AUGUST.
FIRST WEEK.
GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY.
The conservatory borders will now require liberal supplies of water. Faded blossoms to be constantly removed; straggling growth and exhausted stock to be cut previous to making a new growth. As the autumn is fast approaching, the sooner the new growths are encouraged the better, that they may have sufficient time to mature them. All greenhouse plants will now be benefited by exposure to the natural atmosphere: the dews are more refreshing and invigorating than artificial moisture or the application of the syringe.
Finish potting all specimen plants; for if left until later in the season they will not have sufficient time to fill their pots with roots, and, therefore, will be liable to suffer from stagnation of water at the roots. No position can be worse for a plant than that of surrounding it with fresh soil for months when the roots should be in a comparatively dormant state.
Pelargoniums.—Continue to head them down, and to propagate the cuttings, which will now strike freely in a sunny situation in the open ground.
STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE.
Much moisture and free ventilation will be necessary here during warm weather. The young plants of Euphorbias, Ixoras, Poinsettias, and other such stove plants, to be rendered bushy by stopping them betimes. The Æschynanthus grandiflorus, Aphelandra cristata, Eranthemum pulchellum, Justicias, and any others that are intended for the decoration of the conservatory in the autumn and early part of winter, should be carefully looked over, and shifted without delay if they want more pot-room; the shoots to be tied out thinly, and to
be exposed to as much sun as they will bear without scorching the foliage, to induce stocky growth. Nothing is more injurious to stove plants than to keep them growing late in the season, and thus to prevent the ripening of the wood, which will render them more liable to injuries in winter and more unproductive of flowers the following season.