774 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



mould, sand, or moss nearly to the level of the pavement, so that each tree so placed and dressed, will ap- 

 pear as if planted in a small compartment of earth. Such is the plan of the large conservatory in the 

 royal gardens at Monza. The walk, unless where a stage is adopted, should be in the front of the house, with 

 corresponding doors in each end ; but where the trees are young, and placed on a stage like green-house 

 plantsf the walk should be in front, as in no other situation could the eye of the spectator meet the foliage 

 of the plants. Where the walk is in the middle, and a double row of trees on each side as at Monza„ the 

 effect in winter is truly magnificent and gratifying. 



5930 Where the trees are to be planted as standards in the borders or floor of the house, it is essentially 

 requisite to the health and beauty of the plants that the building be glazed on all sides, {fig. 521.) 

 Showers might be supplied in Loddige's manner ; heat by steam or flues (fig. 522. a) and in winter, the 



beds (b) might be covered with turf, strewed with daisies, violets, and primroses ; these would come early 



into flower and if the turf were kept very short about the roots of the flowering plants, and the trees ui 

 pxcellent condition, only those who have seen the first-rate, regularly planted, standard orange-groves of 

 Kervi could form an idea of the effect, which, by contrast with the external winter, would be felt as lux- 

 urious and as anticipating real spring. 



5931 Where orange-trees are to be trained against the back wall or a trellis, under the glass, the forms 

 adopted for common peach-houses or vineries are perfectly suitable ; but as by training close under the 

 glass as is done with vines, much of the beauty of the foliage would be lost, training on a trellis a few feet 

 distant, with a path between it and the glass, is preferable. 



IMS" Plans for tubs, pots, and boxes. Unglazed pots of earthenware are preferable to glazed stone ware 

 or China pots • the form need not be different from that in common use, and the size must depend on that 

 of the plants At Florence, where the largest and best garden-pots in Europe are made, the rim and part of 

 the outside of pots destined for oranges and ornamental plants, are often decorated with festoons of flowers 

 or fruit and lions' heads, or other ornaments ; which some potters near London have begun to imitate. 



5933 'Tubs mav be of any size, and in these and in boxes, trees thrive better than in pots. One advan- 

 tage of tubs is, that byunhooping them, the staves are instantly removed, and the roots examined and 

 dressed, and by having a cooper at hand they are immediately replaced ; thus saving much of the trouble 

 necessarily incurred in shifting plants in pots or boxes. * ■ j * ♦ i ♦ 



5934 Bores All boxes which are larger than the largest-sized pots, should be contrived to take to 

 nieces ' in order to examine the roots, or to shift into larger boxes. Square boxes held together by an iron 

 Lop^'and taking to pieces on the principle of tubs, are most convenient for trees which do not require 

 more than five or ten cubic feet of earth ; and such as are used at the Tmllenes and by Mean (figs.lTI 

 to 179.) answer very well for plants requiring from ten to sixty cubic feet. Those of Mean contain sixty-four 



CU 5°9& fe pwL C SS* the sixe of boxes to that of the plants. The general opinion of gardeners is in favor 

 of small pots or boxes ; and where the object is dwarf plants, or merely to preserve the trees without much 

 increasing their size or regarding their fruit, they are the most proper. But where the object is luxuriance 

 of growth and fruit, it does appear to us that the pots or boxes cannot be too large ; unless, as Van Osten 

 observes, it is meant to be asserted that plants grow larger in pots than in the free ground It is however, 

 expedient to plant at first in small boxes, and remove into larger ones by degrees. The largest boxes in 

 use in Holland and France are four feet square, which serve for trees with stems from six to eight feet 

 high with globular heads of six feet in diameter, and above a century old. Henderson has always found 

 that the citrus tribe, and plants in general, grow best in pots or boxes, regarded as rather small in propor- 

 tion to the size of the plants." (Caled. Mem. iii. 303.) 



5936. Choice of sorts. Where the object is more ornament than fruit for the dessert, 

 a selection may be made from the varieties of each species at pleasure ; where the object 

 is fruit for the dessert, the following sorts are to be preferred : the common, bloody- 

 fruited, Ber^amot, Maltese, sweet China, Seville, and Mandarin oranges ; the com- 

 mon lemon, citron, and lime, and one or two plants of the shaddock. These include 

 all the essential varieties of the orange tribe as far as respects fruit ; variations in the 

 leaves and mode of growth. 



5937 Choice of plants. For moderate-sized trees to be treated like green-house plants, such as are 

 raised in ^th's country or in the Parisian nurseries are preferable; but where the object is large handsome 

 rrees in boxes'Ttandards in the free soil, or trained trees, then plants from Genoa or Malta .are decidedly 

 preferable • indeed, no plants fitting for the purpose of standards could be elsewhere procured Miller is 

 Eopmion observing that ■« bf much tie quicker way of furnishing a green ,-house with ^rees 

 is to make choice of such as are brought over every year in chests from ^ f « '. h ^ t ™* a ™. 

 raised from seeds in England will not grow so large in their stems under eighteen °* twentyy* », 

 those are when brought over; and although their heads are small when w e receive th em, yet in t hree 

 vears with good management, they will obtain large heads, and produce fruit." When the plants ^are 

 puSaTed in London, ft the Italian warehouses, without names, the greater number will be found to be 

 of the shaddock and c'itron kinds ; as the Italian gardeners find these sorts make sti rongei -shoots and more 

 showy plants, and therefore send a less number of the less luxuriant but more useful varetie l Wh 

 best wav is to send an order, through a British merchant who has a correspondent at Genoa, for named 

 Srts, ordering so many of each class, either from the table of Dr. Sickler (4880.) or the synopsis of Gal- 



le tk[ f Ma™gel™t in pots and boxes. The management of dwarf g^*^^^?* 8 l^EfSbS 

 sized oots or boxes, for the green-house stage, consists in common green-house treatment. Being potted 

 m the Proper son^the roots are to be annually examined before the growing season ,n spring and when 

 matted or dLased, trimmed off and repotted or shifted into larger pots at discretion Henderson says, 

 "The general management of the orange-trees from the middle of March till the 1st of October may be 

 discS fn a few words. I give the trees a good watering all over the leaves once a-week with the en- 

 gne excepting when thev are in flower. Till the end of May this watering is given about 11 o'clock in 

 theforcnoOT .After the end of Mav, I give them a good dashing over the leaves twice a-week with the en- 

 gine? and now I do it in the even \ ng . In very hot weather I repeat the engine-watenng thr.ee a-week. 



