1-10 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
room, and glasses, they are better not crowded. 
All the plants must be examined daily, and 
the moss between the pips so adjusted as to 
make allowance for the expansion of each pip 
without touching any other. Of nights and 
days, they must be covered against extremes 
ol' heat and cold. In the daytime the trans- 
parent calico will keep off enough of the sun ; 
and at night they must be closed with heavier 
material against cold, for a chill will fix the 
blooms, and prevent their opening flat. By 
watching the blooms, and keeping all the pips 
in their places, while they are growing and 
opening, they require nothing on the show- 
day but gently withdrawing the moss from 
between the footstalks, under the blooms, so 
as not to injure the delicate powder which 
gives beauty to this favourite flower, and the 
pips will naturally close together at the edges; 
a little adjustment of them in their places, so 
as to prevent them lopping over each other, 
will be necessary at the last moment. Water 
is to be given freely all the month, and 
especially to the blooming plants, while all 
offsets and small plants, though not so lavishly 
supplied, must nevertheless be kept moist. 
Dahlias. — Remove plants which are large 
enough for planting into a cool frame, and be 
careful no frost nor cold winds reach them, for 
they are very tender. Continue taking off 
cuttings, and striking them in their single pots, 
if you have room; if not, a number of cuttings 
round the edge of a larger one. Take the 
tops off the forward plants, of which you re- 
quire great numbers, and replace the decapi- 
tated plant in heat, to throw out its side-shoots. 
Ranunculuses and Anemones. — Con- 
tinue the protection of loose litter not only of 
nights, but in cold, raw, wintry days, of which 
there may be many yet. 
Pinks and Pansies. — Stir the earth be- 
tween the plants, clear them constantly from 
weeds, keep them, well earthed round the 
collar of their roots, and see they are not 
allowed to want for water. Pansies will be 
throwing out strong side-shoots. These may 
be taken, now and then, from very choice sorts 
which you wish to propagate ; they will strike 
under a hand-glass in the border, but may be 
hastened with a little bottom heat. 
Sow Annuals both in heat, and in the 
open border ; the slightest kind of hot-bed 
will be sufficient, as the heat will not be 
required long. 
Plant out Wallflowers, Sweet Williams, 
Canterbury Bells, Rockets, Perennial Lupins, 
Larkspurs, and herbaceous plants generally, 
in the borders, clumps, and beds, requiring 
such ornaments. 
Tulips. — Continue the greatest care of 
these delicate subjects, not allowing the frost 
on any consideration to touch the bestbed, on 
account of the damage it does to the bloom, 
for the plant hardly feels the hardest frost, 
even when it reaches the roots ; allow no 
weeds to spring up among them, and protect 
them against high winds, although a gentle 
agitating breeze does not by any means hurt 
them ; cover of nights, even if the weather 
be warm, but they should be uncovered by 
daylight if the weather permit. Gentle showers 
will not injure them; on the contrary, if mild, 
it does them great service, and if the weather 
be dry and parching, be not afraid of syringing 
the foliage all over. If, despite of your care, 
the frost catches them, syringe them all over 
with cold water, and let no sun reach them 
till they are thawed. If the earth was not 
stirred between all the bulbs last month, it 
must be done directly ; and if they have had 
much rain since it was stirred, so as to close 
the surface and make it run close together, it 
may be gently stirred again. If any of the 
foliage has a spot of yellow on it, or any 
appearance of canker, remove the affected part 
with a knife ; for if the whole foliage above 
ground be cut away, there is more chance of 
the bulb escaping than if the canker was left 
on, for its increase until the very heart of the 
plant, and the bulb itself is rotted, is almost 
a certainty. 
Piccotees and Carnations. — Thesemust 
be potted this month in size sixteen, or twelve, 
or eight pots, according as you wish to have 
one, two, or three plants in a pot. The com- 
post has been already described. The mode of 
potting is to fill the pots one-third full of 
crocks, rather sunk in the middle to form a 
basin ; then put some soil ever the crocks, 
about enough to make the ball of earth in 
which the plants are taken from their store 
pots stand, so that the upper surface may be 
level with the top of the pot ; now take the 
plant, with its ball of earth, out of the small 
pot, by tapping the edge of it wrong side 
downwards, with two fingers on each side of 
the plants, so that the ball and plants will be 
bottom upwards, and the surface in your hand; 
turn this over gently, and put in the middle 
of the large pot, adjusting its height, so that 
the surface of the ball of earth is even with 
the edge of the pot, and, on pressing down, a 
little below it; fill up all round it with the 
compost, gently pressing with a small stick, so 
'that it may be closed about the ball, but not 
rammed hard ; give the large pot two or three 
taps upon the table to settle it altogether well, 
and before leaving them all, give a little water. 
These, if potted early in the month, should be 
put into a sheltered situation, and by rights 
on shelves, or stages formed of boards, placed 
along flower-pots turned wrong side upwards, 
in flat pans of water, to keep off vermin, which 
might otherwise crawl up the stage and eat 
