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THE GARDENING WORLD 
March 21st, 1885. 
Til Amatiim 1 ©A11IM. 
THE GREENHOUSE. 
Although the weather during the early part of the 
month was mild, the wind has veered round to the 
cold quarter, and is very cutting, which will necessitate 
much care in giving air, as otherwise the tender 
growths of plants will suffer, and flowers be hastened 
off from the effect of sharp currents, which are very 
trying. To avoid these evils the ventilators should 
only be opened on the sheltered side of the house, as 
it is better to let the temperature run up a few degrees 
than to have a keen draught passing among the flowers 
and foliage. To prolong the beauty of the latter, it is 
a good plan during bright days to run down a thin 
shade over the glass, especially when the wind is so 
cutting, but as yet it must not be on longer than a few 
hours at a time, or the flow T ers that open under it will 
be thin and less brilliant in colour. 
As roof-climbers will now be commencing there 
growth, they should be thinned out severely, as they 
flower on the young shoots, but all that should be 
done to Lapagerias is to cut away the parts that have 
bloomed, and loosely tie or train any branches to fill 
unoccupied, spaces so as to well cover or furnish the 
trellis. If the plants are not in satisfactory health, 
the way to get them round is to remove the old inert 
soil down to and from amongst the main roots, and 
replace it with fresh, the most suitable being tough 
fibry peat, chopped up rough, and mixed with a little 
sharp sand, and if this is pressed down and then 
watered, the feeders will soon find their way into it 
and ramify through. To help to adorn greenhouses, 
nothing looks so showy and effective as a few hanging 
baskets filled with such subjects as some of the 
Tuberous Begonias, the gracefully arching and long 
fronded Ferns, or Cyanotis vittata, and the trailing 
Pelargoniums, like Rollissons Unique, and the Ivy¬ 
leaved varieties, or the more brilliant Tropamlums, 
either alone or mixed, besides which there are the 
Achimenes and many other plants equally suitable. 
The present is a good time for starting any or all 
of these, the Tropfeolums coming readily from seed, 
and making a fine display in the course of two or 
three months. To keep the stage well furnished and 
gay, successions of Hyacinths, Tulips, Lily of the 
Valley, Deutzias, Azaleas, Spirreas, Cinerarias and 
Primulas, should be kept up by bringing on a few at a 
time, and seeds of the two last-named should now be 
sown for coming in early during next winter. To get 
them to germinate freely, they should be sown in light 
soil, and slightly covered, the pot being placed in 
gentle heat, and a pane of glass put over the top. 
PITS AND FRAMES. 
Bedding plants may now be moved into these to 
get them hardened off preparatory to turning them 
out, but all such as come from a warm temperature 
after being struck or potted should be kept rather close 
for a time to save them from getting a chill or 
Suffering a check through the change. A good way 
Of treating many of the plants, instead of potting 
them, is to make up a gentle hot-bed, or use one that 
is declining, and cover it with a few inches of light 
soil, when all from cutting pots or seedlings of various 
kinds may be pricked out or dibbled in and left to 
stand till the time comes for transferring them to 
their summer quarters, by managing in which manner 
much room and trouble are saved, beside which the 
plants do very much better, as they have freer scope 
for the roots. 
For raising seeds of half-hardy annuals, and 
carrying on the work of propagation, a hot-bed is 
almost essential to success, as the seeds will not 
germinate, nor the cuttings strike, without a certain 
degree of warmth, and that afforded by fermenting 
material is the most genial. The way to prepare the 
pots for seed sowing or propagating is to well drain 
them by putting a smaller one inverted over the hole 
of each, and filling up around with small crocks, and 
then a little rough soil over the top, finishing off with 
the fine. For cuttings this should be covered with 
sand, and then watered, when the cuttings may be 
dibbled in easily while it is damp and soft, after which 
another sprinkling will be necessary to settle the soil 
and make them stand firm, and if the pots are then 
plunged in the bed, and kept close and shaded from 
the sun, the cuttings will soon root, and be ready for 
potting or pricking out in the manner referred to 
above. 
