Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/236

218 without harm a temperature many degrees lower than that in which they have attained their full development, provided they are carefully prepared for it by removal in the first instance to an intermediate temperature, and during the whole time of their stay in the comparatively cool conservatory are supplied with less moisture than they had to promote growth in a higher temperature. Every season should supply new flowers to the conservatory. In the spring, potted bulbs will make a gay beginning, and if orchids are grown in the stoves the bulbs will be followed closely by some of the most resplendent of the family. As the season advances the greenhouse will supply pelargoniums, heaths, herbaceous calceolarias, and specimen petunias, and in autumn the pits will prove their usefulness by providing a glorious display of chrysanthemums. As a rule, however, the less we see of bedding plants in the conservatory the better, for we see enough of them in the open garden during the summer, and it is simply a tax on one’s patiencethat is, on the patience of one who believes in eclectic horticultureto pass from a blaze of geraniums in the parterre to another blaze of geraniums in the conservatory. It is neither our business nor our pleasure to denounce people who, in their horticultural enterprises, are content with some half-dozen genera of plants; but we are bound to say, in defence of plants in general, that there are many fine things adapted to the conservatory which many who profess to love plants have hitherto not made acquaintance with. A rabbit cooked a hundred different ways is tiresome, and the cooking must be very tiresome to the rabbit.

Above all things that contribute to make a gay conservatory, the best of the greenhouse climbers should be thought of. As a rule, it is a folly to grow any of these plants in pots; they should be planted out in borders of sufficient breadth and depth to encourage a free growth, and consistently with the aerial space at command for training them; the number should be few rather than many, that each may display its character fully, and a succession of distinct and decisive features be produced rather than a mere confusion of vegetable tracery. It may suit the purposes of a botanical and experimental cultivator to plant in a conservatory as many kinds of climbers as there are rafters to afford them support, but a beautiful scene cannot be obtained by such practice.

There are many fine plants, showy, hardy, easy of culture,