PITS AND FRAMES. — WINDOW GARDENING. 
210 
Chinese Roses. — Propagate these and the 
hybrid varieties allied to them. It should be 
done in considerable quantity, as they are very 
beautiful, and very easily forced at almost any 
season. The Chinese are said to use the 
Banksian Eose as a stock for others, merely 
cutting the shoots of that species into pieces 
of the requisite length, inserting the bud or 
graft, and then planting them. 
After Treatment. — Encourage the growth 
of all the forced plants by all available means : 
repot any that may require it, but keep them 
all in pots of the smallest possible size. Let 
them have the benefit of free exposure as the 
temperature advances sufficiently for them to 
bear it. 
PITS AND FRAMES. 
Tender Annuals. — Keep them growing 
freely, as near the light as possible, in frames 
or small low pits, until they get too large for 
such places, when they must be moved to the 
greenhouse or stove, as they may be more or 
less tender. Pot them as often as the roots 
thicken in the soil, until they are approaching 
a flowering state, when they must be nourish- 
ed by clear manure water, not over strong. 
Sow for succession if they are likely to be 
wanted. 
Balsams, Cockscombs, and Globe Ama- 
ranths, together with Browallia's, Egg-plants, 
&e., all keep best when kept in dung frames, 
or low pits, as long as they can be accommo- 
dated there, that is, until they get too large ; 
they must then be removed, either to the 
stove, or a warm moist greenhouse. 
Alpine Plants. — These need little care now 
beyond keeping them regularly watered, and 
placing them in a cool (somewhat shady) place. 
They may be potted, or propagated, if requi- 
site. Division of the root is the most usual 
mode of propagation. 
Propagation. — Propagate continually a 
supply of all the half-hardy plants for plant- 
ing out ; they come in handy, even if not ex- 
pected to do so, at the end of the season, for 
filling out vacancies where any of the kinds 
fail before the mild weather of autumn is pass- 
ed away, which they are liable to do, especially 
the annuals. 
Half-hardy Annuals. — Sow some to keep in 
pots to use as " stop gaps," if occasion requires. 
Half-hardy Bedding Plants. — Consult 
the remarks in reference to these plants, at 
p. 164. Many may be planted out during 
this month. 
Greenhouse Plants. — Many of the early 
flowering heaths, and New Holland plants that 
are past blooming, and other green -house plants 
of the common and more hardy kinds, as well 
as many duplicate plants, may be accommo- 
dated in the cool pits, in which situation they 
will grow admirably for a time, previously to 
being set in the open air. When the Ca- 
mellias, tender Rhododendrons, and Azaleas 
have nearly matured their growth, they may 
be removed to one of these pits, provided it is 
kept rather close, and as warm as practicable 
from the influence of sun-heat. These plants 
must not be removed from the forcing-house 
direct to the cold pit, but must be kept for a 
week or two in the intermediate temperature 
of a green-house. The potting and general 
treatment of green-house plants may go on just 
the same when placed in these pits, as when 
they are kept in the green-house. 
WINDOW GARDENING. 
Most of the half-hardy plants which are 
selected for this purpose, such as Geraniums, 
Fuchsias,Calceolarias,&c, may be permanently 
stood out either on the window ledge, or in the 
l balcony, some time during the month. They 
I should have been moved out doors daily for 
sometime past, as already recommended, being 
taken inside at night when the weather is 
likely to be frosty. If thej' have not been 
already put into their blooming pots, it may 
now be done. Plants for this situation require 
to be well potted, and also to have proportion- 
ately large pots, for when the pots are small, 
they are very liable to suffer material injury 
from the rapid drying up of the soil during 
hot days. Lumps of charcoal, free stone, or 
similar porous materials, should be mixed with 
the soil, in order to serve as reservoirs of mois- 
ture, which they do by absorbing a consider* 
able quantity, and giving it out to the soil 
when it becomes drier than themselves. For 
young plants of this nature, — which by the way 
are much the best, — pots of about eight inches 
in diameter are a good medium size ; the 
plants look more orderly when they arc selected 
as nearly corresponding in size as possible, 
and for the same reason they should be placed 
in pots of equal size, where this is at all prac- 
ticable. 
Climbers. — Climbing and trailing plants are 
tjuite as effective in the situations of which we 
are now treating, as in any of the various ones 
to which they are introduced. They have a 
very pretty effect when trained up the sides of 
the window frame, — the purple Convolvulus 
Major, or the blue Maurandya Barelayana, or 
its white variety, or the yellow Tropgjolum 
aduncum, are very appropriate and effective 
when nicely contrasted. Similar plants also 
look well when they are suffered to grow 
loosely about the balustrades or palisades of a 
balcony. Those of trailing habit, again, looli 
very pretty when allowed to hang down from 
the window ledge, or the lower edge of the 
balcony. But these plants must be placed at 
the commencement of the year into pots large 
enough to afford scope for their roots through- 
