TJie Greenhouse and Conservatory in Summer. 263 



Art. VI. The Greenhouse and Conservatory in Summer. 

 By the Editor. 



A GREENHOUSE OT Conservatory in our northern clime — where, 

 for about eight months of the year, nearly all tender plants 

 require protection from frosts — is a necessary appendage to 

 every garden of any extent — or, we might say, to almost 

 every dwelling ; — for it is near to, or immediately adjoining, 

 the house, that the conservatory should always be constructed. 

 Separate from the interest which winter flowering plants alone 

 create, it is necessary to the beauty and brilliancy of every 

 summer garden to have a place where great quantities of 

 showy plants can be brought forward for decorating the bor- 

 der and parterre throughout the summer. 



Every one admires the beauty of a well-kept collection of 

 greenhouse plants. Whether we view it in autumn, when stud- 

 ded with that showy flower, the chrysanthemum, — in winter, 

 when gay with the beautiful camellia, — or, in spring, when the 

 many-hued roses breathe their delicious odor, and the exquisite 

 tints of the pelargonium dazzle the eye, — it is always the same 

 delightful place. Secure from the heavy storms and wintry 

 blasts, the floral treasures of all climes are ever before us, in- 

 teresting us in their growth, and delighting in their variety and 

 aspect. 



But of all places the most dreary, — the greenhouse, as 

 usually managed in summer. — is the most so. No sooner 

 does June — "rosy June" — arrive, than the plants are all 

 tumbled out of the house as if they had no right to be there; 

 all their former brilliancy and beauty is forgotten ; and, with, 

 perhaps, the exception of the camellias, are huddled into 

 some out-of-the-way place, — or under the shade of some old 

 tree, where they remain all summer, — sometimes wet and 

 sometimes dry, — as if they were so many cumberers of the 

 ground. Mr. Repton, in his Landscape Gardening, speaks 

 of the greenhouse as "generally a deserted and unsightly ob- 

 ject," and alludes to one which he constructed in such a style 

 that it might be turned into a pavilion, in summer, in order to 

 avoid this dreary aspect ! It is true, at the time he wrote, 

 that our gardens were not enriched with the variety of plants 



