181 
PRESERVATION OF FLOWER-GARDEN PLANTS IN 
WINTER. 
— * — 
We purpose a few remarks upon this subject, principally as supplementary to 
hose in our last, on the propagation of the plants in question, and also because 
- whatever degree of knowledge our readers may possess in reference to it, we are 
ure, and they will admit us correct, that it cannot be too well understood. 
Proper “preservation of flower-garden plants in winter” is simply the maintaining 
f them alive, and in good health, through that period. In the majority of winters, 
inder the prevalent systems of managing, it is accomplished with various degrees of 
-uccess, often at cost of much anxiety, considerable expense, and no little labour and 
;rouble ; and it invariably follows, and as a natural consequence does so, for it is ren- 
■ lered necessary by ill management, and from proceeding on wrong principles, that 
ifter the greatest exercise of care and solicitude, it is found there is least room when 
i :he proper season arrives for congratulation on the success with which such labours 
ire rewarded. In this view of the question we do not take into account the ill con- 
sequences of a long and protracted winter, nor the injury an unusually severe one 
nay be the occasion of, as they are occurrences of an extraordinary nature, and as 
such require extraordinary and especial measures. 
Frost alone is usually considered the great and too frequently the only enemy to 
be contended with, the only obstacle which can intervene to prevent the accomplish- 
ment of the object in view ; therefore, when choosing measures that may lead to its 
attainment, such an idea is too apt to influence their selection. It is not committing 
an error to regard frost as a great antagonist, and one which to encounter and suc- 
cessfully contend against requires considerable skill ; hut it is a sad mistake to view 
it as the only enemy, for there is one which has much more frequently to be com- 
bated — one in a great degree more destructive, though by a much slower process, 
and one much more subtle, in moisture in its different forms. This is true in a very 
extended sense; so much so that we doubt not everyone who has had any experience 
in preserving the plants under notice would acknowledge it is correct to assert that 
where one is destroyed by frost, three invariably are lost by being subject to too 
great a degree of wetness. Hence it follows that what is directly opposite in nature 
to this destructive agent, would he most efficacious in furthering what is desired to 
be attained, which is the case ; consequently, we are anxious to direct attention to 
preserving plants in a state of comparative dryness — a condition which has for one 
of its recommendations the fact that it is the great and invincible antagonist of frost. 
But the first and main steps to take as tending to insure the preservation of 
flower-garden, as well as all plants, in a successful manner, is to have them good in 
themselves, well- rooted, and then well hardened ; so much being accomplished, 
proceedings may be taken to bring them into a sufficiently dry condition, a state 
