70 FLORAL OPERATIONS FOR THE MONTH. 



Echites, and similar plants, may be trimmed in, disrooted where neces- 

 sary, and brought liere to excite early growth. 



IN' THS COXiD FBAnCE, GBEEITKOVSE, &.C. 



Continue to admit all air possible. Re-pot the various inmates as 

 required from time to time, and examine to see that the drainage is 

 free. If any of the soil looks black and wet, and the pot feels heavy, 

 there is something wrong. If any of the pots are too full of roots, the 

 plants should be removed into pots a size larger ; and the soil should 

 be rich, light, and moderately porous. There is a soil which is good 

 for almost every kind of greenhouse plant — loam, with the turf rotted 

 in it, decayed cow-dung, leaf-mould, peat-earth, chopped small or 

 rubbed through a very coarse sieve, and road-sand, equal quantities of 

 each; it will do for everything; Ijut if we had heaths to grow, we 

 should treble the quantity of peat-earth, and not alter the others, so 

 that it would be one of each of tlie others and three of peat-earth, 

 instead of one all round. In moving a plant from one pot to another 

 take care that the plant be not sunk in the least more in the new pot 

 than it was in the old one, and see that the compost, well mixed up, is 

 made to go down very nicely all round the old ball of earth. Plants 

 shifted in this way should have a little water to settle the earth to the 

 roots. All the shelves of the greenhouse, and all tlie plants, should be 

 cleared of dead leaves, and the places kept very clean. 



Calceolarias, Verbenas, Petunias, and other young stock, intended 

 either for decorating the flower garden or to bloom in pots, must, as 

 growth advances, have the shoots stopped, which will cause them to be 

 bushy. Fuchsias require similar attention, forming cuttings of the 

 young shoots, if desired. 



Camellias exhausted with flowering should now receive a little 

 extra attention. Our practice is to remove them to a cooler situation 

 for three weeks, on the principle of slow breaking, and to give the 

 root a chance of overtaking, in some degree, the expenditure which 

 has taken place in the system. Any pruning necessary is performed at 

 this juncture ; no plant can succeed better, after judicious pruning, 

 than the Camellia. 



XSr THE STOVE. 



' Successive introductions of plants for early bloom should still be 

 attended to, as directed last month. See to pruning in such creepers 

 as are overgrown, before fresh growth commences. Complete all 

 potting as early as possible. Orchidaceous plants, especially, should 

 be done at once, in order to obtain as early a growth as convenient. 

 Use plenty of charcoal, in lumps, and keep plenty of indestructible 

 material round the outside of the pots, to facilitate the passage of both 

 air and moisture with rapidity. Increase atmospheric moisture in pro- 

 portion to heat and light. Look sharp after insects ; the snails, &c., 

 are very fond of the young buds at this period, and soon cause great 

 injury. Orchids recently imported should liave a warm and constantly 

 moist atmosphere for a few weeks, until they begin to grow, but no 

 water should be applied to them until that period, and then with mode- 

 ration. They will fill their pseudo-bulbs by atmospheric moisture 

 alone, and all excitement otherwise risks the well-being of the plant. 



