March 23, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOETIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



219 



FLOWER CAEDEN. 



Sweep aud thoronglily clean lawns, and give them a double 

 rolling with a heavy roller to render the turf smooth and solid. 

 This ia sometimes jmt oft' until dry weather sets in, after which 

 the roller makes comparatively little impression ; whereas, if 

 done at once while the turf ia iu a wet spongy state, it will be 

 greatly consolidated and improved for the season. If any 

 alterations or planting still remain unfinished, all avuilable 

 hands should bo concentrated on this work so as to complete it 

 as soon as possible. Planting done after this time will require 

 much attention in watering, and this at the very basiest season 

 of the year, especially if large plants are removed, and it is too 

 common a pructico to put off such work to the last. Look over 

 the beds planted with bulbs, and where necessary stir the 

 surface soil so as to keep it open aud friable, and to give a 

 clean, neat, fresh appearance. If the soil of any beds or clum; s 

 for masses requires renewing, or enriching by the addition of 

 animal or vegetable manure, it should ba immediately applied 

 in order that they may ba ready to receive plants or seeds. 

 Where the same or nearly the same plants are grown for a 

 number of years successively on any ot the beds, it is advisable 

 once in four or five years to remove a large portion of the old 

 soil, and to fill up again with fresh material ; this practice, 

 however, for some plants. Scarlet Pelargoniums for instance, 

 would be rather injurious, for the latter generally grow more 

 luxuriantly than is desirable, even in the poorest soil. Many 

 bedding plants, however, particularly annuals, take more from 

 the soil than can be supplied to it in a moderate top-dressing, 

 and where we find a certain kind of plant exactly suited to a 

 particular situation, we do not change it every jear, but prefer 

 changing the soil. Perhaps no kind of flower garden is more 

 generally interesting than one of mixed herbaceous plants, if 

 they are tastefully arranged as regards height aud habit of 

 growth, colour, and season of flowering, and it is owing to a 

 want of attention to these matters of detail that flower gar- 

 dening of this description is so little iu repute. The beds are 

 too generally planted with little regard to system at first, and 

 gaps which occur afterwards are supplied with little better 

 taste. As the arrangement of the plants cannot ba rectified 

 during the season of growth, the best method of proceeding is 

 to name them carefully as they come into flower, and to make 

 memoranda of their height, colour, season, and other pecu- 

 liarities. "With the assistance of this information any cul- 

 tivator may make a collection of herbaceous plants both beauti- 

 ful and interesting. Carnations and Picotees have suffered 

 much during the past winter, those which escaped should be 

 potted forthwith. I know of nothing better to grow them in 

 than two parts virgin loam, one part decomposed horse manure, 

 and one part sharp river sand. In this simple compost, with 

 occasional doses of weak liquid manure during the growing 

 season, I have seen them flourish and produce an excellent 

 bloom. Tulip seed may now be sown, covering slightly. Nets 

 may bo kept over the main beds to preserve the foliage of the 

 advancing plants from being cut by severe winds, or battered 

 by hailstone?. The surface of Pink beds may be moved and 

 the plants top-dressed with rich compost. The same treatment 

 will apply to Pansies. Polyanthus seed should be sown in 

 pans or boxes, sheltering the plants as they rise, from the direct 

 rays of the sun. lianuuculuses,as a matter of course, are all in 

 the ground and the seed sown. Shelter both the beds aud seeds 

 from exeeasive wet. 



GEEENHOnSE AND COKSEEVATOKY. 



Now is the time to commence ascertaining whether there is 

 a sufficient quantity of plants for the decoration of the con- 

 servatory during the summer and autumn. If this ia attended 

 to at once, very much may yet be done towards making good 

 any deficiencies that may happen to be discovered, for it is not 

 yet too late to provide multitudes of showy plants for blooming 

 early iu autumn. Young plants of AUamandas, Glerodendrons, 

 Torenias, &a., and many other things, if encouraged with a 

 brisk bottom heat and other favourable circumstances, will 

 form good-sized specimens in a few months ; and large masses 

 of Statices, than which few plants are more useful, will under 

 kind treatment be obtained in a very short time. Cassia 

 corymbosa is a useful plant and should not be overlooked 

 when other plants are scarce, as it grows very rapidly and pro- 

 duces a long succession ot bright yellov/ flowers. Those, also, 

 who possess Bileamina Jerdoniffi should encourage it by every 

 possible means to make wood and propagate as quickly aud 

 freely as possible, for it is just the plant that is wanted for 

 autumn decoration. Then there are numbers of useful plants 

 that maybe raised from seeds, as Thunbergias, Ipomieas, Cocks- 



combs, Balsams, Lobelias, &c. ; and cuttings of Fuchsias made 

 of young weod will root in warm sund in little more than a 

 week, aud may be grown into fair-sized specimens by July. 

