Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/186

174 leaves flag, it is thought that no injury is done; vain delusion for in a month or two, the buds fail off wholesale, and no end of wonder is excited as to the cause, for the plants may then be in the most favorable condition with respect to moisture at the roots.

Before they are put out of doors they should be freely exposed to the air. A shady position, away from the drip of trees, should be selected for their quarters, and each pot stood upon a couple of bricks, to prevent worms getting in through the bottom. The plants should be regularly looked over and watered when required, but without over-doing it, for it is quite as easy to ruin their health with too much water as it is by drying them up.

The principal points in camellia growing are to pot them in sound fibry soil, to have the drainage perfect, to afford sufficient moisture at the roots without any excess, and to avoid all sudden changes and checks. When the pots are full of roots, and it is not considered desirable to repot the plants, a watering with weak manure water will be of immense assistance to them.

We have said nothing thus far, as to the desirability of planting camellias in open borders, but that is the right way to furnish a camellia house. Prepare well-drained borders or stations with a foot depth of rough material, such as broken bricks or tiles and two feet depth of good hazel loam full of fibre chopped up to the size of a man's fist and mixed with a sixth part of old bricks broken to the same size. In such a border camellias will grow grandly if the atmospheric conditions are right. The subjoined rough sketch shows how camellias are planted in the house of a cultivator who supplies Covent Garden Market with the double white camellias from October to February. The border is prepared as above described, but in making it a number of two inch drain-pipes are inserted round the station for every tree. The result is that air is admitted to the rubble and finds its way to the roots, and while the plants benefit by the access of this necessity of life, the soil is kept sweet and may be flooded with water occasionally without any fear of undesirable results.

To propagate camellias is strictly a nursery business, and our advice to the amateur is not to think about it. But a few words on the subject will be consistent with the purposes of this work. Camellias are multiplied by seeds, cuttings, and