1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



39 



Green House and House Gardening. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The best feature of a garden in Winter is a 

 •nice greenhouse, filled with healthy plants. 

 They need not be forced flowers, for there are 

 numbers which bloom naturally at this season of 

 the year. 



New Holland and Cape plants, such as Epac- 

 Tis, Acacia, Heaths, &c., are now the glory of the 

 •greenhouse ; hot bursts of sun on them should 

 be avoided, as it lays in them the seed of " con- 

 sumption," which frequently carries them off 

 the following summer. 



Chi'ysanthemums should now be raised from 

 cuttings for fall flowering. They make better 

 blooming plants than offsets. 



Auriculas, Carnations, Pinks, and Polyanthus 

 — the prettiest of florists' flowers must be kept 

 cool, just free from frost, with plenty of air, if 

 best results are desired. 



Azaleas succeed well by grafting with the half 

 ripe shoots of the present season's growth on 

 plants raised either by seeds or cuttings. Old 

 'wood does not take readil}'. 



Geraniums, Pelai'goniums, Cinerarias, and 

 Chinese Primroses, must be kept as near the 

 .;glass and light as possible ; they do little good in 

 shady places. Keep oft' the green Aphis ; for 

 this, on a small scale, there is nothing like hot 

 water; on a large scale, tobacco smoke, in sev- 

 eral successive light doses, is still the best 

 .remedy. 



Camellias will require rather more water while 

 growing than at other times. Just before they 

 grow is a good season to graft. Cut down the 

 ■Stock, cleft graft in the crown, wax, and plunge 

 in a bottom heat of 70°. A great many kinds 

 may be had on one plant by the bottle system — 

 a shoot about to grow is obtained, and attached 

 to the stock as in inarching, the end of the shoot 

 being put in a small phial of water suspended 

 beneath it. This plan does best, however, with 

 jhalf-ripe wood in July. 



Pansies are coming now into flower. They 

 like an airy frame, where they will not be 

 roasted in mid-day nor exposed to dr3dng winds, 

 :and yet have a free circulation of air and plenty 

 of light. Planted out in such a frame, and the 

 •old shoots cut away as soon as the plant has done 



flowering, the plants will keep healthy over till 

 the next season. Superior varieties can be raised 

 from seed. Choose those with the roundish 

 petals, best colors, and the first flowers that 

 open, to raise seed from. 



Look out for a good stock of bedding plants in 

 time ; by striking cuttings of such things as grow 

 rapidly, and sowing seeds of such annuals as may 

 be advanced to advantage. 



Window plants are as much appreciated at 

 this season as at any time of the year. There 

 are few things more beautiful than the old classes 

 of roses — the Borbon and China. We have seen 

 some beauties in windows recently, and wonder 

 they are not more grown. In another case we 

 saw a handsome Chorozenia cordata. Usually, 

 Australian plants do not thrive in our climate, 

 but this plant was simply plunged in partial 

 shade in summer, rewarding the owner with its 

 pretty brown and purple butterfly-like flowers 

 all winter. This, and many other window flow- 

 ers, are liable to sufier from the minute insect 

 known as red spider. Very minute whitish 

 green spots on the leaves usually indicate the 

 insect's existence. It is best to lay the plants on 

 their sides, in the open air, and treat them to a 

 powerful syringing with strong soap-suds, and, 

 while still damp, sprinkle a little sulphur on 

 them from a pepper-box. Red spiders do not 

 hanker much after sulphur. Sometimes window 

 plants suffer from mildew, and sulphur is a good 



remedy for it also. 



«•«• 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



COOL HOUSE ORCHIDE/E. 



BY MR. J. TAPLIN, SOUTH A^IBOY, N. J. 



Many people are under the idea that it is 

 necessary to have a very high temperature for 

 all Orchids; but this is a mistake, and has been 

 often pointed out in the European gardening 

 periodicals, but usually with the recommenda- 

 tion of a house specially devoted to this class of 

 plants. This is quite unnecessary, for many of 

 the most charming species will grow better in 

 an ordinary greenhouse than in any other place. 



In former times, when the high temperature 

 system was believed in for Orchids of all kinds, 

 the specimens from mountains and compara- 

 tively cool localities died off" soon after importa- 



