THE HOUSE AQUARIUM.
Aquariums.--Travelling Botanists.--The Victoria Regia.--The House
Aquarium.--Its Construction.--What causes the Corruption of
Stagnant Water.--Means of avoiding it in the House Aquarium.--The
Cobbler.--Interesting Habits of this Fish.--Aquatic Plants for the
Aquarium.--Hydrocharis.--Pontederia.--Mimosa Pudica, or Aquatic
Sensitive Plant.--Rice grafted upon Phalaris.--Manner of grafting
it.--Aquatic Ranunculus.--Its Manner of Vegetation.
The Aquarium.
All of you, ladies, are acquainted with aquariums; most of you have
little ones of your own, got up without expense, and I do not propose
to you to attempt having them on the grand scale that Mr. Ysabeau
describes. His description, however, is so interesting, that I will
not omit it. He says,--speaking of large gardens,--that an aquarium
is a conservatory, of a square or oval form, with a ridged roof,
the interior of which encloses a basin in which ornamental aquatic
plants are cultivated. You exclaim at this word, and stop me short by
observing that the culture of aquatic plants is beyond the powers of
the parlor gardener. If this be your opinion, ladies, permit me to say,
that you are under a great mistake, and I shall endeavor to convince
you of it. But let me first inform you, a little more in detail, what
an aquarium is.
There exists among the learned men a class, essentially adventurous,
who have a horror of the fireside, security, and repose. These are
the travelling botanists; men who are always on the road, (when they
happen to be in a country where there are roads,) to discover vegetable
rarities and novelties. I have had occasion to call your attention
to them in speaking of dwarf succulent plants of the cactus family.
Among the novelties with which these indefatigable seekers have been
enriching our collections for some years past, are found quite a large
number of aquatic plants from the tropical regions. Among these is the
great nenuphar of the River of the Amazons, the _Victoria regia_--true
queen of the tropical waters.
So long as the number of hothouse aquatic plants was not too great,
people contented themselves with lodging them in the reservoir where
the water destined for watering was kept. But when the Victoria regia
arrived in Europe, the leaves of which, unfolded upon the tranquil
waters, measured more than a yard in diameter, the botanists perceived
the propriety of lodging it and other beautiful tropical aquatic
plants of large dimensions, conformably to their rank, in basins of
tepid water, within hothouses, which are, at present, very numerous in
Europe, and are designated under the name of _aquariums_.
You understand, ladies, that this preamble is not at all designed to
pave the way to counselling you to convert your parlor into a basin;
which, by the help of a thermo-siphon, being kept at the temperature of
the waters of the River of the Amazons, you might have the satisfaction
of seeing grow and bloom there the Victoria regia. I am going to
propose something less impracticable.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Parlor Aquarium.]
House Aquarium.
The house which you occupy is one into which water is brought. You
have a parlor on the ground floor, and a vaulted cellar under this
parlor. These circumstances permit you to have a house aquarium, of
which it is now my business to show you the advantages in regard to
parlor horticulture.
In the middle of your parlor you must place a table, with four legs, in
the form of columns, two of which legs must be hollow, and have pipes
within them; one to receive the water when it comes, and the other to
conduct it off. In the middle of this table, an elegant glass basin,
thick enough to be strong, must be supported by four hollow columns
of polished brass, similar to those which sustain the beam of a pair
of scales. The pipe enclosed in one of the legs of the table must be
prolonged through one of these columns, and a swan’s beak at the top of
the column will pour a continued stream of water into the basin, which
water will escape by an opening of a suitable diameter, contrived for
the purpose, in one of the columns at the opposite side of the basin.
Fish that ought to be put in it.
Before speaking to you of the plants that the water of your aquarium
can nourish, and of the culture of these plants, I will answer an
objection which naturally presents itself here: the water of your
basin, you will say, although renewed by a continued stream, cannot
fail to be corrupted, and to fill your house with a marshy smell, which
will be as disagreeable as unhealthy.
Here is another mistake; and so you will acknowledge, if you permit
me to give you some words of explanation on the subject of stagnant
water. When water exhales an odor of putridity, it is not the water
itself that is corrupted; it is the animal matter which it holds in
suspension; it is, above all, the thousands of animalcula which are
born, live, multiply, and die there with a prodigious rapidity, and
of which water, to all appearance most pure, contains hordes without
number. But, if you place in the aquarium living fish, they will
nourish themselves with these animalcula as well as with the animal
and vegetable matter held in suspension in the water; and that of the
aquarium will never exhale the odor of stagnant water.
If you do not like one fish better than another, and have no preference
for the gold fish of China, who are in possession of the privilege of
constantly peopling the basins, I would advise you, ladies, to adopt
the pretty little fish named by the naturalists _epinoche_, and well
known under its vulgar name of _cobbler_, because of the point, in the
shape of an awl, with which its back is armed. The manners of this
fish, that you can study at leisure through the transparent walls of
your aquarium, are very interesting. It alone, among all the known
fish, makes a nest, which it does out of the refuse parts of the
aquatic plants, and in this nest the female deposits her eggs. Both
male and female, after the eggs are hatched, take assiduous care of the
young family.
Plants to put in the Aquarium.
Pardon an old professor of natural history, ladies, for this short
excursion into the domains of ichthyology. I have wandered from parlor
gardening; I hasten back as quickly as I can.
There is a crowd of charming plants among which you may choose to fill
the water of your aquarium, such as the hydrocharis, pontederia,[7] and
many others. One word only upon those most worthy of attention. You
are, doubtless, acquainted with the sensitive plant, or mimosa pudica,
the leaflets of which withdraw and contract when they are touched.
There exists an aquatic species of this, which you can have floating
upon the parlor aquarium, for it is very small. Its leaflets are
exactly similar to those of the terrestrial sensitive, and possess the
same retractile properties.
Manner of grafting Rice.
If you put at the bottom of your aquarium a pot filled with good earth,
where you have sowed some grains of rice which have not had the husk
taken off, they will come up; and you can have the pleasure of grafting
the plants from these seeds upon reeds. For this purpose you must cut,
by a slanting cut at one of its joints, a rice straw having its ear
half developed; then, in a contrary slant, cut a joint of the phalaris
reed, which is to be the stock of your graft, and fit one to the other,
wrapping them with a thread of very fine woollen yarn. The whole, for
greater security, must be attached to a rod for a support. You will
thus see the rice stalk, nourished by the phalaris, ripen its grain as
well as that which is not grafted.
