May 20, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



885 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



MAY 20—26, 1875. 



Royal HortiJultural Society of Ireland— Early Summer 



Royal Institution at 8 p.m. [ Exhibition. 



Royal Botanic Society at 8.45 P.M. 



Trinity Sunday. 



LinLifi?an Society (Anniversary) at 3 P.M. 



Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society at 8.30 p.m. 



Royal Botanic Society— Simuiier Exhibition. 



From observationB tokea near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week ie 06.6- 

 53.3^. 



1 and its night temperature 



FLOWERING PLANTS FOR HALLS AND 

 CORRIDORS. 



ALLS and corridors are not as a rule the 

 best places for plants to tlu-ivo in, but 

 nevertheless there is an increasing demand 

 for plants for such places. No proprietor 

 once having his mansion well furnished 

 with flowering plants through the autumn 

 and winter is ever willing afterwards to be 

 without them. He finds that his paintings, 

 his china, and his fiu-niture, be they ever 

 so valuable, do not light up the faces and 

 bring forth the hearty admiration of the majority of 

 his visitors as do the flowers. You must know who is 

 supposed to have employed his pencil on the canvas 

 before you dare admire it as a painting ; you must turn 

 a china cup upside down and look at the bottom of it 

 before you can venture to say the top is beautiful, for 

 these things are not judged according to merit, as many 

 would fondly suppose. People who wish to have the 

 credit of possessing a cultivated and refined taste are 

 obliged apparently to admire very often that which, if 

 they asked themselves the plain truth, they can see no 

 beauty whatever in. What a relief, then, to turn to the 

 flowers ! All flowers are beautiful, and everybody is 

 supposed to be a judge of them. It is safe even to 

 admire the most hideous combinations of flowers, for 

 there is such an immense margin left here for differences 

 of taste. I have seen hosts of lords and ladies in raptures 

 over those ugly faggots of cut flowers exhibited at our 

 country shows under the names of bouquets and floral 

 designs, and their taste, of course, was never called mto 

 question. 



By-the-by, bow is it that while there is such an im- 

 mense improvement in vases and epergnes at our country 

 exhibitions, there is little or no improvement in bouquets 

 and nosegays? Is it because the judges are too exclu- 

 sively local men, and encourage too much their own par- 

 ticular fancies '? We meet with different models in dif- 

 ferent towns and villages, but all the exhibitors in each 

 village appear to have received their lessons in floral 

 decorations in the same school. 



To furnish a mansion well and economically with 

 flowering plants during the autumn and winter requires a 

 considerable amount of forethought and management. 

 It is not good policy to use rare and valuable plants for 

 such a purpose, because they are certain to be injured, 

 and likely enough to be killed or rendered worthless for 

 the future. Neither is it good economy to force hard 

 to bring plants into flower in winter when the same 

 plants, or others equally good, if attended to during the 

 preceding summer, would have flowered almost naturally 

 at the time they were wanted. 



Many people use principally fine-foliaged plants for 

 house decoration, because, as a rule, they stand rough 

 treatment better than do flowering plants ; they last 

 longer, they are easier to grow, and they are nearly 

 always presentable. Flowering plants, on the other hand. 



No, 788.-VOL. XXVIII., KKW SEEIE8. 



are only presentable for a short time ; a week or a fort- 

 night in a dark corridor is generally sufficient to spoU 

 their beauty, and there is a difficulty in keeping up a 

 perpetual succession till one gains experience in the work ; 

 but in my opinion flowering plants are much more en- 

 joyable in dark cold weather than are foliage plants. 

 There is a refreshing appearance about flue-foliaged 

 plants in the heat of summer; but for dark, damp, 

 chilly autumn give me bright flowers, as they contribute 

 an enlivening effect to which foliage, however, fiae, can 

 have no real claim. 



The difficulties of keeping up a succession of flowering 

 plants are not so great as might appear, but there must 

 be method and arrangement in preparing them. You 

 may grow plants by thousands and then fail if you do 

 not make your arrangements six or twelve months before- 

 hand. It will not do to grow a plant merely because it is 

 beautiful. If it is not suitable for your purpose summon 

 up courage and put it aside, and then utilise the room 

 by growing something more useful, although less beau- 

 tiful. Many gardeners fail by attempting to do too much. 

 The right course is (o find out the special requirements 

 of a place, throw your old loves and special hobbies clean 

 overboard as if they were your greatest enemies, and 

 then take your employer's hobbies and make them your 

 own with all your heart. 



I find the simplest way to keep the mansion furnished 

 with plants is to grow but few sorts, and a large quantity 

 of each sort, also those which are of comparative easy 

 growth, and which can be grown good enough for the 

 purpose in one season. I can tell now what will be 

 my principal flowering plants in each month from next 

 August till the following May. Nothing of this kind is 

 left to chance, and much of it is now being prepared for 

 the purpose, consequently there is not much waste of 

 labour or material. In August the principal plants will 

 be — Campanula pyramidalis two varieties, Vallota pur- 

 pm'ea forty or fifty plants probably, Lilium auratum and 

 L. punctatam. Balsams, and Fuchsias. These are all 

 very showy, very easily grown, and distinct from the 

 plants in the flower beds. The plants named will form 

 the backbone of the whole arrangement, to which will be 

 added any little odds and ends worthy of associating with 

 them. Campanula pyramidalis lasts good in the house 

 for two months ; it might not look so well in a small 

 house, but in our stately apartments it is very imposing. 



For the beginning of December, when we aim to 

 have our greatest floral display, the principal plants are 

 Poinsettia pulcherrima, Bichardia vethiopica, Gesnera 

 refulgens, Browallia elata, Epipbyllum truncatum and its 

 varieties, Chrysanthemums two or three distinct bright 

 colours, Dendrobium moniliforme. Begonias, Carnations 

 above two hundred one-year-old plants in 10 and 12-inch 

 pots (these are principally for cut flowers), Roman Hya- 

 cinths, Primulas, Cyclamens, and Cinerarias. All these 

 flower almost naturally at this time if well grown during 

 the summer. By the end of the month with a little 

 forcing we have the glorious wreaths of little snowballs 

 on the Prunus ptrsica flore-pleno, by the side of which 

 No, 1830.— Vol, LIII., Old Sebies. 



