348 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



potted now to ensure early flowering. 

 Stand these outside and g"ive them the same 

 treatment as the Freesia. Pelagoniums 

 should be cut back to within an inch of the 

 old wood. After the plants show signs or 

 growth shake them out from the old soil 

 and re-pot them into smaller pots in rather 

 sandy soil. Give them very little water 

 until well established after re-potting. 



Gloxinias that are out of flower may be 

 gradually dried o^. Bunch roses must be 

 kept well syringed and the buds picked off". 



Flower Garden. Watering and keeping 

 down the weeds will be the principal work 

 this month. Attend to staking and tying 

 tall growing plants. 



Vegetable Garden. — Celery and late 



Cabbage will require plenty of water. Celery 

 may still be planted for late winter use. A 

 row or two of Beets may perhaps give better 

 results if sown now than will those sown in 

 July. Spinach sown now often comes in for 

 use in fall, and will sometimes stand through 

 the winter as well as later sown seed. The 

 end of August or early in September is about 

 the best time to sow Spinach that is wanted 

 for early spring use. Clear off all plants 

 from which the crop has been taken ; the 

 ground will be useful for Spinach, Celery, 

 Radishes, etc. Keep down the weeds and 

 draw a loose mulch of earth up to the roots 

 of growing plants where possible ; it helps 

 them through the dry weather. 



HoRTUS, Hamilton. 



PREPARATION OF PLANTS FOR WINTER. 



LANTS intended for Winter flowering 

 should be grown for that especial 

 purpose. It is a mistake to think 

 that plants not grown during the 

 summer with this end in view can be made 

 to do satisfactory work in the winter. As a 

 general thing, plants flower best in summer, 

 and if we let them have their way, they will 

 bloom freely then and take their rest later 

 on, when if we had our way they would be 

 full of flowers. It will be seen, therefore, 

 that we have to reverse the natural order of 

 things, to a great extent, and oblige the 

 plants intended for winter flowering to take 

 what rest they receive during the season at 

 the time when they would be producing 

 flowers if left to themselves. This we must 

 do, with most plants, if we expect them to 

 make the window-garden attractive. We 

 must look ahead — anticipate — and so treat 

 our plants that they conform to our opinion 

 of what is best for them. This they will do 

 if we give them to understand that we 

 expect them to be governed by us, for plants 

 are generally tractable, but this they will not 



do unless we hold fast to the treatment we 

 set out with. Plants are like children. They 

 are obedient when they know that we 

 "mean it," but if our government of them 

 is half-hearted and vacillating, they are 

 pretty sure to take advantage of our lapses 

 from authority and insist on having their 

 own way. 



Some persons tell me that they do not 

 understand why a plant should not bloom in 

 winter after having been allowed to bloom 

 all summer. These persons have given the 

 subject but little thought, or the reason 

 would be apparent to them with but little 

 effort. It is not natural for a plant to keep 

 on growing and flowering the year round, 

 any more than it would be for us to keep on 

 working from week to week, without stop- 

 ping to sleep or rest. True, we might get 

 along with less sleep than we are inclined to 

 take — indeed, we might accustom ourselves 

 to get along with but very little, but such a 

 practice would result in the lowering of the 

 vitality of the system to such an extent that 

 we would be utterly unable to do good 



