Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/132

124 happen to make its appearance, fumigate at once. When they are allowed to get ahead before remedial measures are brought into requisition, it requires double the quantity of tobacco to dislodge the enemies, apart from the injuries they commit. Leave green-fly alone and you may say “we part for ever” to petunias.

.&mdash;The best of the Salvias are stove plants, but there are a few fine species well adapted for greenhouse culture, and of these S. splendens is the best. Treat as advised for Bouvardias, remembering that they love light and warmth, and, therefore, when taken to the conservatory in the autumn must have good places. It is far better to plant them out every year in May and pot them in September than to grow them always in pots. A rich, sandy, loamy soil will suit all the Salvias, and they will also thrive in peat.

.&mdash;The cultivation of the scarlet-berried Solanums is so exceedingly simple that any one with ordinary appliances and ordinary skill may have a grand display of them in the autumn in the conservatory. There are several species and varieties which produce red berries; the one commonly grown hitherto has been S. capsicastrum; but far better, because it makes a bolder bush and bears larger berries, is Williams’s Hybridum compactum. To get up a stock of this proceed as follows:&mdash;Place an old plant in a warm house and frequently syringe it. When the young shoots are two inches in length, take them off and dib them into sand in a heat of 60° to 70°. When rooted, pot them in a light sandy compost, and give them a moderate heat until they begin to grow; or sow the seeds in light soil, and place in a steady heat. The latter part of the month of March is the proper time to begin with either seeds or cuttings. From the time they are rooted gradually inure them to ordinary greenhouse temperature and to fresh air, so as by degrees to have them quite hardy by the middle of May. Then plant them out in a piece of rich light soil, in the full sun, fifteen inches apart; give plenty of water all the summer, and slightly train them out, so as to form open heads. They will require to be twice stopped by nipping off the points of all the shoots in the first and last week of June, and after that must grow as they please. About the middle of September take them up very carefully and pot them. In