There is a little plant, the aquatic ranunculus, common in all our
streams, which, if you follow my advice, you will admit into the
society of the rarest plants. What recommends it is its peculiar mode
of vegetation. After springing from the seed at the bottom of the
basin, the stalk, as it progresses in its growth, puts forth, in place
of leaves, elegant filaments of a fine, pale green; and this continues
to be the case until it has become long enough to reach the surface of
the water, and come in contact with the air. Then, as if transformed
suddenly into a different plant, its whole appearance changes; no more
filaments to be seen; they have become metamorphosed into leaves cut in
segments, which lie floating upon the tranquil water, and amidst which
rise the floral stalks, bearing little single flowers--white, with a
yellow mark at the base of each petal. Common as it is, the aquatic
ranunculus may, with its European physiognomy, hold its place very well
in the midst of the most beautiful aquatic plants of foreign origin.[8]
Take notice, I beg you, ladies, that I do not in any way pretend that
there is no objection to a house aquarium; it costs a good deal, and
causes derangements--particularly for its first establishment--which
would prevent its being admitted every where; but it incontestably
forms a part of parlor gardening for all such as can afford the
expense, and are willing to submit to the inconveniences occasioned by
it for the sake of the pleasures that it will yield in return.
PART II.
THE GARDEN AT THE WINDOW.
CHAPTER IX.
THE GARDEN UPON THE BALCONY.
Exposure of the Balconies.--The Balcony to the North.--Irish
Ivy, Hepaticas, Digitalis (Foxglove), Mimulus (Monkey
Flower), Hypericum (St. John’s-wort), Nemophila, Violets,
Periwinkles.--The Balcony to the East.--Cobæa, Spanish Beans,
Volubilis.--Suspended Flower Vases.--Disposition of the Flowers
upon the Balcony to the East.--Lilacs, Gillyflowers, Pinks,
Pansies, Mignionette.--The Balcony to the West.--Sticking Slips of
Pelargoniums and Chrysanthemums.--Management of the Growth of the
Slips of Pelargonium.--Of the Slips of Chrysanthemums.--Chinese
Method.--European Method.--The Balcony to the South.--Sowing
Seeds.--Precautions against the Sun.
Exposure of the Balconies.
The title of this work imposes on me the obligation of first saying
something to you of all that it is possible to do in horticulture
without leaving your house. I hope I have showed you, ladies, that to
satisfy your enlightened taste for beautiful, ornamental plants, and
to occupy a part of your leisure time very agreeably, nothing more is
necessary than gardening in a parlor. But this in no way prevents your
giving also some of your attention to the only out-door garden which is
possible to the greater portion of the inhabitants of large populous
cities--the garden at the window.
Before any thing else, you must consider the exposure of your windows;
for the question is no longer how to cultivate living plants in
the artificial atmosphere of an inhabited chamber, or a portable
greenhouse. The garden plants at the window are destined to live in
the open air, if, indeed, the gaseous fluid of cities, which is alone
at their disposal, merits the name of air. The greater part of the
time, however, they do not _live_ there: reared in real gardens by
real gardeners, bought in full flower to shine for some days only,
they make haste to die in a medium that is not really air, and where,
consequently, one cannot exact of them to live. Your windows are
either exposed to the north, to the east, the west, or the south; or
their exposure is intermediary between these four points.
The Balcony to the North.
A balcony with a full northern exposure, particularly if it looks out
on a street of only moderate width, and is situated too low down to
escape from the emanations below, is in a position presenting the worst
conditions as regards horticulture. Does this mean that we need not
attempt gardening there? Far from it. It means only that the choice of
plants with which it is possible to adorn our garden is very limited;
for all have need, more or less, of contact with the rays of the sun.
First, you must surround the balustrade and the framework of the window
with a decoration of ivy, which will give you a perpetual verdure.
There are several varieties, the best of which is the _Irish ivy_; its
growth more rapid, and its green less sombre, than the common sort. If
you take care to curtail such shoots as grow too long, and to pull off
such leaves as turn from green to yellow, the Irish ivy will surround
your window to the north with a drapery of ever-verdant vegetation,
which will serve to bring out advantageously the few flowers that it
is possible to cultivate in this exposure. The _hepaticas_, blue and
rose-colored--the _lily of the valley_--the _digitalis_, (foxglove,)
violet and white--the _mimulus_, (monkey flower,)--the _large flowered
hypericum_, (St. John’s-wort,)--and the charming _nemophila_,--are all
plants which, as they grow naturally by the side of great forests,
may consequently do without the sun. These, with the violet and the
periwinkle for their modest companions, will be the principal elements
of decoration for your garden at the window with a northern exposure.
If, regardless of expense, you be fully determined to have on this
balcony all the plants of the season, then procure and place them
there, despite of the short duration of flowers in this exposure. You
will do this knowing beforehand that the plants will die some time
after flowering--an annoying result, which, however, cannot be avoided;
it forms part of the cost which must be paid for the pleasure of having
them there.
The Balcony to the East.
On a balcony to the east--if the street be a tolerably wide one, and
the balcony belong to a story high enough to receive a ration of air,
if not very pure, at least supportable--gardening can be practised on a
grand scale.
The window may be surrounded with climbing cobœa, instead of ivy. This
is a plant of very elegant foliage, although its flowers have but
little brilliancy. You can give to it for companions Spanish beans and
volubilis. These two would not have flowered at all to the north; nor
will they flower to the east either, as they would do to the west or
the south. Their flowers, nevertheless, will, by their lively tints,
make an agreeable variety of colors in the decoration of your window
with the eastern exposure.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Hanging Flower-vase.]
Suspended Flower Vases.
Giving to this decoration the graceful form of an arch, by means of a
simple hoop nailed to the two frames of the window, you must join with
it the accessory ornament of an earthen-ware vase of elegant form,
in which to place a common flower pot containing ornamental plants;
some with straight stalks--such as petunias or red-flowered geraniums;
others with hanging stems--such as Chinese saxifrage, the runners of
which, like those of the strawberry, bloom at each joint while floating
freely in the air. Similar vases are appropriate ornaments for the
windows of all other exposures except the northern. During the cold
season they can be taken in, and hung to the ceiling like chandeliers;
and it is easy to procure such as will perform the office of veritable
chandeliers, being set round with sockets for holding candles, choice
plants--agaves, for instance--occupying the centre, whilst hanging
plants, pouring over, as it were, through the spaces between the
candles, depend from the rim of the vase.
Disposition of the Flowers on the Balcony to the East.
On the eastern balcony, besides the plants before pointed out for the
northern exposure, a great variety of common plants--which are not the
less agreeable for being common--may succeed each other all the year
round. That you may not deprive yourself of the use of the balcony, in
case of your liking occasionally to stand there, you must take care to
place such shrubs as roses and Persian lilacs at the two ends; next
to them, such herbaceous plants as are somewhat tall--gillyflowers
or pinks, for instance; then the rest in the middle. The very low
ones--pansies, auriculas, or mignionette--should be in a shallow zinc
vessel, such as is used for flower-stands. Thus, when at your window,
you feel as if surrounded by all the perfumery of your toilet; and you
will not be deprived of the use of your balcony, when it pleases you to
go out upon it to breathe there the best air that the city affords at
this season--that is, a compound consisting of a little air and a great
deal of dust. As you would not wish to quarrel with your neighbors, nor
your landlord, nor the police, you must take care to keep under the
pots and boxes ornamenting your balconies vessels of varnished earthen
ware, sufficiently deep to hold the overflowings of the waterings;
you will thereby avoid staining the front of the house, and giving
to passers-by a sort of shower bath which may not be to their taste.
