42 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDHNER. 
[ July 18, 1878. 
presence of fine trees when they are arranged with skill and 
taste.—HD WARD LUCKHURST. 
WINDOW GARDENING AND WINDOW PLANTS. 
(Concluded from page 3.) 
Sorn.—Seedlings, such as annuals hardy and half-hardy, 
once started may be, andare generally, grown in the open beds 
or borders, and will grow in almost any soil except it is wet 
and undrained or too sandy or peaty, in which case nothing will 
thrive. Most people have a bit of garden of some kind, and 
if in towns a patch often before their doors, for a small border 
or flower bed. In all such cases a few barrows of prepared 
soil would be most desirable. The prepared soil might consist 
of loam. In towns it would be worth the cost, if you are not 
experienced, to procure it from a nurseryman, as loam is indis- 
pensable for general potting purposes also ; the best substi- 
tutes for good loam is dry cow manure procured in summer in 
cakes and torn asunder, or leaf mould one or two years old. 
With a sufficient quantity of these three to mix as may be 
desirable, some peat for the use of fine-rooted plants, some sand 
for general purposes (to be used cautiously, as it is cold, and 
most soils contain a sufficiency of silica for early elaboration), 
some lime to strew in the way of slugs, &c.; some soot to use 
with the watering when a deep rich tint is desirable. The 
proportion in which those soils should be mixed for different 
plants and how used can be readily ascertained by a cursory 
jook through the “ Garden Manual”’ or the ‘‘ Window Garden- 
ing” handbook, published at the office of the Jowrnal of Hor- 
ticulture and obtained for a few pence, and into which the 
limits of those observations do not permit me further to enter. 
PotrinG.—lIf the pots are new steep them until they cease 
to effervesce, and then put them to dry. If they are old they 
should be thoroughly washed, and to make them look like new 
take a piece of a pot and in the washing scrape the sides of 
dirt or green slimy formation with it. Speaking generally 
broken potsherds are best for drainage covered by moss, short 
straws, or the fibre of loam to prevent sand or clay being 
washed through. Instead of potsherds, and often more con- 
venient, you can use small granulated, not too small, charcoal, 
which the roots may be often observed twined around, and from 
which they take in carbonates; over these the coarser part of 
your soil, and the finer portions for the surface; but for a 
growing plant, seedling or cutting, the moze open the soil is, 
especially with amateurs, the greater the certainty of success. 
Any soil in which a sufficiency of water does not readily pass 
away is unsuitable, and will but bring disappointment. Next 
in order, and first in importance, towards success is 
WATERING.—If you have reason to think the soil is mode- 
rately moist, and that your plant is not thoroughly established 
as a young seedling, if the flagging occurs through sun heat, 
shade rather than water. If an old plant watering will not do 
harm at any time, but in most cases in summer the evening or 
early morning is more desirable. In winter little watering is 
necessary as arule for window plants at any time, as in most 
cases, except bulbs and essentially winter plants, growth 
should not be encouraged. Nothing is more undesirable than 
watering by routine. You may examine your plants morning, 
noon, or night, but you must not water by any means so sys- 
tematically. The necessity for watering at all depends very 
much on the action of the sun. Well, during the month 
of June, up to the 18th we had not one day’s warm sun- 
shine, and instead of the thermometer standing at 80° it did 
not, as I remember, once exceed 60° in the shade. During 
the past week alone the rainfall exceeded 24 inches. Need I 
say for outdoor plants watering was wholly unnecessary, and 
owing to the humid state of the atmosphere, and consequent 
non-evaporation, watering for window plants was also almost 
undesirable? Now, if this is so in June, the same principle of 
atmospheric observation must very much guide you at other 
times in your waterings. Great heat will produce evaporation 
or perspiration from your flower pots or flower leaves, and this 
must be returned some way. Watering is not always the best 
way to do it. Syringing the plants, the glass, or the flagging 
of the floors produces a moist atmosphere in a greenhouse in 
hot weather, and the more nearly window gardeners can imitate 
this the better. 1 have grown Balsams beautifully shrubby 
and healthy in a window by closing during warm sunshine 
and taking a bunch of feathers and some soft rain water and 
lightly showering it on the leaves and around, thus creating a 
moist atmosphere around the plants, which, owing to having 
plenty of air and their dry situation, were prevented from 
being shanky or drawn. I mention this as an illustration. 
