14 



NEAELT HAEDY GEEENHOUSE PLANTS. 



S an amateur cultivator, intensely fond of gardening, but 

 occupied in business a large proportion of those hours 

 in which, usually, gardening work should be done, I 

 wish to oiFer a lew words to amateurs situated like 

 myself, and my text shall be, " Grow as many nearly 

 hardy greenhouse plants as you can." How often does it happen 

 that the old man we employ as jobber, does not turn up at the 

 right moment to light the fires, or that we ourselves are hurried or 

 idle, or otherwise influenced in a way which operates prejudiciall}'' 

 to our plants. Yet we love our plants, and when frost melts them, 

 or fire burns them, or drought makes them shrink into substitutes 

 for tinder, we grieve deeply, and would call them back to life and 

 health if we could. Now experience has taught me — and, by the 

 way, how much do I owe the Floral AVorld for it ; may the Edi- 

 tor's shadow increase (I'm told he has no shadow, a sort of Peter 

 Schlemel) — experience has taught me that nearly hardy greenhouse 

 plants stand ill-treatment with greater impunity than most other 

 plants, and are just the things to pay one for extra trouble if we 

 like to bestow it ; and, on the other hand, are not likely to be lost, 

 even if we treat them badly. 



Take the Camellia, for instance. I know it requires skill to grow 

 it well ; and as it is the grandest greenhouse plant we possess, it is 

 worth all the skill that can be bestowed upon it ; yet if we neglect 

 we do not lose it ; if frost sets in, ten to one if the camellias suffer, 

 unless they have been roasted the day before, and the Floral World 

 has warned us often enough against that folly. The only bad habit 

 they have, is that of resenting ill-treatment by flinging their flower 

 buds at you. To prevent that, remember the advice which has been 

 given in these pages, and never let them go dry, after they are put 

 out to ripen their wood. This I have again and again proved to be 

 the real secret of the matter. 



Then see what a choice we have after the Camellia. There is 

 the Bottle-Brush, with its brilliant feathery plume of richest crim- 

 son, which only needs protection from the severest frost ; the 

 Cytissus, brilliant with gold in the early spring months ; the Cory- 

 dalis, which ten degrees of frost will not kill ; the shrubby Veronicas, 

 blue, lilac, red, needing only to be protected from the severest 

 frowns of the winter ; the lovely Plumbago capensis, with its thou- 

 sands of turquoise-like flowers ; the Chinese Primula, so nearly 

 hardy, and now in flower delightfully ; the Cyclamen Persicum, 

 lovely as sweet sixteen in its rosy blushes, and fragrant as the 

 may; Epacris and Ericas, if we can only keep them from being sod- 

 dened with damp ; Azaleas in endless variety ; Fuchsias, most shame- 

 fully neglected, and, I suppose, some soon to be despised ; and a few 

 Ferns, such as Adiantum cuneatum, Aspleniumbulbiferum, Davallia 

 Canariensis, Nephrolepis exaltata, Pteris serrulata and cretica, Platy- 

 loma falcata, and Doryopteris sagittifolia. To make up the furni- 

 ture we can have zonale geraniums without end ; and I for one, 



