112 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 13 
such circumstances. In placing the plants in pits 
and frames the same principle must be attended to, 
or mildew and damp, if not frost, will soon commit 
sad ravages. Such a dry and raised position is better 
and safer for the plants than protecting them in old 
cucumber or melon frames or pits, from which the 
dung and soil have not been removed, because 
through them damp will assuredly rise, and more es¬ 
pecially if any little heat still remains in the decom¬ 
posing organic matter. 
Next, to keeping your plants dry—(that is just 
in such a state that the juices are kept slowly in 
motion, and the leaves just prevented from flagging, 
by giving a little water, and then only)—the most 
important thing is to preserve them in a low equal 
temperature, so that weakly diseased growth be not 
encouraged. Hence, those who followed our advice 
in potting at a late period some geraniums, calceola¬ 
rias, &c., and placed them in bottom heat, must be¬ 
ware of shutting the plants up for a long period, 
even in cold and stormy weather, or they will be 
sure to suffer greatly from damp. The first oppor¬ 
tunity, therefore, should be taken for setting the 
plants upon the surface of the bed, after that surface 
had been covered with dry ashes, mixed with quick¬ 
lime unslacked, if it can be easily got, which will ab¬ 
sorb a considerable portion of moisture, and even 
then the plants should be removed as early as pos¬ 
sible to a dry position, where no damp from ferment¬ 
ing matter could reach them. I find that plants 
taken up from the border, and treated as recom¬ 
mended, made abundance of fresh roots in from a 
fortnight to three weeks, and being gradually inured 
to a drier and a colder atmosphere were fitted to be 
placed anywhere, so that frost did not reach them. 
Frosted Plants. —If, however, “once upon a 
time,”—as many of the old story-books commence 
their wondrous tales—you should inadvertently give 
admittance to the icy king, do not either at once give 
up your plants for lost, nor yet be in too great a 
hurry to dislodge your freezing enemy. The advice 
which the King of Day gave to his ambitious yet 
earthy-headed son, when he counselled him to avoid 
extremes, and take a middle course—might, in many 
cases, be regarded as a good rule for regulating many 
gardening operations. Like Phaeton, lashing into 
madness his father’s'fiery steeds, many of us get into 
such a hurry that we cannot spare time quietly to 
ask ourselves as to the why and the how of our doings. 
Many greenhouse and cold-frame plants will stand 
several degrees of frost uninjured—that degree of 
low temperature which they will endure being in 
proportion to the nature of the plants, and the 
means which have been taken to harden their con¬ 
stitution: always provided they are allowed, or rather 
forced, to thaw again slowly and gradually. Of 
course there are limits, beyond which no care nor 
patience can ever recover plants thus frosted, such as 
when the sap vessels and cells are so effectually burst 
that no circulation can take place, and consequently 
decomposition must ensue. But when this extreme 
injury has not been reached, the plants may gene¬ 
rally be saved by the avoiding of any sudden change. 
Thus, in such circumstances, whatever covering the 
plants possessed should remain upon them for the 
following day or two, and all the more if those days 
should happen to be bright and sunny. If the frost 
continues, turn the old and add fresh covering, to pre¬ 
vent it penetrating farther, and thus make matters 
worse. If a sudden and warm thaw succeeds the 
frost, allow the covering to remain, until the tem¬ 
perature within and without should becomo gradually 
equalised. If, however, the storm has been severe, 
and the quantity of necessary protecting materials 
bulky, and such as would easily ferment in a close 
warm atmosphere, then this fermentation must be 
avoided by removing a portion, as heat thrown in 
upon the plants from such a cause would be even 
more injurious than exqtosing them at once to a mild 
atmosphere. 
From want of attention to these simple matters, 
young gardeners and amateurs frequently lose many 
of their floral favourites. They know that in general 
circumstances their little pets dearly love the sun’s 
light, and they hasten to exqtose them to his influence, 
displaying as much wisdom as parents who allow 
their young ones to place their very cold toes and 
fingers as near as possible to the blazing fire, and 
then wonder how it is possible tliat they can be so 
crippled with chilblains! Every good housewife 
knows that it would be downright madness in her 
to qdace frozen butcher’s meat, or frozen vegetables 
of any kind, in hot or boiling water, well aware that 
she would only disgust and injure her guests with a 
mass of insipidity and decomposition. She places 
them first in the coldest water she can procure, that 
the frost may be discharged slowly and gradually, 
but effectually, before she commences the cooking 
process. Precisely the same principle must be re¬ 
sorted to in the case of tender plants slightly frozen, 
only, in the present case, as any addition of moisture 
woidd be a future annoyance, we must dispense with 
cold water, and allow them to be thawed by the 
milder atmosphere gradually reaching them. “ But 
then,” says friend Still-liave-a-doubt, “ it seems so 
odd that you should be always recommending as 
much light and air as qiossible to groiviny plants, and 
yet here you wish me to exclude for a time the influ¬ 
ence of both.” In reply, there are few general rules 
without exceptions, and these exceqitions, if not too 
numerous, only give strength and validity to the 
rule. But, in the present case, we desire no excep¬ 
tion, as the rule is unbroken. We advise that green¬ 
house, window, and bedding-out plants, qrreserved 
during the winter in places without artificial heat, 
should be kept from growing as much as qiossible, by 
kceqiing them cool and dry. We advise that they 
should have every qiossible exposure to light, that 
the little growth which does take place might qirovc 
an addition to the substance of the plant, and not a 
mere extension of the matter it previously contained, 
such as would be the case if the qilants were in a dark 
sultry atmosphere. And we recommend abundance 
of air for keeping down all those fungous broods 
which gardeners technically call damp, and which, if 
allowed to accumulate in a close warm atmosphere, 
would soon make all your plants fit for the rubbish 
heap. Hence it is that the covering up of plants 
from light and air for any length of time, when still 
in a growing state, is attended with such disastrous 
consequences. Very different is it in the case before 
us. The plants are slightly frozen, and, therefore, 
growth is at a standstill. The cold will prevent 
moisture rising and being deposited, and, there¬ 
fore, there will be nothing to feed and suqiport 
those fungous damps which usually visit us. If 
the plants are not frosted enough to be perma¬ 
nently injured, they might thus be shut up for 
months, without taking more injury, provided the 
frost lasted as long. I think it was Mr. Errington 
who some year’s ago, in one of his admirable qiaqiers, 
recommended the allowing young cauliflower-plants 
to be slightly irosted before covering uqi. Upon the 
same princiqile, the nearer your hardy greenhouse or 
