212 YILLA GARDENING part ii 



denticulata, S. d. variegata, S. Douglassi, S. formosa, S. helvetica, 

 S. japonica, S. Martensi, S. Schooti, S. stolonifera, S. viticulosa, 

 S. Wildenovi. 



CHAPTER XIII 



The Plant Stove. — Many of the beautiful old flowering stove- 

 plants have disappeared to make room for foliage plants, in accord- 

 ance with a prevailing fashion. Doubtless the fashion will change 

 again, and the flowering plants will come into favour. There is 

 hardly a more beautiful sight than a stove filled with flowering 

 plants in winter, for without naming Orchids (which will be referred 

 to separately) there are numbers of plants which, in a night tem- 

 perature of 60° or 65°, will produce a brilUaut display. The best 

 kind of house for stove plants is a span or half-span roof, not too 

 lofty, but otherwise it may be as roomy as means and circumstances 

 -will permit. If convenient, it may have a pit in the centre filled 

 with tan or leaves ; not that I wish to lay much stress on bottom- 

 heat, but the genial atmosphere which is caused by fermenting 

 materials, if the fermentation be in a mild form, is beneficial. 

 The pots need not be plunged in the bed, or at least only so far as 

 will steady them. Most of the best-flowering stove plants will 

 succeed very well if grown on stages, and everything should be as 

 near the glass as possible, for the ripening process so necessary for 

 the production of flowers cannot be carried on without abundant 

 light. 



Soil and Potting. — All stove plants will grow in peat and 

 sand, but most of the soft rapidly -growing things will be improved 

 by having a proportion of loam — a large proportion, I might have 

 said. It steadies and builds them up more firmly ; they flower 

 better for it, and the more fibre the soil contains the better. 

 Therefore both peat and loam should be used before the fibre 

 decays — say within six or nine months after being placed in a heap. 

 Wherever a good collection of plants is kept, and it is desired to 

 maintain them at a proper standard, a good stock of both peat and 

 loam must be laid in annually. It is veiy short-sighted policy to 

 do this grudgingly, for they form the basis of all good plant-culture. 

 The fibre in the soil has a beneficial mechanical action besides the 

 food, which, in its slow decay, is supplied to the plants just as they 

 need it. The soil, after the fibre has decayed, may be as rich, 

 but the plants will not do so well in it. Everything in connection 

 with plant growing must be clean and sweet ; the pots, if not new, 

 must be well cleaned with a hard bnish ; the drainage materials 



