In-Door Gardening for Every Week in the Year Part 9

FIRST WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

Azalea Indica.--Encourage free growth, as soon as possible after they have done blooming, by placing them in heat, supplying an abundance of water, and syringing freely.

Calceolarias.--Water carefully; cut down when out of bloom, and remove them to a cold frame.

Heaths and New Holland Plants.--The young stock will now succeed best in a pit, or frame, placing the lights to the north. The gla.s.s to be well washed, and the pots to be placed on tiles, or ashes, above the ground level.

Pelargoniums.--Give air freely, avoid cold draughts, and shade from scorching sun. s.h.i.+ft 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 Aerides, Dendrobiums, Phalaenopses, 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. Aerides, Vandas, and plants of a similar habit, do best when s.h.i.+fted after they have done blooming.

Achimenes.--Continue to s.h.i.+ft 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.--s.h.i.+ft _Melocacti_, &c., and keep them growing, and near the gla.s.s.

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 was.h.i.+ng overhead with the syringe, or engine, das.h.i.+ng 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 b.a.l.l.s 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 ma.s.s of useless wood to remain on them.

SECOND WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

The princ.i.p.al 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 s.h.i.+fts, and keep them in bottom heat, and near the gla.s.s. 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 p.r.i.c.ked out into small pots in a very open soil, and placed in a very gentle bottom heat to strike. When rooted, to be s.h.i.+fted 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 Pa.s.sifloras, _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 ma.s.ses.

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 s.h.i.+ft 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 ma.s.s 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 suns.h.i.+ne 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 princ.i.p.al 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.