J«ly 9, 1868. ] 



JOtJBNAL OF HOBTIOULTDKB AND COTTAGE GABDENBB. 



Uking those varieties first wbioh are most forward. Still 

 tie-up tlie buds as they advance, and do not let the plants in 

 pots lack muiiiture. 



GBEENnOnSE AND CONBEKVATOUV. 



All the regular greenhoueo jilants are, or onglit to be, ont 

 ot the house by this time. Evea Heaths and the finer spt-ci- 

 men plants of the more delicate sorts ought now to bo in 

 eold frames, where they aro far better than in the best oon- 

 Btmotcd greenhouse. The treatment of the greenhnnfe must, 

 therefore, bo very different in many places according to the 

 kind of plants wiih which it is now filled. If for Pelargoniums 

 or other florists' flowers in bloom, ward off the sun by blinds, 

 and if for the hardier stove plants keep the house more close 

 and warm. All Pelargoniums, including the common Scarlets, 

 that are to bo forced before next March, should not be stopped 

 or cut-in after this time, and all the early-struok cuttings 

 Bhonld now or soon be planted out in bods in tlie reserve gar- 

 den for a month or two ; bat as soon as they become too strong 

 or Bucculent pot them. Another rule to be ohserved with forcing 

 Pelargoniums is, that the pots should be full of roots, or tho 

 plants pot-bound, before they are brought into heat. As soon 

 as they show for flowering, however, they may be shifted into 

 larger pots or be well supplied with liquid manure. Any one 

 oan supply heat and moisture to flowers in winter, but much 

 judgment and forethought are required to prepare the plants. 



BTOYE. 



There being go much sunshine this season, house plants, nnd 

 more especially stove plants, are in a more forward state than 

 they usually are at this time ; their management must, there- 

 fore, be a little varied for the next six weeks, giving them more 

 Tater and keeping the house rather moist. Give air freely, 

 especially on very hot days ; this will prolong their growth and 

 allow them sufficient time to ripen their wood. 



PITS AND PRAMES!. 



CnttingB and plants divided for increase now find their way 

 into these very useful structures. Seeds of Calceolarias, Pelar- 

 goniums, and many other families now come np readily in close 

 pits without artificial heat. Grafted Camellias, Azaleas, Bho- 

 dodendrons, Diphnea, &c., now do very well in close piis of 

 this kind, taking care to shade them well from the sun. la 

 short, all the houses may bo relieved by thinning out the 

 plants in summer ; but plant pits and frames should never be 

 empty at any time. Prepare a slight hotbed for a frame, and 

 begin to increase such plants as you require s large stock of 

 next season. Mangles's, Mrs. Pollock, and other Variegated and 

 Zonal Pelargoniums are generally tardy strikers if left till late 

 in the season ; therefore, begin in time. Very little watering 

 will, however, suit them until they make roots. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



KITCHEN OAKDEN. 



On this, the 4th of July, we have had cloudy mornings and 

 a falling barometer, but still no rain, and for several nights no 

 dew, so that do what we will matters look not so bright as we 

 wonld wish them to do. Our work has been chiefly a repetition 

 of that of last week, and getting every bit of ground hoed, and 

 what was cleared of early crops well dug, ready to be planted 

 as soon as a change in the weather shall come. The extreme 

 heat is causing some of the Cauliflowers to be greenish and 

 deformed, instead of firm and white as snow as we like to see 

 the curd. Gave sewage water to Peas and other crops, and 

 mulched as much as possible ; bat even then if a good row of 

 Peas be allowed twenty pailsful ot such water, saturating the 

 ground well, it is astonishing how soon in such days as the 

 3nd and 3rd the foliage would throw so much of it again into 

 the atmosphere. 



Watering. — Except in some cases for merely refreshing the 

 foliage, we are no advocates fur frequent watering out of doors; 

 if each watering is heavy enough to reach all the roots, and 

 these waterings are frequent, the ground becomes chilled and 

 the roots paralysed by the very abundance of the water that 

 snrrounds them, and also by the absence of the air which 

 cannot well penetrate the caked surface if that is not broken 

 after each watering. In the case even ot crops requiring as 

 mach moisture as Peas, we prefer in such seasons as this to 

 water well and then let well alone until the service of the pail 

 is again required, and that the plants will soon indicate if we 

 stndy their appearances. 