During prolonged droughts the foliage of the plants of your garden at
the window may probably change from green to gray--thanks to a thick
coat of dust; in which case, you must, at least once a week, have these
plants taken, one by one, to the sink in your kitchen, and there, by
means of a watering-pot with a rose pierced with very small holes, give
them, one after the other, a good washing, such as they receive from a
pretty long shower of rain.
All the flowers of the season--from the violet of March to the
chrysanthemum of December--may succeed one another on the balcony
exposed to the east. Perhaps the heliotrope (which requires a great
deal of sun) and the lantanas, and some others, may be exceptions;
these will, at any rate, do better to the west and south.
The Balcony to the West.
On the western exposure you have _carte blanche_; every ornamental
plant may pass the warm season there. You can place there, for the
whole summer, myrtles, oranges, rose laurels, pomegranates, camellias,
kalmias, and azaleas, which belong in winter to the garden in the
house. Two sorts of plants, alike agreeable,--the pelargoniums and
the Indian chrysanthemums,--can be easily propagated there, by slips
stuck in the way I have already shown you. Nor is there any need of a
portable greenhouse this time: you may stick them simply in pots filled
with good earth, taking care to place over your slips, for the first
eight or ten days, a tumbler turned upside down, pressing down the
edge slightly into the earth. After the slips have taken, remove the
tumblers, and water the young plants once or twice a week with a good
glass of dish-water that you have had put aside for this purpose by
the cook; you will see with what vigor they put out. I shall take this
occasion to give you some advice that will be useful to you, on the
manner of training the pelargoniums and chrysanthemums that you have
propagated by slips.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Chandelier Flower-vase.]
Method of training the Pelargonium Slips.
A slip of pelargonium, left to itself, shoots at hazard right and left,
puts forth a quantity of foliage and flowers badly: this is what the
French gardeners, adopting a term applied generally to colts, call
_badly broken_. When you see it well rooted, and beginning to shoot
vigorously, pinch off the top. The two or three shoots next below
this will develop in side branches of nearly equal strength; destroy
all that put out below these, retaining them alone to form a regular
head. If one of these branches runs up, and is impatient to pass the
others, do not hesitate to pinch it off. Below this point two shoots
must be left at first--one of them to be taken off at the end of eight
or ten days. Thus will equality in the vegetation of the pelargonium
be maintained. These attentions will be a true pleasure to you; you
will witness their effect immediately; and the flowering of your
pelargoniums thus managed will be as equal and as perfect as is natural
to the different species of this beautiful genus.
Training Chrysanthemum Slips.
Chrysanthemums propagated by slips should be treated in the same
manner, according to the same principles. If you belonged, ladies,
to the good society of Pekin, instead of to that of our country,
the following is the way you would treat your chrysanthemums: After
having planted each one of your slips in a deep and slender vase, you
would direct your care to the development of the terminal shoots; as
shoots made their appearance, they would be pitilessly destroyed.
The chrysanthemum thus treated will gain a great deal in height, and
will end by forming at its summit a single tuft of flowers, of which
flowers one only must be allowed to remain: this one will arrive at a
most extraordinary degree of development. It is thus that the wives
of the mandarins cultivate the chrysanthemum--the flower of their
special predilection. Every year, in the great cities of the Celestial
Empire, there are exhibitions specially for chrysanthemums, where
every body sends their flowers, and where prizes are decreed for the
tallest plants; not as to the most beautiful flowers, but to the most
beautiful flower, each plant having but one.
To every country its custom, the proverb says. To ourselves, “outside
barbarians” as we are, the chrysanthemum, cultivated in the Chinese
fashion, appears, and with reason, completely devoid of grace. You
will take care, then, by means of the same pinching process practised
upon the pelargoniums, to compel your chrysanthemums to form a head
consisting of three or four branches of equal strength, well furnished
with flowers, making the plant of such a height from the ground as may
be suited to the disposable place on your balcony, and leaving to each
branch the number of flowers which it sees fit to have.
The Balcony to the South.
It is upon the balcony exposed to the south, ladies, that you can
practise the most varied horticulture--a balcony to the south being the
border of a parterre on a reduced scale. There, in pots filled with an
equal mixture of earth and manure, you may produce, by sowing, all the
annual ornamental plants--pansies, Queen Margarets (China-asters),
balsams, tagetis (French and African marigolds), petunias, and
coreopsis; and to these sowings you will be indebted for this part of
the decoration of all your balconies and of your flower-stand. For,
upon a balcony with a southern exposure, may be made to grow, from
the seed, plants, not only for yourself, but for all your friends and
acquaintances besides.
Precautions against the Sun.
But the success of this part of your gardening depends on one
precaution, for the want of which all would fail. The ardent sun of the
summer must never strike directly on the outside of your pots.
In their natural situation, the roots of plants, plunged into the
soil, receive only a heat tempered by the coolness imparted to them by
the soil beneath. In pots, on the contrary, the extremities of these
roots, which line the inside of the pot, and which are the most tender
part of them, are literally burnt when the sun shines on its external
surface. You must not think that repeated waterings will remedy this:
if you water the plants often, the roots in pots exposed to the sun,
being then in contact with hot water, will be boiled instead of being
roasted, which will come exactly to the same thing, so far as their
life is concerned. It is then indispensable to have a plank, inside of
the balustrade of your balcony facing the south, which plank, its edge
touching the floor, must reach as high as the top of the largest pots.
The outside of the pots being shaded by this plank, the roots of the
plants will experience only a moderate degree of heat; for any excess
of this may then be prevented by frequent waterings. So says our author
with reference to the climate of Europe. In ours, however, plants in
pots require an additional protection from the sun--the shade of a
tree, or an awning, or something of the sort.
CHAPTER X.
THE GARDEN UPON THE LARGE BALCONY.
The Terrace Balcony.--Boxes to furnish it.--Running Shrubs: Glycine
(Wisteria), Virginia Creeper, Buddleya, Clianthus (Crimson-glory
Pea).--Assorted Plants.--Seedling Ranunculus.--Manner of assorting
the Shades.--Use made of the Plants propagated in the Portable
Greenhouse: Pinks, Hyacinths, Tulips, Crocuses, Pelargoniums,
Chrysanthemums, Fuchsias, Lantanas, Heliotropes, Mignionette.--Utility
of this last.--Winter Dress of the Terrace Balcony.--Galanthus
(Snowdrop).--Japan Quince.--Hellebore.--Christmas Rose.--Variegated
Holly.