When sowing seeds, the points to be particular 
about are to scatter them thinly and regularly, and to 
cover them very lightly, according to their size, for if 
buried deeply they will not come up, or, if they get 
through, they will be weak and lanky from the effort, 
and apt to damp off owing to so much of their stems 
being blanched. The very small seeds, such as 
Begonia and Gloxinia, will not bear covering at all, 
and the only way of treating them successfully is to 
make the soil quite firm and smooth, and sow on the 
surface, after it has been damped, the object being to 
do without watering, if possible, for unless this is 
done in the lightest manner, the seeds are washed 
away, and lost altogether. 
To keep the soil regularly damp, the tops of the 
pots must be covered with panes of glass, and these 
should be shaded for a few days after the sowing by 
laying pieces of paper over to ward off sun and light, 
which cause evaporation, and leave the seeds dry. 
Pits with hot-water will now come in admirably for 
Melons, Cucumbers, and French Beans, the latter 
of which, when planted out with a little heat below, 
bear almost as freely and continuously as they do in 
the open. Light rich loam is the best soil for them, 
and this should be 9 ins. or 1 ft. deep, and the Beans 
sown or planted 6 ins. apart, in rows 1 ft. 6 ins. 
asunder. 
BEDS AND BORDERS. 
The first preliminary towards putting beds and 
borders in order is to see that the edgings are all 
right, and if they be of Box which has become large 
and heavy, they should be taken up and re-laid, as 
hard clipping with a view to reduce their size is apt to 
kill many of the plants by robbing them of too much 
of their foliage. In cases where Box becomes dis¬ 
coloured, or does not succeed satisfactorily, Thrift 
will be found a good substitute, as that will grow in 
almost any kind of soil, and besides looking nice and 
green all the year, makes quite a show when in bloom. 
There are other plants that make capital live edgings 
to beds, among which many of the Sedums are suit¬ 
able, but the most striking of all is the Gentiana 
acaulis, the large bell-shaped blossoms of which are 
lovely in the spring, as there is nothing approaching 
them in the rich depth of their blue. 
This Gentian likes heavy cool land, and does best 
planted between large stones or pebbles that are 
nearly buried, round and under which the plants send 
their roots and find the moisture they w T ant during 
hot weather. In planting the Gentians, all that is 
necessary is to pull the old clumps apart and dibble 
the offsets in, and if this is done at once, they will 
soon get hold and break out and spread. If the 
edgings are of turf, they should be neatly trimmed 
with a sharp edging knife, the guiding of which 
requires some skill and a good eye, especially w’here 
the edges curve, in which case it is a good plan to 
put in a few sticks and run the line along one side of 
them, so that the operator may see where to cut, and 
how much to take off to give a regular sweep. 
With the edgings re-laid or trimmed, the next thing 
is to slightly manure the beds or borders and dig them 
ready for their summer occupants, taking great care, 
when doing so, not to go near enough to any plants 
already in the ground to damage their roots or disturb 
them, unless they are large and require dividing, or 
reducing in size. This may safely be done now to 
almost any of the herbaceous subjects, and when 
gross-feeding kinds have stood long in a place and 
exhausted the soil, it is a good plan to remove them 
to a fresh site, where a hole should be dug out and a 
little rotten dung placed at the bottom, and the plants 
then planted above. 
Many sow their hardy annuals in frames or under 
hand-lights and transplant them, but that is going to 
unnecessary trouble, and not only that, but they suffer 
a check in removal and rarely do so well after. The 
better way is to sow in patches on the border where 
they are to stand and flower, and thin out when they 
come up, leaving the largest and strongest plants at 
regular distances apart, but not thick, as the majority 
of them require plenty of room. The most important 
things to think about are Mignonette, Sweet Peas, 
Lupins,Larkspurs,Convolvulus minor, Godetias, Stocks, 
Calliopsis, Candytuft, Chrysanthemum, Eschscholtzias, 
Marigolds, Nasturtiums, and Nemophila, all of which 
are very lasting and make a fine show. In putting 
these in, all that is necessary is to rake the ground 
fine, when a circle maybe described by just pressing a 
flower-pot dawn, and the seed sown within the space 
and covered very slightly, after which, if the weather 
is favourable, it will quickly germinate, and the plants 
be ready for thinning. 
