64 
THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
lutea , the former, as Dr. Lindley elegantly and truly observed, looking 
like a plume of crimson feathers. There was also a punnet filled witli the 
flowers of Dendrobium nobile , and some cut specimens of the beautiful 
Dendrobium monoliforme ; both kinds growing in a lower temperature and 
with less care than most other orchideous epiphytes. There were also 
beautiful specimens of Lcelia anceps , and of Oncidium Cavendeshi . 
FLORAL CALENDAR. 
FEBRUARY. 
One of the principal things to be attended to with half hardy plants in 
this month is to give them air; as they are now very liable to damp off. 
This is a very good season for sowing imported seeds, or those of oranges 
or any half hardy shrubs. These seeds should be sown in light mould ; 
and they do best in a slight hot-bed—though if carefully nursed and kept 
in a double pot, they will succeed in a room. Seedling oranges, however, 
are a long time, if left to themselves, before they flower; but if grafted 
when they are about two years old, they will flower and bear fruit when 
quite small. Cuttings of some kinds of greenhouse plants may be made 
in this month; but they should be planted in pure sand, and only 
deprived of the two lower leaves. Some persons cut off the tips of the 
leaves when they plant cuttings; but this, which is an injurious practice 
at all times, is particularly so in very early spring, when the sun has but 
little power. 
In the open flower-garden, turf may be laid down, or grass seeds sown 
where necessary; and where there is a hotbed, half hardy annuals may 
be sown in pots filled with light earth. It is much less trouble and 
expense, however, for the amateur gardener to purchase them from a 
nurseryman in May, when they are ready to transplant into the open 
border. Mr. Hopgood, Craven Hill, Bayswater, from whom I procure 
mine, sells fine plants of the tender annuals at from 3d. to 6d. a dozen, 
according to their rarity, and thus for two or three shillings enough may 
be procured to stock a suburban garden, and to keep up a brilliant 
display all the summer. Gravel walks are generally raked over and 
rolled towards the end of February; and box edgings are planted or 
renewed. The beds in the flower-garden are also dug over and raked, 
preparatory to the sowing of the Californian annuals; or to the transplanting 
of them, if they have been sown in autumn, and suffered to remain in 
some waste corner of the garden during winter. 
