March 3, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COITAGE GARDENER. 



167 



vations aro particularly made), a short description may be 

 acceptable. With a blunt stick carefully loosen the soil to 

 about the depth of three-quarters of- an inch, avoiding any 

 injury to the collar of the plant. Having removed this, re- 

 place it with Eom3 compost of per/ectly decomposed cow 

 manure or horse manure, mixed with leaf soil. No soil should 

 be allowed to drop between the leaves. After having filled the 

 pots to the required height, give the plants a slight watering to 

 settle the Roil, and place them in their situation for blooming. 

 Cover the Tulip beds with large-meshed nets ; when too small 

 the plants are apt to be drawn, which should be avoided. Beds 

 of Pansies are best made in the autumn, but where plants 

 have been kept in pots during the winter months, they may 

 now be planted with their bulbs entire on richly-prepared 

 beds. Pinks ought now to be carefully gone over, the surface 

 soil slightly forked over, and a top-dressing similar in its com- 

 position as that fibove recommended for Auriculas should be 

 put over the bed to the depth of half an inch. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



Poinsettias done fljwering should be removed to other houses 

 at work, to make new wood from which cuttings may be struck. 

 The Euphorbia jdcqiiniseflcra, too, may be removed to heat, 

 but not pruned, if cuttings be an object ; they will break better 

 without pruning, being liable to bieed. The routine in the 

 conservatory will now be a constant exchange with the other 

 houses or forcing pit; nothing should be allowed to remain 

 unless in blossom, or in fine health. Let the heat be moderate ; 

 secure, if possible, a small amount cf atmospheric moisture 

 without drip. Those who follow up the cultivation of Pelar- 

 goniums in the mixed greenhouse, should have their plants 

 duly attended to in regard to staking out, &c. They will bear 

 shifting the moment the blosscm bud is formed in the ter- 

 minal point. Water very moderately after shifting, while the 

 pot is half full of roots ; those not yet shifted will now take 

 water freely. Tender annuals, as Balsams, Cockscombs, &c, 

 should now be sown ; they will come up better, however, in a 

 frame with a slight heat. Make al! the cuttings possible of 

 choice Verbenas, Fuchsias, Petunias, and other popular and gay 

 flowers. This is a good time to start Leschenaultias of kinds, 

 giving them a liberal shift into decayed turfy peat and sand, 

 to which, if it is not rich, some good leaf mould may be added. 

 Boronias delight in a similar soil. Keep the house close for a 

 week or two until the plants indicate new growth, and then 

 the air must be admitted mere freely. 



STOVE. 



Posh forward Clerodendrons, Stephanotis, and Allamandas, 

 as briskly as possible, but do not be in a hurry to train them. 

 Pot-ofi Achimenes, and any seedling plants which are suffi- 

 ciently large, and start a fresh lot of Achimenes, Gloxinias, 

 &c, to form the second succession. Stimulate the young 

 growing plants as much as possible, consistently with the state 

 of the weather, and while you give plenty of air, at all times 

 guard against sudden change3 and cold cutting winds. Orchids 

 will now be budding fast. Beware of drip lodging in the young 

 buds ; when suspicion exists as to danger in this respect, it is 

 sometimes well to remove some of the old coating which sur- 

 rounds the bud, by which means a free circulation of air is 

 established. The fires should be kept sufficiently lively in the 

 early part of the day, to allow of a free circulation of air; 

 every leaf in the house should be dry for an hour or so at mid- 

 day, after which period the air should be gradually withdrawn, 

 and atmospheric moisture renewed. This treatment will be 

 found to suit the majority of stove plants, as well as Orchids. 



FOBCINO PIT. 



Introduce fresh plants for succession as fast as others are 

 removed to the conservatory. Pinks which have trussed up 

 will be better in a milder heat, and Lily of the Valley should 

 be removed to a lower temperature a3 soon as the first flowers 

 are open. Keep a brisk growing temperature, with plenty of 

 air and moiiture in clear weather, and avoid crowding your 

 plants. 



COLD PLANT PITS. 