THE FRUIT GARDEN. 
In order to start young Vines, and keep those now 
on the move steadily growing, the temperature of the 
house should be kept regular at 55 degs. or so by 
night, with a slight increase by fire-heat during the 
day, allowing the glass to run up to 65 degs. on sunny 
mornings before air is admitted, and closing again by 
three o’clock in the afternoon, at the same time giving 
a good syringing with tepid water over the rods, which 
will help materially in .expediting growth and 
strengthening the shoots. As soon' as it can be seen 
which of these are showing fruit, the others, and any 
that are weak, should be rubbed out, as it is useless 
leaving more than one to a spur, unless these are 
unusually wide apart, the thing being to leave plenty 
of room for the foliage, which ought not to overlap 
sufficient for one leaf to shade or interfere with 
another, and yet, unless there are plants underneath 
that have to be considered, the whole roof-surface of 
the house should be covered. 
If the Vines are wide apart, this may be done by 
letting the shoots run out longer, instead of stopping 
them, as is usually done, one joint above the fruit, as 
the more foliage there is, under the conditions referred 
to above, the more root-action will there be, and the 
finer and better the Grapes. Borders are much to be 
preferred outside the house, as there they are exposed 
to the sun, and the sweetening influence of the air, 
besides which they get the rains, and are therefore 
not so liable to become dry as they are in, for though 
these latter may have water given now and then, it is 
rarely they receive enough to soak the soil through. 
VEGETABLE GARDEN. 
In the kitchen-garden department an exceedingly 
busy time is now commencing, as the planting of all 
kinds of late Potatos should be pushed on to comple¬ 
tion ; Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Lettuce from beds 
where they have stood the winter got out; Onions, 
Peas, Broad Beans, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, 
Spinach, Turnips, Parsnips, and other seeds sown; 
herb-beds overhauled and regulated; Asparagus 
ground got ready for forming fresh beds, Rhubarb 
and Seakale covered to blanch the heads ; frames 
made up for Cucumbers, which may soon be got out; 
edgings to walks repaired, and gravel rolled to get it 
solid and in good order for the extra traffic to come. 
A good way of blanching Seakale and Rhubarb is 
to cover the crowns with straw, which saves the cost 
of pots, although the latter are best for Rhubarb, or 
tubs or boxes may be used, as all that is necessary to 
have it delicate and nice is to keep the light from it. 
If an increase of plants is desired the present is the 
time to divide or take pieces off old ones, and new 
plantations of Seakale may be made by cutting up 
into 4-in. lengths the long, thongy roots and planting 
them, as they are much better than any that can be 
raised from seed the same season. 
The land intended for Asparagus cannot well be too 
rich, and not only should it be heavily manured, but 
deeply trenched, in doing which the subsoil ought 
not to be brought up, but kept below, as it takes a 
long time before it is fit for young, tender plants. 
These should not be put in till they have made some 
growth, when, if they are well watered at the time of 
planting, success is certain, as they root at once and 
quickly become re-established. Asparagus beds may 
also be formed by sowing the seed where the plants 
are to stand, and if these are thinned out as soon as 
up, and well cultivated by being kept clean, they will 
afford heads to cut in two or three years. The best 
sorts to grow are Connover’s Colossal and the Giant 
Argenteuil, both of which are large and of excellent 
flavour. A good distance to have the rows is 18 ins., 
but it is better to plant on the flat at a yard apart, 
and half that from plant to plant, as Asparagus is a 
a gross feeder and likes plenty of room. 
