Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/12

6 unseasonable heat in spring, or a sudden accession of intense frost in winter, the plants in a large house will be likely to suffer less than plants of the same kinds in a small house, both receiving equal care and attention. By the term “large house” is not to be understood anything extravagant, but a fair roomy structure, with as low a roof as is consistent with the comfort of the cultivator and the size of the plants to be kept in it. If you employ an architect or builder not practically versed in the construction of plant houses to carry out your wishes, you will probably obtain for an extravagant outlay a heavy structure with a lofty roof, in which nothing worth having can be persuaded to grow. Keep the roof down to something like the actual requirements of the plants, for the nearer they are to the glass the better. The lofty roof is one of the most dangerous delusions the beginner in gardening has to guard against when the question arises about the employment of glass.

It must be repeated that the purpose is the matter of first importance. Heaths, geraniums, and camellias will not submit to the same routine of treatment the whole year round, and at the end of that time present equal indications of health and vigour. The heaths and other “hard-wooded” plants usually associated with them require abundance of light and air, and very little warmth in winter. The camellias are not benefited by such a blaze of light or free current of air as the heaths require. The geraniums require more warmth in winter than either, and all the light they can have, with the ventilation so modified that they suffer nothing from the keen winds and freezing showers of early spring. Now, the amateur may be inclined to ask if every class of plants is to have a house to itself? the answer is, No. In a well-built span-roofed house with brick sides, low roof, ample ventilation, and a sufficient service of hot-water pipes, a very miscellaneous assemblage of plants, including some that properly belong to the stove, may be grown by one who has acquired a little experience. But if the amateur has a particular object in view—such, for instance, as to excel in the production of oranges, exotic ferns, the smaller succulents, &c., &c.—then he must provide accommodation in accordance with the requirements of his special pets, and the odd things must take their chance with the help of such little aids as can always be rendered amid adverse circumstances.