Part 5
Peaches.--Although a dry atmosphere is necessary to give flavour to the ripening fruit, it is not advisable to withhold water altogether from the roots while the trees are making their growth. Water the inside borders in the morning in clear weather, so that any vapour that arises may pass off during the day. The outside borders, if dry, should also be watered as far as the roots extend, and then mulched, to prevent evaporation during hot, dry weather. If the early-forced trees have naked branches, some of the earliest-made wood may be taken from the trees, and buds inserted from it in the barren parts. Buds inserted now may start into growth in July, and be stopped when about six inches long, to get the wood well ripened.
Pines.--A bottom heat from 80 deg. to 85 deg. must be kept up to the plants intended for fruiting in the autumn. It is advisable, where practicable, to allow the stools from which fruit has been cut to remain in the house for some time; to supply them liberally with water, and occasionally with liquid manure; to encourage the growth of the suckers.
Vines.--In the houses where Grapes are ripening, the temperature may be allowed to rise to 90 deg., with sun heat, and to decline to 60 deg. at night. In the succession-houses thin the bunches, and do not be covetous to over-crop the Vines, as it is the cause of many bad effects. Stop laterals, and use the syringe freely in the afternoons.
JUNE.
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 glass 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. Shift 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 shifted after they have done blooming.
Achimenes.--Continue to shift 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.--Shift _Melocacti_, &c., and keep them growing, and near the glass.
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 washing overhead with the syringe, or engine, dashing 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 deg..
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 balls 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 deg. to 85 deg., 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 mass of useless wood to remain on them.
SECOND WEEK.
GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.
The principal 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 shifts, and keep them in bottom heat, and near the glass. 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 pricked out into small pots in a very open soil, and placed in a very gentle bottom heat to strike. When rooted, to be shifted 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 Passifloras, _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 masses.
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 shift 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 mass 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 sunshine 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 deg. to 95 deg.. 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 principal 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.
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.
FOURTH WEEK.
GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.
Many of the finer kinds of hard-wooded plants--such as Boronias, Epacrises, &c.--will now be out of bloom, and will require cutting in rather closely, to form neat bushy plants. Some of the greenhouse plants will most probably require shifting, and should receive that attention now, or, at latest, by the middle of next month. Keep a sharp look out for insects of all kinds, and also for mildew; and give the plants, if the weather is dry, a sprinkling once or twice a-week from the syringe or garden engine.
New Holland Plants.--If any are retained in the house, let them be placed where they can have a sufficiency of light and fresh air, and at the same time in a place where the sun has no power on the pots; but if such cannot be avoided, place the pot containing the plant in another two sizes larger, and fill the intervening space with moss.
Pelargoniums.--When out of bloom, they should be placed in the open ground for a fortnight or three weeks to ripen the wood before they are cut down.
Scarlet Geraniums.--To prepare them for winter blooming it is advisable to place the pots during the summer on a hard bottom out of doors and in the full sun, and to pinch out the flower-stems as they appear. To be carefully attended with water.
STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.
Keep up a kindly humidity by frequent syringings, and keeping the floors, paths, &c., damp. Many of the stove plants--viz., Clerodendrons, Erythrinas, Gardenias, Ixoras, Jasmines, Liliums, Pergularias, Stephanotises, &c.--may be removed to the conservatory, where the flowers will attain a deeper colour and retain it for a longer period than if they had remained in the stove.
Euphorbias.--Propagate _jacquiniaeflora_ and _fulgens_, and grow them on a successional system of culture for furnishing the conservatory and stove throughout the autumn, winter, and spring.
Gesnera zebrina.--Keep up a succession in various stages of growth, and place another batch of tubers in a pan.
FORCING-HOUSES.
Give particular attention to the preservation of the foliage in houses where the fruit has been gathered, keeping the atmosphere cool and moist; and give the trees an occasional washing with the engine, to keep down red spider and the leaves clean and healthy.
Cherries.--When the trees are planted in the house, and the fruit has been gathered, give all the air possible by throwing it entirely open. Give them a good washing occasionally with the garden engine. When the plants are in pots, it is advisable to place them on a hard bottom on the north side of a wall or fence.
Melons.--Bottom heat is necessary for their healthy growth; without it a check would be given that would be sure to produce a most injurious effect on the swelling fruit. Water to be given to the plants overhead occasionally.
Peaches.--Continue to maintain a moist, healthy atmosphere while the fruit is swelling. Give air sufficiently early in the morning, to prevent the sun scorching the foliage. Syringe and shut up early in the afternoon.
Pines.--Continue to provide proper bottom and surface heat, and give attention to airing, watering, syringing, and shifting in due time. By such means a large amount of healthy growth may now be secured for the fruit-swelling and succession plants. The plants swelling their fruit to be also favoured with a high temperature, a moist atmosphere, and plenty of water, and occasionally manure water at the root. If worm-casts appear in any of the pots, water with lime-water in a clear state.
