THE GARDENERS’ AND NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR FOR NOVEMBER. 
195 
ply them when necessary with water, to guard against 
mildew, to ventilate the house freely at all times, and 
to protect them from severe frost. We say severe frost 
because, though it is best avoided, a few degrees of 
frost will do the plants less injury than being coddled 
up with too much heat. Water at this season must be 
administered with a sparing hand, hut the plants must 
never know the want of it. When they require it, give 
them a good soaking and have done with it; water in¬ 
judiciously used at this season is the worst enemy to 
successful Heath cultivation. Young stock in frames 
must be attended to, observing the same rules, and he 
prepared with covering, in case of severe weather. 
Avoid crowding the plants, and keep a dry and healthy 
atmosphere. W. P. A. 
| GREENHOUSE SOFT-WOODED PLANTS. 
Pelargoniums .—These will now require particular 
attention, care must be taken to remove all superfluous 
branches and decaying leaves ; look closely for worms, 
which do much mischief if allowed to remain in the 
pots. A good watering with lime-water will remove them, 
and he beneficial to the plants. Shift such as require 
it into larger pots, taking care that the roots are to the 
outsides of the pots, and to drain them properly with 
broken potsherds and charcoal. All those which are 
required for forcing and early flowering, should now 
have a final shift into a good rich compost. Tie out 
and keep as thin as possible, to admit the air freely; 
keep them close to the glass to prevent their drawing. 
Look closely for green-fly, and fumigate whenever it 
makes its appearance ; in fact, the better way is to 
prevent it by timely fumigation. Stir the surface and 
top-dress all such as are not shifted. Some of the late 
flowering varieties may yet he cut down, and the cut¬ 
tings put in and kept in store pots through the winter, 
for late purposes next season. Take great care in 
watering, and see that no plants are watered hut those 
actually in want of it. The morning is the best time 
to water at this season of the year. Give all the air 
possible every favourable opportunity, avoiding all cold 
draughts which are very injurious. The fancy varieties 
require to be kept a little closer than the strong growing 
kinds, to draw out their wood more freely at this sea¬ 
son. When shifted they should he potted high, leaving 
the collar of the plants clear of the soil, to prevent their 
damping off. Light a little fire occasionally to drive 
out the damps, and let the sashes he open at the same 
time. See that the flues and hot water apparatus are 
in condition that they may he ready for any emergency. 
Calceolarias .—Where a quantity of these are re¬ 
quired, the herbaceous varieties may now he divided 
and potted into separate pots, in good turfy loam, leaf- 
mould, and silver sand ; put in cuttings of the shrubby 
kinds, and pot off from the store pots such seedlings as 
are large enough. Prick off small seedlings into store 
pots to stand the winter. Sow seeds for a succession of 
bloom later in the season ; keep the surface stirred oc¬ 
casionally, and fumigate to prevent the green-fly. Some 
of the more tender kinds should be started in a gentle 
heat, he very careful in watering, for on this much of 
your success depends. 
Cinerarias .—Give these every encouragement to 
promote free growth, for on this the head of flower will 
much depend. Look carefully for green-fly and mildew. 
Should the latter appear, dust immediately with flowers 
of sulphur those leaves affected with it. Give all the 
air possible, and do not expose them too much to a damp 
atmosphere. A cold pit or frame, well protected from 
the frost, will answer well for their cultivation. Be 
careful to remove all decaying leaves as they appear. 
Pot off from the store pots such seedlings as are large 
enough, using a good rich compost for that purpose. 
Chrysanthemums .—Continue to give all those in a 
backward state liquid manure two or three times a 
week, to help them to swell their flower buds. Give 
all the air possible in fine weather ; support with sticks 
to prevent accident from wind and other causes, and 
dust with sulphur those affected with mildew. 
Routine .—Turn over occasionally in dry weather 
the heaps of compost and manure, that they may sweeten 
before being housed for potting purposes ; when dry 
enough house some for present purposes. Put in 
Fuchsias and such plants under the stage, where they 
may remain until you want to start them in the spring. 
Take every opportunity to wash pots, that they may he 
ready when wanted. H. R. 
FLOWER-GARDEN.—OUT-DOOR DEPART¬ 
MENT. 
Those who may have looked with an intelligent eye 
at the masses of different coloured flowers which pre¬ 
vailed in flower-gardens during the summer and autumn 
months, must have observed that, in proportion as the 
colours were warm or cold, that is scarlets or purples, so 
was the distance apparently diminished or increased, 
which really separated the masses from one another. 
Warm colours, like light, irradiate the atmosphere to a 
greater distance, with their own peculiar hues, than cold 
colours. Indeed, it may he said of such colours, as those 
of the Yerbena, called Hamlet, and Campanula carpa- 
tica, that subdued light is the condition in which they 
are seen to the greatest advantage, since they become 
really beautiful, as the sun is about passing the horizon. 
If impressions like these have engaged the attention, the 
individual will have formed a scale in his own mind, by 
which masses of colour, and their relative distances from 
one another, can be measured, in the absence of mate¬ 
rial objects, simply" by recalling images from the past. 
At the present season, and for a long time to come, there 
is little to interest one in the flower-garden, but outlines 
and marked angularity, which always imperfectly fill up 
the flew; still something may be done by us to make 
even those outlines and that angularity more interesting 
than they would otherwise be, if the knowledge we pos¬ 
sess of the distribution of colour is made subservient to 
the beautifying of outlines, instead of the whole sur¬ 
faces of beds, as is the case in summer planting. The 
Erythronium Dens canis, Allium Moly, Anemone apen- 
nina, Sanguinaria canadensis, Scilla italica, Phlox ver- 
na, and a vast number of other hardy plants, familiar 
enough to most persons, could be made useful for the 
arrangement indicated. Enriching flower-beds with 
manure or fresh loam, should be proceeded with, to have 
the soil turned up before the frost sets in; beds on grass 
should have their outlines sufficiently mowed by the 
edging-iron, to keep the form correct, but no more. All 
flower-garden plants standing in pits, whether in boxes 
or pots, or even planted out, should be exposed to sun 
and air on every favourable occasion, so as to harden 
their tissues, and continue stopping back all plants like 
Verbenas while the growing season lasts. Never mind 
the stubby appearance it gives the plants, they will be 
all the better for it, and be much easier put to rest when 
the time for it comes. Next in importance, to ripening 
or hardening the tissues of plants, is that of resting 
them. Verbenas, like Tweediana, John Salter, Duke of 
Cornwall, Barkerii, Emperor of China, Cardinal, and 
Emperor of Scarlets, may be kept in cold pits, planted 
out in sandy peat, or in store pots, if the frost is ex¬ 
cluded, and the pits rendered dry by ventilation. The 
blotched sorts are pretty enough things in their way, 
but hold fast to some of the old tried sorts. Occa¬ 
sionally dust some slacked lime amongst shrubby Cal¬ 
ceolarias in store boxes, and even Verbenas removed 
somewhat from the glass will be the better of a like 
dusting over the soil. When old plants of the dwarf 
Lobelias have been potted up and cut back, a little sil- 
