SOS 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



t May 15, 1873. 



GBEENHOUSE AND CONSERVATOEY. 



The usual routine of watering and keeping the plants clean 

 and properly trained is all that is necessary here for some time. 

 Some few plants may want shifting now and then, and all the 

 young stock must be shifted by degrees as they advance, but no 

 particular time can be pointed out for this work; the whole 

 depends on the state of the plants and the moans of the culti- 

 vator. Keep down the temperature in the conservatory by 

 all possible means, in order to prolong flowering; and as the 

 syringe would soon injure the appearance of plants in flower, 

 the rose watering-pot must take the place of it. Flood all spare 

 Iiarts of the house morning and evening. Continue to encourage 

 the greenhouse plants to make rapid growth all this month, and 

 keep the atmosphere always moist at night during this stage. 

 As few plants are allowed to flower in this house where there is 

 a conservatory, the syi-inge may be used freely in the aftei'noon 

 of fine days. Training and regulating the growth of all pot 

 plants, as well as watering and killing insects, must be attended 

 to while the plants are growing. 



STOVE. 



The climbing plants in this department usually grow with 

 such vigour, that without constant attention to stopping and 

 tyiug-in they smother other plants and become quite unmanage- 

 able ; this should therefore be timely attended to. As plants 

 are removed from the greenhouse, some of the more hardy 

 stove plants may take their places. Have'an eye to the propa- 

 gation of stock for succession or winter-flowering in due time. 

 Take care to secure cuttings of such plants as Brugmansias, 

 Clerodendrons, Erythinas, Poinsettias, Eranthemums, and of 

 those useful winter-flowering plants. Euphorbia jacquiniwflora 

 and Gesnera buibosa. As regards Orchids, those who have only 

 one house to grow their whole stock in must make a compromise 

 in point of temperature between those which are natives of hot 

 moist countries and those which come from cooler regions. To 

 accomplish this a free circulation of air should be kept up during 

 the earlier part of the day, and even a little .at night, if possible, 

 accompanied with a great amount of atmospheric moisture ; and 

 to accommodate with as little sacrifice as possible such Aerides, 

 Saccolabiums, Dendrobiums, &c., a considerable amount of heat 

 should be shut up early in the afternoon. 



FORCING PIT. 



Most of the spring-forcing plants are now done with in this 

 pit. Roses will now bloom in any close house, pit, &o. There 

 are many plants, however, that may be more or less forced for 

 the conservatory all the summer through, especially those called 

 intermediate or half-stove plants. Camellias, Azaleas, and Rho- 

 dodendrons that have been early forced may be grafted as soon 

 as the young wood begins to grow hard. Of all modes of pro- 

 pagating rare plants, grafting is the easiest, and requires least 

 time and trouble. All Roses intended to be forced before Christ- 

 mas should be worked on the Boiu'sault or some variety of 

 Noisette, but Bourbon, Tea, and China Roses are better forced 

 on their own roots. This is about the right time to get them 

 from nurseries. The great growers can always tell the best 

 sorts for particular purjjoses. 



PITS AND FRAMES. 



Those containing cuttings recently potted-o£f should be kept 

 close until they have made fresh roots ; they must be shaded 

 during the day. Tender annuals require much attention to grow 

 them well ; they require some bottom heat, but must at the 

 same time have a liberal supply of air to keep them from draw- 

 ing; they should also be placed near the glass. These struc- 

 tures in some places will almost be done with for this spring's 

 planting, but they must not be idle, as it is time to commence 

 propagating for next year. Cuttings of dwarf Phloxes, Alyssum 

 saxatile, Arabis, Ac, must now be got in, and those who are very 

 enthusiastic in flower gardening may try their hands at pre- 

 paring such as Leschenaultia formosa, biloba nana, and Baxteri, 

 Cytisus racemes us, canariensis, &c., for bedding-out nest season. 

 They will root freely now, and will make strong plants by the 

 autumn. I yet hope to see masses of our finest Chinese Azaleas, 

 such as Lateritia, Variegata, and Gledstanesi turned out for the 

 spring decoration of the flower garden. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



