96 
OPERATIONS FOR MAY. 
The period of flowering may also be prolonged, and the quantity and size of the blossoms 
increased, by carefully removing the earliest flowers as soon as their beauty begins to decay. 
The profitable tendency of a continuation of this practice, so long as a withering blossom remains, 
will be satisfactorily evidenced by the comparatively unimpaired health and vigour of the plant, 
when contrasted with one which has been permitted to form and mature its seed ; and even though 
the plant should evince no disposition to form seeds, cleanliness and order demand the instant 
removal of fading flowers. Nothing betrays a slovenly character, and a contempt for order, more 
fully than the neglect of this point. The only exceptions to its observation that can be admitted, 
are when seeds are desirable either to perpetuate the species or to raise new varieties, or when 
the fruit is showy and attractive. 
Shrubby plants of weak growth, which naturally make long shoots, too frail to support them- 
selves, will be much improved by bending down the shoots, and attaching them to a wire fixed 
round the rim of the pot. Although they may look unsightly for a few weeks after being treated 
in this manner, they will, eventually, make more pleasing plants. The nakedness of the branches 
at their base will be hidden, and the check imposed on the ascent of the sap will induce buds to 
push at the bend, and fill up the centre of the bush. 
Greenhouses must be freely ventilated both day and night, whenever the state of the weather 
will permit. Even if a slight frost be expected during the night, the lights should be left partially 
unclosed as late in the evening as is consistent with the security of the plants. Too high a tem- 
perature during the night not only causes the production of long slender shoots, but weakens and 
lessens the development of flowers, and also hastens their decay. At the same time, it is equally 
injurious to run into the opposite extreme ; a sickly and diseased habit being frequently the con- 
sequence of an insufficient degree of warmth. Strong currents of air must be guarded against in 
houses and pits containing tender leaved and soft-wooded plants ; in heath-houses, on the contrary, 
within certain limits, they will be beneficial. 
Water must be administered freely to all plants in vigorous growth, and in sufficient quantity 
at each application to moisten all the soil about them. But if any are in an unhealthy state, it 
must be more sparingly applied. And, in addition to watering at the root, it will also be useful to 
syringe them every evening in dry, sunny weather, observing not to wet the expanded flowers. 
In the pleasure-ground there will be abundance of work. All the more tender border plants 
that the uncertainty of our climate would not permit to be planted out last month, must now be 
got into the ground. There is seldom much danger after the middle of the month, but it will be 
advisable, even then, in cold and unsheltered situations, to be prepared with some protecting 
material for those most susceptible of injury. In planting out Dahlias, a peg about a foot long 
and the thickness of an ordinary stake, should be stuck into the ground with each plant. By 
using this precaution, the roots will not be injured when stakes are required, which cannot be 
avoided when no place is reserved for the stake. 
The progress of weeds must always be arrested as soon as possible, for if they are once 
allowed to overrun the ground, and shed their seeds, it will require almost endless labour to 
eradicate them. Economy is best studied in prompt attention. Never let the advantage of dry, 
sunny weather pass by without improving it. 
As the pits and the frames are emptied of their winter occupants, they should be appuopriated 
to the production of flowering specimens for the greenhouse and stoves. Achimenes and all the 
tribe of GesneracecB should be grown here. Cockscombs, Balsams, Thunbergias, &c,, must be 
brought forward as rapidly as practicable, and no place is better suited to promote their growth 
than pits. A strong stimulating soil, plenty of pot-room, and an abundance of water, together 
with a moderate bottom heat, are requisites inseparable from their successful cultivation. 
Erratum, — By a mistake in the reference to our memoranda, we pubhshed a figure, last 
month, of Messrs. Lane & Son's Nerium^ under the name of TangU, It should have been 
Nerium Oleander llayanot. 
