CALENDAE.] 



PEACTICE OF HOETICULTURE. 



[CALEJTDAK. 



annuals, to stand over winter for early bloom- 

 ing next spring. Eoses and fruit trees should 

 be budded in damp, dull weather ; they take 

 best just after heavy rain. In budding on the 

 manetti stock, enter the bud just above the 

 collar, close to the ground. 



Septembee. 



Fruit Garden.— \^hen the pips of apples 

 and pears have become dark in colour, it 

 is usually taken as the signal for harvesting 

 the crop ; but in looking for this sign a sound 

 fruit must be taken, not one that has been 

 pierced by an insect. Have all fruit gathered 

 with care, and stored without bruising. 



Forcing Department.— T\iQ growth of all 

 hard-wooded plants should be well ripened 

 while there is plenty of sun-heat. Bedding 

 plants should be got into small pots as speedily 

 as they make good roots in the borders, or 

 can be spared from the decorative grounds, if 

 worth keeping. Keep the houses gay with 

 amaranthus bicolor, balsams, cockscombs, 

 coleus, fuchsias, gladioli, heliotropes, liliums, 

 and plants with fine foliage. 



Kitclien Garden. — "Winter stock which was 

 sown last month may now be sufficiently for- 

 ward for planting out. The ground from 

 which onions have been cleared is usually the 

 best for cabbages for spring use. Winter 

 spinach should be thinned to six inches from 

 plant to plant ; also the rows of lettuce that 

 are to stand the winter. Celery should be 

 earthed up as the rows require it in dry 

 weather. Sow saladings, and gather seeds as 

 fast as they ripen. Potatoes should be taken 

 up as the tops wither; but carrots and beet- 

 root may remain till the frost cuts off the 

 foliage, no longer. Parsneps may be left in 

 the ground, to be trenched out as wanted for 

 use, unless the space is required, in which case 

 store them in sand. 



Fioicer Garden. — Plant out pinks and car- 

 nations, and rooted cuttings of herbaceous 

 plants. The season has now commenced for 

 planting bulbs, but tulips should not be put 

 into the open ground till next month. This 

 and next month are the best times for strikiujr 

 calceolarias. 



OCTOBEE. 



Fruit Garden. — Gooseberries, currants, and 

 raspberries may be moved towards the close of 

 992 



this month ; and new plantations made on 

 ground deeply trenched and manured. Goose- 

 berries and raspberries need a richer soil than 

 currants ; and black currants and raspberries 

 will thrive in more marshy ground than any 

 other of the bush-fruits. Eoot-pruning and 

 planting may be commenced in the last week 

 of the month ; but root-pruning should only 

 be resorted to in cases of over-luxuriant, un- 

 fruitful trees. 



Forcing Department. — House at once what- 

 ever is to be wintered under glass. Chrv- 

 santhemums ought now to be in such bloom as 

 to keep the house gay for a while ; and, as they 

 go off, fuchsias and geraniums, from summer 

 cuttings, should be got into bloom by giving 

 the plants good places and shelter from 

 di'aughts. 



Kitchen Garden. — In getting ready for next 

 year's crops, first trench over the ground in- 

 tended for root crops; and choose for potatoes, 

 carrots, parsneps, and beet, plots that have 

 been well manured this year. Plant out the 

 August-sown cabbage ; leaving the weakest 

 in the seed-bed for future planting. Also 

 plant out lettuce in a warm situation ; taking 

 up potatoes, carrots, beets, and parsneps. 

 Earth up celery ; lay cabbages and broccolis 

 that are forward with their heads to the north. 

 Asparagus beds should be forked over, and all 

 litter cleared away. Remove the stems with a 

 knife, and dress the crowns with manure, 

 and a little fresh mould over all. This is the 

 best time to make plantations of rhubarb for 

 next season's produce. Tomatoes, not ripe, 

 should be cut with a length of stem, and taken 

 into a warm green-house, where they will soon 

 ripen. 



Flower Garden. — Chrysanthemums should 

 now be securely staked ; plants in pots 

 trained out, and made neat and tidy, for 

 blooming; give plenty of water. The bulbs 

 to be planted this month are crocuses, crowu 

 imperials, hyacinths, irises, liliums, narcissus, 

 jonquils, dafl:bdils, scillas, and early tulips. 

 For late tulips, next mouth is sufficiently early; 

 and anemones and ranunculuses are best kept 

 out of the ground till February, except in 

 places where autumn planting has been proved 

 to be congenial to them, in which case it is 

 preferable. Herbaceous spring-floweriug 

 plants may be got into the borders, to bloom 



