May 29, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



407 



portion of the stock is not snfficiently prepared, allow it to 

 remain under glass as much longer as may be necessary, and 

 plant-out nothing but strong plauts that have been carefully 

 imired to the sun and air, for weakly ill-prepared stuff is so 

 much at the mercy of the weather, that it is foliy to depend 

 upon its covering the ground in any reasonable time. Give 

 BUfficient water to settle the soil about the balls of the plants 

 the first warm morning after planting, and give no more until 

 the soil becomes dry, unless warm drying weather should set 

 in, and then a gentle sprinkling every morning will greatly 

 benefit the plants. 



GKKENHOrSE AKD CONSERVATORY. 



_ When the cold pits and frames have been cleared of the bed- 

 ding stock, they will form excellent places during summer for 

 the growth of many things for the autumn and winter deco- 

 ration of the conservatory. Indeed, many of our most useful 

 plants for this purpose will do better for the nest three months 

 in cold frames than in larger houses, where the state of the at- 

 mosphere is nol so much at command, nor the plants so readily 

 examined, as in these humble structures. Roses are, perhaps, 

 more generally admired than any other class of plants, and 

 bloom freely in the conservatory in autumn and early winter. 

 if properly attended to at the right time. Young plants of the 

 perpetual-flowering kinds, as Teas, Bourbons, Hybrid, and 

 Damask Perpetuals, if placed in a cold frame and properly at- 

 tended to with pot room, and liberally supplied with manure 

 water, will soon form nice-.oized specimens. But in order to 

 secure their blooming fi-eely in autumn and early winter, the 

 flowers must be picked off as they make their appearance, and 

 strong, stocky growth secured by giving abimdance of air, ex- 

 posing the plants to the night dews, and keeping the shoots 

 stopped and tied out as may be required, and otherwise at- 

 tending to the habits of the variety. .-Uso, attend to the Japan 

 Lilies, Chrysanthemums, scarlet Salvias, tree Carnations, and 

 plants of that sort for autumn and early winter decoration. 

 Give them plenty of pot room, good rich compost, a moist at- 

 mosphere, and plenty of space for the proper development of 

 their branches and leaves. Epacrises, winter-bloomiug Heaths, 

 and Cytisus, should likewise be cultivated in quantity, for few 

 plants surpass them for winter decoration. The atmosphere 

 of phint-houses can scarcely be kept too moist at this sea- 

 son, therefore sprinkle every available surface frequently, and 

 syringe growing stock twice a-day during bright weather. 



STOVE. 



As regards stove plants and Orchids, thorough cleanliness, 

 fi'ee ventOation, plenty of atmospheric moisture, and occa- 

 sionally a slight shading in very bright suushine, are at present 

 the chief requisites. No means should be neglected to en- 

 courage a free growth in Orchids at this period, in order to 

 get their pseudo-bulbs firm and well ripened betimes. — W. 

 Kbase. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST "SVEEK. 



KITCHEN GAKDEN. 



From the 19th and onwards to the time of writing this there 

 has been a bright sun, attended too frequently with dry parch- 

 ing winds, and less or more of frost in the morning. Protected 

 some fresh-planted things with twigs, and run the Dutch hoe 

 through all crops sufficiently advanced to be seen, as alluded 

 to last week. 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



Did the same with the hoe as respects Strawberries to pre- 

 vent the ground cracking, which it threatened to do, and a 

 loose surface is the great remedy for that evil ; but unfortu- 

 nately it also keeps the heat out, and, notwithstanding the 

 bright sun, the earth is still cold at a smaU distance from the 

 surface. Filled mere frames with Strawberries showing bloom, 

 lifting the nice young plants with large ever-so-many-shaped 

 balls, which needed no disturbing, as they would have required 

 if to be squeezed in puts. In such weather as this these plants 

 win come in a fortnight before those out of doors. Arranged 

 a row in pots in front of the orchard-house, where they will 

 have plenty of light and air, and these will come in a week or 

 ten days before those planted out in the frames. Before filling 

 the frames we washed the back and the ends with a paint 

 formed of three parts sulphur, and one part of lime and one 

 of soot, the latter just to mellow the coloiu'. The red spider 

 is the great enemy of the Strawberry under glass, especially 

 when the plants are placed up on high elielves. On the high- 

 est of onr four shelves in the Peach-house we detected traces 

 of the little enemy, and had the plants taken down at once 



and the shelf removed. Put a coating of lime, sulphur, and 

 soot on the pipes and on all the openings on the back wall ; 

