THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 21, 1859. 161 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Day Day 
of of 
M’nlh Week. 
JUNE 21—27, 1859. 
Weather 
Barometer. 
NEAR I.ONI 
Thevmom. 
ON IN 18 
Wind. 
58. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.andS. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef.Sun 
Dav of 
Year. 
21 
Tu 
Qcef.n Victoria Proci.aimed. 
30.260—30.256 
84—47 
N.E. 
44 af 
3 
18 af 8 
22 
11 
20 
1 
19 
172 
ll 
W 
Sun’s deelin. 23° 28' n. 
30.298—30.27S 
86—46 
N.E. 
_ 
45 
3 
19 
8 
34 
11 
21 
1 
32 
173 
\ 23 
Th 
Tristania neriifolia. 
30.32C—30.193 
88—48 
N. 
— 
45 
3 
19 
8 
45 
11 
(g 
1 
45 
174 
! 24 
F 
Midsummer Day. Nattyity John 
30.262—30.158 
73-42 
N.E. 
_ 
45 
3 
10 
8 
57 
11 
23 
1 
58 
175 
| 25 
S 
Oxalis elongata. [Baptist. 
30.298—30.147 
78—45 
N.W. 
— 
45 
3 
19 
8 
morn. 
24 
2 
11 
176 
| 20 
SVN 
1 Sunday after Trinity. 
30.06S—30.001 
83—51 
W. 
— 
4G 
3 
19 
8 
13 
0 
25 
2 
23 
177 
27 
! 
M 
Tristrania tripliylla. 
30.097—30.032 
79—35 
N. 
— 
40 
3 
19 
8 
35 
0 
26 
o 
36 
178 
Meteorot.ogy op the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last thirty-two years, the average highest and lowest 
temperatures of these days are 73.4° and 50.2°, respectively. The greatest heat, OS' 5 , occurred on the 22nd, in 181G ; and the lowest cold, 30°, 
on the 2.5th, in 1855. During the period 118 days were fine, and on 96 rain fell. 
IN-DOOR GARDENING OPERATIONS EOR 
THE WEEK. 
GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 
Many of the finer kinds of hard-wooded plants—such 
as Boronias, Epacrises, &c.—will now be out of bloom, and 
will require cutting in rather closely, to form neat bushy 
plants. Some of the greenhouse plants will most pro¬ 
bably require shifting, and should receive that attention 
now, oi% at latest, by the middle of next month. Keep a 
sharp look out for insects of all kinds, and also for mildew ; 
and give the plants, if the weather is dry, a sprinkling 
once or twice a-week from the syringe or garden engine. 
New Holland Plants. —If any are retained in the 
house, let tiiem be placed where they can have a suffi- 
1 ciency of light and fresh air, and at the same time in a 
place where the sun has no power on the pots ; but if 
such cannot be avoided, place the pot containing the 
plant in another two sizes larger, and fill the intervening 
space with moss. 
Pelargoniums. —When out of bloom, they should be 
placed in the open ground for a fortnight or three weeks 
to ripen the wood before they are ciit down. 
Scarlet Geraniums. — To prepare them for winter 
blooming it is advisable to place the pots during the 
summer on a hard bottom out of doors and in the full 
sun. and to pinch out the flower-stems as they appear. 
To be carefully attended with water. 
STOVE AND OECHID-HOUSE. 
Keep up a kindly humidity by frequent syringings, and 
keeping the floors, paths, &c., damp. Many of the stove 
plants—viz. ,Clerodendrons,Erythrinas, Gardenias, Ixoras, 
Jasmines, Liliums, Pergularias, Stephanotises, &c.— may 
be removed to the conservatory, where the flowers will 
attain a deeper colour and retain it for a longer period 
than if they had remained in the stove. 
Euphorbias. — Propagate jacqinniceflora and fulgens, 
and grow them on a successional system of culture for 
furnishing the conservatory ancl stove throughout the 
autumn; winter, and spring. 
Gesnera zebrina. —Keep up a succession in various 
stages of growth, and place another batch of tubers in 
a pan. 
FORCING-HOUSES. 
Give particular attention to the preservation of the 
foliage in houses where the fruit has been gathered, 
keeping the atmosphere cool and moist; and give the 
trees an occasional washing with the engine, to keep down 
red spider and the leaves clean and healthy. 
Cherries. —When the trees are planted in the house, 
and the fruit has been gathered, give all the air possible 
by throwing it entirely open. Give them a good washing 
occasionally with the garden engine. When the plants 
are in pots, it is advisable to place them on a hard bottom 
on the north side of a wall or fence. 
Melons. —Bottom heat is necessary for their healthy 
growth; without it a check would be given that would 
be sure to produce a most injurious effect on the swelling 
No. 560.— Vol. XXII. No. 12. 
fruit. Water to be given to the plants overhead occa¬ 
sionally. 
Peaches. — Continue to maintain a moist, healthy at¬ 
mosphere while the fruit is swelling. Give air sufficiently 
early in the morning, to prevent the sun scorching the 
foliage. Syringe and shut up early in the afternoon. 
Pines. —Continue to provide proper bottom and surface 
heat, and give attention to airing, watering, syringing, 
and shifting in due time. By such means a large amount 
of healthy growth may now be secured for the fruit¬ 
swelling and succession plants. The plants swelling their 
fruit to be also favoured with a high temperature, a moist 
atmosphere, and plenty of water, and occasionally manure 
water at the root. If worm-casts appear in any of the 
pots, water with lime-water in a clear state. 
Vines. —As the dry atmosphere necessary for the pre¬ 
servation of the ripe bunches is conducive to the increase 
of red spider, the sulphur must be immediately applied 
as advised last week. Discontinue the use of the syringe 
as soon as the succession crops begin to ripen. Check 
the growth of laterals by timely pinching. Give the 
final thinnings to the latest Grapes ; and as they are fre¬ 
quently required for winter use, a good thinning should 
be given, as crowded bunches and berries will not keep 
late in the season. William Keane. 
IRISES AS BEDDING PLANTS — CRYSTAL 
PALACE ARRANGEMENTS — CROSSING 
GERANIUMS. 
On a review of the array of the spring flowers which 
have been enlisted under our banner, the right position 
in the lines has not been given to a Crimean hero—the 
Iris pumila of many colours, true blue and bad yellow 
being predominant in his race and family. The blue, or 
purple blue, Iris pumila is very common in English nur¬ 
series, and very uncommon in English gardens, flowering 
from the middle of March to a late period in April; very 
gay, very florid, very dwarf, and the very easiest plant in 
the catalogue to remove any day in summer or winter. A 
row of this Iris, in kinds, woidd come in next behind a 
row of Crocuses; and if there is a white variety of pumila, 
as there is said to be, the same way of mixing the colours 
as in a row of Crocuses could be carried out on the same 
plan—a blue Iris, a white Iris, then a yellow Iris, or 
creamy yellow, then a primrose, and a blue, and so on all 
along the line. 
The primrose-coloured Iris pumila, which Her Ma¬ 
jesty noticed so particularly, was exhibited at St. James’s 
Hall in April, 1858; and a few days afterwards Mr. 
Rivers sent a plant of the same in bloom to see if it 
were the same thing, and said he had “ loads ” of 
it. This spring I saw four kinds, or varieties, of this 
Iris pumila by the hundreds in the private reserve 
ground at the Crystal Palace, all sent from the Crimea 
by a British officer. There were three shades of light 
yellow and the blue; some of the yellows with a thick 
blotch of blue or purple on the ground colour; some 
