CONSERVATIVE WALL. 



CONSERVATORY. 



may be bought in small quantities 

 from the London nurserymen, say 

 sixpenny worth or a shilling's worth 

 of each; and they may be kept in 

 large pots in a back shed, for mixing 

 as required. 



Conservative Wall. — Many 

 greenhouse and some hothouse plants, 

 particularly such as are deciduous, 

 and are naturally of rapid and vigor- 

 ous growth, are found to succeed re- 

 markably well when planted, out 

 during the summer season in the 

 open garden, either as standards, or 

 against a wall. Those which are 

 planted as standards or bushes in the 

 open beds or border?, grow vigorously 

 during the months of June, July, and 

 August, but require to be taken up 

 in September, and preserved during 

 the winter in pots or boxes, for plant- 

 ing out next season. This is prac- 

 tised with Fuchsias, Brugmansias, 

 Pelargoniums, and similar plants. 

 Other shrubs are planted against a 

 wall with a southern exposure ; and 

 those not only grow and sometimes 

 flower during the summer, but if pro- 

 tected during the winter with matting, 

 or a projecting roof, or both, they 

 will live for several years, growing 

 vigorously, and flowering every sea- 

 son. The common myrtle, some of 

 the Acacias, the Eucalypti, and a num- 

 ber of the rapid-growing New Holland 

 shrubs, are so treated with great suc- 

 cess ; and the fine appearance which 

 they make in the summer season, 

 amply repays the expense and trouble 

 which must be taken with them. 

 There is scarcely any limit to the 

 number and kinds of shrubs which 

 may be treated in this way ; for while 

 the taller and more rapid-growing 

 kinds are made to cover the upper 

 part of the wall, the dwarfer species 

 may be trained against the lower 

 part, and herbaceous plants, including 

 bulbs, may be planted all along the 

 base. The border in which the plants 



are grown should be of light sandy 

 soil, of no great depth ; and it would 

 be an advantage to thatch it during 

 the winter season, to carry off the rain 

 to a distance from the roots of the 

 plants. The drier all half-hardy 

 plants are kept in the open ground, 

 the better, excepting during the grow- 

 ing and flowering season ; in order 

 that the plants may make no more 

 wood than what they can thoroughly 

 ripen. Walls used for purposes of 

 this kind are called conservative 

 walls; and next to conservatories, they 

 form the most interesting scenes to 

 the lovers of plants in an ornamental 

 garden. 



Conservatory. — This term origi- 

 nally implied a house in which orange- 

 trees, and other large shrubs, or 

 small trees, were preserved from frost 

 during the winter ; but at present it 

 is applied to houses with glass roofs, 

 in which the plants are grown in the 

 free soil, and allowed to assume their 

 natural shapes and habits of growth. 

 A conservatory is generally situated 

 so as to be entered from one of the 

 rooms of the house to which it be- 

 longs ; and from which it is often 

 separated only by a glass door, or by 

 a small lobby with glass doors. It 

 should, if possible, have one side 

 facing the south ; but if it is glazed on 

 every side, it may have any aspect, 

 not even excepting the north ; though 

 in the latter case, it will only be 

 suitable for very strong leathery- 

 leaved evergreens, such as Camellias, 

 Myrtles, &c. The bed for the plants 

 should be of sandy loam (that being 

 the soil that will suit most plants), 

 two or three feet deep, and thoroughly 

 drained. The plants should be of 

 kinds that will grow in a few years 

 nearly as high as the glass : and they 

 should, as much as possible, be all of 

 the same degree of vigour, otherwise 

 the stronger kinds will fill the soil 

 with their roots, and overpower the 



