GREENHOUSE 



among amateurs. The housewife is always asking how 

 to make her wax-plant bloom, without knowing that it 

 would bloom if she would let it alone in winter and let 

 it grow in spring and summer. What we try to accom- 

 plish by means of fertilizers, forcing and other special 

 practices may often be accomplished almost without 

 effort if we know the natural season of the plant. Nearly 

 all Greenhouse plants are grown on this principle. We 

 give them conditions as nearly normal to them as ] 

 sible W e endeavor to accommodate our condition; 

 the pi mt n t o u 1 1 mt to tl p con 1 ti ns There 



I young man has served in apprenticeship or his taken 

 I course in an agricultural college without learning this 



gieit 

 not pi 

 gree 



plant I V 



prenti I lit 



Azaleas t i i fU i n 1 th lik it I il 1 1 ive eood 



flowers That is the plant should have completed one 

 cycle of its life bef re it begins another From imma 

 tare and sappv woc-d only poor bloom mny be expected 

 This IS tiue to a large degree even in herbaceous plants 

 The vegetatne stage oi cvcle may be male shorter or 

 longer b\ smaller or laiger pots but the stage of ranid 

 growth must be well passe 1 Irfcre the best "' 

 wanted Fertilizer api 1 1 ' 



GREENHOUSE 



695 



thick rhizomes always signify that the plant was obliged, 

 in its native haunts, to carry itself over an unpropitious 

 season, and that a rest is very necessary, if not abso- 

 lutely essenti;il. uuder domestication. Instinctively; we 

 let bulbous plants rest. They usually rest in our winter 

 and bloom in our spring and summer, Imt some of them 

 — of which 

 the Cape bulbs 

 Nerines, are 

 pies 

 summer and bloom 



duction of tlo V 

 the production 

 ter the plant in 

 toryitwill 1 

 Clo el 1 



\m11 go to the pro 



It time It will go to 



[ he stronger and bet 



the more satisfac 



ri I I I III of the plant > 



c I suggestion of II 



,ij / II I e likely to thy 



the I 1 T r r tnves to imitite \1 



be the n lition a t temppn^ 

 light under which the i 

 We have ir tropi U tcm) i 



it must be remembcre 1 tli t I 

 plant s native place does not jl 

 precise nature of that place i Tl 

 may grow in some unusual site or e\i 

 wilds In a general waj we evpc t 

 in" fr m the \mazon needs a hothc i 



pot to pot until the plant reach 

 he allows the roots to be confi 

 into bloom 0\ er pottin i a 

 bloon n I ' 



Tl e up h t of all this is that the habitat an 1 the 

 m, gne the hint with this beginning woik out the 

 Fx " 



plants have been forced to cease their activities because 

 of cold or dry. These habits are so fixed that the plants 

 must be humored when they are grown under glass. 

 Some plants have no suoh definite seasons, and will grow 

 more or less continuously, but these are the exceptions. 

 Others may rest at almost anv time of the year; butmost 

 plants have a definite season, and this season must be 

 learned. In general, experience is the only guide as to 

 whether a plant needs rest; but bulbs and tubers and 



J I I H herbaceous i- 



terial is stems win li ha\ t i egun 

 to harden Now and then better 

 results are secured from seeds even with peiennials 

 as in Grevillea and Inipatiens Sultani. 



Coming, now, to some of the principles which underlie 

 the proper management of the bouse, it may be said, 

 first of all, that the grower should attempt to imitate a. 

 natural day. There should be the full complement of 

 continuous sunlight ; there should be periodicity in 

 temperature. From the lowest temperature before 

 dawn, there should be a gradual rise to midday or later. 



