Thrid 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 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.

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