May u, isea 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTXAi^tF GASDENEK. 



363 



diligently after slugs and snails. Every moth and butterfly 

 should be as curefuUy destroyed as wasps. JJrocculi, Caiili- 

 lloivers, and other iilauts of the Cabbage tiibo from the early 

 seed beds may now be planted for autumn use. Ciicinnln-rs and 

 Vetjftabk Mairoa:i, prepare for planting these out, forming beds 

 of short grass, refuse from Sea-kale beds, &c., or any other 

 littery rubbish, but in exposed situations a week or ten days 

 hence will be soon enough. JV<i.( and Ileaii':, after having pinched 

 out the tops of the first crops of tUese give a good watering, and 

 if any sort of liquid manure is employed all the better, but do 

 not use hard spring water if it can be avoided. Pvlators, the 

 early ones will now be forward enough to have the soil well 

 stirred between them, like all other crops in rows. Stu'rcssiun 

 crops, in all their stages, will now show if the sowings have 

 been judiciously timed. Eodeavour to mark out any probable 

 defects, and, if practicable, lose no time in rectifying them. 

 ToHidfocs CajisiciiiH^, and all half-hardy plants for the kitchen 

 garden, may now be planted out in early and favourable 

 situations ; but in cold exposed places a week or ten days will 

 suit them better. 



FEUIT CillDEN. 



All the trees on the walls will now require close attention. 

 The system of nailing as many of the strong young shoots of 

 Pear trees as possible between the main branches is good, and 

 if it is not desired to leave them to bear, the grower may begin 

 to reduce them after the end of July. Peach trees, like Melon 

 plants, are very apt to get into confusion about this time, unless 

 they are carefully thinned. Formerly wall trees seldom had 

 much attention paid them till all the breastwood was nearly 

 full grown. They were then regularly pruned, and you could 

 see where the pruner left off at night as plainly as where 

 mowers had left oft cutting a piece of meadow grass ; but now a 

 man in looking over his trees only cuts out a few shoots here and 

 thereat a time, and in this way he soon goes over a large number, 

 and when he has gone round, some of his trees will want 

 looking over again. Some gardeners adopt the practice of 

 pinching out the tops of the young shoots of Pear trees when 

 from -1 to inches m length, and this proceeding is repeated 

 daring the season. It is recommended, because there will be 

 no danger of the lower buds breaking, no sudden check will be 

 given to the system, no unnecessary shade afforded to those 

 parts which ought to be fully exposed, and if persevered in, 

 and the tree is otherwise favourably situated, there will be little 

 occasion for resorting to root-pruning. 



FLOWER GARDE.>(. 



Multitudes of tender plants have, doubtless, been planted 

 out, and as the weather has been as ungenial as it can be for 

 BUch operations, nothing but assiduous attention to watering 

 and shading can give them a chance of success. The im- 

 portance of properly mulching the beds cannot be too much 

 insisted upon, and where it is inconvenient to use short grass 

 because of its untidy appearance, the beds should be surfaced 

 an inch thick with leaf mould or fresh light soil, and where 

 neither can be used hoe the beds over so as to produce a loose 

 surface. Mulching is advantageous, not only from saving labour, 

 but also, where cold spring water has to be used, from prevent- 

 ing the soil from being unnaturally cooled by the frequent ap- 

 phcation of water from a cold medium. The importance of 

 using water as warm or even warmer than the soil is well 

 known to practical men, and a few experiments will soon 

 satisfy the amateur of its advantages. After planting out, 

 make a reserve of a few plants of each kind to fill up gaps, and 

 also if you fill any beds with annuals reserve some plants in 

 pots to replace them as soon as they become shabby. The 

 •'worm i' the bud" amongst Ptoses is making considerable 

 bavoc in some places. Look carefully over the plants, and 

 destroy the maggot between the fioger and thumb ; regulate the 

 growth of the plants at the same time. Seedling Auriculas 

 may now be pricked out into pans or boxes of leaf mould and 

 sand, at regular distances, keeping them in a close frame for a 

 few days till they have taken fresh root, when they may be 

 placed "in the shade and protected from drenching rams. Pva- 

 nunculuses are now growing fast, but are much in want of rain. 

 If they have been top-dressed with very rotten manure, they 

 will in some measure have escaped the effects of the drought. 

