June 27, 1867. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOUTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



43y 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



JUNE 27— JULY 3. 1867. 



Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Institution 

 L Anniversary. 

 Ciystal Palace Rose <*how. 

 2 Sunday after Trinity. [\SCr2. 



Princess Louis of Hesse Married, 

 Royal Horticultural Society's Rose Show. 

 Royal Botanic Society's Show. 



Son 



Sola. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



hi 



19 «J 8 

 19 8 



TO. h. 1 

 54af0 I 



19 



18 

 18 

 IS 

 18 



26 



4 



50 



44 



48 

 



From observations taken near London during the last forty years, the average day temperature of the week is 73.3'; and its nighl 

 temperature 49.5". The greatest heat was 91", on the 30th, 1862; and the lowest cold 34', on thei 26th, 1664; and 80th, 1863. The greatest 

 Jail of rain was 1.18 inch. 



BLOOMING PRIMULA SINENSIS A SECOND 

 YEAR. 



OW beautiful these Primulas 

 are ! What lovely Primulas !" 

 exclaimed my lady on her 

 return after a3-ear's absence 

 from liome. " We never had 

 such fine plants or any so 

 well bloomed before ! " and my lady and lier daughter were 

 in ecstacies, for they were "fond, extremely fond of Primu- 

 las." But who is there that is not delighted to see one of 

 tliose lovely flowers with its rich masses of beautifully- 

 formed rose or carmine blossoms, and its serrated foliage '.' 

 or its equally lovely masses of white, vieing in purity with 

 tlie snow outside as it is falling upon the earth '.' 



Yes, the Chinese Primula is indeed a valuable and in- 

 dispensable addition to our winter-blooming plants. Wlio, 

 possessing a greenliouse. however small, does not try to 

 grow a few Primulas to grace with their presence liis room 

 dirring the; Christmas parties ? there, in the depth of winter, 

 whispering of sunshine, and verdure, and flowers to come 

 after all the frosts and snows. True messengers of spring 

 tliey are. 



" But what a pity," observed my lady, " that they will so 

 soon have to be thrown away " " No." your ladyship, " I 

 do not throw them away." " Then, will you plant them 

 out in summer in the flower garden, as I liave sometimes 

 seen them at places'.' but the wind breaks them, and tbe)- 

 look untidy. I never like to see tliem." " Well, but that 

 is not my object. Those Prunulas have a history which I 

 mil relate." 



So I proceeded in my narrative. 



I alwa3's sow the Primula seed about the middle of 

 February, and as soon as the seedlings arc fit to handle 

 I pnt them singly in (iO-sized pots, using a compost of one- 

 half tuvfy loam, one-half leaf mould, manure, and sand. 

 Then they are placed in a warm pit for a week or two, when 

 they mil be making good growth. Then a shift is given 

 them into pots a size larger, and they are placed on a shelf 

 in the greenhouse, there to stay until I see them open a 

 flower to prove them. Such as are not well fimbriated, or 

 of well-defined colours, I at once discard I pot the re- 

 mainder in their blooming-pots, and place them back on 

 the shelf, or in a cool pit or frame, there to stay until taken 

 in for the winter. 



The second year, however, is what I look upon as the best 

 (the plants my lady saw were two years old) : therefore, 

 when the bloom is over I take the plants, clear them of 

 any dead leaves or flower-stalks, and see that they are 

 clean and healthy. I then place them in a cold pit or 

 frame until about the middle of .July, when they are re- 

 potted, shaking ofl' most of the old "soil, but still leaWng 

 No. 32G —Vol. XII., New Series 



some undisturbed. I am very careful that they are clean, 

 and not too deeply potted, as they are very impatient of 

 moisture at the base of the leafstalks, and if potted too 

 deeply, in dull damp weather the foliage damps oft', and 

 they look unsightly objects compared ^ith those having 

 good foliage. 



I am also careful never to allow them to waste their 

 strength during summer liy blooming, which, if not pre- 

 vented, they mil do. I pinch oft' all flowers as soon as I 

 see them, until I want the plants to bloom. " Then," 

 inquired my lady, " is the plan a new one, and your own 

 suggestion '.' " 



"By no means. , Certainly I never saw the method 

 carried out, or even heard of it, and I have spoken to a 

 few neighbours, who say they have not seen it tried. Still. 

 I have every reason to believe that this course of culture 

 is older tlian myself." Thus the tale ended. 



Perhaps some of your readers may, like myself, have 

 been so used to fresli seedlings every j'ear, that they, too, 

 have lost sight of this mode of culture. To such I would 

 say. Try it. 



Of course I always sow a pot of fresh seed every year. — 

 .1. v., Ecdeshin HdU. 



HEATING SMALL PLANT-HOUSES. 



" Scbscribeh" is having a small greenhouse (S feet by 

 8 feet), put up, and being an amateur iu but a small way, 

 she objects to stoves that require coke, charcoal, or patent 

 fuel, as, where she resides, such would be troublesome to 

 procure, and expensive. She is told that a stove burning 

 coal or slack would not do for the flowers ; and, again, liot^ 

 water apparatus would be difficult to put up, the space 

 being so small to work upon. Will you say if heating by 

 a brick flue would do for ilowei's, and in that case how 

 should it be managed so as to keep up a moist heat, wliich 

 is so conducive to the well-doing of plants '.' 



[There is so much needless mystery, and something like 

 the making a "job" as to the heating of small greenhouses, 

 that thousands are deterred from having these sources of 

 pleasure close to their dwelling, and thousands more act 

 on the advice which Mr. Tyerman, of the Liverpool Botanic 

 Gardens, told us he frequently gives where tliere would be 

 much trouble and expense in heating in winter — namely, 

 to supply with flowering plants in summer, and to till mth 

 ornamental-foliaged hardy evergreens in winter. This 

 plan, however, deprives the enthusiastic amateur of the 

 chief relish of such a house — the pleasure of growing and 

 attending to his own plants, and keeping them on from 

 year to year. The finest plants bought m when in bloom 

 will never exert the peculiar pleasing influence that plants 

 even not so fine will do when they have been reared, potted, 

 and watered with our own hands, and otherwise tended 

 under our own supervision. Then our pet plants become, 

 as it were, part of ourselves, being so interwoven and 

 blended with all oiu- sympathies. 



Again, though it is pleasant to have a greenhouse in 

 summer, it has less attractions then, when everytliing out 

 of doors is growing and flowering, and we become, if any- 



No. 97S. -Vol. XXS\1I., Ol-n Sekies. 



