232 
THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
PROTECTING TENDER PLANTS IN SPRING. 
its new and handsome leaves are in process of develop¬ 
ment. Several fine Bambusas will endure our ordinary 
winters in the southern counties, and need only the shelter of 
a cool house in the 
midlands and the 
north. As they are 
extremely elegant, 
it is advisable, if 
there be any doubt 
jig of their hardiness, 
__ to pot them before 
they suffer by frost, 
and consign them 
to the conservatory 
for the winter. Gannas are among the most handsome plants 
available for grand effects, and they offer immense variety of 
leafage and flower, some 
of them gigantic with 
leaves of the most deli¬ 
cate pale green, or deep¬ 
est purple, or blackish 
bronze ; others dwarf in 
growth, and equally 
various in decorative 
characters. Probably all 
the cannas in cultivation 
maybe preserved through 
the winter in the open 
ground with the aid of a 
protecting coat of litter ; 
and it is certain that a 
large proportion of the 
most handsome may be 
treated as nearly hardy, 
for they have been left 
out seven or eight years 
continuously at Battersea 
Park, and a considerable 
number are found to be 
quite hardy in Paris. 
They need a rich deep soil, with abundance of water all the 
summer. For their protection in winter a cradle covered 
THAPSIA DECIPIENS. 
