Notes on Greenhouse Plants, ^c. 501 



the stems and set them on the front shelf. Keep the house 

 humid by sprinkling the paths and floor, and air principally 

 by the top lights. When both top and bottom lights are 

 open, it is scarcely possible to keep a sufficient degree of 

 moisture in the air. 



June. — Calceolarias will be done this month, and seed 

 saved. Geraniums in perfection ; an occasional watering 

 with liquid manure improves the flowers. Make a sowing of 

 primula seed for early winter flowering. Chrysanthemum 

 cuttings, put in last month, will now be potted. Top every 

 shoot closely, for the next six weeks, to get filled-up plants. 

 Shift them into 8-inch pots to flower, and stand them out in 

 the sun ; never let them want water ; the small-flowered 

 kinds are beautiful and unique. Put in a few heliotrope cut- 

 tings ; these will flower in small pots early in winter. Achim- 

 enes, &c., will require more room ; they like shade, and a 

 humid, close atmosphere, but not a great deal of water at the 

 roots ; they do best in baskets hung from the roof. 



July. — As the geraniums go out of flower, set them out of 

 doors to harden them a liitle. Camellias and azaleas may be 

 set out of doors now that their yearly growth is completed ; 

 they will thus more readily form flower buds ; they are best 

 in shade from eleven o'clock till four ; if the pots are set in 

 coal ashes or tan bark, the roots will be benefited and not re- 

 quire so much water. Heaths, epacris, boronias, leschenaul- 

 tias, and many other plants of like nature, do much better in 

 the house during summer, where a suitable humidity can be 

 given to the atmosphere ; the out-of-door aridity is too much 

 for them, and heavy rains destroy them. Keep them in a 

 medium state with regard to water at roots, and refresh them 

 occasionally with the syringe. Make another sowing of pri- 

 mula seed ; also geraniums, if you have saved any. The 

 house will not lack gayety now, if you have attended to 

 achimenes. Surely there is not a more beautiful tribe of 

 plants than these, and so easily and cheaply managed ; the 

 new ones, A. gloxinseflora and A. longiflora alba, are gems. 

 It is a good time to pot a few roses for winter flowering ; 

 they will get well established if placed in good sized pots 



