THE GREENHOUSE AND 

 CONSERVATORY 



THE greenhouse is an indoor garden. It may be a pretty 

 creation or a muddle of anything and everything, and there 

 is a general and unfortunate tendency to attempt too much. 

 When many plants are brought together, some requiring 

 distinct treatment to others, failures must occur. This does 

 not mean that it is impossible to grow a beautiful and varied 

 collection of plants, but the selection must be right, and the 

 requirements of individual things carefully studied. The 

 word greenhouse, regarded from the practical gardener's 

 point of view, signifies a glass structure, in which no fire-heat 

 is given during the summer, and only sufficient in the winter 

 to prevent the temperature falling below 40 degrees. At that 

 season the structure is used for storing such plants as Pelar- 

 goniums, Heliotropes, Petunias, Fuchsias, and a host of other 

 things that need almost entire rest during the winter. In the 

 case of the amateur, however, the greenhouse is a more 

 general plant home. The building itself, size, shape, position, 

 and other particulars, depend upon the surroundings to a 

 great extent. 



The Most Satisfactory Shape is the span roof, as the light is then 

 distributed equally on both sides, the result being plants of better shape 

 than can be grown under other conditions. The great objection to a 

 span-roof structure in a small place is the amount of room it occupies, 

 hence what is known as a lean-to greenhouse is popular. This may be 

 erected against any wall of sufficient height, and is frequently attached 

 to the dwelling-house. In such a structure the plants grow quite one- 

 sided, unless they are occasionally turned round. 



In erecting a greenhouse, whether large or small, it should be plain 

 and substantial. A complicated design, with more or less coloured 

 glass, is a death-trap to many plants. The arrangement of the staging 

 in a span-roof greenhouse will to a certain extent depend upon the 

 width of the structure. When it is ten feet wide, three feet may be 

 set apart for a centre path, with a stage on each side three feet six 

 inches wide. In narrower houses these dimensions may be proportion- 

 ately reduced. For a house sixteen feet wide a central stage is neces- 

 sary. It may be four feet in width, with a walk of three feet on each 



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