In-Door Gardening for Every Week in the Year Part 12

Peaches.--The fruit will be all the more delicious for a comparatively cool temperature while ripening. Examine the fruit daily, and gather before it is overripe and loses its flavour.

Pines.--Maintain a good bottom heat, and encourage the growth of the advancing crop by kindly humidity and allowing them plenty of air and sufficient s.p.a.ce from plant to plant. Give air, also, freely to the young stock in dungpits, to secure strong stocky growth; but a circulation should not be allowed by giving back and front air at the same time during hot drying winds. Attend to former directions to afford the plants swelling their fruit a moist atmosphere by frequent syringings and by sprinkling the paths and every other available surface until the fruit begins to change colour, when the atmosphere and soil should be kept rather dry, to improve the fruit's flavour. See to the stools from which fruit have been cut.

Earth them up, so as to cause suckers to strike root. Give them a brisk bottom heat, and proper supplies of water. You will thus gain time and a.s.sistance for the suckers from the declining strength of the parent plant as long as possible. It is now a good time to start a lot into fruit, as they will have two or three most favourable months for swelling, and will come in at a season when they are in very general request. Keep the bark-bed moderately moist, as in that state it will retain its heat much longer than if it is allowed to get dry.

Vines.--Keep up a brisk heat to the late Grapes during the day, as it is advisable to get them well ripened before the season gets too far advanced. By such means they will be of better quality and keep longer than if the ripening process be delayed to a later period. Do not allow plants in pots to remain in the house to cause damp, which, despite every care in ventilating, is apt to settle on the berries and spoil them. The outside borders of the late houses should be watered and mulched, if the weather continue dry.

FOURTH WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

The conservatory should now be gay with Balsams, c.o.c.ks...o...b.., Fuchsias, Globe Amaranths, Heliotropes, and the varieties of j.a.pan Lilies. Strict attention must be paid to all plants in these structures that they do not suffer from the want of water. Continue to stop over-luxuriant growth, to obtain compact, st.u.r.dy specimens.

On the evenings of hot, dry days, after the plants have been watered, give them a slight syringing, or sprinkling, over the leaves, and also the ground upon which they are standing.

Aotus gracillimus.--When done blooming, to be cut down close to the pot.

Aphelexis and Helichrysums.--When past their best state, cut the flower-stems close into the old wood; to be set in a cool shady place until they begin to grow, when any that require it may be repotted.

Chrysanthemums.--Propagate by cuttings, or layers, to obtain dwarf stocky plants. Continue to top the plants that have been planted out in rows in the open ground, as advised some time ago.

Cinerarias.--Pot off the first batch of seedlings and offsets. Sow seed.

Fuchsias.--s.h.i.+ft in the last batch, and put in cuttings.

Leschenaultias.--When they are going out of bloom, or past their best, remove the flowers and flower-buds, and put them in a cool place to start again.

Kalosanthes.--When done blooming, the flower-stems and all straggling growth to be cut in closely, to form compact specimens for another season.

Pelargoniums.--Cut back the princ.i.p.al stock, and treat them as advised lately.

Pimelea spectabilis.--When that and the other kinds have done blooming, to be freely cut in, and to be set in a cool shady place to break.

Polygalas to be treated in the same manner as the _Pimeleas_.

STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.

Look out for insects in the stove, and destroy them as soon as visible. The _Gishurst Compound_ is worthy of a trial. Follow former instructions as to moisture and air.

Ixoras.--When done blooming to be cut in rather closely, to be started in a gentle heat to make fresh growth. The Orchids suspended on baskets, or on blocks of wood, require a soaking of water at the roots, and frequent, but slight, syringings overhead. A little fire-heat applied in the afternoon will be of service to them.

FORCING-HOUSES.

Figs.--If the second crop on the earliest trees is advancing towards maturity, as soon as the fruit begins to ripen the atmosphere should be kept dry and rather cool, giving air freely every fine day. Keep the foliage clean and healthy, and clear from insects, and do not allow the young shoots to get crowded.

Melons.--Keep up a good bottom heat when the fruit is setting. Keep the plants on which the fruit is ripening rather dry at the root, with an abundance of air in fine weather.

Pines.--Air to be admitted freely during hot weather to fruiting and succession plants. Particular care will be necessary in the application of water that they may not suffer for want of it, or by saturation. The walls, paths, and surface of the bed to be kept constantly moist, and frequent syringings to be given to the young stock. Continue all other routine operations according to former directions.

