124 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[November 28. 
A FIVE-POUND GREENHOUSE. 
! Since we wrote upon this subject at page 59, we have 
received so many inquiries for further details, that we 
; have had no alternative but to trouble our friend J. B., 
| and by the aid of his pen, and by the aid of the pencil 
I of 14s wife, who is no mean artist, we lay the following 
| before our readers, requesting such of them as have sent 
us queries to glean answers as they travel on 
“ I am sorry any of your readers have fallen into the 
hands of such rivals as the stove makers. They may com¬ 
fort themselves with the reflection that the greatest rivalry 
exists among equals, and then their difficulty and delay will 
have an end. Very likely there is not a pin to choose be¬ 
tween either the vessels or the fuel. The action of the stove 
I have I know, therefore I approve of it, without condemn¬ 
ing the other. 
“ Now, for other queries in order. I was not content with 
the pan only, because it did not serve the Same purpose as 
the oven. The pan being small and shallow, and placed 
immediately upon the stove, would get very hot in weather 
which required all the heat the stove could produce; and, 
therefore, it will be perceived I did not use it until the 
sharpest part of the winter had passed; and then, with the 
reduced temperature, it was quite hot enough to strike cut¬ 
tings of Verbenas and Petunias in ten or twelve days, to pot 
oft’ and prepare for bedding out. My oven being much lower 
in temperature, would not have accomplished this, but 
neither would the pan have suited my seeds ; in the pan, 
the seedlings would have spindled up in a few days, weakly 
plants at the best, and every one must have been potted and 
preserved; whereas, coming up gently in the oven (which 
was more than a yard one way, and nearly as muc^the 
other), my seeds came up sturdy fellows in rows four inches 
apart. I had two dozen different kinds of seed in, all at one 
time, and when the weather suited to plant them out, a 
small trowel lifted a few at a time, without any disturbance, 
and they rejoiced in their new situation as if no removal 
had occurred. It will also be seen that, as the weather i 
became milder, there -would be no necessity to continue the | 
heat under the oven, except when the house required it. On 
the contrary, the slips of Verbenas, &c., when once put in 
to the sand, required a continuous heat. Another reason 
why the oven was preferable for general use was, that the 
bricks around, although loose and offering no hindrance to 
free circulation of the heat, grew warm in themselves, and 
increased the general temperature. Another reason was, 
that in order to replenish the stove, it was needful to lift the 
pan off every time this operation was performed; and as 
more delicate arms than mine were sometimes engaged in 
this operation, we did not continue it longer than was abso¬ 
lutely required. 
“Thepan we found useful for striking slips and germinat- 
; ing such seeds as cucumber, pumpkin, Ipomea, Indian con¬ 
volvulus, and such things as when struck, or up two inches, 
could be potted oft’. I have now (Oct. 23rd) fine blooming 
plants of Salvias, Ageratum, Cdsias, Nierembergia, and of 
many other plants whose names I do not know (the slips of 
which I begged from my friends, the working gardeners, 
while visiting their houses in February and the beginning j 
of March), together with almost every variety of Fuchsia, \ 
J all of which owe their origin to my pan. 
“The oven is suitable for seeds and such things as are not 
i required to grow quickly, and yet which are greatly holpen 
by a slight bottom heat, and which, again, will not suffer by 
having that under heat occasionally removed. 
I “ The charcoal I get is proem-able at any of tile London 
. dealers, price Is. for a two-bushel sack; the pieces about the 
[ size of a walnut. It is well to keep by you some larger cliar- 
! coal for lighting, and also when the weather is extremely 
j cold to mix with the finer, in order to increase the draught. 
| The quantity consumed depends on the coldness of the 
I weather. 
“ My blind is fixed at the top of the roof, the roller passing 
up and down when 
required, as shown 
in the accompany¬ 
ing drawings. A 
thick string passes 
from the hand 
round a pulley 
fixed at the comer 
of the roof, and 
continues onward j 
to the wheel at- ( 
tached to one end 
of the pole. Sup¬ 
posing the wheel to 
be at the bottom, that is, let down, the string will then be 
turned many times round the large wheel, say six inches in 
diameter. The action is 
thus :—You pull the string 
passing over the pulley, 
which unwinds the string 
turned many times round ! 
the wheel, and as the string I 
is gathered into the hand 
the pole turns round, winds 
up the blind, and proceeds 
with its burden until safely 
landed under its wooden 
covering at the top. There 
is some little accommoda¬ 
tion required to learn how 
best to get the far end of the pole to reach its destination at 
the same time as the near end ; but this, like ail such mat¬ 
ters, simply requires a slight observation to make the 
arrangement simple and effectual. My covering or locker 
for the blind, when drawn up, works on hinges and shuts 
down, resting on the roof; thus securing the blind from rain 
or damp. 
“ The bearers I mentioned are four in number, about three 
inches from the roof, half an inch thick, and are not in¬ 
tended for strength, but to preserve the heat generated 
within, and to exclude more effectually the outer cold as 
once directed in The Cottage Gardener. You will per¬ 
ceive that my bearers project beyond the glass at the lower 
ends. I let the blind down one foot beyond the glass, which, 
I think, will quite serve the purpose of a blind for the front 
in keeping out the frost. 
“ My winter blind is composed of a brown coarse, stout 
stuff, such as is used for packing, namely -two yards wide, at 
9d. per yard. Before I fixed up my cloth, it was stretched 
on the ground, aud brushed well over twice with boiled lin¬ 
seed oil. The rain runs off, tearing the under side quite 
dry. This oiling also fills up the intervals between the 
threads and adds to the warmth, besides rendering it more 
durable. If no summer shade is required, it would be better 
to remove the winter covering altogether when done with. 
“ I gave the stove maker 2s. for the pan and for altering 
the register. v 
“ I have had my greenhouse but one winter, and fashioned 
it for the sole purpose of keeping my Geraniums ; therefore, 
geraniums of every variety formed my main store. I did, 
indeed, manage to keep Petunias, and Verbenas, and Phloxes, 
and a few other trifles in blossom the greater part of the 
winter; and, for the first season, these were sufficient gratifi¬ 
cation for a young artiste. This winter I am trying a higher 
flight with some other plants, but how I shall succeed time 
only will show. I begin well with Geraniums, likely, in suc¬ 
cession, to flower for months to come; the seratifolia 
Fuchsia flowers all the winter I am told; the Citisus is a 
good plant, and the Acacias, or Mimosas, are looking well for 
early flower. I have also the Lotus promising to blossom 
for some time to come, and the Cuphea. By planting slips 
in autumn, I hope to have Petunias and Verbenas in flower 
through the winter, though inferior to those invigorated by 
the summer sun. There are the Crassulas, the Seelum, and the 
Mesembrganthemum of that tribe, and the Plumbago Capensis. 
Then for climbers, I have the Tropccolum Lobbianum and the 
Cubea scandens now in flower. Then there are the Tree 
violets and the Auricula, old, indeed, in name, but scarcely ; 
to be matched by the moderns. 
