Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/185

Rh When camellias become sickly a portion of the old soil should be removed, and the plants repotted in the same sized pot again, filling in with fresh soil. If it can be managed, the pots should be partially plunged in a bottom-heat of 70°. The best time for shifting healthy plants into larger pots is just after they have completed their growth, and a few weeks before they are placed out of doors. They must not be disturbed materially at the roots, or a large portion of the buds will probably drop off. Weakly plants, or those that are leggy and require cutting back, should be taken in hand just as the young growth begins to push. After the branches are pruned in, the plants should be frequently syringed, and then, when the young growth is about half an inch in length, the plants should be repotted, much of the old soil being removed from the roots. After this, they should be kept close until the young roots begin to take hold of the fresh soil. After a gradual hardening off, they can be turned out of doors for the summer, along with the others. All the plants ought to be examined every spring, and any shoots inclined to grow straggling cut in. By this simple method they are always handsomely shaped, without the harsh necessity of a grand cutting back every three or four years, which can only be done at the expense of a season’s bloom. After the flowers are over in the spring, a moderate syringing overhead will keep the foliage fresh and clean.

The most common complaint of the amateur camellia grower is, that just when the plants should be coming into flower the buds drop unopened and the work of a season is lost. The beginner must be prepared for this; and moreover, must be prepared to be told that the shedding of the buds is due to mismanagement. Between the completion of the new growth and the opening of the flowers, camellias are, we say, “at rest.” The term is perhaps misleading, for to the uninitiated it conveys the idea that neglect will do no harm, and hence it happens that, in the later days of summer, camellias are allowed to go dust dry. It may be that sufficient rain occurs to wet the surface of the soil for a couple of inches in depth, no trouble being taken to examine and sound each individual pot, to ascertain if the soil is wet quite through. The leaves, from their leathery texture, show no signs of the suffering the plants are undergoing until matters become desperate. If the watering-can comes to their relief before the