168 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTDRE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Febra&ry 20, 1873. 



kale pot over the roots. Sow seed of Savoy for the first 

 crop. 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



Take every favourable opportunity to finish pruning fruit 

 trees ; Currants, and tlie Grape Vine especially, if not cut in 

 autumn must not be delayed. 



FLOWER GARDEN. 



The frost and snow which set iu at the early part of last week 

 have in a great measure suspended the operations of the gar- 

 dener, and many of those directed must be understood to de- 

 pend on a relaxation of the weather. New plantations of orna- 

 mental trees should be made, and old ones that have become 

 too thick should now be freely thinned-out. Auriculas may be 

 kept moderately moist. If not dressed as before directed, let 

 this be done immediately. See to Polyanthuses ; as spring ad- 

 vances, the snails become proportionably troublesome, diligence 

 must be used in trapping them. Plant Eanunculuses without 

 delay. Seed must be sown, though I prefer autumnal sowing 

 where there is an opportunity of protecting during winter. 

 Frames covered with calico prepared with Whitney's or some 

 similar composition, will afford great facilities in the way of 

 preservation in severe weather. The compost necessary is leaf 

 mould and loam in equal parts, previously exposed to the action 

 of heat to destroy insects, eggs, &o., contained therein. Boxes 

 about 18 inches by 12, and 6 deep, are most convenient. FiU with 

 compost, and water it well ; sow the next day, cover with very 

 fine soil hghtly, for if too deep the seed wUl not appear. After 

 Bowing it must be protected from hea^ rains and frosts — a cold 

 frame is, perhaps, the best situation. Should any soil have 

 lodged in the axils of the leaves of Carnations it should be re- 

 moved ; a quiU with the feather stripped oil on one side and cut 

 halfway oft on the other, makes a simple but effectual brush to 

 perforra this operation, and by timely looking through the 

 stock disease may be prevented. Planting-time is now rapidly 

 drawing on ; exhibitors who have not strengthened their weak 

 or deficient classes in the autumn should now look out for the 

 sorts wanted, if they mean to get first prizes or silver cups. 

 Pinks may yet be planted in beds. I should much like to see 

 these highly-fragrant flowers more extensively cultivated, but 

 the flowers do not usually lace so well as in the case of plants 

 planted in September. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



Many plants will soon be fit for repotting. When plants are 

 removed to a higher temperature shake the old soil from them, 

 examine their roots, and repot them in fresh soil into smaller 

 pots. This is a good mode for preparing plants for the one- 

 shift system, which may be adopted as soon as the roots begin 

 to spread on the outside of the new soil. The one-shift system 

 should never be adopted until you are satisfied that the roots are 

 in a healthy state and beginning to grow. There is no time 

 when a low night temperature is more necessary than during 

 the next six weeks, as plants are now more readily excited than 

 at any other period. Orange trees if now removed to an early 

 vinery or stove, and kept in-doors all the summer, will come into 

 flower next Christmas with very little forcing. Camellias that 

 have not formed their flower-buds may now be introduced into 

 heat in succession from this time. Some of them may be ex- 

 pected to flower about the middle of next September. Plants 

 of Fuchsia eorymbosa which were cut back last autumn to the 

 ripened wood and preserved in an outhouse through the winter, 

 will flower in May if they are removed to a vinery or forcing 

 house. The night temperature of the conservatory should 

 now be lower than through the winter, say about 451^, in order 

 that the plants may be started away slowly at first. This 

 should be attended to now by all who regard the proper cul- 

 tivation of their plants. If you guard against frost in the green- 

 house, there is no danger of this house getting too low iu tem- 

 perature, and air should be admitted every fine day in order to 

 keep the plants from growing too rapidly at this season owing 

 to a drier atmosphere being thus produced. The plants iu the 

 house will require constant attention with regard to watering. 

 Shift and tie-out Pelargoniums as may be required, and allow 

 plenty of space after this time, with all the light possible, and a 

 free circulation of air whenever the weather wiU permit, but 

 avoid cold north-easterly winds, which are very injurious to 

 plants in active growth. Do not allow Calceolarias to suffer for 

 want of pot room, as any check at the present season might 

 throw them prematurely into bloom.' Echeverias and other 

 plants in pits and frames will now require frequent shifting and 

 placing at greater distances from each other in order that air 

 may be permitted to circulate freely among them. Damp and 

 mildew are the great enemies to be guarded against here, and 

 these must be sharply looked after, especially iu the case of 

 plants that have not ripened their gi-owth and are in rather a 

 soft state. If the former is troublesome it must be got rid of by 

 means of free ventilation on mild days, using a little fire heat 

 at the same time, and for the latter a dry airy atmosphere is 

 the best preventive, but the plants should be frequently ex- 

 amined, applying sulphur on the first appearance of the enemy. 

