216 
A STEOLL THROUGH THE GAllDEN JUNE. 
improved by it. The rliododendrons in the 
house have been kept back so as to make two 
complete seasons of flowering, and before the 
month is out, those in the open air will be 
ready to succeed the last of those in the 
house. The camellias are growing fast, and 
it is an interesting time ; for if they have 
been shaped a little with the pruning-knife, a 
year's growth wonderfully improves a plant. 
The geraniums have now shown what they 
can do, and are rapidly coming to perfection ; 
a geranium-house like this, well filled, well 
assorted, and well grown, is a very noble sight. 
This light shade that draws down inside the 
roof is to prolong the bloom, but I do not 
approve of it so much as a rolling thin cloth 
outside the roof : the latter may not last so 
long, but it does not draw the plants so much. 
Observe how much more noble those flowers 
which are nearly round and close appear, 
than those in which the petals are parted 
from one another so as to show the division. 
That large patch of upright briers was 
planted for the purpose of making into tree- 
roses by budding with the better kinds : they 
have been trimmed up to two shoots near the 
top, and when they have grown enough to 
undergo the operation, a bud will be put into 
the two stems, as near to the main trunk as 
possible, and the shoots will be shortened. 
In the potting-shed we shall see the gar- 
dener at work in preparing for propagation. 
Observe, he has large bundles of fuchsias, 
heliotropes, geraniums, and other plants which 
■ are struck, and have good roots : these he is 
going to plant out in the clumps ; he has 
taken them out of those pans Avhich they 
occupied, and will dibble them in pretty 
closely together, to form masses of flowers. 
The cuttings, of which there are so many 
by his side, will be prepared for striking by 
cutting the bottom parts close up to the under 
side of a joint, and taking off two or three of 
the lower leaves ; these will be put in separate 
pans filled with compost, and be covered over 
with one of the bell glasses, well watered, and 
set in the propagating-house or the stove, to 
get a slight bottom heat. The cuttings first 
dry at the bottom, then swell to a sort of 
lumpy callus, and lastly emit roots. It is 
necessary to wipe the glasses dry every day 
or two, and to keep the soil moist. 
The picotees and carnations in these large 
pots are coming up a little in the centre, indi- 
cating their disposition to bloom. These will 
all be removed under the awning of the tulip 
bed and the hyacinth bed at the end of the 
month, but the awning will not be Jet down 
until they show colour. The pinks have 
thrown up their flower stems ; the youth is 
removing all the stems but one to each plant, 
and as the buds grow distinct he will pick off 
all but two or three buds to a stem. The same 
work will be done with picotees and carnations 
next month. As the pink buds begin to fill 
out, and are near bursting into bloom, a piece 
of bass matting will be tied round the middle 
of the bud, and the calyx or green covering 
will be torn down at each division to reach 
the tie, so that the pip or bloom will open all 
round alike ; whereas if this had not been 
done, they would very likely burst on one 
side. As the petals develope themselves, they 
should be put in their places, the outer ones to 
form a circular dish, as it were ; the next size 
to form another row covering the places where 
the outer petals lap over each other ; the next 
row to imbricate in the same way, and the re- 
mainder to form a good top or crown ; the 
whole to be of the sliape of half a ball. There 
is a good deal of trouble with, pinks, carna- 
tions, and picotees, because the petals do not 
naturally fall into their places; the largest 
petals often come in the middle. Dahlias 
have to be fastened to their stakes as they 
grow, or the wind would break them off. If 
you notice these, the man is tying them with 
bass, but rather loosely, that they may not be 
cut by their own growth ; the numbers are 
painted on these large stakes, which is a far 
better plan than using labels, which often get 
raked away, or trodden down. 
The auriculas seem altogether discarded. 
There they are, in a wooden frame, but the 
lights taken off ; if, however, there were a 
wet season to set in, the lights would be put- 
on, and all excess of wet would be avoided. 
The pansy beds you see are shaded, so also 
are the ranunculus beds, and necessarily so, 
for if the sun were allowed to rest on them, 
their colours would be damaged, and the 
blooms checked in their growth. All flowers 
damage by sun, and therefore shading pro- 
longs their blooming season, even if the plants 
would stand the heat. The leaves of some of 
the bulbs that have done flowering in the bor- 
der decay and begin to look untidy ; they will 
be soon taken up. Many of the roses are 
bursting their buds, and before the month is 
out will look noble. 
Observe how the roses are infested with 
the green fly, which covers the young stems so 
that they cannot be seen. The gardener will 
syringe these as soon as he sees them, by 
which they will be nearly all washed off and 
destroyed ; by following it up a few days they 
will be cleared, but these in pots in the house 
are as bad ; tliese must be shut up very close, 
and the house filled with tobacco smoke, 
which will kill everything in the shape of 
vermin. There are many ways of doing this, 
such as using a pan of hot coals, and putting 
half a pound, or any other proper quantity, of 
tobaccoon them, and shutting it all in. A fumi- 
