# The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory/Chapter 23

CHAPTER XXIII.
REMINDERS OF MONTHLY WORK.
January.—Shrubs to be forced should be taken to the greenhouse or to a warm pit first to prepare them, and the first thing needful is to thoroughly soak their roots, which are often very dry; see also that they are not heavily laden with flower buds, and that they are in proper trim as to training, &c., both to look well when in flower and to carry their blossoms safely. Hard-wooded plants must have fire-heat during frosty weather, but it must not rise above 40° at night, and 50° by day. Soft-wooded plants may be kept growing freely, but not at a high temperature, which is exhaustive of plants, and productive of red spider. Hang strips of worsted netting over the ventilators, to break the force of cold winds. Revise sticks and labels and wires used for training, &c., and complete various odd jobs to leave all clear for the hurry of spring work. Keep succulents quite dry. The principal flowers new are salvias, jasminum nudiflorum, fuchsias, cinerarias, primulas, genistas, deutzias, crocuses, and hyacinths. To succeed these there should be in the forcing pit or stove kalmias, azaleas, camellias, rhododendrons, lilacs, weigelias, daphnes, roses, double-flowering plums and peaches, and Andromeda floribunda. Therm. 45° average, varying from 35° by night to 55° by day.
February.—Fire-heat may be used more liberally now, as there is more light, and many early subjects are advancing into bloom. Put cinerarias, primulas, and other soft-wooded, early blooming plants, as near the glass as possible, and where they can be freely ventilated on fine days. Give plenty of water to everything that is growing freely. Hard-wooded plants that have been kept dry all winter will probably need to be plunged to the rim of the pot in a vessel of tepid water, ​to soften the ball of earth, and allow water to pass through freely. When this is not done in spring, it often happens that, having once got dry, the water never afterwards wets the roots properly, but runs away down the sides of the pots, and after languishing some time, the plants die altogether. Get all store plants from cutting pans and boxes potted off. Start old plants of bedders to get cuttings, and put in cuttings as soon as they can be taken, to have the bedders forward in time to plant out strong. With the rise of the thermometer there will be an increase of green fly, and plants with soft leaves will be attacked first. Look to the under sides of the leaves of the cinerarias, calceolarias, pelargoniums, &c., and, if any fly, put the plants together in a box and fumigate, or fill the house with smoke, and syringe next day. All hard-wooded plants coming into leaf to be freely syringed. Temp. 45° at night, 55° to 60° by day. Bottom-heat for cuttings, 60° to 70°.
March.—Plants in bloom will require careful management on account of the drying and trying east winds and bright sunshine which occasionally occur at this time. Shading will be of great service in these cases, and if the walks and beds are frequently sprinkled there will be a genial moist atmosphere in the house when the air outside is filled with “March dust.” This is a busy time with plant growers, and there must be no delay in shifting on all subjects that require increased root-room, for vegetation is now becoming active, and if plants make new roots in old exhausted soil it impairs their vigour and deteriorates their beauty. Pot Cape bulbs, liliums, gladioli; shift ericas; start fuchsias, and take cuttings. Camellias done flowering to be started into growth in a moist atmosphere and genial temperature. Give plenty of water, alternating with liquid manure, to pelargoniums, calceolarias, cinerarias, and other subjects advancing into bloom. Temp. 50° night, 60° to 65° day.
April.—General collections should only have a moderate heat, and a strong healthy growth should be promoted by giving plenty of air, with a view to putting out the fires for the season. Many specimen plants will want liberal shifts, and all subjects not immediately required in flower should be regularly and frequently stopped, to induce bushy growth and form ​good heads. Water and liquid manure must be more freely given, and vigilant efforts must be made to keep down green fly and thrips. Many of the less tender things may be removed to cold pits, to increase the room for other things that want continued protection to make fine plants. Young stuff from the propagating-house should be potted as fast as rooted, and kept close till started afresh, and then be gradually inured to air and light, so as to be strong by the middle of May. All tropical plants required for summer blooming in the house should be got on without delay, and a quick growth promoted, so as to allow them as long a season as possible for blooming, and ripening their buds for next season. Average temperature this month, 55° by night, 60° to 65° by day. Where desirable, the house may be shut up with sun-heat, to render fire unnecessary.
