THE COLD GREENHOUSE 349 



days, but I happened to have two qualifications which stood 

 me in good stead, a strong love of flowers and a fairly good 

 knowledge of hardy perennial plants. So I made up my 

 mind to face the difficulty and to overcome it with my own 

 hands, for the garden was large and there was quite enough 

 for the gardener to do. He was a clever, faithful and handy 

 man, and I had his good help in many a contrivance through 

 a long series of years, but potting and watering, seed-raising, 

 and slip-taking, and all the ordinary work of a greenhouse 

 I learnt to do by practical experience in happy hours of 

 leisure. Space will not allow me to tell of the failures and 

 difficulties of the first year or two perhaps it is as well 

 that they be buried in oblivion but success came at last, 

 and folk with big conservatories were sometimes rather 

 piqued to find in the modest little rectory greenhouse new 

 and rare plants which were strangers to their own. A few 

 hints, therefore, from an " old hand " may be of use to 

 beginners. First of all, 



One must not attempt too much. Failure generally comes 

 from trying to grow, in an unheated house, plants which 

 require a higher temperature than can be given. One must 

 not expect, for instance, to be able to grow Pelargoniums 

 of any sort unless the thermometer can be kept well above 

 freezing-point at all times. It must always be borne in 

 mind that the mere shelter of glass, while it protects from 

 heavy rains and wind, will not keep out hard frost, therefore 

 hardy plants only are suitable for a cold greenhouse. Even 

 the hardiest will look unhappy out of doors in a severe spell 

 of frost or a tearing wind. Have we not all noticed the 

 drooping, downcast look of common Rhododendrons when 

 the ground is ice-bound and a chill wind rustles through the 

 stiff-frozen leaves ? Yet no sooner does a thaw warm the 

 air and loosen the frost-bands than they lift up their heads 

 as if nothing had disturbed them. It is different with the 

 fine early-flowering sorts, whose foliage is safe enough, but 

 whose crimson and pink blossoms are too fragile to bear 

 the bruising hail or the blustering gale, and who piteously 

 ask for a little shelter that they may fulfil their destiny in 

 peace. In these, we have an example of one class of plants 

 suitable for the unheated greenhouse ; such, in fact, as are 

 hardy enough to live through even severe winters, but whose 

 flowering time is too early to resist injury, in most localities, 

 from inclement weather. There are many such which, with 

 mere shelter in a light glass-house, will come into flower, and 

 bring us a welcome foretaste of spring while the garden, 



