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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



may be planted two inches deep. A light 

 netting, or some similar protection will be 

 found useful now as a protection to tulip 

 beds, and if the foilage gets frozen, water 

 them with cold water before the sun gets on 

 them. Walks should be turned and rolled, 

 and grass plots dressed, so as to give an air 

 of neatness and order to the whole of the 

 ground. 



Greenhouse. — If bedding-stock is still 

 in request, cuttings should be struck in a 

 brisk heat, even as high as 90 degs. ; they 

 will bear much more heat now than they 

 would a month ago. China roses may be 

 propagated in pots by taking off young 

 shoots close to the old wood when four 

 inches long, and plunging in a moderate heat. 

 General collections should only have a mode- 

 rate heat, and a strong healthy growth should 

 be promoted by giving plenty of air, with a 

 view to putting out the fires for the season. 

 Many specimen-plants will want liberal 

 shifts, and all subjects not immediately re- 

 quired in flower, should be regularly and 

 frequently stopped to induce bushy growth 

 and form good heads. Water and liquid 

 manure must be more freely given, and vigi- 

 lant efforts must be made to keep down 

 green fly and thrips. Many of the less 

 tender things may be removed to cold pits, 

 to increase the room for other things that 

 want continued protection to make fine 

 plants. Young stuff from the propagating 



house should be potted as fast as rooted, and 

 kept close till started afresh, and then be 

 gradually inured to air and light, so as to be 

 strong by the middle of May. All tropical 

 plants required for summer blooming in the 

 house, should be got on without delay, and 

 a quick growth promoted so as to allow 

 them as long a season as possible for bloom- 

 ing, and ripening their buds for next season. 

 Average temperature this month 55 degs. 

 by night, 60 to 65 degs. by day. Where 

 desirable, the house may be shut up with 

 sun heat to render fire unnecessary. 



Stove. — Vines in bloom must be kept 

 close, and with a little extra fire-heat to 

 prevent injury from damp setting on the 

 berries; melons should be encouraged to 

 make quick growth until established, and 

 then kept cooler to encourage the production 

 of fruitful wood ; but do not stop the main 

 shoots till they have extended as far as the 

 space allowed them, and then they may be 

 stopped to promote the growth of lateral*. 

 Pines will want shade on bright days, and air 

 as often as possible, but the atmosphere about 

 them must be kept moist, and the roots well 

 soaked whenever the soil about them is dry. 

 Red spider will now be getting active, and 

 must be kept dewn. Keep also a good look- 

 out for green-fly. especially among young 

 stock. Average temperature for pines, 70 

 degs. at night, 80 degs. by day, for general 

 collections, 65 degs. by night, 75 degs. by day. 



THE PLEASURES OF A KITCHEN GAEDEN. 



BY SHIRLEY HIBBERD. 



However refined may be the pleasures 

 attendant on the culture of flowers, 

 and the production of scenic effects in 

 ornamental gardening, a few rows of 

 well grown edibles have special charms 

 for most people. What can be more 

 jolly in appearance than a well stocked 

 kitchen garden in autumn, when the 

 potatoe ground has been cleared and 

 planted, when many of the summer 

 crops still linger to say " good bye," 

 the bowery "runners" still holding 

 their blooms, and weighing their sticks 

 down with thousands of tender pods ; 

 the kale and brocoli and winter cab- 

 bage dressed up in their hearty green, 

 like files of riflemen, full of strength 

 and suggestive of knife and fork battles 

 before good fires, when the beef will 

 have its right flavour, because honour- 

 ably accompanied ? Peep into the shed 

 or store-loft of the good gardener, and 

 see the rosy-cheeked and russet apples 



stored away all shining with ripeness,, 

 and beating the sweetest flower bed 

 in their perfume ; the onions drying 

 ready for the very goose that is wad- 

 ling yonder; the potatoes swelling 

 their sacks tight, every tuber of them 

 ready to transform itself into a snow- 

 ball ; all reminding you of baked and 

 roasted delicacies, that butter and pepper 

 are to make additionally savoury on 

 winter nights, or that at Christmas — the- 

 grand feast of the year — are to pro- 

 claim gardening to be the homeliest, 

 the prettiest, and the most profitable 

 of arts. Then in early summer, what 

 among gardening scenes more attrac- 

 tive than the rows of peas laden with 

 snowy blossoms, like clouds of butter- 

 flies, or trying to topple their stakes 

 over with their weight of plump pods, 

 that make your mouth water as you 

 involuntarily conjure up the smell of 

 the mint that goes before them to the 



