72 
OPERATIONS FOR APRIL. 
Annuals (tender) for a main crop, may now safely be sown on a gentle heating 
hotbed under a frame ; it is best to sow the seed in small shallow drills drawn out 
with the finger, and as soon as the young plants appear above the soil, tilt the 
lights a little, back and front, on fine days, and as they progress raise them a trifle 
higher until the plants get into rough leaf, when the lights may be taken off 
altogether. Stiff soil should be rejected, and very open rich soil preferred. 
Annuals (half-hardy). If the weather be fine, the seed may be sown about 
the middle of the month, on a warm south border, but if not, the operation should 
be deferred until the latter end ; for, as they are to flower where sown, it is better 
to wait a week to avoid dashing rains, than to have the seed washed up, or perished 
from too much moisture. 
Annuals (hardy). A plentiful sowing should be completed early in this 
month. 
Auriculas should be protected from bad weather, as they will sustain injury; 
it is better to elevate the pots on a little platform, about a foot and a half or two 
feet high, than to keep them in frames, as they delight in having a circulation of 
air about them. 
Biennials should be sown immediately, as should perennials. 
Bulbs of different kinds, coming into flower, will now require much attention. 
Camellias, if it be desirous to have a few plants in flower in the autumn, 
last season's flower-buds should be taken off and the plants potted, and put into a 
good heat, where they should be syringed frequently, in order to excite them to 
shoot. 
Greenhouse plants should now have a free circulation of air from all 
the moveable ventilators; and the different kinds desired to be increased, should 
now be propagated. Be cautious not to let the cuttings get very moist, an^ they 
will soon make root. 
Orange trees. It will now be well to stimulate into action; any that do 
not start freely, should be put in a little heat, and occasionally washed over the 
leaves and branches. 
Stove plants continue to pot and propagate. 
Succulents. Propagate any time this month; they root without difficulty 
from cuttings, if they are a little dried before planting. Water growing plants 
carefully. 
Tuberoses may sometime, this month, be put in to succeed those already in 
progress ; give them plenty of pot room, and use good rich loam mixed with well- 
rotted dung. 
