108 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



moderate ventilation and abundance of 

 light. Stove climbers now wane plenty of 

 room, and liberal culture ; the syringe will 

 do womJers to keep down vermin. Average 

 temperature for pines 75' at night, 85° to 

 !)0' by day ; for general collections, 65' to 

 70' at night, and 75' to 85' by day. 



Annuals are held in light estimation 

 because people do not really cultivate them. 

 Thin out the patches and top the branch- 

 ing kinds, and they will bloom so vigor- 

 ously as to be altogether unlike the 

 crowded spindling things on which people 

 vent their abuse. Quick flowering annuals 

 sown in shady places at the end of the 

 month or early in June, will come into 

 flower for succession to those that are ex- 

 hausted, and prove of great service. 



Bedding Plants to be kept growing 

 till of sufficient size for hardening off, and 

 fresh cuttings put in of those of which the 

 stocks are short. Sorts that are in a fit 

 state for turning out to be carefully har- 

 dened first, as any severe and sudden check 

 will put them back tremendously. Place 

 them in cold pits first and shade from mid- 

 day sun, and cover up at night. By de- 

 grees, let them have full exposure, and to 

 he left uncovered night and day before turn- 

 ing out. Plants purchased from nurseries 

 generally require careful hardening, owing 

 to their having been pushed rather fast. 

 In selecting at nurseries, prefer plants from 

 open frames if you can get them. If 

 ilahlias are turned out early, they must be 

 protected at night with inverted flower- 

 pots with the holes stopped, and by bell- 

 glasses during the day, should the weather 

 he wet and cold. The 15th is quite early 

 enough to begin to turn out dahlias. Put 

 the stakes to them at once. Take cuttings 

 of everything that is wanted to bloom late 

 in the season, and for next year's stock. 

 Verbenas and petunias struck now in a 

 brisk heat will bloom well at the end of 

 July. 



Ridge Cucumbers and Marrows. — Mar- 

 rows, cucumbers, and melons may still be 

 sown ; the latter require the most heat, 

 and cannot be well fruited unless they can 

 enjoy a temperature of 70' to 80', and five 

 more degrees of bottom-heat. Pumpkins 

 and gourds of all kinds, as well as Stock- 

 wood, Southgate, and short prickly cucum- 

 bers, may be grown to great perfection in 

 the open air, by starting the seeds in a gentle 

 heat, and when the plants have formed 

 their rough leaves turning them out on 

 a bed of dung or loam v/ell enriched, and 

 giving them the protection of hand-glasses 

 for the first fortnight. Those who have no 

 hand-glasses, should protect them every 

 night till June, by turning over each plant 



a flower-pot with the hole stopped. Ridge 

 cucumbers bear well and give little trouble; 

 the simplest way of growing them is to cut 

 a trench three feet wide and two feet deep, 

 and fill this with any littery rubbish in a 

 fermenting state ; long, half-fermented 

 dung is, of course, the best. Soil it over 

 nine inches deep with the stuff that was 

 taken out, and then sow in patches of three 

 seeds, eighteen inches apart. Pots or 

 hand-glasses shonld be put over each patch 

 of seed, till they come up, when they should 

 have air by degrees, and protection against 

 night frosts, and to be thinned to the 

 strongest plant in each patch, as soon as 

 they have made their rough leaves. Cu- 

 cumbers and gourds should not be stopped, 

 but allowed to ramble as they will, either 

 on the ground or a rough trellis. They 

 should have abundance of maniiro water 

 in dry weather, and the fruit cut as fust as 

 it is ready, as, if one is left to ripen, tha 

 vines cease to be prolific. 



Auriculas. — Pick off the seed-vessels as 

 fast as the plants go out of flower, but do 

 not cut down the flower-stalk. When 

 done blooming, place the pot on a pave- 

 ment of tiles out of doors, and let them 

 have air and showers. But very heavy 

 showers must be kept off by means of a 

 spare light or a few boards, to be removed 

 as soon as the storm is over. Any infested 

 with fly, smoke well before turning out. 



Camellias. — Keep very moist and syringe 

 the foliage frequently. Warmth and shade 

 are essential to the free growth they should 

 now make preparatory to being turned out 

 to ripen their wood. 



Cinerarias. — These are now in their full 

 beauty, and should have shade during mid- 

 day hours. Give plenty of water, with 

 liquid manure, once or twice a week. As 

 they go out of bloom, cut down and remove 

 to a shady place, and eartli up with sandy 

 soil to promote the formation of roots by 

 the suckers. Take these off when rooted, 

 and pot singly and place in frames, and 

 shade for a week. 



£eef of the first sowing to be thinned 

 to one foot apart as soon as large enough. 

 From the 7th to the 14th is early enough 

 to sow for a crop of moderate-sized roots 

 to store for winter. 



Broccoli. — Sow the second week, both 

 early and late sorts, not forgetting Snow's 

 Winter White and Lee's New Sprouting. 



Ca2}sicums and Tomatoes may be turned 

 out on warm borders towards the end of the 

 month, but there will be nothing gained by 

 over haste. Tomatoes planted against hot 

 walls should be covered every night till the 

 first week in June. 



Caulijlotvers. — Give manure water to the 