Happy the person, who, in the interior of any large city, possesses
a large balcony, with an exposure ever so little to the south. It is
almost equal to the possession of a garden.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.--The Balcony Garden.]
The Terrace Balcony.
We may consider as garden terraces those long and wide balconies,
extending, if not all along the front of the house, at least for a
sufficient distance to admit of our gardening there in a far less
confined space than in the mere veranda of a window. Access to such
balconies being had through windows reaching down to the floor, before
each window an interval should be reserved, to allow you to approach
the balustrade and lean on your elbows whilst looking out. Should it
be your good fortune to occupy a lodging rendered at once healthy
and agreeable by such an appendage as a spacious balcony with a good
exposure, the side spaces, intermediate to those kept open in front
of the windows, may be supplied with wooden boxes, longer than they
are wide, painted green, and filled with good garden earth, mixed
with manure. You have but to consider these boxes as the borders of a
parterre, and proceed to garden there accordingly, as you would on the
ground.
Plants for the Balcony Garden.--Wisteria and Virginia Creeper.
At each end of the balcony a box,--its length equal to the width of
the balcony,--which two boxes have a special destination: it is there
that you must plant a glycine of China--(Wisteria), and a bignonia, or
Virginia creeper (trumpet flower),--the running stems of which are to
be trained parallel to each other along the balustrade. Thus, without
encumbering the balcony, you will have, in the spring, the beautiful
bunches of amethyst flowers of the Wisteria, hanging gracefully
outside, and shedding an odor the most delicately sweet of almost
any of the whole vegetable kingdom; and in autumn the flowers of the
Virginia creeper, in bunches of a rich red, will renew the decoration.
During the intermediate heats, the abundant foliage of these two plants
will very advantageously protect the boxes of ornamental plants from
the burning contact of the solar rays. You need not contrive any other
shelter for them.
Buddleya and Clianthus.
To procure still more shade, add to the above a robust plant of
buddleya on one side, and a red flowered clianthus on the other.
The buddleya, attached to a solid stick, upwards of a yard and a half
high, and left to itself from this height, will fall in all directions,
with as much grace as do the flexible branches of the weeping willow.
At each extremity of slender and supple branches will open a long bunch
of flowers, of a fine violet color. Should it so happen that some of
these flowered branches, in the exuberance of their spirits, stray off
so far as to pay a visit to your next door neighbors, these, especially
whilst taking the air at their windows, will have no cause to complain
of the intrusion.
The clianthus--to which you must give, as a support, four rods of
white osier tied together--will very soon hide this support under its
abundant vegetation, adorned with a profusion of flowers of the finest
carnation color.
If these two shrubs occupied the middle of the balcony, they would take
up too much room, and prevent your seeing out; but, placed at the two
angles, they give a little shade, fresh and perfumed, which contributes
to render more delightful still those moments of the day that one likes
to pass, book in hand, upon the balcony in the midst of flowers.
Other Plants.
The various ornamental plants of each season--the principal of which I
have indicated to you as being suitable for making a show in the garden
at the window, at the different exposures--can, of course, be made
use of in decorating a balcony large enough to serve the purpose of a
terrace.
Seedling Ranunculuses.
If, as I advised, you have amused yourself in rearing in the cold
portable greenhouse of your parlor a supply of young roots of the
ranunculus, obtained from seeds, you will, after having used such
of these little roots as were requisite for the ornamenting of your
flower-stand, have a considerable number of them left. In the spring,
when you have no longer cause to dread the appearance of any more
last lingering colds, plant this residue of those little roots in
one of the boxes on your balcony. They will give you, for a month’s
time, a profusion of flowers, of varied shades, some deep and lively,
the others pale and delicate. The first year, these shades will
necessarily be mingled together at hazard. When you come to pull up
the roots, after the bloom, you must observe the color of the flowers
of each plant, and write these colors in a list, with a number affixed
to each color. Prepare papers, in which to wrap the roots, by marking
each paper with one of the numbers on your list; and when you wrap up
the roots, for putting by till the following spring, place all of the
same color and shade together in one paper, bearing the proper number.
By this means, when they are to be planted the second year, you will
be enabled to arrange the deep and light colors artistically. The deep
colors are always the least numerous.
Observe, I beg of you, ladies, that if you take care of your
ranunculuses when in bloom, watering them at the proper times, and do
not allow them to be wasted in bouquets by indiscreet visitors, the
finest among them will give you a good supply of fertile seed. The
plants that you will obtain by sowing these seeds will not reproduce
exactly the colors of the parent flowers; but, by sowing those seeds
only which come from the choicest flowers, you will be sure to have a
beautiful mixture, presenting the finest shades in proper proportions.
Plants propagated in the Portable Greenhouse.
The boxes of the great balcony--I suppose them to be large enough--will
naturally be the receptacle for the plants reared in your portable
greenhouse; and among these will be your seedling pinks, that will
all find an appropriate place there. A group of variegated tulips;
another of hyacinths, blue, rose, and pale yellow; elegant borders
of crocuses, which you have taken care to alternate, white, violet,
and golden yellow;--these will enamel your parterre from the very
setting in of spring. Do not be afraid to multiply by slips your
pelargoniums, chrysanthemums, fuchsias, lantanas, and heliotropes,
in order that your boxes may be kept constantly filled with plants
in flower. You will never have too many, if you be sedulous not to
leave empty places in them. With this view, be always careful to sow
seeds in the place of the plants you have transplanted. You will be
surprised to see how very large a quantity of plants a space apparently
so small can hold, if you do what is requisite to make each one of
your boxes present constantly, from spring to autumn, a full bouquet,
rich in its variety of colors and of perfumes. As regards perfume, sow
mignionette every where. It thrives in the shade of the other plants,
takes up but little room, and keeps out of sight, its perfume only
disclosing its presence; and provided that you take care not to let it
exhaust itself in producing too many seeds,--the production of seeds
being the business of your garden,--it will continue to bloom until
the end of October, holding on till after the first serious freeze.
The previous white frosts will then have already killed first the
balsams and the Queen Margarets, then the tagetes and the ageratums of
Mexico, afterwards the petunias; the chrysanthemums alone will remain.
Then it is that you will congratulate yourself for having sowed a
great deal of mignionette. So long as it continues to bloom it will
contribute largely--now in a far larger proportion than before--to the
pleasantness of the visits you will continue to pay, in November, to
your balcony garden, on the few fine days which the departing year may
yet have in store for you.
The Winter Dress of the Balcony Garden.
Winter is decidedly come. Your faithful little mignionette, yielding
at length to what the jurists call _force majeure_, has abandoned you,
and disappeared from your boxes; your chrysanthemums have taken shelter
within doors, that they may there continue to present you with flowers.
