The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1878-06-21
VOL. XXII---NO. %.
farluers' Column.
speed the PIOsU.o
Stocking q Greenhouse.

From the recent excellent address of
Captain Snow, before the Horticultural
Society, we make the following extract:
1t is difficult to give instructions about
keeping greenhouse, as the different kinds
of plants require different heat and treat
ment. But cheap house can be built and
filled with snowy and still not costly
plants, that cannot fail to give satisfaction
if properly cared for. Beginners should
never try to grow too many varieties of
plants in the same house. Begin with
those kinds that are easily grown and
cheap.
Ii 1T was my intention to start small
greenhouse the coming fall, would begin
to prepare my plants in the summer. Buy
from any reliable florist, say 200 small
plants, and as soon as it is time to set them
out in the open ground. They will proba-
bly, cost you $25 to $50 for the 200 small
plants, as follows Bouvardias, Geraniums,
Cupheas, Heliotropes. Carnations, few
winter blooming Salvias, Pelargoniums,
Fuchsias, Ageratums you might get few
of the new dwarf Additions, also a few
Azaleas. Prepare bed and plant these
out in the full sun, and keep them growing
through June, July and August. About
the LIST Sept. those little plants that were
bought in tour-inch pots should be large
enough for six-inch pots. You should now
cut them all back, and not give much wa
ter for some days. AS soon as they begin
to make new growth they should be care
fully taken up and potted, placing the
Geraniums and Pelargoniums in the sun,
which will harden the wood and make
them break into growth better. The other
plants should be in partial shade until
they recover the shock that they have re-
ceived in digging them up. All this
should bring you to the 10th or 18th Oct,
by which time the plants ought all to be
under glass. Much heat should not lie
given at first. 1t is great error into
which most amateurs fall, keeping too
much heat in the months of Nov. and Dec.
A house for such plants as have mention
ed, will do best at night temperature of
from 400 to SOC and day 500 to 900, and
just water enough to keep the plants grow
ing little. Excessive heat and water in
the dull and cloudy months of Nov. and
Dec. induces watery growth. Our
florists, who have to meet the demand for
cut flowers at all seasons, mostly have one
or more houses setaside for forcing flowers,
and when one has done blooming it is re-
placed by others.
To 60 back: Late in August seed pans
should be sown with Chinese Primrose.
Sweet Alyssum, Cinerarias
and Pansies; you will have to put your
pans in the coolest place you can find, out
OF the sun but still with plenty of light
AS soon as your plants have two or three
leaves, they should be set out in shallow
boxes until they get large enough to be
potted into four-inch pots and as soon as
these get full of roots, they should be put
into larger pots. In potting, most begin
ners fill the pots tnnfull ofsoiL ..A ai1riree.
quarters of an inch of the top. BY this
means enough water can be put ON to mois-
ten the whole mass Of soil and roots
When too little room is left, the plants
never get thoroughly watered. BY care
ful attention you will soon be able to tell
which plants need water. When plant
wants water give it enough to wet all the
SOIL Some plants absorb moisture much
faster than others, and growing plants far
more than those not growing fast, or DOR
nant.
All plants must have at certain seasons
rest, and as they come from different coun-
tries the resting season is not always the
same. With us plants rest in winter, but
in tropical and semi-tropical countries this
rest is brought about by drought; and
when we speak of cold and warm, the peo-
pie of the tropics say wet and dry. 1t is
no uncommon thing to have drought of
40 or so days, with the thermometer at 800
to 1909. Vegetation is arrested, and the
sap in the trees becomes concentrated and
when the rains come every bud is in state
to burst into growth. There is no subject
that gives beginners more trouble than
that of soil. When 1 began to cultivate
plants, | had work on plants that de-
scribed about 20 different soils for different
Kinds of plants. Now l use only rotten
sods, little sand and leaf mould; if my
plants don't grow las. enough, give them
a little weak manure water, once or twice
a week, and that always starts them. l
care more about the texture of the soil
than its richness.
To the plants named few cheap climb
ers such as TrGpeolum Lobbianum,
Cobe@ scandens could be added, and few
of the hard-leaved ferns would do WE'LL
The plants that have been prepared for
the greenhouse by cutting back, will begin
to bloom in January, when more heat and
water should be given.-American Farmer.