In-Door Gardening for Every Week in the Year Part 8

Cherries.--Give more air, and keep a drier atmosphere when the fruit is ripening. Give plenty of water to the trees swelling their fruit. Keep them free from insects, or the fruit will be of little value.

Figs.--Air freely, to give flavour to the fruit now ripening. Avoid wetting the fruit when it begins to soften.

Melons.--Keep up the heat of the beds by renewing or turning the linings. Slightly shade the plants when the sun is powerful, to keep the foliage in a healthy state, without which good fruit cannot be produced. When the frames are at liberty, Melons may be grown in them with a little a.s.sistance from dung heat at bottom.

Peaches.--Give a liberal supply of air, with less water, to trees, the fruit of which are ripening.

Pines.--Continue the previous instructions in the management of the plants in the different stages of growth.

Vines.--Thin and stop the shoots, and thin the berries in good time. Attend to the late crops, and set, by hand, the blossoms of _Muscats_, _West's St. Peter's_, and other shy setters. Be sure that inside borders are properly supplied with water, giving sufficient quant.i.ties to thoroughly moisten the whole ma.s.s of soil.

THIRD WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

Attend carefully to the stock of plants for summer and autumn decoration, and do not allow them to suffer for want of pot room and water.

Azaleas.--Continue to encourage all that have flowered by timely potting, syringings, and applications of weak liquid manure.

Camellias.--Introduce a gradual declension of artificial heat amongst all that have completed their growth. A curtailment in the supply of water, giving merely sufficient to keep them from flagging, will induce the production of blossom-buds.

Epacris.--Repot with a pretty large shift the early-flowering sorts that have freely commenced their growth. Use good fibrous heath soil, rejecting any of a spongy or greasy nature. Such plants, for some time after being newly shifted, require particular attention in watering, that the soil may not become soddened. Let the plants be placed in a cold pit, and be slightly shaded during bright sunshine.

The stopping or pinching out the points of strong shoots must be regularly attended to during their growing season, to establish a uniformity of st.u.r.dy growth.

Heaths and New Holland Plants.--All that have flowered, and have made their season's growth, may be removed to cold pits, or frames, to allow those that remain, and are promising to flower, more air, sun and light.

STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.

Keep up a liberal supply of humidity, with ventilation, at favourable opportunities. The plants here should now be growing very freely, and should, therefore, receive frequent attention as to stopping, training, &c. Keep them properly accommodated with pot room, and allow them all the sunshine they will bear without scorching; also, allow them sufficient s.p.a.ce for the development of their foliage. Plenty of moisture is now requisite to encourage a free growth in Orchids, to get their pseudo-bulbs firm, well nourished, and ripened in good time. Free ventilation in favourable weather and a slight shading in bright sunshine are also requisites for their healthy growth.

FORCING-HOUSES.

Cherries.--When the fruit is ripening, air to be given freely, even to the drawing the lights off completely in favourable weather.

Fires may be discontinued altogether, unless the nights are very cold.

Figs.--Give them plenty of water in all their stages of growth; discontinue the use of the syringe during the ripening process. They frequently require attention in stopping all long young shoots.

Melons.--If there is a sufficient depth of soil for the plants, they will not require any large supplies of water after the fruit is swelling off; but it will be necessary to sprinkle the plants overhead, and to shut up early every fine afternoon with a good heat. Lay the fruit on a tile or piece of slate.

Peaches.--When the fruit is swelling off, or beginning to ripen, admit air freely in favourable weather, even to the drawing off the lights entirely, so as to admit a free circulation and the direct influence of the sun, by which flavour and colour are best attained.

Continue to stop all very-luxuriant shoots, and thin out the young wood. Some persons lay in plenty of young wood to select from in winter pruning; but fruit-bearing wood, regularly disposed all over the tree, is best attained by the judicious and successive thinning of useless shoots during their growing season. Continue to tie in the shoots of the late houses.

Pineries.--When the repotting of the plants has recently taken place it will be necessary to shade for several hours, during bright sunshine, for a few days; but for the general stock shading should be dispensed with as much as possible--as short, stiff leaves and st.u.r.dy growth are best attained by judicious airings and humidity.

Do not water much at the root immediately after repotting. Maintain a brisk bottom heat to the succession plants. Admit plenty of air during favourable weather.

Vineries.--As the fruit in the early houses become coloured, it is advisable to remove all superfluous or rambling shoots; but to retain and to preserve with the greatest care the princ.i.p.al leaves--as the good quality of the fruit and the healthy condition of the tree for the ensuing season will depend upon the number and healthy state of the princ.i.p.al leaves.

FOURTH WEEK.

GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.

As most plants here are now in active growth, they will require a liberal supply of water. If the sun shines very brightly, a slight shading would be of benefit for a few hours on very hot days.

Azaleas, Chinese.--When done blooming, they succeed best in a close pit, kept moderately moist and slightly shaded in the middle of the day. If they are too large for a pit, they will do well in a vinery, or in any other large house where they can stand at a distance from the gla.s.s without shading.

Balsams and c.o.c.ks...o...b...--Promote their growth by shifting them into larger pots, in rich soil, with an abundance of light near the gla.s.s, and heat.

Camellias to be treated as advised for _Azaleas_.

Geraniums.--If any remain after the flower-garden ma.s.ses are furnished, they should be potted and treated with every attention as to watering, &c. When they have made fresh roots, and begin to grow freely, to be stopped, to make bushy plants. _Calceolarias_, _Fuchsias_, _Petunias_, _Verbenas_, &c., treated in a similar manner, will be useful as a reserve to succeed the greenhouse plants that are now in bloom, and to fill up vacancies as they occur in the beds and borders.

Heaths and New Holland Plants.--Many being now in full growth will require an abundance of water, more especially in bright weather.

Many fine specimens are frequently lost through imperfect watering; for if the ball is once allowed to get thoroughly dry, all endeavours to restore the plant to health and vigour are generally unsuccessful.

STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.

Ornamental stove plants--such as Brugmansias, Centradenias, Clerodendrons, Eranthemums, Euphorbias, Geissomerias, Gesneras, Justicias, Poinsettias, &c., to be supplied with clear liquid manure, and to have their rambling shoots stopped. Many of the free-growing plants will require shifting occasionally. The great object should be to get rapid growth when light abounds, and thus to secure luxuriant foliage at the right season, when there will be more time for the wood to be properly matured for winter. The syringings to be given early in the afternoon, that the plants may get dry before night.

Achimenes.--When grown in large seed-pans they produce a fine effect.

FORCING-HOUSE.

Cherries.--Give more air, and keep a drier atmosphere when the fruit is ripening. Give plenty of water to the trees now swelling their fruit. Syringe frequently, and keep the foliage and fruit free from insects.

Chrysanthemums.--Pot off as soon as rooted. If not already struck, the cuttings should be put in at once.

Cuc.u.mbers.--Stop them, and water freely. All that are intended for ridges, if hardened off, should now be planted out. See that the ball of earth is well soaked with water before planting.

Figs.--Give them plenty of air during the day in fine weather, with abundance of water. Use the syringe freely, except when fruit is ripening.

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 pa.s.s 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 to 85 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, with sun heat, and to decline to 60 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.