Shirley Hibberd

“ A lover of roses will derive one peculiar pleasure from growing them under glass, and that is, he will see them in a remarkably fresh and brilliant condition in the months of April and May, when there are no roses out of doors, and his sheltered pets will be as attractive for the delicate colour and texture of their leaves as for the splendour of their early and most welcome flowers. To do roses well under glass requires a little care, but there is nothing occult in the business, and the amateur who means it, and knows a little of the rose to begin with, will be sure to succeed. ”

“ A furnace under cover will afford more heat for your consumption of fuel than one exposed to the wintry blast, and the gardener will not so much dread the task of stoking on a bitter winter night as he will be likely to do in the case where the glare of the fire and the blinding snow assail his eyes at the same time, and his fingers are frozen at the very moment that his face is flushed with looking into the disposition of the burning fuel.
In the construction of a plant house the first matter of importance is to determine the purpose to which it is to be applied. ”

“ Now, the apparent difficulty may be disposed of by remembering that abundance of light and a constantly moving atmosphere are the two chief requisites to be provided for in the construction of a plant-house, no matter whether we call it a stove, a greenhouse, or a conservatory. Darkness, stagnant air, and keen draughts, are the principal enemies of plants that are shut up in houses, and it is compatible with the highest elegance of design, and the most artistic finish of detail, to ensure the best possible protection for them against these destructive agencies. ”

“ The chrysanthemum is usually regarded as a hardy border flower which may be left to itself to grow as a weed, or at least to have no more aid than an ugly stake to which it is roughly tied to save it from being blown into rags by the gales of autumn. But when carefully cultivated for the decoration of the conservatory it is one of the finest plants in the English garden, and may be employed in a variety of ways at a time when flowers are exceedingly scarce. ”

“ It is to be observed at the outset that the cultivation of plants in pots is the chief business before us now, and that is, in many respects, a different matter to the culture of the same plants in the open ground. A plant in a pot is like a bird in a cage, wholly dependent on the hand that feeds it and therefore in need of constant watching. ”

“ It is not advisable to shade fuchsias much, though they will not stand much sunshine. It is also not well to play the syringe on them when they are in flower, for the splashing about of the water disfigures the leaves. ”

“ Propagating by seeds and cuttings will be part of the regular routine work, and the amateur who loves plant growing will be ambitious of distinction in this part of the business. It must be confessed, however, that to take a young plant from the hands of a nurseryman, and by careful management develope its full capabilities so that in due time—it may be but a few months or it may be many years—that plant shall have become a noble specimen, is a task far more worthy of an amateur’s ambition. ”

“ The capabilities of our climate are truly wonderful, for we may, with a considerable degree of safety, enrich our gardens with plants that are natives of subtropical and arctic climes; and yet we find our varying selection of subjects seriously restricted unless we are aided by plant houses of some kind or other, to ensure for our favourites better conditions than the unprotected soil and free atmosphere would afford them. ”

“ Seasons differ immensely, and we have always adapted our movements to the state of the weather and the indications of the barometer. Yet during the past seven years the dates of planting cucumbers in this house, the dates of cutting the first fruit, and the dates of taking down the worn-out vines, have varied so slightly that we might from those dates conclude that this climate is one of the most constant on the face of the earth. We know it to be otherwise, but no matter. ”

“ On the other hand, wood is a non-conducting substance, and if a nice comparison were made it would be found that a house with a light iron roof would cost rather more for fuel than a house of the same shape and dimensions with wood rafters, to maintain an equal temperature throughout the winter. But light is life, and iron roofs are adapted to catch the utmost glimmer of the weak daylight of this cloudy clime, and in the case of a structure intended for succulent plants, and such other subjects as need the fullest possible flood of light, iron is certainly to be preferred. ”

“ When we are approaching a conservatory with a bold frontage of stone pilasters and heavy cornice and recessed windows, in the style of a Grecian temple, we are fully advertised of the appearance the plants will present when we gain access to the interior. The conservatories that architects unskilled in horticulture provide for their employers usually have this distinguishing character, that no plant will thrive in them, and very few will live in them ”

“ If we hammer too hard and too long on a soft subject, we shall probably crush it out of all identification, and none of our readers would wish to see the fuchsia obliterated by needlessly prolix directions for its cultivation.
The fuchsia requires to be grown rather fast, and therefore a starving system must not be practised. It loves warmth and moisture and some amount of sunshine. It cannot endure a dry soil or a dry air and a long-continued roasting glare of sunshine. ”

“ The amateur who has no partiality for succulent plants may safely adopt the purple leaved variety of Sempervivum arboreum, for it is one of the noblest greenhouse plants in cultivation, and with very little care will in a few years grow to the stature of a man and produce pyramids of yellow flowers in the early spring. To be safe from frost is enough for it all the winter, and to be out of doors in the full sun all the summer will contribute to its welfare. ”