 daubed them with a thick paint made of soft soap, sulphur, 

 and a little water. We particularly daubed this clo.se to the 

 apex of the roof, and wherever there was a chance for the sun's 

 rays to strike unobstructcdly on it, as then strong fumes will 

 be given off for a long time, and nothing will suffer from them 

 if air is given early. The soft soap, besides giving off fumes 

 unpleasant to all insects, causes the sulphur to .stick pretty 

 well, and so far bid defiance to the syringe. So painted the open 

 places in the orchard-houses, and about 18 inches at the top 

 of the wall in the vineries, as the only place where there was 

 a chance of the sun beating on the w.iU. This simple applica- 

 tion, and a Uttle sulphur at times applied to the pipes, gene- 

 rally keep off the spider from Vines, without any syringipg 

 except merelj' to damp the floor and pathways. 



Air-giiinri. — We believe that giving air early, or, where the 

 coal heap will permit of it, keeping on a little air at the top of 

 the house all night, would be found the great remedy against 

 scorching, scalding, and even the attacks of the red spider. 

 In one of these hot days with a fierce sun, a great enthusiast 

 for air was astonished to find that at midday we had not mora 

 than 2 inches of air on at the top of the house, and neverthe- 

 less the house felt quite comfortable, and everything seemed 

 to like the atmosphere at about 85° ; but an inch was given 

 early before the house rose to 70", and the pipes were compa- 

 ratively cool when the sun heat was strong. He told us he 

 was sure he would have a foot of air at the top, and inches at 

 least in front, but, then, it was next to impossible to keep plants 

 from being parched and shrivelled up. Well, the scarcity of 

 water and the less labour in air-giving, as well as the teachings 

 of Nature, which infonned us that the greatest heat takes place 

 during the day, led us first to lessen the quantity of air gene- 

 rally given to houses, so as to take full advantage of smi heat, 

 the cheapest and the best of all modes of heating. Such a 

 mode will scarcely answer with those amateurs who rim to 

 their houses at 9 or 10 a.m., and then after a bright sun pull 

 down sashes and open doors, doing their best to shiivel and 

 dry up their plants after submitting them to a scalding, steam- 

 ing process. Our advice to all such gardeners with smaU 

 I houses, who cannot get at their pets early enough in the morn- 

 ing, is never to shut up their houses entirely at top from the 

 end of March to the end of October. Plants will rarely be 

 scalded in such houses even with little air, as the heat of the 

 sun rises gradually, and all heated vapours will freely escape. 

 Nothing so much tends to make plants ready to receive the 

 visits of all kinds of insects as placing them alternately in a 

 vapour-bath, and then in a strong cm-rent of dry parchiug air. 



A certain distance from the glass, say from 12 to 18 inches, 

 according to the position, acts also as a means of safety. The 

 foliage is much less liable to be scalded or scorched in such 

 circumstances, and if the glass is at aU large and good the 

 ' plants will be in no danger of being drawn up weak. Keeping 

 plants near the glass is a capital rule in dark shady houses, or 

 where light only reaches them on one side, but it may be safely 

 neglected when there is nothing above them to intercept the 

 sun's rays. With free light above and on all sides, the plants 

 may be kept stitrdy and strong, though at a considerable dis- 

 tance from the glass. Cuttings may thus often be struck with- 

 out the necessity of shading, and the diffusion of the rays be- 

 fore reaching them will save them from flagging, which they 

 would be sure to do if unshaded and close to tho glass in a 

 bright sun. 



Even in the case of early Strawberries there is less necessity 

 for keeping the plants close to the glass, if they enjoy unob- 

 structed light, and a current of air passing over them when 

 they are in bloom, and at th.".t time they are not subjected to a 

 toohigh temperature. When the Strawberry sets most freely 

 out of doors the average temperature, except in sunshine, will 

 often range from 40° to 50°, and it is quite a mistake to sup- 

 pose that the plants would set better if kept in a temperature 

 of from 60° to 70° at night. WTien that is done, the vital 

 energies of the plants are unduly exhausted, unless, indeed, 

 when the custom is adopted of keeping down the temperature 

 during the day, with large admissions of air. For instance : 

 very fine Grapes have been produced by keeping the night or 

 day temperature within .5° or 10= of each other, but it is a 

 much cheaper plan to imitate Nature in this respect, and allow 

 a considerable fluctnation of the temperature between a cold 

 night and a bright day, and thus get the sun to help us instead 

 of always resorting to the coal heap. 



Temperature. — One other thing we must here allude to. The 



