First Week

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. The plants when newly set in the house are very liable to lose a portion of their leaves: these should be removed, and the plants kept supplied with water, so as to preserve the soil moderately moist throughout. Air to be



given every day, and also a portion at night, if the weather continue mild. Bulbs (Dutch).--All kinds to be immediately potted and plunged in a convenient situation ready to be removed, when wanted, to the forcing-house or pit. If potted and treated as advised some time ago, a few of them may now be excited into growth. Chrysanthemums.--Take up the plants from the open ground; choose a showery day for the purpose. After potting to be well watered and shaded for a few days, then placed in a cold pit, or removed to the greenhouse, and neatly tied to stakes. The buds to be thinned for a fine display. Gladioli.--Pot them, and Ixias, Sparaxis, &c.; and to be watered sparingly until they begin to grow. Lily of the Valley.--Pot some, to be treated as advised for Bulbs, that a regular supply of this favourite flower may be had during winter. Shrubs.--Get in, if not already done. A supply of American plants to be potted, as advised a fortnight ago, and plunged in old tan until wanted for forcing. STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE. Continue to act in unison with the season, allowing the temperature to decline slightly as light decreases. Although the Aerides, Dendrobiums, &c., will continue to enjoy a temperature of 80 deg. by day and 70 deg. by night, the Cattleyas will require 10 deg. or 15 deg. less to bring them to a healthy state of rest; for if kept in constant excitement they will continue to sprout buds from their pseudo-bulbs, which generally adds to the size of the plant at the expense of the blooms. Achimenes picta.--Promote their growth by every attention, also Gesnera zebrina, which adds much to the beauty of the stove during winter. Begonias.--Encourage the different kinds for winter flowering by giving them larger pots if required. Euphorbia fulgens and splendens.--These are also worthy of especial attention, as they contribute to enliven the house at the dullest season of the year when flowers are scarce. FORCING-HOUSES. Cucumbers.--To prolong the season of fine crisp fruit it is necessary to keep the plants clean and healthy by giving them plenty of top and bottom heat. Figs.--The trees having no fruit likely to come to perfection, and whose leaves are fading, to be kept cool and dry, to induce an early rest. A seasonal rest should also be given by the same means to trees in pots, that they may be in a fit state for forcing early. Melons.--Continue to maintain a warm, dry atmosphere, to give flavour to the fruit. They will require little or no water after this. Peaches.--Vacancies to be filled with trees from the walls on the open ground. This is a plan preferable to having young trees from the nursery, which are usually some years in covering the space allotted to them. Where the lights have been wholly removed, after being repaired and painted, they should be put upon the houses to protect the trees and borders from unfavourable weather. Pines.--Ripening fruit to be kept in a dry, warm atmosphere, to give it flavour. The swelling fruit to have a warm, moist atmosphere. Water to be given to the plants cautiously; every one to be examined before it receives any, and manure water to be dispensed with altogether. The heat of the dung-pits to be kept up by renewing the linings. The crowns and suckers that are planted in the tan to have no water; all they require is attention in giving air and keeping up the heat. Vines.--Attention to be given to the young Vines in pots that are intended for forcing, that they may not become soddened, which would injure the young roots considerably. Where netting or any other such material had been used over the lights that open in houses containing fruit, to prevent the ingress of wasps, it may be taken down as little mischief will now be apprehended from their attacks. Mice are sometimes very troublesome in vineries at this season, and will spoil a whole house of Grapes in a short time if not prevented. Traps should, therefore, be kept set, and every means used to prevent their ingress from the garden. Cover the border when the trees are planted outside, with a good coat of fern or any other such material before they become saturated and chilled by the autumnal rains, to be laid on thickly in layers, beginning at the front of the border, the whole to be covered with a thin layer of good straw, and fastened down as a thatcher does the straw on stacks.

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