10 JANUARY. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY, 



All plants not in bloom will be greatly benefited 

 by being syringed on the afternoons of warm days, as 

 also by freely damping the walks during the earh r 

 part of the day. Greenhouse and Conservatory plants, 

 especially hard-wooded kinds, will be benefited by a 

 few weeks' exposure in the open air, to ripen their 

 seasonal growth and give them a stocky habit. 

 This will afford an opportunity for a general clearing 

 and painting of sashes, stages, walls, &c., and to clear 

 out vermin from old corners and old woodwork. 

 Houses containing all ordinary kinds of stock should 

 have air day and night, but most soft- wooded plants 

 in flower will enjoy to be shut up for an hour after 

 watering, and then have a little air again. Shift all 

 Greenhouse plants required for late blooming, and 

 grow them on to a good size before allowing them to 

 blossom. Cinerarias for winter blooming must have 

 good culture and shifts as required, and Camellias 

 may be shifted if necessary ; to overpot them is to do 

 them an injury from which they may never recover. 

 A good time to pot Camellias is when the flower buds 

 are fully formed ; for compost use two- thirds of fibrous 

 loam and one of fibrous peat ; see that the ball is in 

 a sufficiently moist state before potting. A few Clii- 

 iiese Primroses nia y be brought forward toflowerduring 

 April and May, when flowers will be scarce. Ericas 

 generally require to be pruned and cleared of seed 

 pods and dead flowers ; all those with woolly leaves 

 to be put into cold pits, and kept shaded at mid-day. 

 Any not shifted in the Spring cut in at once, and as 

 soon as they break repot them. Every kind of hard- 

 wooded plants may be repotted now, if out of bloom. 

 Azaleas should be prepared for ripening their wood 

 by giving more air ; put out the earliest in a shady 

 place. Pelargoniums that are intended to be kept 