Now, then, as they can no longer wear their summer garments, give to
the borders of your balcony parterre their winter dress, which, though
much less variegated, is far from being without charms. Plant there
those beautiful tufts of the galanthus, its white flowers bordered with
green. Its common name, snowdrop, may perhaps be more familiar to your
ears; and this name its robust temperament fully justifies, for it is
endowed with a most hardy constitution--one that enables it to bloom
bravely between two freezings, so that when a pale ray of sunshine
comes to melt a thick layer of snow, one is agreeably surprised to
find the snowdrop in full flower.
One or two little bushes of Japan quince, some plants of the Christmas
rose, two or three hollies, with their variegated leaves, green and
white, among which the fruit shines like coral beads,--these will
clothe your great balcony with attractions that may tempt you out there
to inhale the wintry air, except on the worst days of this worst of
the seasons. You will have received there from Autumn the last of her
flowers as a _souvenir_ of past joys. You will now obtain there, from
her grim successor, a present, acceptable in itself, and yet more so as
a harbinger of the coming spring.
And thus, ladies, the refined and refining pleasures which the practice
of gardening affords will have been enjoyed by you, in all their
variety, without your leaving the house.
CHAPTER XI.
THE GARDEN UPON THE TERRACE.
The Terrace Garden.--How it takes the Place of a Garden.--Terrace
exposed to the North.--Its Trellised Roof.--Irish Ivy to cover
it.--Shrubs to fill the Boxes.--Variegated Holly, Alaternus
(Buckthorn), Rhododendrons, Great Periwinkle.--Terraces of a good
Exposure.--Running Plants: Honeysuckle, Clematis, Boursault Rose,
Bougainville, Chinese Glycine, Virginia Creeper, Buddleya, Clianthus,
Delphinium, Hibiscus.--Summer Pruning of the Persian Lilac.--Watering.
The Terrace Garden.
Terraces on the roofs of houses are not common with us. I shall,
however, not omit what our author says about gardening on terraces;
for, besides that it is very interesting, the flat roofs of extensions
and back buildings answer every purpose so far as gardening is
concerned.
Terraces, like the windows of your house, may be exposed to the north,
the east, the west, or the south. You already know that, for gardening
purposes, the two last exposures are the most favorable; particularly
if your terrace has open space enough before it to permit the air and
the sun to reach it without much obstruction.
Terrace exposed to the North.
Let us take the worst hypothesis first: your terrace is fully to the
north; in all other directions it is hemmed in by lofty buildings, so
that the sun has the right to visit it the 35th of every month, and
then only. You have, however, done very well, ladies, to have a terrace
constructed, even under these unfavorable conditions. At its centre
have a wooden column erected, which is to sustain a trellised roof
consisting of four triangular parts. The Irish ivy will quickly overrun
this, covering it with its thick verdure. A round table, through the
centre of which the column passes, will be a convenience for placing
your books and work upon, also for taking breakfast and tea there,
when, oppressed within doors by the heats of summer, you take refuge
in the open air, under the shelter afforded by that dense foliage. One
side of the terrace being closed by the wall of the house of which it
is an appendage, in which wall are the doors and windows opening upon
it, erect, at each of the other sides, two arches, from the centres of
which vases are to be suspended.
Shrubs blooming in the Shade.
Just within the balustrade, or the parapet (if it be a parapet) of
your terrace, we must have a range of boxes similar to those on the
great balcony, which, by our joint endeavors, we have been getting all
the good out of that we could. This terrace garden of yours being a
northern one, its boxes must be filled with heath soil; and we must
rear there shrubs with persistent leaves--variegated hollies, alaterni,
rhododendrons. These are among the shrubs which tolerate the shade, and
whose robust temperament does not fear the cold, and, with the great
periwinkle for their associate, they will constitute the basis of the
decoration of your garden. Add to them whatever ornamental plants I
have previously made known to you, as being able to bloom passably well
without the help of the sun.
When the heat of the dog days renders coolness precious, your friends
will be glad to come and partake with you of that which your ivy-clad
arbor affords: for three months its freshness will be a source of
delightful feelings for them as well as for yourself. Do you say this
is no great thing? Agreed. But, on your side, you will have to admit
that it is a great deal better than nothing at all, and that, as a
general rule, it is wise not to ask of any thing more than it can give
you--a rule which, applying as it does to your terrace with a north
exposure, as to all other things, must be its protection against unwise
exactions.
Terraces of a good Exposure.
What we have effected, in the way of gardening, upon your balconies to
the east, west, and south, you have only to repeat on a larger scale,
if your terrace garden has one of these exposures. Here, however, is
the place for some advice respecting certain plants, of medium and
large size, that we have not been able to cultivate before, for want of
room.
Running and Climbing Plants.
That trellis roof, when it has the good fortune to be removed to
a terrace with a good exposure, admits of being clad in a garment
composed of the most agreeable mixture of climbing and running plants,
in place of the Irish ivy, which, in the northern exposure, was its
only covering. Do not be afraid, ladies, to vary and multiply these
plants; they will agree very well with each other; each one will take
its just share of air and of sun; each will bloom in its own proper
time; vying with each other, in the most amicable spirit possible, in
their joint task of weaving over your head the most charming canopy
that can be conceived.
At the corners of your terrace plant honeysuckles, clematis, Boursault
roses, and Bougainville, to which you may add the glycine of China,
and the Virginia creeper. Whilst climbing up the pillars that sustain
the arches of the trellis, the buddleya and the clianthus will feel
entirely at home; nor will they be incommoded by the company of a
tall hollyhock and a fine Ajax delphinium, attended by two or three
hibiscuses.[9]
The room which all these will possess themselves of, on the balustrade
of the terrace, will still leave enough there for yourself when you
wish to lean on it, and look down upon whatever there may be worth
seeing below.
Summer Pruning of the Persian Lilac.
On terraces having a western or a southern exposure, besides the boxes
serving as the border beds of your garden, there may be others, of
a medium size, for receiving oranges, myrtles, pomegranates, rose
laurels, and even a few fine Persian lilacs.
When the elegant spring bloom of these last is over, do not omit
to subject them to the summer pruning. This is a happy innovation,
introduced into our horticulture but a few years ago, and already
generally adopted. The process is as follows:--
When the flowers of the Persian lilac have faded, we do not, as
formerly, content ourselves with merely cutting off the bunches from
which the flowers have fallen; we cut off the tops of every branch of
the plant, and, moreover, every thing that is green upon it, the lilac
thereby finding itself stripped entirely--no less perfectly naked than
at Christmas. But very soon the inherent energy with which the Persian
lilac is endued manifests itself in a most vigorous vegetation: young
shoots, all of equal length, all equally floriferous for the next year,
replace the pruned-off branches; and you have a plant the very best
of its kind. A necessary precaution, with respect to lilacs and other
shrubs cultivated in separate boxes, is, to turn the box partly round
twice a week, so that each side of the plant may receive by turns its
just share of air and of light. Otherwise the natural propensity of
plants to grow most vigorously on the best lighted side will cause them
to shoot out mostly on one side, whereby the symmetry of their heads
would be entirely spoiled, and in the course of a single summer they
would be altogether deprived of grace. When the boxes are turned often
enough, the annual growth cannot get a wrong set.