May.—Hard-wooded plants will want plenty of air, and specimen plants in flower must have shade. Allow nothing to form seed, unless seed be specially desired. Cut back all kinds of shrubs that are out of shape, and keep them rather close afterwards, to get good breaks, so as to bring them into decent shape, and get the wood well ripened for next year’s bloom. Where plants are crowded, many may be removed to frames, so as to allow of a freer circulation of air. Shift, stop, and tie out all the soft-wooded plants that are advancing in growth; but if required to bloom shortly they must not be disturbed, merely kept in shape, and have plenty of water and free ventilation. Continue to strike bedding stock for late blooming. Fuchsias, geraniums, verbenas, and petunias make beautiful specimens for pot blooming in the autumn, if struck now and kept regularly stopped till July. They should not have a high temperature, fuchsias especially, which like shade and moisture. Camellias and azaleas that have made their young shoots should have a little more ventilation to prepare them to go in the open air next month to ripen their wood. Pelargoniums out of bloom to be cut in and allowed to break before repotting them, and the syringe and fumigator kept in use, as may be necessary, to destroy red spider and green fly. Fire-heat should be dispensed with as much as possible, preparatory to clearing and cleaning out the house.
June.—To prolong the beauty of plants in flower, put up a ​shading of tiffany or hexagon net; the latter will also be useful to exclude bees and wasps, for flowers on which bees have settled perish sooner than those they have no access to, owing to their disturbing the pollen, and causing a formation of seed-pods. A method of prolonging the bloom of flowers, and, in the opinion of some, increasing their beauty, is to get some dissolved gum arable and a camel’s hair brush. The brush is dipped in, and the centre of every flower touched with gum, where it forms a bright bead, and prevents the distribution of the pollen. Of course the flowers should be touched soon after they open, or Nature may have accomplished her end before the preventive is brought into operation. Pelargoniums done blooming should be cut in and allowed to break before repotting. They should be kept rather dry, so as to break slowly, and when potted into small pots put in a cold frame, and kept close till they begin to make fresh root, when they must have plenty of light and air. Cinerarias done blooming may be propagated by side shoots and suckers; if the plants are turned out on a border, and heaped round the collar with sandy loam, they will throw out suckers, which may afterwards be slipped off with a portion of root attached. The time is now arriving for clearing out the house, and giving it any necessary cleaning and repairs; and cold frames should be provided in good time to receive those plants that are not to be turned out of their pots for the summer.
July.—Shift all greenhouse plants required for late blooming, and grow them on to a good size before allowing them to blossom. Cinerarias for winter blooming must have good culture and shifts as required, and camllias may be shifted if necessary, but if well potted in the first instance they will flourish in the same pots for three seasons in succession, and to overpot them is to do them injury, from which they may never recover. Ericas generally require to be pruned and cleared of seed-pods and dead flowers. Put out all the ventricosas in the open air in a north aspect, and shelter with spare lights during heavy rain. All those with woolly leaves to be put in cold pits, and kept shaded at midday. Any not shifted in the spring cut in at once, and as soon as they break repot them. Repot leschenaultias. Every kind of hard-wooded plants may be repotted now if out of bloom.
August.—Pelargoniums that have been pruned back and rested should be repotted as soon as they have broken regularly. Put them into the smallest pots into which their roots can be got, so as to allow of a series of shifts till they are once more in their blooming-pots. Young plants and greenhouse shrubs should be well hardened now before going to their quarters for the winter. Let camellias and azaleas have plenty of sun and little water. Summer-struck geraniums, achimenes, and fuchsias, may be got into bloom now, to keep up a display till Christmas. Shift all forward stock required to bloom early. Cinerarias should now be strong and must have no check; see that they are kept clear of fly, for they are very subject to it. A cold pit is the best place for them. Sow now, for decorating the house in early spring, Clarkia pulchella, Nemophila insignis, Ergsimum Peroffskianum, Œnothera roses, Collinsia bicolor, Veronica syriaca, and Chinese primroses. Whatever needs potting pot at once. Late shifts result in death during winter. All plants winter best when their pots are full of roots.
