THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



bloom must have occasional strengtliening 

 with liquid manure. Lanky plants will be 

 improved by removing the top buds before 

 they expand, to throw vigour into the lower 

 branches. 



Cinerarias are very fine this season, and 

 some good seedlings have made their ap- 

 pearance. It is a good time for beginners 

 to purchase sorts in bloom to propagate 

 for stock. Green-fly will annoy the 

 plants, unless kept down witli gentle smok- 

 ings. Dung, three parts rotten, and mel- 

 low hazel-loam should be chopped over 

 and laid up at once for potting the next lot, 

 so as to be sweet and friable when wanted. 



Conservatory should now be very gay 

 with bulbs, camellias, and forced decidu- 

 ous shrubs and trees. Look out at once 

 for the summer supply. Cannas are now 

 fashionable for their fine tropical-looking 

 foliage, and some new varieties of Ricinus 

 will be much used to lielp the foliage effects 

 of Caladinms, etc. Datura Wrightii is a 

 charming Convolvulus-like herbaceous 

 plant for a warm house, and delightfully 

 scented. Sow seed now in a brisk heat. 

 Treat the same as balsam. We have some 

 plants that have flowered five years in 

 succession and have now large fleshy roots. 

 It is therefore a mistake to call it an 

 annual. 



Dahlias for show ought now to be 

 strong in 60-pots, and kept growing 

 slowly. Cuttings put in now will make 

 good plants. For large specimens, use old 

 plants, to be started now at the bottom of 

 a vinery or a cool part of a pine-pit. 



Dandelion, grown in Pascall's seakale- 

 pots in a gentle dung-heat, forms an ele- 

 gant and acceptable salad. Strong plants 

 may be forced the same as seakale and 

 asparagus, and must be thoroughly 

 blanched, to prevent bitterness. Any old 

 plants in places about the garden may 

 be blanched where they are by turning a 

 pot over them and stopping the hole with 

 a piece of tile. 



Forcing must be continued with lettuce, 

 mint, asparagus, and potatoes. Many of 

 the complaints of failure which reach us 

 are attributable to high night tempera- 

 tures. All sources of heat that are under 

 full control, such as hot water and flues, 

 admit of being reduced or increased, as 

 required, and the temperature should 

 always fall from five to ten degrees at 

 night in heated structures of a^/ kinds. 



Kidney Beans. — Sow a small lot of 

 Newington Wonder or Fulmsrs forcing 

 beans on a warm border at once, and in 

 ten days make another sowing. Sow 

 Negro or Speckled Dun the third week, 

 and Eunners the last week of the month. 



Pelargoniums to be encouraged to grow 

 freely by the use of the syringe and regular 

 tying out. Fumigate as soon as fly ap- 

 pears, or much mischief may ensue. 

 Plants showing for bloom to have weak 

 manure or soot-water at every other 

 watering. 



Orchid House. — An increase of heat 

 and moisture will now be required for 

 Orchids of all kinds, in both Indian and 

 Mexican houses, but water must not be 

 applied directly to any until growth has 

 fairly commenced. Specimens of Cattleya, 

 Galanthe, Ph.ijus, Saccolabium, Stanliopea, 

 Zygopetalum, Brassia, Dendrobium, and 

 Sobralia will require frequently syringing 

 about their pots and blocks as the plants 

 advance ; in fact the cultivator must now 

 encourage luxuriant growth as early as 

 possible, in order to get the bulbs well 

 ripened in the autumn. Shading must be 

 put up, not later than the second week of 

 ilie month, but a better plan is to have 

 good roller blmds, so as to shade at will, 

 if only fur an hour or two, vvhoi there is a 

 hot sun with an east wind. Growers of 

 Ana^ctochilus usually place them ou 

 bottom-heat, and keep very close at this 

 time of year, which is the very opposite 

 of good practice. Bottom-heat causes too 

 quick a growth which results in weakness, 

 and want of ventilation adds to the mis- 

 chief, and the two evils are frequently 

 combined for the destruction of collections 

 for which large sums of money have been 

 paid. Ordinary stove temperature is all 

 they require. Let the bell-glasses be 

 always slightly tilted up ; this will render 

 necessary more frequent watering at the 

 root, which the plants will enjoy from the 

 present time to the end of September. 

 Any not newly repotted this season should 

 be repotted without delay, in a mixture of 

 equal parts of sphagnum, chopped fine, and 

 flbry peat with one-half part of sharp 

 silver sand. In potting, raise the collar a 

 little above the soil, and finish with a 

 sprinkling of washed silver sand on the 

 surface. 



Orchids thai may be in bloom in April. 

 — Arpliophyllum giganteum ; Bletia cam- 

 panulata, and patula ; Burlingtonia 

 Candida and fragrans : Cattleya amethys- 

 toglossa, Mossiee, and Skinneri ; Chysis 

 bractescens ; Coryanthes speciosa ; Cypri- 

 pedium caudatum, caudatura roseum, 

 hirsutissimum, and villosum ; Dendro- 

 bium aggregatum m.^jus, anosmum, Cam- 

 bridgeanum, crepidatum, Dalhousianum, 

 densiriorum, densiflorum album, Faimerii, 

 fimbriatum, fimbriatum oculatum, litui- 

 florum, nobile, nubile internieuium, iiobile 

 pendulum, Pierardii latifolium, primu- 