Watering.
When your terrace has a southern exposure, the earth contained in the
boxes forming the border requires watering two or three times a day;
the heat reflected from the floor of the terrace, especially when of
metal, causing a far more rapid evaporation than would take place in
the borders of a parterre having a similar exposure. These waterings,
the sowing of seeds, sticking slips, transplanting, removing day by
day the faded flowers, and gathering of seeds for next year, will be
just so much healthful exercise for you in the open air of your terrace
garden.
These attentions and this work--of which you must be careful to do no
more than you can do without over-fatigue, without occasioning feelings
of exhaustion--will imbue you with a taste for ornamental plants;
which, becoming more and more lively as you proceed, will finally
expand into a real love, such as that with which we love living beings
reared by our care. With your sex it is matter of instinct to love all
that is gentle, tender, elegant, and graceful.
Do not imagine, ladies, that the above is all that the garden on the
terrace can yield for you in the shape of pleasure arising from the
practice of horticulture; there is, besides, quite a different series
of facts, which you will appreciate if you will take the pains to read
the following chapter.
CHAPTER XII.
FRUITS UPON THE TERRACE.
Fruits that we can have on the Terrace.--Alpine Strawberry.--Buisson
de Gaillon.--Virginia Scarlet Strawberry.--Strawberry of
Chili.--Superb Wilmot.--Goliah.--Bicton White.--Queen of
Great Britain.--The Vine.--Pruning.--Thinning out the
Grapes.--Thinning out the Leaves.--Cherry Trees.--Plum
Trees.--Currants.--Raspberries.--Forced Fruit on Dwarfs.--Cutting the
Dwarf Fruit Trees on the Terrace.--Management of Cherry Trees, Plum
Trees, Strawberries, Raspberries.--Form that suits the Raspberry in a
Pot on the Terrace.
Fruits that it is practicable to have on a Terrace.
Who is not a little of an epicure? Epicurism and idleness--the love of
those pastimes often called _idle_--are the least of the seven mortal
sins; as to the others I will say nothing, being averse to dealing
in scandal. A little gluttony as regards fruits is so natural! As to
myself, I cannot honestly deny, and therefore frankly confess, that I
sympathize with our mother Eve.
The fruits, however, of which I am about to speak, have the merit
of not being forbidden; they are, on the contrary, among the most
admissible of things.
Now, you are going to ask me if I pretend to make you engage in
planting fruit trees on your terrace, such as there--perhaps--were in
those famous “Hanging Gardens” of Queen Semiramis; which gardens, by
the by,--supposing them to have ever existed,--were nothing more nor
less than terrace gardens, such as your own; only, in a degree,--never
mind what precise degree,--more spacious. I have no such grand
enterprise to propose to you, ladies; no scheme of the sort is in
my mind. I desire merely to call your attention to a small number
of excellent fruits, of which you can easily have a harvest,--I do
not promise that it shall be large enough to load a ship,--upon your
terrace.
In the first place, then, an assumption on my part. I assume that your
terrace is sufficiently spacious to admit of your border boxes being
large enough to afford room for the worship of Pomona, as well as
for that already appropriated to Flora; and this without the least
encroachment upon the rights of the lady last named. This pretty little
figure of speech--a perfect statuette, is it not?--is not original
with me: I beg you to understand, ladies, that I lay no claim to its
authorship; it belongs to the late Rousselon, and first appeared in his
Annals of Flora and Pomona.
Now,--to descend from the airy heights of fancy, and engage in our
work upon material realities,--you will find that a few strawberry
plants will not be at all in the way of your ornamental ones. And this
being the case, will it not be pleasant to you, while engaged in your
horticultural labors, to find, now and then, under your hand, a fine,
ripe strawberry or two? And these of your own production!
Strawberries.
If you open the catalogue of a horticulturist by profession, you will
be frightened at the innumerable varieties of the strawberry; each
variety asserted by the venders to be perfect; whilst, in point of
fact, the fruit produced by the greater part of them will prove to be
either flavorless or sour; or--in fine, with some defect or other,
rendering it not worth cultivating. I--who am very cautious on this
score, and who, as the result of long experience, generally eschew all
such--can safely recommend to you, as among the most desirable, the
old-fashioned alpine, which is a monthly bearer, the Virginia scarlet,
the Chili, and those English varieties called, respectively, Wilmot
superb, Goliah, Bicton white, and queen of Great Britain. This last is
noted for its extraordinary fecundity. It is of the strawberry--mind
you--that I state this. You will recollect that plants--plants
exclusively--constitute the subject of our present discourse; and you
must not let your thoughts stray off into other fields.
By adopting these varieties, and planting here and there among your
flowers a couple of plants of each of the eight[10] above named,
you will have in all sixteen; each one of which will give you on an
average six fruits. This will be ninety-six strawberries--in round
numbers, a hundred--that you will enjoy the flavor of, one by one, as
they successively ripen, and as the climax to the pleasure you will
have been experiencing all the while in watching their growth and
ripening. As respects the latter point, great self-control on your
part is indispensable. I warn you of this beforehand; for if, through
impatience, you gather them too soon, even so much as a single day too
soon, you will lose by it, I assure you. Their flavor cannot do justice
to its own merits at any point short of the most perfect maturity. Your
strawberry plants will require no other attention than that of taking
off the runners by which they propagate themselves. As to water, they
will take care of themselves, drinking their fill from the supplies
placed within their reach in watering the other plants. You must
remember to renew them every two years, by means of runners that you
will reserve for the purpose.
Grape Vine.
Of all your fruit-bearers, the one that will yield the most bounteously
is the grape. For some years past the vine has been a good deal
cultivated in pots, in order that it may be _forced_; that is, be
compelled to produce fruit long before the time when it will be
produced in the open air. This _forcing_ consists simply in cultivating
the vine in a hothouse, or tempered greenhouse. Buy vines, if you can,
all trimmed and ready for bearing, and place the pots containing them
at the foot of the posts supporting the arches of your terrace arbor.
They will there find a suitable support in the situation the most
favorable to the ripening of the fruit. Train them so as to make them
grow in festoons. In due time grapes will be there, within reach of
your hand, hanging in golden bunches, all the way from the base of the
pillars up to where the vases are suspended at the centre of the arches.
Will not this be charming?
Trimming and Thinning.
Two things are indispensable to make your grapes as good as they ought
to be--to cut off the top of the vine, which must be done as soon as
its young grapes are formed, and as large as a pea, and to thin out the
grapes when too thick in the bunch.
