l»d 



JOLiSNAL OF noivllCULTUliJS &i^U v^OTTAGE GABDtKEB. 



[ t'ebiuuy 10, IfiUS. 



plauliiig in loo rich aoU is overcome. Ground intended for 

 iruil trees should first be effectually drained and then trenched 

 to the depth of 2 feet, and ii the natural soil is found to be 

 too poor for the health and growth of the trees, a sufficient 

 tiuautity of fresh turfy luam should bo added ; but rich stimn- 

 latiuH manures should not bo used, for they arc soon exhausted, 

 and the trees are left to depend upon the natural soil for their 

 support, and when treated in this way never give satisfaction. 



rLOWEB UAIIDE.N. 



As soon as the ground is a little dried it will be a good plan 

 to have all the vacant beds in the flower garden forked over, so 

 08 to let the soil become properly pulverised prior to planting 

 out the autumn-sown annuals. Preparation must also be made 

 for a general sowing of the more hardy kinds, such as Lark- 

 spurs, Godetias, Clarkias, Nemophilas, &c., which should now 

 be made on the first day the ground is sutJlciently dry to 

 admit of sowing them. Proceed with pruning shrubs and 

 common Kosos, but leave the more tender kinds until you are i 

 sure they will not be injured by frost. The thinning and 

 pruning of young plantations should now receive attention. It 1 

 is perfectly lamentable to see so many completely ruined from j 

 want of this necessary attention at an early stage of their 

 growth. It was in times past totally neglected, and it is in no 

 wise altered at the present day in very many instances. It is ' 

 an error to plant very thickly of one common mixture, the con- 

 sequence of which is, that the quick-growing useless sorts soon 

 overtop the more valuable and what ought to be the permanent ' 

 trees ; neglect in thinning, following mismanagement in plant- | 

 irig, soon carries them beyond recover}*, and they become drawn 

 up like whip-handles, useless either for shelter or profit. Had 

 3uch been properly thinned in time they would have served the 

 purpose for which they were intended — that is, shelter or 

 smameut. 



OKKEXHODSE .\NI> COSSERVAIOBV. \ 



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

 removed to a higher temperature, examine their roots, and see 

 if they are liealthy, and if not, shake the old soil from them I 

 and repot them in fresh soil in smaller pots. This is a good 

 mode of preparing plants for the one-shift system, which may 

 be adopted as soon as the roots begin to spread on the outside i 

 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. Orange trees in tubs or pots 

 should be carefully examined in order to ascertain whether or | 

 no their roots are in a healthy state, and those requiring more 

 Toom should be shifted at once. In many instances, however, 

 H may not be possible to afford large specimens a shift ; in that 

 case remove as much of the surface soil as can be done without 

 injuring the roots, and replace it with a mixture of good loamy 

 turf, broken bones, decayed cowdung, and sand, and see that 

 the balls of the plants are in a moist healthy condition. Dis- 

 pense with fire heat in the conservatory as much as possible, a 

 temperature of o,5° by day and -15° by night will be sufficient 

 for general purposes. Do not allow the heat to rise much by 

 sunshine. There is as much skill displayed in retarding cer- 

 tain flowers as in hastening their flowering in the first in- 

 stance, and to this end a canvas screen of a thin character 

 should always be at hand to throw over the roof during the 

 mid-day hours of a bright day. Bo sure to sow a little Cine- 

 raria and Chinese Primrose seed as soon as you can ; this, 

 with another sowing in Api-il, will furnish a supply tlironghout 

 the next autumn and winter, if high cultivation be carried out. 

 Attend to your ornamental trellis plants, they should always 

 be in fine condition, and, to accomplish this, attention is ne- 

 cessary. Forcing-bulbs, as Hyacinths, Narcissus, >tc., should, 

 after blooming, have their leaves tied up, and should be trans- 

 ferred to a cold frame, and, when the most severe weather has 

 passed away, they should be turned out of their pots to feed in 

 prepared beds. 



STO^-E .VXD ORCHID-HOUSE. 



Continue repotting such Orchids as need that operation. 

 Stanhopeas, Acroperas, Demlrobiums, &c., suspended in bas- 

 kets or on blocks will now require syringing occasionally, or 

 watering by some means. Many of these will have received 

 little water since the end of October, and will have become ex- 

 cessively dry. Blocks may occasionally be soaked for a few 

 minutes overhead in tepid water, also baskets, if very dry. If 

 syringing is resorted to, choose a bright sunny day for the pur- 

 pose. On such occasions keep up a brisk fire, and give air freely 

 in the afternoon, for fear of the moisture lodging on the un- 

 folding bud, which, in some cases, would prove injurious. The 

 temperature should now be allowed to rise freely on bright 



days, remembering that a rise by solar heat alone can do no 

 harm for a few hours, even at this period, provided it do not 

 exceed 75°. 



roRciNo-piT. 

