In-Door Gardening for Every Week in the Year Part 7

FORCING-HOUSES.

Cherries.--Thin out the fruit where in large cl.u.s.ters; admit plenty of air at favourable opportunities, and never allow the trees in tubs, or pots, to become dry.

Figs.--The same as last week.

Peaches and Nectarines.--Keep the leading shoots regularly tied in, and pinch out the points of some of the stronger ones.

Pine Apples.--It is advisable to keep all that are starting, or have already started, into fruit, at one end of the house, or pit, that more air may be admitted to them than to the others more advanced, to produce a more robust growth, and to avoid the necessity of using stakes to support the fruit. Air to be admitted freely to the succession plants at every favourable opportunity.

Strawberries (in pots).--Where fruit are colouring, keep a rather dry atmosphere, with a liberal supply of air, in order to secure flavour. When the plants are in bloom, keep them near the gla.s.s, and the atmosphere dry, with a good supply of fresh air; but avoid currents of frosty air. Introduce succession plants under gla.s.s according to the demand. Do not expose those from which fruit has been picked to the open air till well hardened off. Give them the protection of a cold pit for a time, as they are invaluable in open-air plantations.

Vines.--Where the fruit is on the change to colouring admit air on every favourable opportunity, not forgetting to give it in the morning before the sun s.h.i.+nes on the house, to prevent the condensed vapour, which would affect them injuriously, from settling on the bunches. Attend to stopping the laterals, thinning the young shoots, tying in leaders, &c., in the later houses. Remove the top dressing from the outside border, to allow the increasing power of the sun to act beneficially upon it.

MAY.

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 s.h.i.+fted, stopped, and shaded; particular attention being paid that they do not get dry at the root.

Pelargoniums.--Shade such as are in flower; and s.h.i.+ft 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 to 70 by day and 50 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 or 90; 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 or 68, to suit the other varieties.

SECOND WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

A free ventilation is of importance, and by closing with a humid atmosphere early in the evening a vigorous growth will be promoted.

Liberal s.h.i.+fts to be given to such plants as may now require them, before their roots become matted. Remove all plants intended for bedding out, and let them remain for a short time under the protection of a cold frame, or in beds hooped over, and covered at night with mats, or other such protecting materials. This gradually-hardening-off will better enable them to withstand unfavourable weather, if it should occur after they are planted out.

Azaleas.--All irregularities of growth should be corrected by pruning. We have lately seen the beneficial effects of close pruning on such plants; they had been cut in severely last season by removing strong, straggling branches of old wood, to give some a spherical and others a pyramidal form. When pruned, the ball was reduced, the plant fresh potted in a smaller-sized pot, and the peat soil rammed as hard as it was possible to make it; then watered, and introduced to heat. The plants treated in that manner are now covered with bloom, and in a high state of vigour.

Heaths.--Keep the tops pinched off, to form bushy plants.

New Holland Plants.--Some of them of weak growth, and which naturally make long, straggling shoots, are much improved by bending down the branches, and fixing them to a wire hoop, or string attached to the rim of the pot. By such means the nakedness of the plant at its base is hidden, and the check imposed on the ascent of the sap will induce an increased supply of shoots. Pick off the seed-pods as the plants go out of bloom. Cut back and arrange the shoots in the best manner, to produce compact growth.

Pelargoniums.--All that are showing bloom, unless of very gross habit, will receive benefit from a supply of a little weak manure water. For that purpose put cow, horse, or sheepdung into a tub, and to one peck add five gallons of rain or other soft water. When taking it for use draw it off clear, and give the plants a watering twice a week. Give air freely, shut up early, and syringe the plants overhead till the flowers expand, when syringing should be discontinued. As the petals are apt to drop very soon in hot weather, it is recommended to touch the centre of the flower with a camel-hair pencil, or small feather, dipped in gum water, which will stick the petals together and prolong the blooming. Such is the general practice at our metropolitan exhibitions.

STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.

As the stove plants grow, allow them more s.p.a.ce, especially such plants as are prized for the beauty of their foliage. Give frequent attention to stopping and training. Look to the climbers frequently, to regulate their growth and to prevent entanglement, and a world of trouble and confusion. Put in cuttings of such plants as Brugmansias, Clerodendrons, Eranthemums, Erythrinas, Poinsettias, and those winter-flowering plants _Euphorbia jaquiniflora_ and the _Gesnera bulbosa_. Where there is only one house in which to grow Orchids, a compromise as to temperature must be made to suit the natives of the hot and moist valleys or shady woods of the East, and those which inhabit high and airy regions in the Western hemisphere.

To accomplish this it is advisable to allow a free circulation of air during the early part of the day, with an abundance of atmospheric moisture, and to shut up early in the afternoon with a high degree of temperature.

Achimenes.--They delight in a moist heat, and a partially-shaded situation. More air to be given as they advance in growth. The shoots to be staked out neatly.

Gesneras to be treated similarly, with the addition of more light.

Gloxinias.--The same as _Achimenes_.

FORCING-HOUSES.