This last operation is as follows: When the vine grows in good earth,
in a good exposure, and has been skilfully pruned, and when too much
fruit--too many bunches--has not been left upon it, each blossom will
produce its fruit. As they expand the young grapes crowd each other;
they get squeezed together, and pressed out of shape; the air and light
can get only to those on the outside of the bunch. The consequence is,
that the bunch has not half the value at market that it would have,
had the matter been differently managed. Do you know, ladies, what,
in order to avoid this misfortune, is done by the wives and daughters
of the gardeners of Thomery? Thomery is a little village where those
unrivalled grapes are produced, which are sold at Paris under the name
of “grapes of Fontainebleau.” These women, each armed with a pair of
pointed scissors, patiently cut out, from each of those little bunches
of which every distinct bunch is composed, one young grape in every
three. And this is the way I now advise you to treat all bunches
produced, by the vines on your terrace.
You will, I acknowledge, have but four vines growing in so many
pots, and you may perhaps fancy that the produce, however good in
quality, must needs be insignificant in quantity. Let us, then, make
a little calculation. Arithmetic, you see, will thrust itself into
all human affairs, horticulture not excepted. Well, then, each one
of your four distinct vines will have four main branches, (that are
cut down short, say to about six inches in length;) from each one of
these branches there will be two running vines, and each one of these
running vines will bear two bunches of grapes. If all turns out well,
as you have reason to hope, you will then have to gather in September
or October--how many bunches? Why, if arithmetic be a reliable prophet,
you will have no less than sixty-four bunches of grapes. Is not
this number large enough to warrant your inviting, if not all your
acquaintances, yet at least the whole circle of your most intimate
friends, to aid you in the joyous labors of your vintage?
Thinning out the Leaves.
About a month before vintage time you will have to perform upon your
vines a chirurgical operation which requires considerable judgment in
the execution. By the French it is called _épamprer_, which signifies
to unleaf; consisting, as it does, in taking off such leaves as prevent
the sun from striking directly on the grapes, which solar action is
indispensable to their being gilded with their proper rich yellowish
hue, and to their possessing that richness of flavor of which this
hue is the only guarantee. If the bestowing of all these attentions
upon your vines be not an amusement for you, then,--permit me to
say it,--you do not deserve to enjoy the eating of a good bunch of
chasselas.[11]
Cherry Trees, Plum Trees, Currant Bushes, Raspberries.
Are strawberries and grapes all the fruits that you can have on your
terrace? No, certainly. There are beautiful dwarf trees, about the
culture of which I am going to give you some hints, which, if you
profit by them, will enable you to have, in addition, cherries and
Mirabelle plums; and your variety of terrace garden fruits may be
further increased by adding to these dwarf trees a couple of currant
bushes,--a white and a red,--and three or four raspberry plants. The
dwarf cherries and plums, cultivated in large pots or in boxes, like
the pomegranates and Persian lilacs, will bloom perfectly on the
terrace. You can purchase them all prepared. They will “load heavily,”
as the French gardeners say, and it will be a lively satisfaction to
you to gather their ripe fruits, some time before the usual time of
their ripening; for, placed on the terrace, they are in the best of
situations for enabling them to work energetically, and force their
fruits forward to early maturity.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Terrace Garden.]
Forced Dwarf Fruit Trees.
Is it your desire to have ripe cherries and plums to eat so early as
April or May?--a time when, if you have to buy these fruits, you must
pay very extravagant prices for them. If this be your wish, it is very
easily gratified. About a fortnight after their leaves have fallen, in
autumn, remove your dwarf fruit trees (which I suppose to be in pots)
from the terrace into the house. They will soon begin again to
vegetate, and by January or February they will be in bloom, which, of
itself, will be very agreeable to you; and they will ripen their fruits
a month or two before those in the open air. To enable them to do this,
the only assistance they require from you is to be placed near the
windows, and to be turned every day, so that each side may receive its
share of light, and to have the air they breathe kept up at a constant
temperature of from sixty-two to sixty-three degrees of Fahrenheit’s
thermometer. This will be about the temperature of your room; the one
at which it would be kept as being the most pleasant to yourself, and
the best for your health, as well as comfort; so that you will not be
put to any additional expense, nor have to derange your habits in any
way for the sake of these dwarf fruit-bearing pets of yours.
You see now that fruits, no less than flowers, have their part to play
on your terrace, although the principal part appertains to the flowers.
When you receive your friends, will it not be very pleasant to have
cherries, and currants, and raspberries to offer them, at a season
when they are great rarities in the market, and to be had there only
at prices which the Crœsuses of the stock exchange can alone afford
to pay? Will not your guests be delighted to assist you in gathering
these nice fruits from the tree with their own hands? And, when placed
upon your table, as its central ornament, will they not look far more
beautiful than if they had been bought with money?
Pruning Fruit Trees on the Terrace.
Don’t trouble yourselves about pruning your dwarf cherries and
plums. The gardeners have a saying, that these trees--whose wood
always contains a great deal of gum--do not “love the knife;” they
ought, therefore, to have it applied to them as seldom as possible.
As seldom as possible is still too often; in a word, so far as they
are concerned, keep your pruning-knife in your little gardener’s
tool-chest; they will thrive all the better for its being left
there--be all the more productive.
The raspberries, which are simple shrubs, have their own way of
vegetating; they are perennial in their roots only. The annual stalk,
after having borne its fruit, dies in autumn; and it ought then to be
cut down level with the earth in the pots. The root puts forth every
year, in great superfluity, young shoots which are destined to bear
fruit the following year; and, of these shoots, but three only must be
allowed to remain on each plant--that is to say, if you wish to have
a good crop of really fine raspberries. In the spring, cut off about
a quarter from the length of these reserved shoots; the buds at the
middle of the stalk will now develop better than if it had been left
entire; and it is from these buds always that the finest of the fruit
comes.
Currants require only to be freed from the old wood--that is to say,
the exhausted branches, which will no longer bloom, and which, with
their tops supported on a single stalk, encumber the inside of the
bush. By their being trimmed in this manner, the fruit will come out
at a good height, far enough from the earth not to be soiled by the
spattering of earthy particles during heavy showers and waterings;
this, therefore, is the best way of trimming currants on the terrace.
Now, ladies, I hope you will agree that the culture of fruits on your
terrace, if you keep them in their proper place, has its merit as well
as that of the flowers.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE DOUBLE WINDOW.
Advantages of a Double Window.--Their Use in the North.--The
Manner of decorating them.--Glass Stands.--Plants proper for the
Double Window.--Grevillea, Kennedia, Blue Lobelia, Gesneria,
Gloxinias, Achimenes, Brunfelsias, Torrenia Asiatica, Ixora, Echmea,
Begonias.--Sparmannia.--Retractility of its Stamens.
Advantages of a Double Window.
After having done our gardening in the parlor, wishing for a little
more room in which to pursue it still further, we came out of doors.
Here also our work is completed. Let us then go in again.