 Continue te increase atmospheric heat and moisture at fit- 

 ting periods. Attend to plants for succession, watch for the 

 worm in the bud of Moss Roses, fumigate for thrips, Ac, and 

 see that the plants are duly watered with tepid liquid mauare. 



PITS .VND FR.VMES. 



Some little water will now be required here, give plenty of 

 air all night in safe weather, and propagate stock for bedding 

 out. Endeavour to keep the air of the pits and frames as dry 

 as possible. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WTEEK. 



Fitness. — " Have a place for everything, and keep ererything 

 in its place," is a capital axiom and should ever be kept in 

 mind by the gardener, though in these days there is scarcely 

 one in ten who can carry out the principle. It does one good 

 to go to a place and find a separate house for every particul»r 

 section of plants, and in which, therefore, throughout the 

 season they can receive that kind of treatment as respects tem- 

 perature, moisture, ic, which their circumstances require. No 

 such treatment can be given where in two or three houses 

 almost everything must be attempted. Hence, the complaints 

 of plants being drawn, unhealthy, troubled with insects, covered 

 with mildew, Ac. If a nice conseiTatory is to be kept gay all 

 the winter, the stove, the greenhouse, the forcing-pit, must all 

 be made to contribute their share ; but the due health of the 

 plants must be maintained by keeping them there only so long 

 as they are at their best, and then removing them to the place, 

 where they will have what they need most. Tears ago we 

 had fine displays in winter by means of Jnstioias, Begonias, 

 Poinsettias, Euphorbias, winter-flowering Heaths, Epacris, 

 CameUias, Cinerarias, Chinese Primroses, double and single, 

 forced shrubs, bulbs, Ac. but to keep these in one house re- 

 quired some care in grouping, and placing the hardiest where 

 most air could be given ; and even then the average tempera- 

 ture at night being seldom below .50', and oftener nearer to 55°, 

 with a rise from sunshine when it coiild be obtained, some of 

 the hardier plants, as Cinerarias, required extra care to keep 

 them clean and bushy. We think it but just to mention this, 

 as some enthusiasts with little room, but who must try every- 

 thing, complain very much that their plants are very much 

 drawn this winter, which in most of the cases where any ex- 

 planation is given, we would at once attribute to the plants 

 being kept in too wai-m and close an atmosphere, and at too 

 great a distance from the glass, and especially when the roof 

 is at all cumbered by creepers. The winter, too, as a whole, 

 has not only been extremely damp, but also very sunless, and 

 that would occasion the spindUng-up of plants under glass, 

 when not neutralised by giving extra air, without allowing 

 moisture to come in with it. 



In such cases the injunction so often given, " Keep the 

 plants near the glass," is all very well ; but in the usual run 

 of plant-houses, if a portion of plants are thus privileged, 

 what becomes of those that must be on beds, or stages, many 

 feet from the glass, and in many cases shaded, too, by creepers ? 

 One advantage as respects the latter is, that with the exception 

 of winter-blooming plants the other creepers that chiefly bloom 

 in summer may be pretty well cut-in in autumn, so as to allow 

 all the light possible in winter. 



Kiipiiig Plants close to the OUifs is also worthy of the con- 

 sideration of those whose want of tliat success at which they 

 , aim is chiefly owing to their attempting to have two or 

 ' throe distinct crops of plants on different levels in the same 

 I house, one tier above another, like the floors of a house, 

 I whilst the sun through the glass lean-to roof can only admit 

 . full light to the top tier or storey. We have done as much 

 with storeying and cramming in one house as most people, 

 and from necessity, in order to effect certain results with little 

 ] room ; but no contrivance, except moving the plants, could 

 I prevent the lower shaded storeys or tiers from becoming 

 j weakly, if enough of heat reached them to cause them to grow. 

 I Some people seem to think that tliey c&n have tier above 

 tier of plants in a house, just as they have tier above tier in a 

 draper's shop. They forget, that though such soft poods are 

 often the better of having but little of the sun, light for the 

 generality of plants is the great essential for a healthy existence. 

 Keeping growing plants close to the gl^ss is, therefore, of 