 As Carnations continue to grow keep them regularly tied up to 

 their flowering stakes ; the pots must also be well attended to, all 

 ■weeds must be removed, and the plants top-dressed. Continue 

 to remove luxuriant shoots of Pinks, and thin the buds, re- 

 moving those which are small or malformed. Both Pinks and 

 Carnations are now much infested with insects, these must be 

 carefully bmshed off ; avoid bruising them on the buds or stems 



of the plants, as it appears to have a prejudicial effect. Dahlias 



may now be planted out with safety. 



GIlEENnoirSE AND rONSERVATORY. 



■With the exception of the routine of watering and syringing, 

 the next matter of importance to greenhouse plants now in 

 active growth is to form them into handsome specimens — some 

 by training, others by pruning, or rather stopping, and all by 

 being kept in a vigorous healthy state. One of the greatest 

 faults committed against young promising specimens is to let 

 them flower too early. If the plant is quite new tkere is no 

 resisting this course, but in all other cases avoid it as much as 

 possible. In the hurry of watering it often happens that the 

 centre of the balls of large specimen plants. Orange trees, &c., 

 is allowed to become very dry, the water finding its way down 

 near the outside, where the soil is looser. Gardeners on the 

 Continent make a provision against this, which we seldom see 

 done in this country. They scoop out a little of the soil round 

 the stem, and raise that towards the edge of the pot or tub, thuB 

 forming a shallow basin, so that a large portion of the water 

 passes down the centre. In summer this is a good plan for 

 many plants, and in winter the surface could be levelled over 

 in the usual way. Do not be in a hurry to turn out of doorS 

 fine greenhouse plants ; but all coarse and common plants, and 

 many softwooded plants whose tops in a manner may be con- 

 sidered to be annual, may be turned out any time about the 

 end of spring, and the finer portions of the plants will by this 

 means have all the room, light, and air to themselves. Of all 

 plants those in the greenhouse are most apt to become too dry 

 in summer ; and therefore, besides the regular watering, they 

 may be syringed every afternoon in tine weather. 



STOVE. 



Many stove plants would do better in an intermediate house 

 from this time till the end of August, where they would suffer 

 less confinement than in a regular stove. For want of such a 

 houee gardeners often make use of vineries, &c., for this pur- 

 pose, and distribute their stove plants in summer through the 

 different forcing houses ; and if only for the benefit of finishinK 

 and ripening their growth without being crowded, this is a good 

 plan. Air, moisture, and cleanUness are now such matters o{ 

 course that they need not be insisted on. 



PITS AND FRAMES. 



These are applied to so many purposes from this time to 

 next September, that no calendar can anticipate the different 

 treatment in all cases. Where plants are more an object than 

 fruit, cold pits are the very best places for Heaths and all deli- 

 ; cate greenhouse plants. A mixed greenhouse is an indifferent 

 ; place for ripening-off the growths of Camellias and Chinese 

 Azaleas, two tribes whose flowering next year depends on the 

 treatment they receive at this time. Close pita shaded in the 

 middle of the day, and kept moderately moist, suit them 

 best. — W. Keahe. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



Secd-.—Ke our first-sown vegetable seeds either will not 

 come up as we want them, or, in despite of our netting, the 

 birds have found their way in and have taken the lion's share, 

 we levelled and made fine a border and covered it with hand- 

 lights from the early Cauliflowers, sowed the seeds under the 

 hand-lights, and, after watering, covered up with mats. We 

 set the lights in double rows some distance apart, so that the 

 seedhngs will have room to extend laterally, and this plan will 

 at least secure everything like fair play to the seeds, and give 

 us a fair return if they are, as we feel tolerably sure they are, 

 all right on the whole. A very little matter often makes a 

 great difference in seedhngs, and of all things nothing is more 

 injurious to them than extreme dryness just when vegetation 

 has commenced. From this cause alone we are able to decide 

 why one pot of seeds never comes up and another pot of seeds 

 from the same packet comes up as thickly as grass on a 

 lawn. We may here mention, that when scarce of some seed- 

 lings of favourite vegetables, we have had fine returns in going 

 ove°r the best kinds of Scotch Kale, for instance, and taking off 

 side shoots, strong ones, with a heel close to the older stem, 

 planting them and watering them just as if they were strong 

 young plants. Some of these might throw up a flower stalkj 

 which was cut off, and fine, strong, producing plants were the 

 result. 



CaiiUiloxcers.—B&nked-up the forward Cauliflowers with dung 

 from old Mushroom beds, and covered the ground with litter 



