September 22, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



219 









WEEKLY 



CALENDAR. 















Day 



of 

 Month 



Day 

 of 



Week. 



SEPTEMBER 22—28, 1870. 



Average Tempera- 

 tore near London. 



Kain in 



last 

 43 years. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 



Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 



Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clook 

 after 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Year. 



22 

 23 

 24 

 25 

 26 

 27 

 28 



Th 



F 



S 



Son 



M 



Tn 



W 



Length of night llh. 48m. 



15 SUNDAY AFTEE TRINITY. 



Day. 

 66.4 

 66.3 

 66.1 

 65.8 

 65.7 

 65.3 

 65.1 



Night. 

 44.7 

 45.7 

 48.5 

 43.1 

 43.8 

 44.6 

 44.0 



Mean- 

 55.6 

 55.9 

 54.8 

 54.4 

 54.7 

 55.0 

 64.5 



Days. 

 21 

 22 

 19 

 21 

 21 

 24 

 22 



m. h. 

 46af5 



48 5 



49 5 

 51 5 

 53 5 



55 5 



56 5 



m. h. 

 58 af 5 

 56 5 

 54 5 

 52 5 

 50 5 

 47 5 

 45 5 



m. h. 

 40 af 1 

 56 2 

 19 4 

 42 5 

 6 7 

 31 8 

 55 9 



m. h. 

 11 af 5 

 38 5 

 8 6 

 27 6 

 49 6 

 15 7 

 42 7 



Days. 

 27 

 28 

 29 

 • 



1 



2 



3 



m. s. 

 7 18 



7 39 



8 

 8 20 



8 40 



9 

 9 20 



265 

 266 

 267 

 268 

 269 

 270 

 271 



From observations taken near London daring the last forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 65.8°, and its night 

 temperature 44.2°. The greatest heat was 82°, on the 25th, 1832; and the lowest cold 23 3 , on the 28th, 1833. The greatest fall of rain was 

 1.68 inch. 



THE GREENHOUSE OP ONE HAVING A 

 SMALL INCOME.— No. 1. 



HOUGH my income is rather limited (not 

 over ifilOO per annum), it was my good for- 

 tune about four years ago to become the 

 possessor of a small span-roofed greenhouse, 

 and I wish to tell the readers of this Journal 

 howl stocked it with plants, and how I grew 

 them. At that time I was not a reader of 

 this nor of any other horticultural paper, 

 and hence did not know of the existence of 

 Editors who would answer any question you 

 proposed to them in regard to stocking a greenhouse. But 

 supposing I had known of their existence, and supposing 

 they had given me such a list of greenhouse plants as 

 they have given to other inquirers, I would have had to 

 say, after consulting the priced catalogue of greenhouse 

 plants which I kept constantly near me, " I cannot afford 

 to purchase them, and hence must content myself with an 

 empty greenhouse.'' But I quite meant to stock it, and 

 hence resolved on availing myself of the resources I had 

 at command. 



Well, I had a few Heliotropes, Verbenas, Fuchsias, and 

 Pelargoniums growing in a frame, and these I transferred 

 to my greenhouse, intending some day to supersede them 

 with plants which rejoiced in much longer names ; but I 

 have never done so, and never mean to do so. I admit 

 that I have added a few plants whose names were as long 

 as their price, but with one exception, to be afterwards 

 noted, they have never come to occupy such a prominent 

 place in my collection as their old-fashioned brethren. 



In enumerating my original collection of plants I made 

 mention first of all of Heliotropes. If I recollect rightly, 

 the first plant to grace the stage of my greenhouse was a 

 Heliotrope, and while I have a greenhouse I shall always 

 give a prominent place to this, my favourite flower. Since 

 I have had a greenhouse it has been to me a source of 

 considerable pleasure to visit other greenhouses and com- 

 pare notes, and I have often been surprised to find how 

 very few people grow the Heliotrope. Indeed, with the 

 exception of my own and a few other greenhouses in the 

 neighbourhood, I have never seen Heliotropes grown to 

 such a state of perfection as they are capable of. The 

 plants which I grew and flowered in my greenhouse this 

 year were three years of age. They were 5 feet in height, 

 were grown in the form of a pyramid, and were clothed 

 from top to bottom with handsome dark green foliage and 

 fine trusses of lilac flowers, contrasting beautifully with 

 their gayer neighbours the Fuchsias and Pelargoniums. 

