364 VILLA GARDENING part iv 



their combination. Light is essential to sturdy growth and line 

 fruits; therefore the i^lants should be near the glass. But on 

 bright days — when the sun's power is great — a thin shade should, 

 about half-past ten or eleven o'clock, be spread over that side of 

 the house on which the sun is shining, and about three o'clock in 

 the afternoon the shade should be taken oft". 



WaterixCt, both with syringe and watering-pot, requires some 

 judgment. On bright days the syringe may be used freely every 

 afternoon at closing time, which in hot weather in summer will be 

 about half-past three or four o'clock. Plants having fruit blossom- 

 ing or ripening shoidd not be syringed. The walls and surface of 

 the beds, and the house paths, may be damped once or twice 

 a day in fine weather, or whenever the atmosphere of the house 

 becomes too dry. Nothing but the purest rain-water must be 

 used for syringing, as the foliage of Pines is very difficult to 

 clean if it once gets dirty. The watering of the roots of the plants 

 must be done with great care and judgment. If too much or too 

 little is given they will soon become unhealthy and lose colour, and 

 when this happens it is difiicult to get them into good condition 

 again. If they assume the tint called " foxy," they take a long 

 time to put on the green coloiu- which good cultivators so much 

 wish to see, and pride themselves upon. Young growing stock 

 and fast growing successions will in summer probably require 

 looking over twice a week. Every plant may not want water, but 

 each one must be examined. Weak liqmd manure shoidd be given 

 at every watering, and the water may as a rule be poured close to 

 the base of the plant, some of it falling just within the axils of 

 the bottom leaves. In the winter the plants will not require so 

 much water — once a week wiU generally suffice. The water 

 should be warmed to 80 \ Special circumstances in connection 

 with each jDlace may necessitate some modification of the rules here 

 sketched out, but no hard and fast line can or shoidd be laid down. 

 In order to keep up a succession of fruiting plants some of the 

 strongest successions will be potted into their fruiting pots at 

 each general shifting in March, again at midsummer and about 

 Michaelmas, and a similar, or perhaj^s a sUghtly increased number 

 of suckers potted. By this means a constant succession wiU be 

 kept up. In the fruiting-house the earliest fruiting plants will be 

 at the warmest end, then will follow those that are later and those 

 in fiower, and lastly those just introduced. The same may be 

 observed in the succession, for when plants are groui^ed in this way 

 they are more manageable. For instance, it may occasionally happen 

 that a certain number of the last-introduced stock may require a 

 clieck to induce them to fruit. This is commonly done by with- 