Vines.--As the dry atmosphere necessary for the preservation of the ripe bunches is conducive to the increase of red spider, the sulphur must be immediately applied as advised last week. Discontinue the use of the syringe as soon as the succession crops begin to ripen. Check the growth of laterals by timely pinching. Give the final thinnings to the latest Grapes; and as they are frequently required for winter use, a good thinning should be given, as crowded bunches and berries will not keep late in the season.
JULY.
FIRST WEEK.
GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.
The plants permanently planted out in the borders of the conservatory should have a thorough soaking of weak liquid manure. Give all the air possible at this season, both night and day, and keep the house as neat and clean as possible. If it contains many tender stove plants, shut it up for an hour while the sun is on it in the evening, so as to produce a more genial atmosphere for them.
Achimenes.--Encourage them, as also _Clerodendrons_, &c., to grow and to prolong their beauty in the conservatory by supplying them with liquid manure, taking particular care not to give it too strong, especially at first.
Cinerarias.--Sow seed immediately. Plants for early blooming should also be potted and started at once, choosing the strongest suckers for the purpose, and placing them in a cool, shady frame until they have made fresh growth.
Chrysanthemums.--Propagate some for blooming in small pots.
Heaths.--Pluck off the flowers and seed-pods as soon as they become unsightly, and prune straggling growth. The softwooded kinds--such as the _ventricosa_, &c.--do best in a sheltered situation in the open air, with means to protect them during heavy rains; while the woolly-leaved--such as _Masonii_, &c.--and hardwooded varieties delight in cold pits where the glass can be shaded or used for protection as necessary. Examine the plants which were not shifted in the spring, and, if necessary, pot them without delay; but if they require to be cut in, to make them bushy, it will be best to let them break afresh before they are repotted.
Leschenaultias.--If they have done blooming, and are pot-bound, to be repotted and placed in a shady place to make their growth.
STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.
Give abundance of air to the stove plants at all favourable times, and abundance of moisture by all means. Examine young specimens that were potted early in the season, and shift at once such as require more pot room.
Ixoras.--Encourage the young plants by giving them plenty of air both night and day, to make short, sturdy growth; and discontinue stopping them for the season.
FORCING-HOUSES.
Cherries.--When the fruit has been gathered from the trees grown in tubs, or pots, it is advisable to place them in some open, airy quarter, to make their wood for next season's bearing.
Figs.--Give liberal supplies of water to the trees now throwing up their second crop. A top dressing of old cowdung would now be useful. Pinch out the top buds, if the shoots are growing very long. It should be a practice to manage the trees during the summer that nothing more than a slight thinning out should be wanted at the winter pruning.
Melons.--Give attention to the crops now growing, in thinning out the shoots, stopping, &c.
Peaches and Nectarines.--When all the fruit is gathered, and the wood seems well ripened, it will be best to take the lights quite off, and place them under cover until wanted again. Plenty of air to be given to the trees that are swelling off their fruit. Also, stop in succession many of the strong shoots about the period the last swelling commences. Use the syringe freely over the leaves early in the morning and again in the evening.
Pines.--Give abundance of air to the fruiting and succession plants, and during dry, hot weather, saturate the paths and every open space with moisture, to prevent the leaves of the plants becoming brown. If such a practice be regularly adopted during hot, bright sunny weather, shading will seldom or never be necessary. Be at the same time particular in maintaining a mild, genial bottom heat.
Vines.--The houses containing ripe fruit will require to be kept dry and well ventilated; those swelling will still require attention to keep a regular steady temperature with regular supplies of air. _Muscats_ very frequently require fires during the night and on wet, cold days.
SECOND WEEK.
GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.
Achimenes.--They delight in a steady, moist heat; to be shaded in the middle of hot days, to prevent the sun from scorching the foliage; and never to be watered overhead.
Cacti.--Remove them to a dry, airy place as soon as they have finished their growth.
Cockscombs.--They can be grown with strong, short stems, and very large heads, if they are allowed to remain in small pots until the flowers are formed, then potted in large pots in a compost of one-half rich loam, one-fourth leaf mould, and one-fourth sand, and supplied with as much liquid manure and moist heat as possible.
Fuchsias.--As the plants progress in growth give them plenty of air and moisture, occasionally moistening the paths, walls, and stages with clear manure water, and syringe the plants both morning and evening overhead.
Globe Amaranthus.--To be potted into 48-sized pots, in which they will flower in a soil composed of peat, loam, and leaf mould, or rotten dung. They should be allowed to stand near the glass, and be subjected to a moist heat of not less than 75 deg..