Strawberries.--Some lay the runners at once into pots of strong, rich loam, cutting them away from the parent plants when they have made roots enough for their own support. Some prefer to lay them in small pots, to be s.h.i.+fted into larger by-and-by, and others prefer to lay them in their fruiting-pots. The princ.i.p.al object should be, to attain plants of a moderate growth, well matured and rested before forcing time.

Vines.--The early houses, when they have been cleared of their fruit, and the wood is properly ripened may have the sashes removed and repaired, if required; indeed, every house is purified by free exposure to the atmosphere for some time. The late crops to be encouraged to swell by giving the borders good soakings of manure water, and by being carefully thinned, more especially if they are wanted to keep late. A little fire-heat will be necessary in unfavourable weather, with an abundance of air day and night.

AUGUST.

FIRST WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

The conservatory borders will now require liberal supplies of water.

Faded blossoms to be constantly removed; straggling growth and exhausted stock to be cut previous to making a new growth. As the autumn is fast approaching, the sooner the new growths are encouraged the better, that they may have sufficient time to mature them. All greenhouse plants will now be benefited by exposure to the natural atmosphere: the dews are more refres.h.i.+ng and invigorating than artificial moisture or the application of the syringe.

Finish _potting_ all specimen plants; for if left until later in the season they will not have sufficient time to fill their pots with roots, and, therefore, will be liable to suffer from stagnation of water at the roots. No position can be worse for a plant than that of surrounding it with fresh soil for months when the roots should be in a comparatively dormant state.

Pelargoniums.--Continue to head them down, and to propagate the cuttings, which will now strike freely in a sunny situation in the open ground.

STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.

Much moisture and free ventilation will be necessary here during warm weather. The young plants of Euphorbias, Ixoras, Poinsettias, and other such stove plants, to be rendered bushy by stopping them betimes. The _aeschynanthus grandiflorus_, _Aphelandra cristata_, _Eranthemum pulch.e.l.lum_, Justicias, and any others that are intended for the decoration of the conservatory in the autumn and early part of winter, should be carefully looked over, and s.h.i.+fted without delay if they want more pot-room; the shoots to be tied out thinly, and to be exposed to as much sun as they will bear without scorching the foliage, to induce stocky growth. Nothing is more injurious to stove plants than to keep them growing late in the season, and thus to prevent the ripening of the wood, which will render them more liable to injuries in winter and more unproductive of flowers the following season.

FORCING-HOUSES.

Melons.--The plants on which the fruit is ripening to be kept rather dry at the roots, with free exposure to the air in favourable weather. A steady bottom heat to be kept up to the late crops.

Peaches.--If the lights have not been taken off the early-forced houses, it would be advisable to remove them as soon as possible, that the air, rain, and dews may have free access to act both beneficially on the trees and to keep down red spider. In those houses which have been treated as advised in former Calendars, the princ.i.p.al object now should be to get the wood properly ripened. The late houses to be treated in a similar manner when the fruit is gathered. Where the trees in peach-houses have been recently planted, and are not yet in a bearing state, the shoots will require to be trained carefully, and insects to be kept down.

Pines.--The plants growing in beds of soil to be carefully attended to with water, giving at each application sufficient to penetrate the whole body of soil, as it frequently happens that the surface is moist while the bottom is quite dry. Pot a portion of the strongest successions for early forcing next season.

Strawberries.--Continue to lay the runners of the kinds you wish to force in pots until you have a sufficient number.

Vines.--Muscats, now beginning to ripen, will generally require a little fire heat to push them on; when ripened in good time they are better flavoured and keep longer than when the ripening process is delayed to a late period of the season. Continue to remove the stray laterals that begin to shade the larger leaves; to be done a little at a time, as disbudding on an extensive scale is prejudicial to fruit trees. The young Vines in pots to have every attention, to secure as much growth and healthy vigour as possible while the growing season lasts. Allow all young planted Vines to ramble freely without stopping them so closely, as is frequently practised. Before wasps and flies do much mischief to ripe Grapes, coa.r.s.e canva.s.s should be fixed over the top lights and front lights that are opened for the admission of air. Remove decayed berries as soon as observed, and keep the house containing ripe fruit dry and free from dust.

SECOND WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

Bulbs.--The selections for winter and spring flowering to be made as soon as possible, choosing the most suitable varieties for each season; to be potted at two or three intervals for succession. To be potted in light fibrous turfy loam of a sandy quality, and placed in a dry situation; to be covered with three or four inches of old tan or coal ashes.

Camellias.--The large, old specimens that have set their flower-buds to be carefully supplied with water; for if they are allowed to get too dry at the roots they are apt to drop their buds.

Young vigorous plants, on the contrary, will require to be watered rather sparingly, to prevent them making a second growth.