Fuchsias, Calceolarias, Petunias, Verbenas, Iko., intended 

 for an early display, should be removed from hence to a warmer 

 atmosphere, and liberally . watered, shifting those which require 

 it. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 

 Protccti< p. — We have alluded to this lately, and now again 

 to reassure the timid. In the severe weather we did not un- 

 cover Calceolarias for a week, and they looked as green as if 



they had been deprived of light for only a dozen hours. It 

 was the same with Cauliflowers. Potatoes which had only a 

 little heat below them were covered up during the four coldest 

 days. Toung Cucumbers, where a good heat could be given, 

 were covered up in two of the darkest snowy days — that is, 

 forty-eight hours, or, perhaps, nearer sixty hours in all. In 

 their case we should have expected a yellow tinge in the foliage 

 if we had kept them covered up longer. Even as it was, it 

 would have been as well ii the glass had been half exposed 

 each of the cold, dark days. With heat to encourage extension, 

 wo should expect weakly growth if the plants did not have 

 light, but on those two days the light was hardly equal to an 

 ordino _-y twilight. The wind, too, was very trying, and as the 

 covering was properly secured we knew there would be a diffi- 

 culty ia putting it well on again. In such a case we allowed 

 the thermometer to fall several degrees lower than we would 

 have dine in light. We mention these facts, as some of our 

 reader i are quite nonplussed about the time that protection or 

 covering may remain over glass in severe weather. The plants 

 will be safe when thus covered up frcm the light, just in pro- 

 portion as, from cold, they have no stimulus to grow or elongate. 

 Even in the case of a Cucumber plant with a suitable high tem- 

 perature, it may be often wise to keep the glass protected in 

 a dark, stormy, very cold day, instead of exposing all the glass ; 

 but this should not be done often, as for consolidating growth 

 light must ever be proportioned to heat. 



On uncovering we found nothing injured, except a few young 

 bedding Pelargoniums at one corner of a frame for a space of 

 about 15 square inches. The back had here swelled out from 

 the ends, leaving a short opening about 1 inch wide, and at 

 that opening the frosty air had entered. There was a slight 

 heat from the old bed, otherwise the frost would have extended 

 farther, thus showing the importance of attending to the out- 

 sides cf pits and frames in severe frosts, as well as covering 

 the glass. 



When half-hardy plants have been long covered up it is as 

 well not to expose them at once to direct sunshine, but to give 

 full light by degrees. This is still more necessary if the plants 

 are at all frosted. In this case it is well to let all the covering 

 thaw before removing it, thu3 allowing the plants inside to 

 recover in partial shade before being exposed to the light. 

 We once had a frame of young Calceolarias, standing li inch 

 apart, that had their foliage stiff, and the soil crusted. They 

 were kept covered two days after the thaw, and twelve hours 

 after it set in they were syringed with cold water, and did not 

 have full light for three cr four days. Not one was eventually 

 injured, and no plants could have succeeded better than they 

 did ; but still we would rather let them get near the freezing- 

 point without being frozen. 



Have our readers thought and wondered over the penetrating 

 powers of a mild balmy air, when a rapid thaw succeeds a 

 severe frost ? Frost is a terrible tyrant, but the thaw is a 

 more powerful king. We stop not now to dwell upon the 

 causes, but such facts as the following may be observed every 

 winter, as to the pewer and rapidity of action of warm as con- 

 trasted with cold air. Let us take just one illustrative in- 

 stance. Here is a cold pit that, as the frost is likely to con- 

 tinue, we wish to be safe with little trouble. We allow the 

 place to get so cool that one-half or more of the glass becomes 

 crusted with the frost before we cover it up. However keen 

 the air, a thin layer of litter will prevent the rest of the glass 

 being crusted over. If the frost become still more intense, 

 a tittle more litter added, or even the shaking and turning of 

 the liiter there, will baffle its efforts to reach and freeze the 

 glass still untouched, except in keen winds ; even then a 

 Blight covering does much to baffle it, as the frost seems 

 obliged to do its work very gradually, and along the straight 

 lines of conduction and radiation, and whenever these lines 

 are broken the frost has to begin its work again at the surface. 

 When there is a gentle thaw, with the air at from 35° to 40", 

 how quickly will the glass that was frosted be thawed beneath 

 all the covering, and how soon, too, that covering, though hard 

 a few hours before, will become soft and limp ! We may 

 manage to keep out ircat; we are next to powerless to keep out 

 warmth ; we can only moderate it by shale, and usiDg non- 

 radiating, nonconducting materials. We might illustrate this 

 by facts of everyday life, but we shall merely allude to one 

 instance in connection with our subject that impressed u« 

 much at the time — years ago. We had covered up a cold pit 

 with litter. The frost so increased in severity lhat we thought 

 of adding more litter, but a eudden fall of snow of fome 3 inches 

 in den'h saved us all trouble in this dirtction, and the pit was 