 Get all the plants tied with the least possible delay, for it is 



difiicult to tie a plant so that it will not look somewhat stiff 

 and unnatural, and the sooner all this description of work is 

 done the better the specimens wiU look when in bloom later in 

 the season. 



FORCING PIT. 



This is a good time for propagating many plants by cuttings, 

 grafting, and seeds, and the forcing pit is now the best place for 

 this purpose. Seedlings already up ought to be potted-off as 

 soon as they can be handled. Foreign seeds had better be sown 

 in 6-inch pots, putting four or five kinds into one pot, and 

 placing labels in the middle facing the different seeds. Less 

 water will then be needed than if each kind were sown in a 

 small pot. 



COLD PITS AND FRAMES. 



A calculation should now be made as to how far the inmates 

 of cold pits and frames will supply the demands to be made upon 

 them. No doubt damp has reduced the number of some kinds. 

 Strong plants, or pots of stores which had become well es- 

 tablished in the autumn, of Verbenas, Fuchsias, Petunias, 

 Heliotropes, Salvias, Calceolarias, &c., should be removed forth- 

 with to some of the houses or pits at work. These wUl quickly 

 furnish abundance of early cuttings, which should be slipped off 

 and propagated. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OP THE LAST WEEK. 



kitchen g.akden. 



The weather, though finer, has been too variable to admit of 

 much, except rough work, being done out of doors, as the snow 

 is not quite gone on the 15th, and the gi'ound where at all stiff 

 can hardly be worked. Trenching, ridging, carting, and wheel- 

 ing could be well done, as, though there was plenty of thaw and 

 mud during the day, the mornings, with the exception of that 

 of the 15th, were hard enough with frost to permit of such work 

 being done. We have little faith in sowing iu such a state of 

 the soil. Where the soil is light and dry the work may be 

 different. 



Situated as we are, we must try to forward Peas aiid Beans 

 under glass, and we have been getting ranges of slight hotbeds 

 ready for frames and pits of Potatoes, Carrots, early Turnips, 

 &c. For all such purposes a httle bottom heat, about 70°, is a 

 great advantage. When the soU is put on, the Potato sets 

 and seeds will be in an average of 55", and that will do very 

 well. A much higher temperature will do more harm than good. 

 We have seen whole ranges of pits of Potatoes, Peas, dwarf 

 Broad Beans, and even Dwarf Kidney Beans, next to destroyed 

 by too much heat. It is quite a mistake to imagine that a Pea 

 or a Potato wanted early will stand anything like the heat of a 

 Cucumber or a Kidney Beau. Many beginners act as if they 

 thought heat would do anything, and it requires a little teach- 

 ing, and above all the teaching of experience, to find out that too 

 much heat is as daugerous in many cases as too low a tempe- 

 rature is in others. For all such helping beds we merely throw 

 the fermenting material together, water, if too dry, and as soon 

 as it heats kindly we use it for the main part of the shallow 

 beds and place a surfacing of the old beds over it. It requires 

 a little experience to be able to do all this to a nicety without a 

 mishap. We can pretty well judge as exactly what bels of 

 different heights will do, according to the material, just as in 

 going thiough a range of houses at different temperatures we 

 can, on opening the doors of the compartments, tell at once 

 within a trifle the temperature iu each without looking at a 

 thermometer. 



In a large place it is a good plan to have one standard ther- 

 mometer proved to be correct, and compare it with the other 

 thermometers on the place. We have found many very cheap 

 thermometers very correct, and some high-priced ones the 

 reverse, though, on the whole, a thermometer moderately priced, 

 say 4s. Gd. to 6s. may in general be more depended on than one 

 at Is. Gd. to 2s. The latter, however, are often good enough for 

 common purposes. 



As the weather became milder, and we had also, especially on 

 the 15th, some fine gleams of sunshine, in the middle of the week 

 the coverings were removed from Celery beds and Broccoli, 

 so that the plants might be kept hardy. Snow's and Walchereu 

 Broccoli came in very useful after Veitch'a Late Broccoli was 

 over. Potatoes^ planted early in winter on a bank sloping 

 to the south, are growing and rooting well. The frost was not 

 severe enough to reach them, and if it had threatened to do so, 

 we should have strewn some litter over the ground. Sea-kale, 

 Rhubarb, and Asparagus we have lately said enough about, but 

 they help greatly at this season. Took out one of our Mushroom 

 beds, and have materials for another. Duriug the winter our 

 shelf beds generally do better, at least come in more quickly, 

 than those beds made on the floor, as they are more thoroughly 

 under command of what heat and moist vapour we may choose 

 to give. With beds in open sheds and in the open air success 

 in winter will chiefly depend on two things — a greater bulk of 

 materials, and a more careful covering to secure a uniform 

 temperature. 



