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THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[November, 



Greenhouse and House Gardening. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



There has been a great deal said about steam 

 heating in our columns of late. It might seem, on 

 the first thought, that this was only of interest to 

 commercial florists who desire to erect houses on 

 a large scale. But it was our conviction that in- 

 directly the matter was of interest to all who loved 

 winter flowers ; whether in rooms or small green- 

 houses. Many large dwellings are now heated by 

 steam, and where this is the case, a branch to the 

 small conservatory or plant window solves the 

 whole difficulty about heating these cosy little 

 places. Besides, many people now prefer to buy 

 cut flowers rather than grow them themselves, and 

 hence if the perfection of steam heating will re- 

 duce the cost of raising flowers it becomes a ques- 

 tion of interest to everybody. 



There will still be many who want windows and 

 small plant houses heated for plants, who have no 

 chance to do it by steam. These will yet have to 

 depend on the ordinary cellar heaters ; or, if these 

 cannot be had, wood stoves or other contrivances. 

 As a rule, coal oil stoves are the best. Shutters, 

 outside or inside, which keep in the heat, are often 

 as valuable as inside methods of supplying heat 

 which is lost. 



Again, it is wise to attempt to grow in these 

 places only such plants as require little heat. The 

 old camellia and azalea are still among the best 

 for small greenhouses. 



Greenhouses attached to dwellings were former- 

 ly called conservatories. They were used simply 

 to keep plants in bloom, not to grow them. After 

 blooming they were sent back to the greenhouse, 

 or. to the florist where they came from. But of 

 late years small greenhouses attached to dwellings 

 " are called conservatories, whether the plants are 

 grown as well as flowered or not. 



Pot culture, whether in rooms or greenhouses, 

 depends, in a great measure, for its success, on how 

 to water properly. Everything is simple after that. 

 Now, the oftener plants want water, the healthier 

 they will be ; but to give them water when they 

 do not need it is " awfully " bad practice. The 

 " drainage " — that is to say, the material over the 

 hole at the bottom of the pot — is in order to help 



carry water rapidly away. It seldom hurts a plant 

 to give it a great deal of water, provided it runs 

 rapidly through the pot, and away through the 

 hole at the bottom. Therefore if you give a plant 

 water in some quantity and it does not run through 

 rapidly, be assured there is something wrong with 

 the drainage. We must always watch very care- 

 fully when the plant is dry, before watering it. 

 But the best plan is to turn the pot up-side-down, 

 and knock the edge against a post, letting the ball 

 fall into the left hand, examine the bottom of the 

 ball and take away whatever may obstruct the 

 water's passage, and then return to the same pot. 

 We should like to repeat, so that it may be always 

 present in the mind of the novice in pot culture, 

 that it is almost impossible to give a plant too 

 much water, when the water passes away rapidly 

 through the soil and through the hole in the bot- 

 tom of the pot. Of course our philosophical 

 readers, who have followed the articles in the 

 Gardeners' Monthly, especially its Natural 

 History Department, know the reason for this; 

 but in this column the idea is to give only practi- 

 cal directions, and to leave reasons alone. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



SOME GOOD POT PLANTS. 



BY JAMES LESLIE, ST. JOHNSBURY, VT. 



Rhododendron Fosterianum is one of the most 

 magnificent of the genus I have seen. The flower 

 measures about six inches across, beautiful clear 

 white, with a dash of yellow on the upper petal, 

 and very fragrant. There are others of the same 

 type, very fine ; in fact, all in this section are well 

 worth cultivating. 



Laslia harpophylla is one of the most charming 

 orchids, on account of its color — described in the 

 London catalogues as orange scarlet — lasts long 

 in beauty, and, as far as my experience goes, is 

 easy to cultivate. 



Freesia refracta alba, a bulb lately intro- 

 duced, is a nice thing ; easy to cultivate, free 

 flowering, with a delicious odor. This bulb when 

 it is better known cannot fail to become a great 

 favorite. It grows nicely in pure, turfy soil, with 



