8 Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
8TOVE PLANTS. 
Where anything of this nature is carried 
out, it of course implies that the use of 
stages or centre pits is altogether dispensed 
with. 
TEMPERATURE AND Licut.—The tem- 
perature that stove plants will bear and 
require if they are to be made the most of by 
giving them as long a season for growth and 
flowering as is consistent with their health 
and wellbeing, is a subject upon which 
very different views are held. The 
injunction not to raise the temperature of 
the stove until the days get long, and to 
keep a low night temperature, has been 
repeated until it has well-nigh become an 
article of faith in gardening practice, and 
the suggestion of anything opposed to this 
is frequently looked upon as an innovation, 
the adoption of which would quickly 
exhaust the plants. Yet those who hold 
such views very likely have never given a 
thought as to the night temperature that 
many of our stove plants are subject to in 
their native countries, even during the 
coolest season, neither have they con- 
sidered the short season of rest they there 
undergo. On this latter point some 
allowance must be made for the shorter 
days we have in this part of the world in 
winter ; yet we are thoroughly convinced 
by repeated trials extending over a long 
period of time that the reason so many 
fail, or only partially succeed, with many 
of the best stove plants, is on account of 
the much too low temperature those plants 
are kept in during the winter, still further 
aggravated by their being kept dormant 
for much too long a period. The teaching 
that stove plants should not be excited 
into growth until the sun has got much 
power is so plausible, that many take it 
for granted and act accordingly, without 
ever attempting to prove it one way or the 
other by practice. It must be borne in 
mind that we are not now speaking of 
plants that only require, and which do the 
best in, an intermediate temperature, but 
of plants from the hottest parts of the 
world ; and of these we say that by far 
the greater number are rested too long in 
the winter, and during that time kept in 
too low a temperature. But when plants 
are started early, whilst the days are short, 
they must be grown in thoroughly good 
light houses, with the larger specimens 
that occupy the centre of the house elevated 
so as to all but touch the roof-glass. 
The all-importance of light, in the fullest 
measure we can give it, for flowering plants 
that are subject to a high temperature, has 
not yet been fully realised by all growers, 
possibly through the necessity for shading 
many plants from the direct rays of the 
sun when it is powerful. But we must 
not forget that it is a very different thing 
to simply shade a plant from the burn- 
ing influence of the sun and to place it 
continuously where it will not receive 
sufficient light—a condition inseparable 
from plants when they are plunged in 
bottom heat in most stoves, and as usual 
in this way much too far from the glass, or 
when stood, as too frequently seen during 
the growing season, in a position where 
effective arrangement was more considered 
than their wellbeing. The same effects 
are inevitable when too many roof-climbers 
are grown over the general occupants of 
the house. Where the plants are of neces- 
sity subject to any of the above adverse 
conditions as to the solidifying, life-giving 
element, light, then of couse it is better 
not to excite them too early by subjecting 
them to a temperature that will force them 
into rapid growth before the days get a 
good length. To the fact of flowering 
stove plants being able to exist in some 
sort of condition when they do not 
receive the full volume of light they so 
much need, may be attributed the apparent 
too general forgetfulness of their wants in 
this matter. For hot stove plants 65° in 
the night and 70° in the day, during the 
shortest days of winter, is the temperature 
that will be found most suitable to their 
requirements ; and four or five weeks at 
the end of the year with four or five at 
the commencement is quite as long as it is 
either necessary or advisable to keep them 
at this. As soon as we get fairly into 
February the heat may be increased two or 
three degrees, and raised higher as the days 
lengthen. During the time of the lowest 
temperature all deciduous plants, or such - 
as are nearly so, should have the soil 
kept very dry, but not in a condition 
absolutely devoid of moisture, or such as 
would cause the bark to shrivel. This 
completes the thorough ripening process 
they need, and induces the cessation from 
growth also requisite. Plants so managed 
have their buds up plump and strong, 
ready to burst into strong sturdy growth 
as soon as water is freely given ; whereas 
those that are forced to rest by being 
chilled in an unnaturally low tempera- 
ture are in a condition neither of wood 
nor roots to start freely. With many 
plants that are so rested it turns out to be 
their last rest, the life being starved out of 
them. The dry condition of the soil during 
the dormant season so necessary for 
deciduous kinds, or such as cast the greater 
portion of their leaves like Allamandas, 
and Bougainvilleas, must not be attempted 
with such as are evergreen, for instance, 
