Gardening Notes.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2609, 28 May 1887, Page 2

Gardening Notes.

As we live in a time when glass is cheap and timber can almost be had for the carting, it lays within thp reach of almost every amateur gardener to enlarge the uses and enhance the enjoyments of his garden by adding one or more of the various glass structures now known to horticulture, in one case ho may elect to bo his own builder; in another he may need give his buiider instructions, and perhaps watch over the work. So a few suggestions may be useful to those who are just about to build. A disquisition on the nice distinctions that might be drawn between the meanings of such terms as "stove," "hothouse," "greenhouso," and " conservatory," . would servo 110 useful purpose. Tliey are all plant houses, and depend for their distinctions on management, and fittings. A house maybe heated to ninety degrees. to-day for the comfort of orchids, and bo; called a stove. If we removo the orchids and put pelargoniums in their place and considerably lower the tomperature, it becomes a greenhouse. Wo liavo but to enlargo it and introduce caraolias, azaleas, &c., and give tho house a somewhat elegant appearance, and it becomes a conservatory. In tho construction of a plant bouso, tho iirsl maltor of importance is to'determine the purposo to which it is : to bo applied. On this will dopencl tho choice of site and aspect, tho'size of tho house and tho extent to which embellishments are to bo omployed within and without. It will be well for thoso who study oconomy that a vory plain, substantial house, thoroughly adapted for plant, culture, will always look respectable, even if it is not decorated like a pavilion or a pagoda, and its use will justify it far more satisfactorily than any amount of ornament. Thero avo grand conservatories built in which nothing of' a vegetable nature except mildow will thrive, and many a humble greenhouse in which plants grow as if by magic, and provide thoir owners with an endless varioty of priceless .(though costless) pleasures, An ambitiousamateur may sot his mind upon -a block of houses tor camelias, heaths, pelargoniums, and fifty other plants. This one would do woll to consult a gardener or garden architect aud determine at first to do the thing well or not at all. Most people will want instructions on what is commonly understood as a greenhouse, and the quoetion is, 'how aro they to begin ? A' good genoral advice to all such would be to erect one good span-roofed house for the present, and have it as large as the purse will allow for the whole thing to be done properly, A large body of air maintains an equable . temperature with far less trouble of management than a small' body,' and hence iu a burst of unseasonable heat in spring, or a sudden accession of

intoiiße frost in winter, the plants in a largo liouso frill be likely to suffer less than plants of the same kind in a small hbuse, both receiving equal icare aiid attention. By .the .term " large" house is not to be understood , anything extravagant, Jbut a fair roomy structure, with as low p. roof as is consistent witli" the comfort of. the;iSiltivat6r;urid the size of /the' plants -to be kept in it. Keep the : roof.down to spmethmg.like the actual requirements of the plants, for the nearer they are'to the glass the The lofty roof is .one of. .thein gardening has to guard against', wheii lHe'" Question'.'arise3' about the employment of glass. Heaths and and other hard wooded plants usually associated with them require abundance of light and air, and very littlo 'warmth in winter., The eamclias are not benefitted by such, a blaze of light or free currents of air'as the heaths rcquiro.' The pelargonium roquires mora care than either, and all the light they can have, with the ventilation so modified that they* suffer nothing from the keon winds and freezing showers of early spring. The amateur may bo inclined to ask if evory class of plants is to have a honso to itsolf ? No. In a well-built spanroofed house, with good Bides, low roof, ample ventilation, and a service of hot water "pipes, a vory miscellaneous assemblage of plants, including some that properly belong to the stove may bo grown by one who hasacquired a little experience. But if the amateur has a particular object in view such as to excel in the production of specimen plants for exhibition, then he must provide accommodation in accordance with the requirements of his special pets, and the other plants must take their chance with tho help of bucL little aids as can always be rendered amid adverse circumstances. A number of minor improvements have been made of late yoars in tho construction of plant houses, the effect of which has been to cheapen them considerably, without impairing, and some instances even improving their efficiency. One of the most notable being the Paxtonian system of ventilation. There will still arise perhaps in the mind of the amateur a number of questions as to the particulars of the construction of the house required. Tho proper angle of .the roof may be one of them, and that is by no means a matter of trifling importance. Bo plan your roof that all of the plants can be within a reasonable distanco from'the glass. There aro two sorious objections to tho ' adoption of a low angle. It incurs a liability to drip, aud it providoß a play-ground, for cats in' a district where those interesting quadrupeds aro found. I ouce suffered In a frightful manner through the breaking of a pano of glass on a low roofed house whon a party of cats were holding an outdoor nooturnal demonstration upon it. Thoy foil in and went mad with fright,"and committed such havoc as for the time nearly broke my heart. For all general ' purposos tho angle of tho roof may bo settled at forty-five, for that is tho.auglo which affords the best compromise, and most safety subservos a number of purposos.