Very frequent waterings that scarcely go beyond the surface, 

 do more harm than no watering at all. Just look at establLshed 



plants in a field, say a field of Wheat, and role how for a 

 very long time tlio plaits hold up their heads rejoicingly to 

 tho sun, and never bhow that they do not receive a lefresbing 

 shower every other diiy. Kncli plants obtain their tupply of 

 moi?ture from beneath, and tho greater the moisture thrown 

 C'ff by evaporation, the greater tho quantity absorbed by the 

 ro(»t9 from great distanccB below the surface. 



The chief evils of surface-dribbling are, that first the line of 

 absorptiim from beneath is broken ; evaporation, it is true, goes 

 on rapidly from the surface, and the moist vapour does good to 

 the foliage as it passes it, but until the applied water is ex- 

 haled the roots in the dry soil deeper down receive no benefit 

 from the exhauslless moisture further beneath them, but are 

 in much the same cocdition as the roots of a plant in a pot 

 would be where the water applied only penetrated to about 

 one-third of the depth of the soil, leaving the lower two- 

 thirds, as respects roots and soil, much as if they stood for 

 some time in an oven. Tho second evil is, that the freqaent 

 suifaoe-wateriugs encourage tho plant in self defence to make 

 rootlets near the surface, whilst tho lower roots are rendered 

 inactive ; and then, as the sun exhales the surface moisture, 

 these surface roots aro parched up btfore they can do mueb 

 for the plant, and thus our extra care has a tendency to pro- 

 mole a fcickly condition of giowth. The tine rule to apply in 

 all kinds of watering is, to give enough to reach to and a little 

 beyond every fibre of the plant, and that done to give no more 

 watering until it is absolutely required, and this rule applies 

 equally to a plant in the open ground and to plant in a pot. 



When plants are grown in small pots there is little danger of 

 over-watering, though it is worse than useliSi to water them 

 when the soil is already moist enough. An animal will scarcely 

 drink unless it be thirsty, and even man vill seldom take a 

 drop more water than he absolutely requires. Most plante 

 are equally sensitive, though we are slow to learn their modes 

 and habits. Often, instead of being pleaped, they would shrink 

 if they could from the jug that visits the favourites in the 

 window every day. In such weather as we had lately a plant 

 in a small pot might need refreshing twice a-day. In dull 

 cloudy weather it might benefit by being let alone for three 

 days or a week. When a small plant is growing in a rather 

 large pot the frequent and heavy waterings are much more 

 disastrous than to a plant in the open ground. The soil un- 

 occupied and kept drenched, even with fair draira^e, becomes 

 sour like the mud at the sides and bottom of a sluggish stream. 

 To secure health in such a case, and yet from a good body of 

 earth to avoid the trouble of frequent shifting, the rule should 

 he in watering to give as much as will reach every fibre, but 

 not more than will keep the outside of tho ball generally moist, 

 but not wet to saturation. The outside soil in such a case should 

 only be somewhat moist until the roots begin to permeate the 

 whole of it. Watering so as to reach every fibre is, therefore, the 

 right rule. In a pot filled with roots, water all over so that 

 every root shall have its allowance. In giving a large pot to a 

 small plant, water chiefly at the centre, increasing the cironm- 

 ference of the direct moistening as the roots extend. Thus 

 out of doors, if we had not been forced to allow some large 

 favourite evergreens to cater for themselves by bringing up 

 moisture from beneath to compensate for the evaporation from 

 the foliage, we would have given them a dozen pailsful of 

 water each — much as we once saw given to the beautiful spe- 

 cimens at the Dean of Winchester's, one of the secrets of their 

 beauty in a rather light soil ; but in the case of a newly -planted 

 Pelargonium or Verbena we are equally convinced that deluging 

 the soil much farther than the roots extended wonld rather 

 impede than accelerate growth. The rule in the latter case 

 should be, Give enough to extend a little beyond the roots, 

 and stop patiently until your services are again required. 



We have lately observed some beds that were watered 

 regularly every day, and chiefly overhead with the rose of a 

 watering-pot, but though treated in other respects alike, they 

 were far from equal to others that only had help once in a 

 week or ten days, and that applied rather close to the stems 

 with the spout of a watering-pot, so that the liquid might reaefa 

 the roots without greatly wetting the surrounding soil. So far 

 as moisture to the roots is concerned, and we have made up 

 our mind to water, we may sum up in the following directions : — 

 I'o not water so frequently as to puddle the roots ; do not 

 water so plentifully as to deluge the ground beyond the roots ; 

 do not resort too much to mere surface-watering either in the 

 open ground or in a pot, and see that the water so given ex- 

 tends to all the roots, which you may easily know in the case 

 1 of a pot by ringing it, and noticing whether the sound omitted 



