1877. ] 
VILLA GARDENING FOR JUNE. 
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slioots. If all goes on well, it should have made a good large plant by autumn, 
when water should be gradually reduced, but not altogether withheld, unless 
indeed the border is under the ground-level, and in a damp situation. When the 
days begin to lengthen a little, and the heat in the house has been raised a few 
degrees, give a good watering, when it will soon start into growth, and by the 
beginning of May will be one mass of bloom.—A. H., T, 
VILLA GARDENING FOR JUNE. 
HE warm, genial, growing weather—the characteristic of the traditional, 
not the modern May—has come at last, after much patient hoping-for, 
and not without some blustering opposition on the part of the lingering 
remains of winter. And what a transformation-scene has passed over the 
face of Nature since warm, invigorating rains fell! May has indeed come 
“ With a light and laughing look of love.” 
The Greenhouse .—As fires can now be dispensed with, the cold and warm 
houses may now be merged in one for the summer months. A hundred beauti¬ 
ful things are now challenging attention, such as Pelargoniums, Fuchsias, Mimuli, 
Heliotropes, Petunias, and others too numerous to mention. All the foregoing 
are soft-wooded plants, growing quickly, and when well-drained at the roots 
require a good supply of moisture, with sprinklings overhead. Mimuluses are 
very showy, and on the whole easy to manage, but they should have the coolest 
and shadiest part of the house. Astilhe japonica is still very good, and so 
useful is this to cut from, that it is always well to have plants in reserve to 
bloom in the house as long as possible. Acacias, Heaths, Epacris., Cytisiis., &c., 
if not already cut back, should be so treated, and as soon as they commence to 
grow again require to be shifted on into larger pots, if the roots have filled the 
soil they are now in. 
Potting should to be done as required, and attention must be given to the 
nature of the plants, and the kind of soil they should have. In the case of plants 
requiring peat, it should be used a little rough, mingling coarse sand with it, and 
giving plenty of drainage to the pots. As these plants remain in the soil longer 
than soft-wooded plants generally do, there is additional reason for preventing 
the soil from becoming soddened. The newly-potted plants should be shaded for 
a time, and sprinkled overhead. 
Spring-struck cuttings of soft-wooded plants should be potted on to succeed 
the plants now in flower, or on the point of flowering. Globe Amaranthus, 
Balsams, Thunbergias, Egg-Plants, and Hwnea elegans., among others, are good 
decorative plants for the greenhouse during the summer months, but they require 
some care and attention. Where only a limited amount of attention can be given 
to plants. Fuchsias and Zonal and Nosegay Pelargoniums will be the best things to 
grow. The climbing Tropseolums, such as Caroline Schmidt, Triomphe d’Hyeres, 
and other wiry-growing varieties that bloom with great freedom when raised 
from cuttings, are admirable things for growing in pots and training up pillars 
and along the insides of the roofs of greenhouses. When well established, they 
bloom with great freedom, and only require a little manure-water occasionally. 
Green-fly is now getting very troublesome, but • occasional washings with 
Gishurst Compound, or Fowler’s Gardeners’ Insecticide, or even brushings with a 
camel’s-hair brush, will do much to dislodge and destroy the enemy. 
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