First Week

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. Attend in due time to all plants that require potting into larger pots; and pinch off the tops of all that are of a rambling or loose habit of growth, to make them compact and bushy. Azaleas.--As soon as they are



out of bloom, take them into heat to make their growth, syringing them frequently and supplying them occasionally with manure water, and shade for a short time in the middle of the day when the sun is powerful. Calceolarias.--Give them weak liquid manure occasionally, and shade those in bloom. Cinerarias.--When done flowering, cut the stems down, to favour the development of suckers, and remove them to a cold pit or frame. Climbers.--Keep all neatly trained. Heaths and New Holland Plants.--The late-flowering sorts, or such as have already flowered, and the young stock intended for another season, may be removed to cold pits or frames. Such plants as require it must be shifted, stopped, and shaded; particular attention being paid that they do not get dry at the root. Pelargoniums.--Shade such as are in flower; and shift and stop such as are wanted to flower late. STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE. Keep up a kind humidity and a gradual increase of temperature in correspondence with the increase of solar light, and shut up early in the afternoon with sun heat. Continue to propagate the choice stove plants, and keep all free from insects. Achimenes.--Pot off. Begonias.--Continue to repot as they go out of bloom, pruning in any straggling shoots, and propagate as advised last week. Keep them close, and syringe frequently, when they will soon commence growing. Keep them some distance apart, to allow their fine foliage to expand. The following are good sorts:--Prestoniensis, Cinnabarina, Fuchsioides, Martiana, Zebrina, Barkeri, Rubra, and Argyrostigma. Gloxinias.--Repot where necessary. Succulents.--Opuntias, Melocacti, and Epiphyllum, to be excited into vigorous growth by intense light and abundance of heat and moisture. FORCING-HOUSE. Cherries.--Temperature 65 deg. to 70 deg. by day and 50 deg. at night, and give plenty of air; but guard against wet and cold. Figs.--Stop and thin the shoots. Keep a damp atmosphere, and use the syringe over the foliage, when the house, or pit, is shut up in the afternoon, to keep down red spider. When the fruit is ripening, the syringe must be dispensed with, and the atmosphere kept drier; but, as there is generally a succession of fruit on the trees, water must not be wholly withheld at the time of the first crop ripening, as it would endanger the succeeding one; but it may be given more sparingly. Melons.--Stop and keep the shoots very thin. When the crop is safely set, give the soil a good soaking of clear, tepid manure water. Let swelling fruit be exposed as much as possible to the light. Peaches.--Continue to stop all gross shoots, which will both increase the size of the fruit and the smaller shoots at the bottom of the tree. The syringe, when used frequently, is useful for the same purpose, and to keep down insects. Air and light to be admitted, to give flavour and colouring to the ripening fruit. Pines.--The fruiting plants now swelling, and in pots, may be treated with a little clear liquid manure. Guano water, or soot water, or both combined, will produce a perceptible improvement in foliage and growth, with the caution that it be given in a warm, clear state, and not too strong. Ply the syringe freely on warm afternoons, and close up with a temperature of 85 deg. or 90 deg.; giving air again towards evening. When indications of ripening by changing colour appear, desist from the use of the syringe, and give them no further supplies at the root. Strawberries.--When ripening their fruit they may be placed in a frame where a free admission of air can be given. Vines.--Encourage the young stock intended for growing in pots next year, to make healthy, luxuriant growth, by giving them plenty of pot room and manure water, to set them in a light situation in some of the forcing-houses, and to pay early attention to the leaders as they advance in growth. Where Muscats are growing with Hamburghs and other such free-setting varieties, it is advisable to keep up a brisk day-temperature for the Muscats during their season of blooming, and until their berries are fairly set, with a reduction to a night-temperature of 65 deg. or 68 deg., to suit the other varieties.

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