In Door Garedning - William Keane (best new books to read txt) 📗

above the ground level.

PELARGONIUMS.—Give air freely, avoid cold draughts, and shade from scorching sun. Shift and
stop the succession stock for late flowering.

PETUNIAS.—Do not neglect to pot off from the store propagating pots some of those, as advised
last week, as also Scarlet Geraniums, Verbenas, Heliotropes, &c., to afford a variety of sorts and
colours for the conservatory.

STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.

Let rambling shoots of ordinary stove plants have frequent stopping. The Aërides, Dendrobiums,
Phalænopses, Saccolabiums, Sarcanthuses, Sobralias, Vandas, and others of the eastern genera of
Orchids, will now require most liberal and frequent waterings and syringings. Gongoras,
Peristerias, Stanhopeas, &c., when full of roots in baskets, require a thorough soaking. Now is a
good time to pot Cymbidiums, Peristerias, &c., starting into growth. Aërides, Vandas, and plants
of a similar habit, do best when shifted after they have done blooming.


ACHIMENES.—Continue to shift them, as also Begonias, Clerodendrons, Gesneras, &c., as
requisite. Remove those in bloom to the greenhouse or conservatory.

CLIMBERS.—Keep them thin and tied in, so as not to shade the rest of the plants to an injurious
extent.

SUCCULENTS.—Shift Melocacti, &c., and keep them growing, and near the glass.

FORCING-HOUSES.

CHERRIES.—The trees in large pots or tubs, from which the crop has been lately gathered, should
have abundance of air, and an occasional supply of liquid manure. Give them, also, a good
washing overhead with the syringe, or engine, dashing it on with considerable force. They will
also require to have their wood matured early.

FIGS.—Continue the practice of stopping when the shoots are four or five eyes long. Give a
liberal supply of water, and thin out the second crop where too thick.

MELONS.—Keep the shoots thin, and remove all useless laterals. When the fruit is swelling, the
soil should be kept in a properly moist state, and the foliage in a healthy condition. The bottom
heat should not be allowed to sink below 75°.

PEACHES.—Keep up a growing temperature with plenty of air and moisture, and frequently
syringe the trees, to keep them clean and healthy. The ripening fruit will require plenty of air.

PINES.—Repot as they may require; for if they are allowed to remain in a pot-bound state at this
season they are very apt to start prematurely into fruit. It is also particularly requisite that the
balls are thoroughly moist at the time of repotting. To give strength to the growing stock, it is
advisable to admit abundance of air in the morning part of the day; and in the afternoon, to
encourage a high degree of heat with an abundance of atmospheric moisture. The plants growing
in open beds to be supplied with a steady bottom heat of from 80° to 85°, and sufficient water to
the roots.

VINES.—Proceed diligently with thinning the berries, as they swell rapidly at this season. The
late houses in which the Vines are in bloom to be kept warmer and closer than they have been,
until the fruit is set. Stop the shoots and laterals, and never allow a mass of useless wood to
remain on them.

SECOND WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

The principal part of the greenhouse plants may now be removed to an out-of-door situation,
open to the morning sun, and protected from high winds, and be placed on some hard bottom
through which the worms cannot get into the pots. The specimen plants that remain should be
turned round from time to time, that they may not get one-sided; and allow them to have plenty


of room on all sides. Also, the young plants intended for specimens should have their flower-
buds picked off, to encourage their growth.

BALSAMS.—Encourage them by frequent shifts, and keep them in bottom heat, and near the
glass. The prematurely-formed flower-buds to be picked off, as the plants should attain a
considerable size before they are allowed to bloom.

CALCEOLARIAS.—The most critical time is after the plants have flowered; if allowed to produce
seed, they generally die off—Nature having completed her task. When the bloom begins to fall,
cut the plants down, and repot into a larger size; place them in a cold frame facing the east, the
lights on during the day, with air, and entirely off during the night, unless in rainy weather, as the
night dews are highly beneficial. Treated thus the plants will soon produce new shoots, which
must be taken off and pricked out into small pots in a very open soil, and placed in a very gentle
bottom heat to strike. When rooted, to be shifted into pots of a larger size.

CINERARIAS.—The plants that have bloomed through the season to be cut down, turned out of
their pots, and to have at least half the old soil removed from their roots. Prepare a piece of
ground, in a sheltered situation, with leaf mould or rotten dung and sand, in which the Cinerarias
are to be planted, one inch below the level of the soil, in rows fifteen inches apart and one foot
apart in the row. When planted, to be well watered.

CLIMBERS.—The Passifloras, Mandevilla suaveolens, Tecoma jasminoides, and other such
climbers in the conservatory, will now be growing very freely, and will therefore require
frequent attention to keep them in order. The young shoots may be allowed to grow in a natural
manner, merely preventing them from getting too much entangled, or growing into masses.

