JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
508 
[ June 21, 18S3. 
exhaustion by flagging before water is given. When 
drooping occurs shading must often accompany the 
watering, but the material should be removed as soon 
as the foliage recovers its lost freshness. 
Ventilation well conducted either renders shading 
superfluous or reduces the need of it to a minimum. 
A man who is master of the art of ventilating glass 
structures will keep a house cooler with the lights 
half open than another man can who has never been 
properly taught the work with which he is en¬ 
trusted. The one proceeds on the principle of opening 
the ventilators before, apparently, it is necessary, and 
lets the rising temperature follow the ventilation; the 
other waits until the house has got “ hot,” and air 
must be admitted to prevent immediate damage being 
done—then the lights are opened wider and wider 
to “ bring down” the heat. The former is the right 
method, and the latter the wrong one. By the right 
plan the heat is kept to the proper figure without 
opening the ventilators to anything their full extent; 
by the wrong one it cannot be kept down at all. And 
just as ventilation is faulty, just in the same propor¬ 
tion will shading become requisite, and in the same 
ratio also will the plants, whatever they are, be 
weakened. 
The time above all others when a watchful eye must 
be kept with the object of shading, if it is needed, and 
not a moment before, is when a few dull days are 
followed by a fierce sun. It is then that the foliage 
is the most liable to scorching, and often a quick 
syringing of the glass with a thin mixture of whiting 
and water has saved the foliage of Vines, Melons, and 
Cucumbers, and consequently the crops of fruit. The 
first shower cleans the glass again, and until that 
shower falls the sprinkling of whitewash does no harm. 
It is often of far greater importance to shade the 
pots in which plants are growing than the foliage, 
hence it is that plunging is beneficial in hot weather. 
If plants outdoors cannot be plunged, shade the pots 
by some means; keep the soil sufficiently moist, and 
the tops of the plants may almost be left to themselves 
so far as regards the question of shading. The exact 
reverse of this practice is too common, and hundreds 
of unsatisfactory plants are the direct consequence. 
Perhaps these notes on shading may be useful before 
the summer is over, and the more immediately so if 
rain should he falling when they appear, to be sud- 
denlyfollowed by burning sun.—A Northern Gardener. 
RENOVATING CAMELLIAS. 
In the issue of this Journal of March 15th of the present 
year appeared some historical and cultural notes on these 
handsome and deservedly popular shrubs. As was indicated, 
more remained to be said on the management of the plants, 
and it will not be unseasonable, this being a very good time 
for repotting some Camellias, to say it now. 
Having referred to a healthy plant, and noted how it may 
be made to fail or to flourish, it cannot but be useful to com¬ 
mence with an unhealthy plant and suggest how it may be 
improved. The stems have a black, wiry, hide-bound appear¬ 
ance, the leaves are greenish-yellow, the flowers few, because 
the majority of what buds there were fell off like nuts in the 
autumn. Let us turn such a plant out of the pot and examine 
the roots. What do we find ? An inert mass of soil, possibly 
black sour peat, and something like a root or two trying to 
escape through the drainage, yet arrested by worms. This is 
no imaginitive case. There, are thousands of plants in that 
state—dying by degrees from the want of a fair chance to 
grow. They cannot get out of the pots and shake off the 
soil that is killing them ; therefore w^ must help them. This 
must be done carefully. Every fresh root must be preserved. 
If the case is a bad one—few white roots, but the majority 
black and dead—not only should all the soil be picked or 
shaken out, but the roots should be washed, as if washing a 
mop Cut off the dead portions—indeed, cut until life is 
found ; then, while still wet, dust the roots heavily with silver 
sand and repot in as small a pot as possible. Brain it well, 
and protect the drainage from the soil with clean turf fibre, 
which dust with soot. For a plant of the kind under notice 
this is the compost : Half rather light but decidedly turfy 
loam containing no lime, the remaining half to consist of 
very fibrous Heath or Azalea peat—not bog—and leaf soil 
from leaves that have not fermented ; mark the condition. 
To this add crushed charcoal and silver sand liberally, say 
together, so as to form an eighth part of the bulk. Mix the 
whole thoroughly. If this compost will not incite the pro¬ 
duction of roots nothing will. 
When should this be done ? is the next question. It is best 
done in early spring just as the plants are commencing growth, 
or trying to do so, by those who have a stove or other structure 
where the temperature ranges from 55° to 85°, and where 
syringing can be done freely and a moist atmosphere main¬ 
tained. Those who have not such convenience, but possess a 
vinery in Avhich the Vines start in a natural manner, may repot 
their Camellias when the Vine leaves fairly cover the roof, 
as the temperature suitable for Vines at that stage and onwards 
will be also suitable for the plants under notice. If the pots 
can be placed on a bed of leaves or other moist base it will be 
decidedly advantageous to the plants. With only a greenhouse 
at disposal the repotting should be deferred until the night 
temperature is 60° or thereabouts, and the plants should be 
grouped where they can be kept as close as possible, also 
shaded. This with light syringings will lessen the necessity 
for frequently watering the soil, and healthy root-action will be 
the sooner induced. Further details for watering a plant after 
it has been potted are given on page 211. 
A good guide for repotting unhealthy Camellias when there 
was not the requisite convenience for dealing with them before, 
is when the young growths cease to extend, and just as the 
last-formed leaves are attaining their full size ; but the longer 
the potting is deferred the greater must be the care in pre¬ 
serving the healthy roots and preventing them drying ; and 
the more radical is the treatment, such as pruning off decayed 
parts and washing the roots, the greater is the necessity for 
heat, shade, and moisture for effecting the recovery of the 
plants. 
Many Camellias while not being so healthy as they should 
be do not need to have the whole of the soil removed. The 
soil itself (and the condition of the roots) will suggest to what 
extent it should be picked out. When the plants are suffi¬ 
ciently healthy to form flower heads they may be repotted 
when these buds are about the size of Radish seeds, as if they 
are allowed to grow much larger before the roots are disturbed, 
as they must be to some extent in repotting, there is danger of 
their dropping, this mishap resulting in nine cases out of ten 
from defective root-action, the tenth being immature wood 
and excessively luxuriant growth. 
The practice of cutting down Camellias has been recentty 
alluded to. Any moderately healthy examples, but tall and 
loose, with naked branches, awkward and ungainly, may be cut 
down to any extent provided they can be placed in a warm 
steaming atmosphere, where they will shortly bristle with young 
growths, and in a short time form handsome bushy specimens. 
Numbers of Camellias could be named as not worth 5s. each a 
few years ago that were subsequently cut down, treated well, 
and which could not now be purchased for as many pounds. 
As to varieties. Camellias should be chosen on the principle 
of special adaptation to circumstances. Some may require 
small plants for small greenhouses, others free growers for 
large specimens, and others, again, sorts for covering the back 
walls of vineries and Peach houses, which can be furnished more 
attractively and profitably with these plants than any others. 
The following short selections, made with care in the great 
Camellia house of Messrs. W. Paul & Son at Waltham Cross, 
