19S 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 
tlie flower buds to open in the dead of winter, and 
they require more sunlight than the camellia while 
they are making their growth. These two points are 
the only shades of difference that I know of in the 
regular treatment of these plants. It is true that 
they grow in soils of a very opposite nature, but that 
does not affect then 1 general management. Now, 
then, is the proper stage, when the flower buds are 
set, at which China azaleas should be potted. I was 
well nigh saying tire natural time, only in a state of 
nature plants are not potted at all. This is one 
point in which they very closely resemble the camel¬ 
lia : young healthy vigorous plants of either family 
may, and very often do, grow too freely if potted in 
the spring, and so do not furnish blossom buds at 
all. This habit is sometimes made the most of with 
young plants, when it is wished to drive them on at 
a rattling pace to make good large specimens, and 
then their flowers are a secondary consideration, for 
they are potted in the spring, and also at the end of 
summer, and this certainly does make the greatest 
difference as to the time they take in coming to a 
respectable size, but with gardeners the outcry is 
that they grow out of bounds too fast. Therefore, 
examine now any young plants that were bought in 
while in bloom, and, if their roots appear freely 
occupying the outside of the ball, you may safely 
give them a small shift, even if they were potted as 
late as last April, and so with any of your own 
stock. Once a year is quite often enough, however, 
to shift plants of ordinary size, and the end of July 
is certainly the best time for this annual shift; while 
large specimens, arrived at full maturity, need not be 
potted or boxed (they do best in wooden boxes when 
they are old) but once in three or four years. We 
have a fine old plant of the original white China 
azalea, which has been in the same tub since the 
summer of 1842. I shall not say how large it is 
either way, for people are prone to say that we poor 
gardeners sometimes indulge in drawing the long 
bow; suffice it, therefore, to say that it is as healthy 
as any mandarin need be, and promises to last in 
good health as long as the tub stands. After he sets 
his flower buds he is encouraged with liquid manure 
for the rest of the summer, and also in early spring 
when the buds begin swelling, which they never fail 
to do early in Eebruary, for the plant, by a long 
course of culture, has acquired a second nature ; and, 
although it is kept in a cold shed all the winter, it 
never fails to be in bloom by the first or second week 
in March, if taken into the conservatory three weeks 
before it is wanted to be in blossom. 
I have read of two or three kinds of mixtures for 
potting these azaleas in, and when I was a younger 
gardener I used to try experiments that way with 
them myself; but I am quite satisfied they succeed 
in nothing so well as in pure peat, and the better it 
is the more luxuriant they will grow, but they mil 
do pretty well in any ordinary peat, or such as heaths 
will not succeed in, provided they do not get large 
shifts—that is, are not moved into pots or boxes 
three or four sizes larger than those they are growing 
in at the time of shifting. Like all other plants, a 
good drainage is required by them; and it is a good 
plan to mix some pieces of soft stone, or crocks, or 
charcoal, in the compost for them, to keep it more 
open, because peat is very apt to ran too much 
together, and get so close that water can hardly pass 
through it, even if it had been used in a rough state 
in the first instance. Of all the substances that have 
been recommended for keeping peat mechanically 
porous, I prefer chips of soft stone, and charcoal for 
loam. For giving richness, as well as for porosity, 
to loam, I prefer rough bones, but prejudice may 
have something to do with this, for all seem now 
agreed that charcoal is best. Yet I do not believe 
that one word of what has been urged with respect 
to the fertility of charcoal in pots may not apply to 
pieces of soft stones, or crockery, equally as well; 
and, as I said before, whichever of them you think 
the best will be sure to turn out the best. 
After potting, the plants ought to be kept in-doors 
or in a close pit, for the first ten days or a fortnight. 
This will encourage the roots to work more freely 
into the new soil: when once established in the new 
pots, they should be turned out into a warm sheltered 
situation, facing the sun, till the end of September. 
The pots ought to be placed either on a bed of coal 
ashes, or on bricks, slates, or boards, to facilitate 
the drainage, and to keep out worms. To prevent 
the azaleas being blown about with high winds, a 
couple of stakes ought to be driven down by the side 
of each pot, and opposite to each other. The head 
of the plant being firmly tied to these stakes, and 
pulling it each way, will cause it to resist the wind 
much better than if only one stake is used, and all 
the care they require after this is to see they do not 
want for water. If August should prove dry or hot, 
I need hardly say how much benefit they would de¬ 
rive from the excellent plan of double potting. 
Those plants that are to flower before Christmas 
ought to be put under glass, and kept rather close 
and warm, from the end of September, but the late 
spring flowering ones will do better out of doors, as 
long as it is safe to trust them to the weather. Such 
as are indulged with summer forcing, as above, are 
liable to be injured in their flower buds by early 
frosts. I have more than once seen the bad effects 
of trusting them out too late in October, and I have 
had them and camellias safe enough in the open air 
till a week or two before Christmas, during a mild 
season. Hardy greenhouse plants like these, when 
they are young, ought always to be put under glass 
by the first week in October, and, for such, a cold 
pit is the fittest place late in the autumn, because, 
when a fine day or a mild night occurs, the glass 
may be drawn off’ from them. This will prolong 
their summer season, as it were, but when they arrive 
at a good size and age they may always be trusted 
out later. 
I once knew a very good and successful gardener, 
who put great faith in having his large woody green¬ 
house plants out of doors as late in the autumn as 
the season would allow ; thus giving more space to 
the small stock and more tender plants when first 
boused. He had a range of large open sheds, where 
he would have these more hardy plants removed to 
on frosty nights, and he used to say, “ if we escape 
frost on the third week in September, and from the 
10th to the 15th of October, we may enjoy, possibly, 
six weeks fine open weather after that, and all that 
time may be stolen from tbe winter for our hardier 
plants.” 
These China azaleas, if once inured to the open 
air, and reared in very poor sandy peat of no great 
depth, over a dry bottom, are just as hardy with Us 
as the Portugal laurel. It was only a few years back 
that I had four nice plants of the old white exposed 
here (Shrubland Park) to 30 degrees of frost. In¬ 
deed, the mercury stood below zero one morning tb at 
winter, yet not a leaf of those azaleas was even 
browned. I ought to say, however, that they were 
left, two years previously, out of a lot that were put 
in by the heels—as gardeners say when they merely 