There is less necessity for a moist atmosphere in most other 
cases, as this moist atmosphere, uninterrupted growth, and 
plenty of hot room is for them a necessity for success. A few 
words how one may generally know when their plants want 
watering: For small plants after a little experience you can 
absolutely know by the weight of the pot. Generally you know 
by appearances, but to this there are many exceptions; for 
instance, a dry March north-east wind will leave the surface 
as dry as ashes in one half hour, but the roots may want no 
water—in fact if cold it would be injurious. By striking the 
knuckles against the side of the pot—this is the plan adopted 
with large pots that cannot easily be raised or weighed on the 
hand; and lastly, even though the surface may appear dry, 
should the soil effervesce on the application of water nothing 
but a regular plunging in a vessel of water will be sufficient. 
As to what water is most desirable—Soft water is much to be 
preferred ; chills are avoided, and a French savant published 
some experiments to show that in absorption hard water had a 
caustic effect on the spongioles and minute rootlets, while rain 
water exposed to the sun appeared to have a soothing effect as 
well as an evident stimulus to elaboration. This seems reason- 
able, and were plants treated as living organisms, subject to 
many of the climatic vicissitudes that affect human beings, and 
were it remembered they are circulated by sap as our frames 
are by blood, and with many other peculiarities in common, it 
might be hoped a more intelligent interest would be taken in 
their welfare, errors in the treatment of which often arise from 
a want of knowledge to do better. To those who love plants— 
and who will not plead guilty to the soft impeachment ?— there 
is no sorrier sight than a dying waterlogged beautiful plant 
incapable of effecting its own cure. Therefore keep a vessel 
for rain water, and expose it to the sun and air to make it 
warm and soft. Little watering is necessary except in a warm 
sitting room during the winter months, and then use water of 
the temperature of your room by leaving it one side of a fire 
or on a boiler until the cold is gone out of it. If you cannot 
have rain water you can soften spring water, by boiling and 
subsequent cooling, by the addition of carbonate of soda or 
potash, though I must confess my dislike of those latter means 
as compared with the other. 
Manure Waterings.—I have always been of the opinion this 
is too little resorted to. Window gardeners must generally use 
small plants and small pots. This is principally because their 
space is limited and because they love variety, and it can 
hardly be denied that a neat, compact, well-grown little plant 
is much more to be preferred than an unduly forced and conse- 
quent short-lived larger one. This can be even better done 
by an intelligent study of how liquid manure can be adyan- 
tageously applied and used in preference to a large body of 
earth with loss of space and loss of variety. As a rule sheep 
droppings, cow manure, guanos, or phosphates, &c., can be had 
inexpensively—and the two first in the country for gathering 
—and must be used weak and clear. It should, however, be 
frequently used for plants in robust health in small pots, and 
still more so towards the time of the expansion of the flower 
blooms. An intelligent use of manure waterings will save 
much trouble in repotting, will keep your plants in rude health, 
and if soot is sparingly used with it will give a tint and finish 
to the foliage and bloom that well repays the trouble. A 
sponge to wipe up what passes through as surplus, and some 
dry dust as a deodoriser, will facilitate its use in the costliest 
of drawing-rooms, and render it unobjectionable either to the 
olfactory nerves or superior taste. A small tank in the ground 
that takes up little space, and that may be furnished with a 
coyer, and into which you may throw slops occasionally, with 
the horse, cow, or sheep droppings to be often had for nothing, 
is all that is necessary ; only when the supply begins to fail 
should it be stirred. , 
Iysects.—I grow hundreds of plants, most of them suitable _ 
for windows, and rarely ever see an insect. I attribute this to 
providing them with a suitable atmosphere both as to air and 
temperature, and cautious and careful watering—I say cautious 
watering, for invariably a water-sodden sickly plant will be 
covered with green fly and communicate them to its neigh- 
hours. When one appears immediately remove it and syringe 
or wash. Some have small conveniences for fumigation, but 
remember precaution is better than cure. A healthy well- 
grown plant will seldom give any trouble that way ; if it does 
a syringing with a diluted solution of tobacco water will effect 
a perfect cure either of green fly, thrip, red spider (which I 
haye never seen on a window plant), &c. Calceolarias, Cine- 