DuKiNG Wednesday the 7th inst. 0.58 of an inch of rain fell, 

 and we had a smart shower on Thursday; the ground, which had 

 been hoed over twice or thrice, was ready to receive it. It has 

 done much good to the kitchen garden crops, and we have taken 

 the opportunity to begin amongst the bedding plants. Zonal 

 Pelargoniums, Calceolarias, Blue Lobelias, Centaureas, &a., have 

 been so thoroughly exposed that a degree or two of frost cannot 

 injure them. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



The ground being wet we took the opportunity to weed the 

 walks and trim the Box edgings. The walks are never hoed : we 

 hope never to see them so full of weeds that this operation will 

 become necessary. It is astonishing how much can be done by 



hand-picking ; when the walks are wet one man can do as much 

 as two are able to do when the ground is dry, and makes a better 

 job, the weeds being more easily observed. Before commencing 

 to cut the Box edgings, the gravel should be drawn off with a 

 hoe or spade for the space of 1 foot from the edging, and the soil 

 to the depth of an inch or two from the other side. The clip- 

 pings can be readily swept up when the soil and gravel are re- 

 placed, and the workman leaves no trace except in the neat and 

 trim appearance of the edging. We planted out the spring- 

 sown Cauliflowers ; drills are drawn as for rows of Peas, 2 feet 

 apart, and the plants put out 2 feet apart in the rows. Being 

 partially below the surface level the plants are to a certain ex- 

 tent protected from east winds. We pricked-out some more 

 Celery plants. The first lot did not succeed well, owing to the 

 drying winds many of the plants died. When young Celery 

 plants are pricked-out in the open air, a little shade is necessary 

 during bright sunshine. 



FRUIT AND FORCING HOUSES. 



Pine Apples. — We have been repotting these, and renewing 

 the beds with fresh tan. The suckers were potted last autumn 

 in (3 and 7-inch pots, they have now been potted into 10 and 

 ll-inch pots. They will fill these well with roots by midsum- 

 mer or later, when the plants wUl be rested preparatory to start- 

 ing them into growth for winter fruiting. The sorts are Smooth- 

 leaved Cayenne and Charlotte Rothschild ; 10 and 11 inch pots 

 may seem small for such robust-growing varieties, but practi- 

 cally they are sufficiently large. It was, we think, Mr. David 

 Thomson who first called attention in the pages of this Journal 

 to the over-potting of Pines, and exemplified in his own practice 

 the superiority of small over large pots. As a rule our beds are 

 always renewed when the plants are potted, and then if the 

 bottom heat do rise over 100^ the roots will not be injured, but 

 will rather start into active growth. The tan beds are only 

 20 inches deep, and are furnished with hot-water pipes for 

 bottom heat. We can always command 85° from the pipes 

 alone. 



Vines in all the late houses have had the lateral shoots trained 

 into their places, and have been stopped two leaves beyond the 

 bunch. All secondary shoots wiU be stopped at the first leaf as 

 soon as they are formed; it is bad practice to let the shoots grow 

 out of all bounds, and then cut them out in armfulls. 



Melons have not done so well as usual in the earliest house; 

 first one plant and then another has died off. We have been 

 puzzling ourselves to find a reason for this, as no sign of canker 

 could be observed on any part of the plants. The first one was 

 taken up, and the roots were white and sound, but on cutting 

 through the main stem a foot above the ground it was slightly 

 decayed at the core. The first sign of anything being wrong is 

 that the x:)lauts flag in the sun (we do not, as a rule, shade either 

 Melons or Cucumbers), and growth ceases. It was ultimately 

 ascertained that the men, though told to do so, did not empty 

 the water out of a copper used for heating water in the winter ; 

 and the water had been used for the Melons after remaining for 

 weeks in the copper, and must have been poisoned with sulphate 

 of copper. 



Cueiimhers require looking over once every week to thin-out 

 and regulate the shoots. The old wood is cut-out and new wood 

 laid-in where practicable. Treated in this way, and the shoots 

 trained to a trellis, the same plants will bear fruit and remain 

 in perfect health for twelve months. 



Orcluiid House. — The pot trees are growing vigorously ; the 

 young wood is being pinched-back, and the fruit thinned. We 

 always thin well at this time, and never find the fruit drop- 

 off during the process of stoning. Some of the Pear trees have 

 been turned out of doors. All those that have little fruit upon 

 them are turned out first, and as the season advances Peaches, 

 Nectarines, and Plums are also'put out of doors. It is very 

 unwise to crowd the house with plants. If sun and air cannot 

 act upon the fruit it will not be of good quality. Strawberries 

 in the same house are now in full flower ; the trusses have been 

 thinned where forward enough. Not a dozen blind plants wore 

 turned out from three hundred pots, except in the case of one 

 sort (and it was the same last year), Lucas, of which 25 per cent, 

 failed, but we only had fifty plants of it altogether. It is a 

 grand fruit, but it will not do to force, and is rather shy out of 

 doors. The orchard house is syringed twice a-day, but the 

 Strawberry plants are not deluged when in flower, though a 

 slight dewing overhead helps the setting of the frmt. 



CONSERVATORY AND PLANT STOVE. 



Deutzias, CamelUas, and Cinerarias are now past, but there 

 wUl be no lack of flowers to supply their places. We have been 

 training and placing sticks to the herbaceous Calceolarias ; it 

 was quite time, as the flower trusses were bending the stalks, 

 and they will, if not tied up, break over at the neck. They have 

 been thoroughly fumigated, so that there is little danger of 

 green fly appearing before they finish flowering. A few of the 

 stage Pelargoniums will require to have sticks placed to the 

 flowers, but this will only be necessary for those of a weak 

 straggling habit ; compact-growing sorts are left to themselves. 

 The Fancy sorts require no sticks. None of the Azaleas have 