September.—It is most important to have the growth of all hard-wooded plants well ripened when there is plenty of sun-heat. If any subjects requiring to be repotted have been neglected, there must be no time lost to give them a shift to enable them to make new roots before winter sets in. A border under a south wall is a good place for plants that require to be well roasted before being housed. Bedding plants should be got into small pots as fast as they make good roots in the borders, or can be spared from the decorative grounds, if worth keeping. Keep the houses gay with balsams, cockscombs, fuchsias, liliums, gladioli, coleus, amaranthus bicolor, heliotropes, and plants with fine foliage. Wherever wormcasts are seen in pots, turn out the balls, and the worms can then be picked out with a stick. Sometimes a dose of manure-water will cause the worms to struggle up to the surface. Plants in conservatory borders which are now past their best to be taken up, and, if worth keeping pot them, and place on bottom-heat for eight or ten days, as they will winter better if the pots are full of roots. Winter-flowering begonias to have a good shift in a compost of turfy loam and leaf-mould. Pot off a lot of bulbs at once for early bloom, and plunge them in coal ashes, and give very little water. Keep all houses open as much as will ​be safe; house tender subjects that are likely to suffer from wind and rain. Pot a few bulbs for early bloom. Ornithogalum, lachenalia, ixia, and sparaxis force well, and narcissus bulbocodium will be useful if kept in ordinary greenhouse temperature for early bloom.
October.—House at once whatever is to be wintered under glass. Remove the shading, give plenty of air, and whenever green fly or thrips appear, resort to effectual methods at once, and much future annoyance will be saved. Plants that are to bloom during the winter should have the best place as to warmth. Give plenty of air, day and night, and remove the shading, so as to let in all the sunshine that can be had. Avoid making up fires; but when it becomes necessary to do so, make a brisk fire, so as to dry the house and promote a current of air; otherwise, push nothing into growth more than may be needful to ensure vigorous health and plenty of stamina. Chrysanthemums will now keep the house gay for a while, and, as they go off, fuchsias and geraniums, from summer cuttings, may be got into bloom by giving the plants good places and shelter from draughts. If mildew appears, use flower of sulphur; for green fly, tobacco smoke. If aphides get possession of the tender crowns of cinerarias and fairy roses, and smoke fails to dislodge them, turn the plants upside-down into weak tobacco-water, and then lay them on their sides, and syringe them well with soft tepid water.
November.—There is great danger of overcrowding the plants newly housed, owing to the numbers that are propagated during summer. It would be better even to destroy surplus stock than to spoil a whole collection by cramming too many plants into a limited space. Give plenty of air, but guard against sudden night frosts. Withhold water as much as possible, to induce a state of rest in the plants, but allow nothing to get dust-dry, for that is an injury to the tender roots, on which the plant has to depend in a great measure to sustain itself. The first frost is generally severe; if by accident any plants get caught by it, keep them shaded, and occasionally sprinkled with cold water, but remove the shade as soon as they show signs of recovery. Fuchsias, late-struck geraniums, salvias, camellias, begonias, and chrysanthemums will now contribute greatly to the gaiety of the conservatory.
December.—Chrysanthemums will keep the house gay till after Christmas, when the first lot of forced shrubs, especially azaleas, will come in to take their place. In the conservatory, whatever flowers are at command may be made the most of by judiciously intermixing with them good plants of yucca, acacia lophantha, camellias, and others possessing characteristic foliage. Hard-wooded plants in the greenhouse must have as much air as the weather will allow, and as little water as possible, as we may soon expect severe frosts. The thermometer should not descend below 38°. Soft-wooded plants will be subject to mildew if the house is at all damp, and must have fire-heat during foggy as well as during frosty weather. Shift any specimen plants that are in need of increased root-room. Ericas must have air at every opportunity, and if forced with other flowering shrubs, must have the coolest place in the forcing-pit, and be very gently stimulated. Greenhouse temperature, 40° to 45°.
PROPAGATING CASE FOR LAMP OR CANDLE.