Q98 



CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS FOR FEBRUARY. 



trade. In other businesses we pet 

 something for our monoy : we may 

 get a bad coal for a good one, stale 

 bread for new, bad wine instead of 

 the best; but we still have some- 

 thing. In the tricking of the 

 seed trade we have nothing, and. 

 withal, are deprived not only of 

 our money, but of our season also. 

 What will compensate us for the 

 absence of Coreopsis, of our fa- 

 vourite dwarf Larkspur, and seven 

 or eight other favourite annuals 

 from our garden ? Yet, believing 

 it impossible that we could have 

 been premeditatingly robbed, we 

 attributed the failure of the half 

 that we sowed early to some mis- 

 fortune. Our second, therefore, 

 was sown with better faith, and 

 that has totally failed also. This is 

 not all : we have had the same seed 

 for a friend in the country as we 

 had for ourselves, and the annoy- 

 ance is ten times worse to have 

 been made instrumental in de- 

 ceiving him. French Marigold, 

 Mignonette, Nemophila, and Phlox 

 Dnmimovdi, are the only four 

 that came up with either of us out 

 of twenty sorts. 



THE EOSE GAKDEN. 



Now we come to a period of 

 tlie year when there must be some 

 activity in the Rose garden. Look 

 well to the fastenings of pillar, 

 arched, and wall Roses, and the 

 stakes of standard trees, and repair 

 all that are disordered. Go on with 

 pruning leisurely, but according 

 to the quantity to be done, always 

 keeping in mind that those of the 

 same kind pruned soonest will 

 bloom soonest, and therefore tViat 

 if two or three seasons of pruning 

 are systematically adopted, there 

 will he two or three difFt^-ent 

 periods of bloom. This, then, may 

 be kept iu view in the pruning of 



the summer Roses, such as the 

 Cabhage, Moss, and all those which 

 are but their month in flower. 

 The earliest pruned will be a 

 month earlier ; the latest will be 

 postponed by cutting them down 

 to two eyes after all the upper 

 ones have been shooting some 

 time. The seedling Roses must 

 he kept clear from weeds. Tlie 

 'riers that are beginning to push 

 may be grafted with some of the 

 prunings of the better sorts, and if 

 nicely managed will bloom the 

 first summer in tolerable strength. 

 In grafting the greatest care 

 'should be taken to make a close 

 and clean fit, and not to have 

 more than two eyes left to grow. 

 Some only leave one, but two are 

 not too many. Digging between 

 the Rose trees, and clearing the 

 i:rround of suckers, will be alwT^ys 

 found beneficial, and among the 

 seedlings in beds forking will be 

 found equally serviceable. Roses 

 in the forcing-house should have 

 as much air as can be given with- 

 out lowering the temperature too 

 much. Plantations may be got 

 ready for the tender kinds of dwarf 

 Roses by well mixing decomposed 

 dung with the natural soil ; and the 

 plants, which of course are in 

 pots, should be checked by taking 

 oS" the tops, otherwise tliey become 

 too much drawn for bed Roses. 

 The tops may with care be struck, 

 but they want great attention and 

 a little bottom heat. Planting may 

 still be done vrii\\ such as have 

 not begun to shoot yet. 



THE GREENHOUSE. 



The plants are now more or less 

 rapidly approaching flower. Look 

 generally to the state of the soil 

 and pots, for now is a good shifting 

 time if the work be properly 

 managed ; but the balls ought not 



