and otherwise as roomy as can be spared for the purpose, must be 
selected for potting the stock early in October in a rough compost of good loam, leaf- 
mould, and sandy peat, the drainage being secured by crushed bones or lumps of charcoal 
and green turf. In lifting the plants from the ground, three individuals should be 
employed, two for the opposite insertion of their spades, and one for taking care of the 
plant being lifted ; the balls composed of a mass of root-fibres, must be reduced as much 
as it is consonant with discretion and common sense ; and when potted with tolerable 
firmness, and as deeply as circumstances will admit, must be plunged under the north 
wall of the reserve-ground, in saw-dust, coal-ashes, old tan, or sand ; and unless the 
weather is inclined to be dry and windy, no water should be given, although a brisk 
shower or two will refresh and make them clean. Here they may remain plunged ; the 
same attention to watering and general management being accorded them as when in the 
open quarters of the reserve garden ; and, if needs be, protected from excess of moisture 
also, as before hinted throughout the winter and following summer, until wanted for 
forcing in succession, before which the plants should be lifted from the plunging medium, 
the pots well cleansed, and placed upon the surface of the bed for a week or two, so that 
the effects of removal may not be felt when introduced into the forcing-house or warm 
conservatory. Plants thus treated, will continue in capital forcing condition for many years, 
provided care be taken not to expose them too suddenly to the vicissitudes of early spring 
winds immediately after being forced ; they must rather be gradually inured to the open 
air again. 
A little fresh compost may easily be introduced about them immediately after 
VOL. i. — NO. VIII. i i 
