164 
PITS AND FRAMES WINDOW GARDENING. 
portions of the latter, repotting them in a 
rich and suitable soil, and sheltering them 
until the weather allows of their being plunged 
out of doors. This treatment will be found 
the best for Roses, Lilacs, Hydrangeas, 
Spirasas, Deutzias, dwarf Almonds, Ribes san- 
guineum, Daphnes, and, indeed, all woody 
plants that are forced. These plants are several 
years before they require pots so large as to 
render them too cumbersome and unsightly 
for forcing. American plants hardly require 
so much shifting, and are, perhaps, best turned 
out occasionally, in order to recruit their 
energies. 
PITS AND FKAMES. 
Tender Annuals. — Successional sowings 
should be made, especially of Balsams, Globe 
Amaranths, and Cockscombs, or any other 
favourites ; these plants will bloom later than 
what were raised last month. The other 
plants must be repotted as often as they may 
require it, and should be kept growing freely. 
They do better in a frame than in a hot- 
house. 
Half-hardy Annuals. — Continue the direc- 
tions given at p. 106. During this month a 
great number of those raised in pots, or on 
slight hot-beds, may be planted out : it should 
be a rule to put out all the hardiest kinds 
first ; this would delay the operation in the 
case of the more tender ones, and a week or 
ten days so gained, is worth taking advantage 
of, and might perhaps be the means of saving 
them from being cut up by frost. 
Half-hardy bedding plants. — Many of these 
should now be submitted without delay to a 
course of hardening off previous to their being 
planted out ; indeed all the hardier kinds may 
be planted out during the month, especially 
if the situation is at all sheltered, and the 
season proves to be at all favourable. There 
are two or three points of some importance to 
be attended to in the preparation of these 
plants for planting out ; one is to give them 
a free circulation of air at all times when it 
can possibly be allowed them, in order to 
keep them strong, vigorous, and stocky, in pre- 
ference to their being large, weaker, and more 
lanky, which is the case when they are kept 
too close. Another point is, to keep them well 
stopped back, that is, to pinch out the ends 
of the shoots as soon as they have grown 
two or three inches long ; this tends also to 
keep them bushy, and one plant so managed 
and in vigorous health, is woith half a dozen 
lanky spindly things, though of much larger 
size : this stopping must not of course be 
carried on too long with the plants which are 
intended for very early flowering. Another 
point is to give them all the encouragement at 
the root which space will admit of; by this 
time of the year, a very slight shelter indeed 
will be sufficient for the greater part, and in 
consequence, they may be placed out of doors, 
and protected by boards and mats. This will 
give room to place them in larger pots ; and 
those which have been some time in small 
pots, and which, if not shifted now, must 
continue in them for another month at least, 
will bear no comparison with the plants which 
have been brought into a free-growing state 
by a little attention of this kind. Even to 
supply plants for a large garden, the labour 
bears no comparison with the results. They 
may still be propagated, only the young plants 
raised now will, in the case of most of the 
kinds, not bloom till rather late in the season ; 
still they will be wanted to fill up the beds 
when the early annuals are past. 
Dahlias, <fc. — The young plants must be 
hardened by degrees in cold frames. Seed- 
lings must have all the air possible. 
Green-house plants. — Many of the duplicate 
plants, and all the hardier kinds that have 
done blooming, may be removed to the pit, in 
order to make more room for the growth of 
those which remain, and the success of which 
depends a good deal on their being placed so 
that the light and air may play freely around 
them. Those taken to the pit require only to 
have a tolerable free circulation of air, and to 
be regularly and evenly watered. If any of 
them require repotting, it may be done. 
Neapolitan Violets. — These are always in 
request, and especially during winter, for 
which latter purpose they are planted out in 
frames in autumn. The runners should be 
taken now, and planted out for the summer in 
rich ground, until about the end of September, 
when they may be taken up and planted in the 
frames. 
WINDOW GARDENING. 
A little more progress may now be made 
in this department. Green-house plants gene- 
rally, when grown in this situation, require to 
be placed out of doors daily, except during 
storms, and to be taken in just at night in 
case of frost. Some of the early sown annuals, 
and also of the summer bedding plants, may 
be planted in pots of considerable size — say 
nine inches in diameter — in order to make 
specimen plants. "Water in the evening : do 
not crowd the plants, but let them have all 
the air and light possible. 
Scarlet Pelargoniums. — These are among 
the most splendid window plants that can be 
grown, especially if a good variety is obtained; 
either the old Frogmore scarlet, or a newer 
one descended from it, and the Ivy-leaved, and 
called General Tom Thumb, are the most 
suitable for this purpose ; the latter is of a 
very dwarf somewhat prostrate habit, and 
