204 VILLA GATiDENINrr PART II 



should be inserted iu sandy loam in a warm close pit, or mider 

 a bell-glass in a warm greenhouse. When rooted pot off 

 singly, keeping close for a time till established, then move to 

 an airy greenhouse. Soil— equal parts of peat and loam, with 

 some sand and crushed charcoal to ensure porosity. The pots 

 must be well drained, as the plants require a good deal of 

 water. All blossoms should be picked off plants intended for 

 exhibition till the first week in February, as this ensures a 

 good head of bloom when wanted. Holdfordi, Frosti, and pro- 

 fusa are good varieties. 



Salvias. — The tender sages are among the most showy of 

 autumn and winter plants for the greenhouse. For the most 

 part good-sized plants may be obtained from cuttings in the 

 same season, and therefore it is needless to save the old plants, 

 except a sufficient stock to produce cuttings, which should be 

 struck like Verbenas in March, potted off!, and either shifted 

 as they require more space, or else be planted out in the border 

 in light sandy soil, occasionally pinching in the strong shoots 

 and supplying them with water in dry hot weather if they seem 

 to need it. In September lift carefully and pot, using as small 

 pots as the plants can be conveniently put into, keeping them in 

 the shade for a short time, and housing before the frost comes. 

 The following are good varieties : — Salvias Pitcheri, splendens 

 Bruauti, Bethelli, rutilans, coccinea, grandiflora, tricolor. 



The plants I have thus briefly referred to may be regarded 

 as representative types, and it will be difficult indeed to find 

 any soft-wooded plants that will not submit to the treatment of 

 some of the sections. 



CHAPTER XII 



The Rose House. — Few plants yield better results for pains- 

 taking culture beneath a glass roof than does the Rose. The 

 time will come, I hope and trust, when every villa garden shall 

 have its rosery under glass. In the suburbs of towns, where the 

 Rose dwindles and dies in the open aii", poisoned by the vitiated 

 atmosphere, a fair amount of success may be obtained by building 

 a house for their culture. And no matter how humble and primi- 

 tive the structure may be, so long as the plants are sheltered 

 from the impurities in the air, they will grow and flourish. I have 

 seen good Roses growing in a turf pit, rudely constructed by a town 

 amateur, where in the open air the Rose failed to grow ; but 



The Best Kind of House to grow a succession of first- 



