233 
A.CTS, HINTS, AND EXPERIMENTS ON THE MANAGEMENT 
3F VARIOUS TENDER PLANTS IN THE WINTER SEASON. 
— • — 
Last month we concluded our remarks with a promise to return to the subject, 
id discuss it in its relation to the classification of plants in greenhouses, &c. We 
all now proceed to our task, first making some general remarks, illustrative of 
lat may be accomplished with certain plants by departing from what are considered 
actical rules in their management, and then offer such general remarks as we 
nsider of importance in the winter treatment of certain plant houses. 
In plant management there is not a greater fallacy, or one more calculated to 
tard the progress of good cultivation than that which supposes and inculcates the 
f ictrine that plants of all kinds must be brought into a state of rest about this 
ason, and that on no account must any attempt be made to excite these to new, or 
en to enable them to complete their growth, after the present time. If the advocates 
this doctrine would just take time to consider, and would calmly examine the 
llections under their own management, or that of their neighbours, they would, 
all probability, find that many late-flowering hard- wooded plants, such as the various 
i color , ampullacea, and other Heaths, with Dillwynia, Pimelea, Zichyas, and many 
her greenhouse plants, have scarcely commenced their season’s growth at this time, 
id that, therefore, to endeavour to stop, or not encourage them — of course, suiting 
e encouragement to the season, and amount of light — would be the height of 
' (surdity ; and yet this very doctrine has been inculcated since the days of John 
bercrombie, and is annually repeated by the calendar writers of the present day, 
ith as much solemnity as if it was not a natural law that evergreen ligneous plants, 
ter producing one set of flowers, should commence to make wood to produce 
Lother set, and that consequently they should receive assistance from the cultivator 
the very time they require it, be that time mid- winter or mid-summer. 
Every person who has grown the tuberous-rooted species of Tropseolum knows 
)w much more freely they grow during the winter than at any other season of the 
5ar, and those who have been the most successful in their management are aware 
tat they grow much more freely even in winter, in comparatively dark, than in 
ouses where they are exposed to an excessive amount of light. And why is this ? 
; -because in their native habitats they are under- growths, scrambling over low 
irubs, and partly shaded by trees of larger growth. But, when they come to this 
mntry, we forget these things, and, knowing they are from countries where the sun 
is more power than with us, we place them under circumstance which we consider 
5 advantageous as possible, but which, in point of fact, are positively injurious to 
lem. To test the accuracy of this statement, let any one who has two plants start 
ie, at the present time, and place it in the darkest corner of the greenhouse, of 
>urse not too far from the glass, and let the other be started in March next, when 
VOL. XIV. NO. CLXVl. 
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