15° 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 162. 



nailing- laths over it at bottom and top and horizontally at dis- 

 tances of .about four feet. The roof is also of canvas on roll- 

 ers, so that it can be removed during- fine days, the rollers 

 being secured by ropes, whether the canvas be up or down. 

 This method of protection has given great satisfaction, but, 

 like all experiments, there is generally room for improve- 

 ments. A glass roof, formed of ordinary hot-bed sash, six feet 

 by three, and costing about two dollars each, is now recom- 

 mended together with a canvas to let down over on hot 



where they are to remain. They should not be planted before 

 the first of May, and plants from three-inch pots are better 

 than larger ones. Where old plants are used, no more than 

 two shoots to each one should be allowed to grow, their dis- 

 tance apart being determined by the style of cultivation which 

 is intended. If the plants are to be kept low and bushy, two 

 feet six inches each way will be near enough ; if there is head 

 room sufficient for them to grow as high as five feet without be- 

 ing bushy, twenty inches apart will do. The plants should be 



— Viburnum dilatatum. — See page 148. 



days and frosty nights. The canvas sides are to be kept 

 as in the original plan. This canvas roof covering will 

 keep out fully seven degrees of frost, providing, of course, 

 everything is snug and tight. The temperature of a green- 

 house, glazed with large glass and without any fire heat, will be 

 found as cold as the outside temperature within three degrees 

 when the thermometer registers thirty degrees or lower ; the 

 canvas, therefore, affords very great protection from frost. 



Growing the Plants. — Where it is practicable, the best 

 plan for growing plants for such structures is to set them 



pinched about the end of June, and as soon as they have 

 broken, three of the strongest shoots should be selected and 

 all the others should be rubbed off. The plants must be staked 

 neatly and kept tied, so as to prevent their being broken or 

 whipped by winds. Early in September the best buds should 

 be selected and all lateral ones removed. It is entirely a 

 matter of taste how many buds are allowed to remain ; if the 

 very largest flowers are desired, then from four to eight buds 

 are enough ; but for medium-sized, smoothly-finished flowers 

 each plant will carry ten to twenty. 



