Mr. Cullis's Nursery extends over many acres in different parts of the town and neighbourhood, the progress of building compelling Mr. Cullis every now and then to retreat further and further into the country. The seed shop, conservatories, and house garden are still, however, in the same situation in which we saw them in 1831, as noticed in our volume for that year, p. 410. The conservatory was then being planted, the more rampant-growing sorts being placed in bottomless pots, resembling chimney pots, 6 or 8 inches in diameter, and 2 or 3 feet in length. After nine years' growth, and notwithstanding annual prunings, the plants, as may always be expected, had become too large, or too disproportionate to one another. They were, therefore, recently taken up, the soil entirely renewed, and a collection of young plants planted in the same manner as before. Every conservatory, to be kept in the best manner, ought to be taken up and replanted every seven or eight years, and we think the whole mass of soil ought to be separated by concealed perpendicular divisions into squares proportionate to the bulk of the plants which are to be planted in them. Mr. Cullis's mode is excellent for a nursery conservatory, where the object is to display as many kinds as possible, on a small space; but, for the conservatory of a private gentleman, more effect is produced by a few choice specimens clothed with branches and foliage from the ground upwards, than by a crowd of species drawn up by one another. For such specimens, a considerable extent of surface is necessary, not only to admit of their growth and bulk, but to promote the ripening of the wood and the formation of flower buds; and hence dividing by rectangular partitions is preferable to planting in bottomless pots, as giving more room for surface roots; because, without these, large plants can never be expected to flower well. Mr. Cullis has a very considerable collection of hardy trees and shrubs, and among these is the largest stock in England of Cupressus torulosa, all in pots, and between 2 ft. and 4 ft. in height.
