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JOUBNAIi OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



[ January 15, 1867. 



head inwards towards the thumb, and a shred between the fore- 

 finger and thumb ; the left baud will then be at liberty to place 

 the branch in its proper position, and all the materials will be 

 ready for performing one operation in the most convenient 

 manner. Cut the dead wood out of Raspberries; prune Currants, 

 and, where birds are not destructive to the buds. Gooseberries 

 also. Scrape moss and lichens off Apple and other fruit trees. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSEKTATOKY. 



Although it is not desirable to shift the general stock of 

 stove or greenhouse plants for a few weeks to come, yet under 

 some circumstances a part may require being fresh-potted at 

 this time. Wheu such is the case, room must be made to 

 keep them apart from the general stock for a short time after- 

 wards, as their treatment will be somewhat ditfereut. Most soft- 

 wooded plants require heading-back or pruning at the present 

 season, and this should always be performed a sufficient time 

 before the plant is repotted to enable it to m nke a fresh growth. 

 It is often necessary, too, with this class of plants to dis-root 

 them in some measure at this poltiug, and such is an addi- 

 tional inducement to defer it till the plant hag made sufficient 

 growth, say young shoots an inch long, to enable it to bear the 

 operation without injury. Stove plants of similar habit will be 

 much benefited by bottom heat and a moist temperature till 

 active growth commences. Thin and tie out the shoots as they 

 advance. Much of the beauty of plants consists in their having 

 clean healthy leaves. Attend to the training of plants on 

 wires and trclUses. Fast-growing plants, such as Tropreolums, 

 will require looking to frequently. Cinerarias will now require 

 some assistance in the shape of weak manure water. 



STOVE. 



Little advance in temperature may be permitted here at 

 present ; wait for an increase of light, without which any appli- 

 cation of heat and moisture will be vain. Let 60° without sun 

 be the maximum, sinking several degrees at night. Endeavour 

 to create motion in the atmosphere by admitting fresh air in 

 very small quantities at a very low level. Some of the Ljelias 

 and Cattleyas will commence rooting, let them have attention 

 and encouragement. Cymbidium siuense is a most useful plant 

 for the drawing-room ; it generally flowers about this time, 

 and the scent is most delicious — equal to the most powerful 

 summer Mignonette. A thorough search for snails and vermin 

 should take place previous to potting, and all scale, moss, &c., 

 must be cleansed from the leaves. Dry roots of Gloriosas, 

 and a portion of the stock of Gesneras, Gloxinias, Achimenes, 

 and other herbaceous stove plants may now be plunged in 

 bottom heat to start them previous to potting. As the principal 

 kinds of Begonias will now be showing bloom, they may be ad- 

 vantageously removed to the conservatory, previously staking 

 them carefully to preserve their fine foliagefrom being damaged. 



POBCING-PIT. 



The following plants may be now introduced with every 

 prospect of success, the plants being in good order :^Fran- 

 cisceas. Gardenias, Hedychiums, Gesneras, Phajus, Daphne 

 cneorum, Clerodendrons, Eranthemums, Honeysuckles, Sweet 

 Briars, Cinerarias, Roses, Lilacs, Rhododendrons, Azaleas (both 

 Chinese and the common), Dutch bulbs. Acacias, Ealmias, Poly- 

 gala cbamaibuxus. Pinks, especially the Anne Buleyn, Aloys'ia 

 citriodora, Heliotropes, &e. It is not meant that these are all 

 equally eligible for forcing, but that all of them may be forced 

 if well prepared for the purpose in the previous summer, by 

 early growth, early rest, and a potful of healthy roots. A day 

 heat ot 60° or 6.5° will suffice at present, sinking at night to 

 50° or 55°.— W. Eeane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



Notes on storing ice will be given shortly ; it will, there- 

 fore, only be necessary to mention that owing to the rough, wet, 

 though mild weather commencing on the morning of the 6th, 

 most of the other work has consisted in cleaning glass, washing 

 Peaches and Vines, cleaning and moving plants, washing pots, 

 &c., inside the houses and sheds, and giving all the air that 

 could be safely afforded to vegetables and plants in cold pits 

 and frames. 



E.Tcliiiling Frost. — Thanks to the covering and the snow, 

 nothing has suffered from the severe frost, except such as will 

 be at once referred to, and which, as serving to show how little 

 artificial heat will keep out a frost not far from zero, may be 

 more generally useful than giving a detail about different plants, 

 which would be little else than a repetition of the doings of past 

 weeks. 