“ To grow a plant in a pot must be the aim of every amateur who possesses a greenhouse, and the task is not a small one. For the illustration of the subject let us take two extreme cases. The first shall be that of the unskilled beginner, who provides a large pot for a small plant, and some stuff which we must call mud for the roots of the poor thing to perish in. ”

“ As the flowers droop beneath the foliage, they are just what we want for the roof. Nothing can surpass the beauty of their lovely pendent blossoms. The drainage should be first-rate, as it requires an abundant supply of water when growing. The soil should consist of good fibrous peat, mixed with a little loam and plenty of sand. The plants will receive an immense amount of benefit from a partial shade in hot weather. ”

“ We may now choose for the collection palms, bamboos, yuccas, agaves, and a host of herbaceous and alpine plants that flower during the winter and spring months. As a low roof is preferable for plants that grow in herbaceous tufts, it is not desirable to speculate heavily in such things as palms and agaves; yet there must be a variety, and a few plants of noble character will help to bring out, by contrast, the peculiar beauty of the flowering alpines. ”

“ The early tulips are the most useful for greenhouse culture, and the safest way to ensure a flue display is to have two sets of bulbs, so as to be enabled to plant them out alternately in October, one season’s growth in the open ground in rich soil being sufficient to restore their energies for growing in pots again the following season. They increase freely by offsets, and considering their high quality, and that one purchase of roots is sufficient for a lifetime, they are the cheapest of all the early flowering bulbs in cultivation. ”

“ Stocks of several kinds may be turned to good account for the conservatory, their spicy odour being as welcome as their bold spikes of double flowers. To grow them well in pots is not so easy a matter as may appear to amateurs who have not made the experiment; consequently, those who are altogether inexperienced must not expect triumphant success in the first instance. ”

“ It must be understood that we do not recommend either the introduction of a gas-flame or a fire of any kind into the same enclosure with any kind of plants, but it is our business to provide for a variety of circumstances, and it is with pleasure we are enabled to testify, from observation and experience, that Musgrave’s stove is the least harmful amongst many contrivances recommended for placing inside a plant house, and at the same time easily managed, economical, and efficient, as a diffuser of heat. ”

“ It is well also to select, if possible, a site adapted for a range of houses, should it be some day hence determined to increase the area of glass. We never know what our desires and intentions may be to-morrow or the day after next, and therefore, though it may seem at this moment that the greenhouse in course of erection will suffice for the rest of our lives, we may in a year or so propose to build another, and perhaps yet another, and be compelled to plant them in all sorts of odd corners, where they will be difficult to get at, and, perhaps, impossible to heat them all with one boiler. ”

“ To shut them up in dark houses is a mistake; and it is one of the wonders of modern horticulture that until quite recently orange trees were shut up in dark houses in all great establishments, and were so much injured in consequence that they might as well have been shut up altogether and forgotten for ever. Another peculiarity of the family is that it will not endure extremes of heat or cold, and hence, if orange trees are allowed to freeze in winter and roast in summer, they become, if they are not killed, unhealthy and unproductive, and more plague than profit to keep them. ”

“ It happens, too, for our encouragement, that about nine-tenths of all that has been written about cucumbers in horticultural papers has related to the winter management, an implication, perhaps, that to grow cucumbers in summer needs so little skill that there need be very little said about it. To be sure, it is easy enough to grow them, even in common frames, with or without fermenting material, yet the cutting of a cucumber fit for the table is an extraordinary event in some few gardens where only one man is kept. ”

“ They must have light always, and our sunshine is never too strong for them even in the height of summer, when they should be out of doors. In potting them take particular care to drain the pots well, and let the compost consist of about equal parts of the best turfy loam obtainable, bricks broken to the size of walnuts, and the drift from a gravel road, or lacking that, the finest siftings from the sweepings of gravel walks. ”

“ Another useful compost will consist of one bushel of peat, one peck of leaf mould, and one peck of silver sand. This will suit for the remaining tenth; and upon my word, if you never deviate from these prescriptions, you may become, by proper attention to other matters, an expert plant-grower and a winner of first prizes. Sometimes loam and peat are mixed, and we must confess that we ourselves mix them; but the mixing can scarcely be considered good practice, for one being decidedly acid and the other decidedly alkaline, they do not quite agree when chopped up together. ”

“ The simplest form of gas-heating apparatus consists of a ring of jets burning blue, through wire-gauze, under a small vessel tilled with water, over which is placed a vertical pipe, the mouth of which expands like a hood over the whole affair, to catch and carry into the air without all the products of combustion. ”