Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 



STOVE 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 Light. — The tem- 

 perature that stove plants will bear and 

 require if they are to be made tlie most of by 

 giving them as long a season for growth and 

 flowering as is consistent with their health 

 and weilbeing, is a subject upon which 

 very diff"erent 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 qiiickly 

 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 plant-s 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 pla...>ible, 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 eaidy, 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 

 ao as to all but touch the roof-glass. 



The all-importance of light, in the fullest 

 measure we can give it, foi' flowering plants 

 that aie 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 diff'erent thing 

 to simply shade a plant from the burn- 

 ing influence of the sun and to place it 

 continuously where it will not receive 

 sutticient light — a condition insejiarable 

 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 

 eft'ective arrangement was more considered 

 than their weilbeing. The same effects 

 are inevitable when too many roof-climbers 

 are grown over the general occupants of 

 the house. Where the i:)lants 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 Allaniandas, 

 and Bougainvilleas, must not be attempted 

 with such as are evergreen, for instance, 