 The only difficulty which I have experienced in growing 

 old plants of the Heliotrope was to get them to break 

 freely in the spring, but I have no longer any difficulty 

 in this direction. 



The manner in which I grow them is as follows : — In the 

 spring I select several of the strongest autumn-struck cut- 

 tings, and pot them off in rich soil, giving them the benefit 

 of the bottom heat of any frame which I may have in 

 operation. In a few days they commence to grow vigorously, 

 No. 495.- Vol. XIX., New Sbsies. 



after which I carefully stake up the main stem, and pinch 

 in the lateral branches. In a month they are ready to be 

 repotted. I then give them a 6 or a 7-inch pot, and soil 

 consisting of three parts rich turfy loam and one part good 

 rotten manure, with the addition of a little silver sand, 

 and replunge them. When they have again begun to grow 

 I take them to the greenhouse, and give them the place 

 which they are to occupy during the summer, taking care 

 never to let them suffer from want of water, for I know no 

 plants which suffer more owing to neglect in this direction. 

 H they are carefully attended to and nourished with fre- 

 quent applications of weak liquid manure, they will grow 

 and bloom abundantly during the summer and up to the 

 end of August. At that time I take them out of the green- 

 house, and lay the pots on their broadside, withholding water 

 from them. A week or ten days will suffice to ripen the 

 wood and strip the leaves off them, after which I replace 

 them in the greenhouse, taking out the old stake and re- 

 placing it with a longer and stronger one, to which I tie 

 the main stem as well as the lateral branches. And herein 

 lies the secret of successful growth — I used to cut off the 

 laterals, and treat the plants as Fuchsias, but they would 

 not break so freely as I could wish, and hence in several 

 places the bare brown stem was conspicuous, detracting 

 from the beauty of the plant; but since I began to tie 

 up the laterals close to the main stem all difficulty has 

 vanished, for the laterals break quite freely. 



By the end of September the plants begin to throw out 

 side shoots, which will increase to an inch in length before 

 the growth is suspended. All that they require during 

 the winter is a little water occasionally, and to be kept 

 free from frost. In March give them quite a liberal shift. 

 Let the pots be at least 10 inches in diameter, and the 

 soil as formerly recommended, with the addition of half a 

 handful of dissolved bones above the drainage of the pot. 

 It is not easy to reproduce the fine dark shade of green in 

 the foliage of plants grown in-doors which you will find in 

 plants grown out of doors in rich soil. But the bones, with 

 the rich soil, abundance of pot-room, and liberal supplies of 

 liquid manure will work wonders. 



Another point to be attended to is the regular pinching- 

 in of the side shoots until you have succeeded in making 

 compact bushy plants, after which they may be allowed 

 to flower. 



I hardly know anything finer than a well-grown Helio- 

 trope. What a delicious odour the flower emits, and how 

 finely it contrasts with other plants ! In my greenhouse 

 this year I had four plants of the dimensions formerly 

 described, two of these being Reine d'Hiver, and the other 

 two Miss Nightingale. Reine d'Hiver is a very fine Helio- 

 trope either for greenhouse culture or for outside decoration. 

 In colour its flower is of a rich violet with a yellow centre, 

 and the plant is a most abundant flowerer. It is far 

 superior to the old peruvianum and Voltaireanum. There 

 may be finer varieties in cultivation now. Indeed, in your 

 answers to correspondents, you speak of a Beauty of the 

 Boudoir as being the best in cultivation; and really, if it 

 is much finer than my favourite, I should like to make its 

 acquaintance. However, no one need be in difficulties in 



No. 1147.— Vol. XXIV. Old Seeies, 