FUCHSIAS.—When in a healthy-growing state they require an abundance of water and frequent
syringings. Train them in the desired form, and pinch back all weak and straggling shoots.

HEATHS and NEW HOLLAND PLANTS.—Examine them very carefully, and be sure that they are in
a proper state as to moisture. The young plants which are not blooming will do best if placed in a
pit where they can be exposed or not, as may appear necessary. To lay a proper foundation for a
good specimen it is necessary to stop and to train the shoots into form.

KALOSANTHES.—Train them neatly, increase the supply of water, and give them liquid manure
occasionally.

STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.

Continue to shift the young and growing stock of stove plants. To harden the wood of the early-
grown plants, or autumn or winter flowering, it is advisable to remove them to some cooler
place, such as the shelves of the greenhouse. The baskets, in which the Stanhopeas will now be
blooming, should be carefully examined to see that the buds, as they protrude, may not be
injured by contact with the side. Many stove plants and Orchids in flower, if taken to a late
vinery, or such intermediate house, will thus be prepared, in a short time, for removal to the
conservatory during the summer.


CLIMBERS.—When the shrubby plants are large, the climbers hanging loosely give a sort of
tropical character to the house; but, either hanging, or trained in wreaths or festoons, they require
pruning and regulating, to prevent them becoming entangled, and, therefore, a confused mass of
wood and foliage.

FORCING-HOUSES.

CHERRIES.—Give air night and day in fine weather.

FIGS.—When the ripest of the fruit is gathered, give the trees a good syringing overhead, to
cleanse and refresh the leaves, and to keep down insects.

MELONS.—To be slightly shaded with a net, or a few pea-sticks, during bright sunshine in the
middle of the day, to prevent the scorching of the leaves; for if such occurs, the fruit ripens
prematurely, and is, in consequence, without flavour.

PEACHES.—When the fruit is ripening, give as much air as possible during the day, and when the
nights are mild and warm leave the lights open. When the fruit in the succession-house is stoned,
give a good watering to the roots, and syringe the trees frequently, as previously advised.

PINES.—Apply an abundance of moisture to the pathways of the fruiting-house during bright
weather. Give plenty of air, but allow at the same time the thermometer to range from 90° to 95°.
Shut up when the rays of the sun are getting partially off the house, and ply the syringe freely
about the leaves and stems of the plants, and the surface of the plunging material. Air to be given
an hour or two afterwards for the night.

VINES.—Keep thinning the berries and stopping the laterals as they advance, which, with
syringing and giving air, is the principal work to be done.

THIRD WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

The stock of plants out of doors to be carefully looked over in showery weather that they may
not suffer from imperfect drainage. The more delicate sorts to be returned to the houses, or
protected by some means during heavy rains.

CAMELLIAS.—When they are kept in-doors give an abundance of air night and day, with an
occasional application of the syringe, keeping the paths and floors damp. When they have ceased
growing, and have formed their flower-buds, discontinue to syringe the plants overhead, as it
sometimes starts them into a fresh growth that will be the destruction of the flower-buds.

CHRYSANTHEMUMS.—Plant them out eighteen or twenty inches apart in an open piece of ground.
Some to be left to grow as standards on one stem, and others to be topped, to make them bushy.


CINERARIAS.—In raising seedlings it is advisable to select each parent plant, distinguished for its
dwarf habit and decided colour, and to place them by themselves in a pit or frame. The seed
should be carefully gathered as it ripens. It should be sown in shallow pots, or pans, well drained
with crocks; then some siftings, and over that some light soil, with some finer and more sandy on
the surface, covering the seeds very lightly with the same; and slightly sprinkling, or watering,
through a very fine rose, and the surface covered with a little moss, to prevent evaporation. In a
few days the seedlings will be up; then remove the moss, and let them remain in the pots, or
pans, until they are large enough to be handled with safety; then pot them in small pots, and keep
close for a day or two.

LILIUM LANCIFOLIUM.—Give attention to them; as also to tree Carnations, Salvia splendens,
Scarlet Geraniums, &c., for autumn and early winter flowering.

ORANGES.—The same as advised for Camellias.

STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.

ACHIMENES.—Repot, as also Begonias and Gesneras, for succession of late bloom.

LUCULIA GRATISSIMA.—Propagate by cuttings.

Some of the Orchids will now require to be topped up a little with fresh soil. The Barkeria
spectabilis, Epidendrum Skinneri, the Lycastes, Odontoglossum grande, &c., will now enjoy the
temperature of the conservatory.

FORCING-HOUSE.

FIGS.—Continue to stop all shoots when five or six joints long. Never allow the trees in tubs, or
pots, to want water; they now require daily attention.

MELONS.—Shade them during bright sunshine for a few hours in the middle of the day. If the red
spider appears, rub sulphur vivum, mixed with water, on