 Give free veulilatiou when cold winds oati be avoided, and bo 

 cautious in the use of fire heat, dispensing with it on all 

 possible occasions; iuueed, it will henceforth scarcely be re- 

 quired, except to ward off too sudden a depression through 

 Irosty nights. Where gay Azaleas, Bhododendrons, and Hoses 

 are kept by themselves, a canvas screen should be immediately 

 put in requisition iu order to retain those charming flowers. 

 When sucii is tho ease a very tmall amount of atmospheiio 

 moisture will suffice. 



STOVE. 



loorease atmospheric moisture considerably, not, however, in 

 sudden clouds of steam, but steadily and permanently. Some 

 slifht shading with the Orchids may be necessary from 11 a.m. 

 to 2 P.M. on very sunny days. Wheu, however, the sun only 

 breaks out at iutervals, prefer giving mora air and increasing 

 iu a very high degree the moisture of the air. 



PITS AND FEAMES. 



Verbena.", Calceolarias, shrubby Anagallises, Antirihinums, 

 Scarlet Pelargoniums, Fuchsias, Petunias, and all cuttings o! 

 half-hardy plants will strike in little more than a week in a 

 sweet bottom heat of 75°.— W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 

 On the morning of Thursday last we had rather unexpectedly 

 a heavy fall of snow ; and in one respect we were glad to see ir, 

 as along with the frost of the succeeding morning, it put a 

 stop to ground work for a couple of days, end enabled us to 

 proceed with cleaning sheds, washing pots, remedying defective 

 glass in sashes, potting iu stokehole sheds where all was warm, 

 aud changing bedding plants into cooler quarters, where they 

 could be almost left to themselves until planting-out time. 

 We also went on propagating by cuttings what we wished to 

 increase, and pricking out lois of small seedlings in shallow 

 wooden boxes, which we find the easiest to manage and the 

 easiest and most economical to obtain. All such work will, as 

 a general rule, be best done aeoording to the comfort of tho 

 workmen. A man, however well disposed, cannot do such deli- 

 cate work as pricking ofi small seedlings with the points of his 

 fingers like so many points of ice. Wo have not yet had a 

 properly heated workshed for such purposes, and therefore 

 take advantage of theds where there is a furnace ; but so well 

 is this matter now understood, that many ot the proprietors of 

 even small nurseries are quite as particular in having their 

 working sheds heated by hot water in winter as in applying it 

 to their glass houses. It is certain there is no excuse for dila- 

 toriuess, idleness, or beating hands and arms for warmth when 

 such comfort is provided. 



KITCHEN GAEDEN. 



The mild day of the 18th brought all our usual work in full 

 force upon us. Where the main crops of Onions have not been 

 sown no time should now be lost, and a principal sowing of 

 Carrots should also be made. Parsnips do well sown even in 

 February. Beet, Salsafy, and Seorzonera may also be sown 

 where a few run heads are not feared. For a uniform level 

 crop it is as well to defer sowing to the end of the month or 

 the beginning of April. Tho ground is yet to cold that it is 

 hardly warm enough to encourage germination except in tho 

 hardiest seeds, as Peas and Beans, of which successions should 

 be put in. Early crops of these sufl'ered a little from the frost 

 of tho morning of the 17th, but not, we trust, enough to hurt 

 them. 



We pricked off a lot of small plants of Ccleiy into small 

 wooden boxes, and placed them in a shady place in a vinery at 

 work. We generally sow Celery twice or thrice, but we must 

 confess that we do this more as a custom than from any ab- 

 solute necessity. The general idea has been that small plants 

 which are fit to be pricked off into a littio heat iu the 

 middle of March, are sure to throw up their flower-stalks in 

 July, August, and later, whilst plants from seed subsequently 

 sown, and fit to be pricked ofi in April aud May, are compara- 

 tively safe from bolting. The result of our experience and 

 observation is, that plants properly looked after, the roots kept 

 from being dried up, &c., and that are pricked off now, are just 

 as safe from bolting as those pricked off two months later. Wo 

 have often had iu March good beds of Celery without a bolted 

 head, although the tiny seedhngs had been pricked off in the 

 March of the previous year. When we had very early Celery 



