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

slates or tiles, and place them in the pit,
or frame, where the sun’s rays may fall upon them.

PEACHES.—Admit plenty of air when the fruit is ripe, or nearly so. When the crop is gathered,
give them a good washing with the syringe. Those changing for ripening, if the trees are young
and vigorous, to have a general stopping of the strong shoots all over the higher parts of the tree.
To keep down red spider, it is advisable to wash the walls, pipes, or flues, with sulphur vivum
reduced to the consistency of paint; or to paint some slates, tiles, or common saucers, with the
mixture, and to place them in different parts of the house, where the sun can shine upon them.

PINES.—If the pot plants in fruit are in a healthy condition, well furnished with roots, an
occasional supply of clear manure water, in a warm state, may be given with advantage to them.

STRAWBERRIES.—As it is necessary, by early attention, to ensure a healthy, vigorous growth,
therefore, as soon as the runners have emitted the least portion of root, take them off, and prick


them out on a rich piece of ground, or on an old hotbed where Radishes or early Potatoes have
been grown under hoops, where, when the weather is hot, they are more convenient to shade, and
require less water.

VINES.—When the fruit is cut in the early houses, ripen the wood by exposing it night and day,
except during heavy rains. Water to be gradually withheld as the growth of the plants declines,
and somewhat in the proportion in which you would have vegetation stop, not all at once, but
gradually. The Vines with fruit now stoning may be allowed to produce a few redundant shoots
if there is sufficient room to lay them in without crowding, or overlapping the old wood, or
shading the old leaves. The late Grapes to be finally thinned, their shoulders to be tied out, and
every useless shoot to be removed. Keep the Vines in pots trained, and exposed to light, and
apply weak liquid manure frequently.

FOURTH 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 probably require shifting, and should receive that attention now, or,
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 them be placed where they can
have a sufficiency 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 cut 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 ORCHID-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 jacquiniæflora and fulgens, and grow them on a successional system
of culture for furnishing the conservatory and 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 fruit. Water to be given to
the plants overhead occasionally.

PEACHES.—Continue to maintain a moist, healthy atmosphere 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 preservation 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 frequently required for winter use, a good thinning should be given, as crowded bunches and
berries will not keep late in the season.

JULY.

FIRST WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

The plants permanently planted out in the borders of the conservatory should have a thorough
soaking of weak liquid manure. Give all the air possible at this season, both night and day, and
keep the house as neat and clean as possible. If it contains many tender stove plants, shut it up


for an hour while the sun is on it in the evening, so as to produce a more genial atmosphere for
them.

ACHIMENES.—Encourage them, as also Clerodendrons, &c., to grow and to prolong their beauty
in the conservatory by supplying them with liquid manure, taking particular care not to give it
too strong, especially at first.

CINERARIAS.—Sow seed immediately. Plants for early blooming should also be potted and
started at once, choosing the strongest suckers for the purpose, and placing them in a cool, shady
frame until they have made fresh growth.

CHRYSANTHEMUMS.—Propagate some for blooming in small pots.

HEATHS.—Pluck off the flowers and seed-pods as soon as they become unsightly, and prune
straggling growth. The softwooded kinds—such as the ventricosa, &c.—do best in a sheltered
situation in the open air, with means to protect them during heavy rains; while the woolly-
leaved—such as Masonii, &c.—and hardwooded varieties delight in cold pits where the glass
can be shaded or used for protection as necessary. Examine the plants which were not shifted in
the spring, and, if necessary, pot them without delay; but if they require to be cut in, to make
them bushy, it will be best to let them break afresh before they are repotted.

LESCHENAULTIAS.—If they have done blooming, and are pot-bound, to be repotted and placed in
a shady place to make their growth.

STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.

Give abundance of air to the stove plants at all favourable times, and abundance of moisture by
all means. Examine young specimens that were potted early in the season, and shift at once such
as require more pot room.

IXORAS.—Encourage the young plants by giving them plenty of air both night and day, to make
short, sturdy growth; and discontinue stopping them for the season.

FORCING-HOUSES.

CHERRIES.—When the fruit has been gathered from the trees grown in tubs, or pots, it is
advisable to place them in some open, airy quarter, to make their wood for next season’s bearing.

FIGS.—Give liberal supplies of water to the trees now throwing up their second crop. A top
dressing of old cowdung would now be useful. Pinch out the top buds, if the shoots are growing
very long. It should be a practice to manage the trees during the summer that nothing more than a
slight thinning out should be wanted at the winter pruning.

MELONS.—Give attention to the crops now growing, in thinning out the shoots, stopping, &c.


PEACHES and NECTARINES.—When all the fruit is gathered, and the wood seems well ripened, it
will be best to take the lights quite off, and place them under cover until wanted again. Plenty of
air to be given to the trees that are swelling off their fruit. Also, stop in succession many of the
strong shoots about the period the last swelling commences. Use the syringe freely over the
leaves early in the morning and again in the evening.

PINES.—Give abundance of air to the fruiting and succession plants, and during dry, hot weather,
saturate the paths and every open space with moisture, to prevent the leaves of the plants
becoming brown. If such a practice be regularly adopted during hot, bright sunny weather,
shading will seldom or never be necessary. Be at the same time particular in maintaining a mild,
genial bottom heat.

VINES.—The houses containing ripe fruit will require to be kept dry and well ventilated; those
swelling will still require attention to keep a regular steady temperature with regular supplies of
air. Muscats very frequently require fires during the night and on wet, cold days.

SECOND WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

ACHIMENES.—They delight in a steady, moist heat; to be shaded in the middle of hot days, to
prevent the sun from scorching the foliage; and never to be watered overhead.

CACTI.—Remove them to a dry, airy place as soon as they have finished their growth.

COCKSCOMBS.—They can be grown with strong, short stems, and very large heads, if they are
allowed to remain in small pots until the flowers are formed, then potted in large pots in a
compost of one-half rich loam, one-fourth leaf mould, and one-fourth sand, and supplied with as
much liquid manure and moist heat as possible.

FUCHSIAS.—As the plants progress in growth give them plenty of air and moisture, occasionally
moistening the paths, walls, and stages with clear manure water,