We have a long verandah, 10 feet wide, in front of a waU, 

 with upright glass in front lU feet in height, and roofed with a 

 rounded canopy of zinc. In this verandah a largo number of 

 plants, such as Scarlet Pelargoniums, stood until the late 

 frost. Before it came the plants had to be moved to one end, 

 and the most tender were taken away ; but there were some 

 large vases draped with a thick covering of Ivy-leaved Pelar- 

 goniums that could not well be removed, and at the approach 

 of frost these were covered over with mats and left where they 

 were, close to the back wall, to take their chance. Though the 

 place was kept close, and the air, therefore, still, the frost 

 through mats and all nearly made wrecks of the trailing white 

 Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums, which we partly expected, as hardly 

 a better radiator of heat could be found than a roof of dark- 

 coloured zinc. Of comse, in .^uch a dry still place, any frost 

 could have been kept from plants if they had been deeply 

 enough covered with dry hay or litter, but it was not desirable 

 to do so. 



Now for the converse, showing what even a small stove, or 

 some borrowed heat may do in an otherwise unhealed place. 

 The verandah, of a similar width, is continued for -40 feet along 

 the end of the mansion ; but here it is much loftier and of a 

 more architectural character, and is separated by glass doors, 

 &c., from the part first mentioned. The height of the front, 

 chiefly glass, and without any protection, is about 12 feet, the 

 height from the floor to the centre of a low span-roof of thick 

 ribbed glass being about 15 feet. The roof is concealed from 

 the outside by an ornamental parapet, and thus the snow lay 

 on it, unswept by the winds, during the three days of the 

 severest frost. The back wall was the end of the mansion, 

 and, therefore, was protected from the cold by fires in the 

 rooms on the other side of the wall. A glass doorway at the 

 west end of this 40-feet length, opened into one of these rooms, 

 in which a fire was burning all day, and say until ten o'clock 

 at night. The room not being used in the evening, the glass 

 doorway was opened two or three hours, which would tend 

 then to heat the air in this part of the verandah. With the 

 help of the comfortable back wall, and the assistance of this 

 open door for a time, such plants as Coleus were destroyed, but 

 some large plants of Scarlet Pelargoniums, about which we 

 were chiefly anxious, were not in the least touched, and even 

 some rather large plants of Heliotropes, not very far from the 

 door, showed no signs of suffering. Such pendant succulent 

 plants as Nasturtiums were also uninjured. Some variegated 

 Pelargoniums in vases within a few inches of the glass in front, 

 unprotected by any blinds, did not suffer in the least. Some- 

 thing, no doubt, was owing to the dry back wall, with rooms 

 and fires on the other side, but no chimney in the wall ; some- 

 thing, also, to the air being dry, and the soil about the roots of 

 the plants being rather dry ; but the safety is chiefly to be at- 

 tributed to the door being open between this part of the ve- 

 randah and the living-room for a few hours. This door, be it 

 noted, is at one end of this part of the verandah, and, therefore, 

 nearly iO feet from the other end, which, we may remark, is 

 chiefly glass, and yet as respects the safety of such plants as 

 Scarlet Pelargoniums, there is scarcely, if at all, a shade of dif- 

 ference between one end and the other. This may give a hint 

 to those who are greatly perplexing themselves as to how best 

 to ventilate and change the air in their plant-houses. The 

 above simple facts prove that the opening of a door between 

 the end of a room and the end of a verandah is capable of 

 Securing a double circulation of heated and of cold air from 

 the farther end of one to the farther end of the other re- 

 spectively, and that this would continue so long as the fire 

 burned, or the one place was much warmer than the other. 



If we were asked if we should be satisfied with such a bor- 

 rowed mode of heating a plant-place, we would say. Decidedly 

 not, as there might not always be the same favourable circum- 

 stances in such a severe frost, and it might not be suitable to be 

 always fixing on the hardiest plants, and, besides, it is always 

 best for one part of an establishment to be independent of the 

 favours or the caprice of another, even as respects borrowing 

 heat from a room ; and, therefore, when flowering plants are to 

 be kept in a place all the year round, we prefer that it .should 

 be independently heated ; but still the simple facts show that 

 thousands who would have their little glass house attached to 

 their sitting-room but for the dread of flues, and boilers, and 

 water-pipes, may accomplish their object by means of a small 

 stove, or more simply still, by denying themselves the warmth 

 of their sitting-room, by opening the communication between 

 it and their pet plant-house during a few of the coldest hoiu'S. 

 — E.F. 



