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 refreshing 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 pulchellum, 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 shifted 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 principal 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, coarse canvass 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.

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