In all countries where Winter brings in his train a long succession
of vigorous colds, in order to guard the better against these, the
inhabitants, instead of having in their windows but a single sash,
use the wise precaution of having two--the outer one even with the
outside of the house, the inner one even with the inside wall of the
apartment. Thanks to this arrangement, the cold reigning without is
so far excluded that a mild temperature is preserved in your chamber,
while, at the same time, there remains between the two sashes a vacant
space which is at your disposal for any uses to which it is susceptible
of being put. It is the very thing for our gardening purposes.
The English like to keep avadevats there; by the Dutch, this space
is dedicated to canary birds, which they understand perfectly how to
rear, Holland being the country of all others where these birds do
most abound. There is nothing, however, ladies, to prevent you from
appropriating it to your favorite pets--flowers.
It is evident that whenever the interior sash is kept open, the
interval between the two sashes receiving, as it then does, a portion
of the atmosphere of the chamber, will of course be of the same
temperature. This space, then, is equivalent to a little conservatory,
either merely tempered or hot, according as the person who occupies
the chamber is more or less chilly; and in this temperature all
the cultures that can be conducted on a large scale in greenhouses,
tempered merely, or hot, are equally possible on a small scale in the
double window.
Manner of decorating it.
Before filling it with flowers, you must suspend there an
elegant earthen-ware vase in which to put a plant from the order
bromeliaceæ[12]--a Guzmannia, for instance, the leaves of which plant
resemble those of the ananas; and in the centre of this foliage there
appears a flower of so brilliant a red that one cannot steadfastly gaze
at it without its fatiguing the sight. The size of this vase must be
proportioned to the width of the window, and to the dimensions of the
plants that you propose to cultivate there. It is best that the small
pots which you have at the two sides be supported on shelves formed of
panes of glass, because wooden stands would intercept the light too
much. I think you would do well to follow, in arranging the plants in
the double window, the advice I gave with regard to those in the garden
at the window.
Plants proper to be placed here.
Place on the shelves of the glass stands at the two ends of the
window-sill plants of a low and tufted nature: first, on the upper
shelves, such as, without being precisely climbing or running plants,
are taller than they are broad. There is nothing of this sort more
graceful than the shrubs of the genus _Grevillea_. On the front or
lower shelves place small plants which bear many flowers, such as the
Kennedias and the blue lobelias of Surinam. Arranged in this manner,
they will not be in your way when you wish to stand close to the outer
sash to look out at the wintry scene, as a contrast to your tropical
garden within. Your double window is an excellent place also for making
a display of the plants you have obtained from seeds and slips reared
in the hot portable greenhouse. Your choice is not a limited one by any
means. In the course of my instructions, I name only some of those
which I consider as most worthy of your attention. What I shall say
in regard to their culture will be a sufficient guide to you, should
you desire to admit into their society others that require the same
temperature.
Gesneriaceæ.
The double window can also lodge, very much at their ease, plants
of the order _Gesneriaceæ_,[13] of the three genera, _Gesneria_,
_Gloxinia_, and _Achimenes_. I have already had occasion to remark with
what perfect docility a leaf, or a mere fragment of a leaf, from a
plant of this last named genus will take root when we wish to propagate
it by slips.
The gloxinias are not less accommodating: their foliage resembles
the most beautiful green velvet, and their flowers, in the form of a
goblet, have in the inside a large spot, which is always of a different
shade from the flower itself. The gesneriaceæ require a great deal
of water and of heat; they must be watered several times a day, and
whenever you have reason to fear that they may be seriously injured
by the cold at night,--which would happen only when it freezes very
hard outside,--you will take the precaution of placing them on your
mantel-piece for the night. Their bloom continues very long, and will
fully recompense you for your trouble. Treat in the same way the
Brunselsias, the torrenia Asiatica, the yxoras,[14] the æchmeas, and
the small begonias, which, in company with each other, inside of your
double window, will constitute there a charming little parterre taken
from the tropical flora.
Sparmannia.
Do not forget to add to the above one or two plants of the Sparmannia,
a native of the Cape of Good Hope. In this pretty plant you may
observe, while it is in bloom, the phenomenon of _retractility_,--with
a contrary effect, however,--which renders the _sensitive plant_ so
curious. Touch delicately with the end of your finger the summit
of the stamens of a flower of Sparmannia in full bloom: instead
of modestly closing, in imitation of our gentle mimosa, they will
forthwith scatter, spreading out in every direction with a brusque
and instantaneous movement. Some time after they will return to their
former position. This property of the stamens of the Sparmannia, less
generally known than that which manifests itself in the closing of the
leaves of the sensitive plant, is not less curious or interesting to
observe.
Forced Strawberries.
If you have two or three double windows instead of one, place pots of
strawberries upon the glass stands of one of them; they will bloom in
January, and will give, each one, five or six strawberries in February,
when out of doors the earth will perhaps yet be hard frozen, or covered
with snow, and the river will be covered with skaters. At such a time a
single strawberry, gathered from a plant forced by your care, in one of
your double windows, will have the right to seem supremely delicious to
you.
CONCLUSION.
And here, my dear ladies, ends the series of notions upon horticulture
in the house that I proposed to give you. Can the Parlor Gardener
flatter himself with having inspired you with a little interest for
those plants that you already loved without knowing it,--for you were
predisposed by your nature to do so,--and that you will love better
and better in proportion as you know them more? One thing above all
ought to have struck you in the course of our discourse: it is, that
in all that I have taken the liberty to recommend to you, there is
not a single process that each of you cannot practise by yourself;
not a single culture that you cannot succeed in by conforming to my
hints. Success in our undertakings, whatever the thing may be that we
undertake to do, is always pleasure--often happiness.
Let us understand each other, however. I do not pretend that every
thing you do will be always crowned with success; you will often go
wrong, and then your attempts will necessarily fall through; this is
inevitable. But this much I can promise, and answer for--that with a
little reflection you will always be able to discern the cause of your
failure; and this being seen, you can then begin again, and obtain from
a second attempt what you could not from the first.
My dear ladies, I shall enjoy the pleasure--in imagination, at
least--of seeing you engaged in adorning with these beautiful children
of Flora, first your mantel-piece, next your _étagère_, then your
flower-stand, your balcony, and your terrace, all in due succession.
I can picture to myself the liveliness of the satisfaction with which
you will watch the growth and the opening of the first bud of the first
camellia, grafted with your own hand, and that also with which you will
gather the first fruit of the first cherry tree that you will have
forced under my directions. No doubt the ladies of your acquaintance
will take pleasure in following your example--this inoffensive taste
for gardening is also a growing and spreading thing. Permit me, then,
dear ladies, to indulge the hope that there will spring out from all
this--amidst the violets and mignionettes--a little kind recollection
of THE PARLOR GARDENER.
INDEX.
A.
Alaterne, 122
Aquarium, 86
Aquarium, construction of, 89
Aquarium, parlor, 88
B.
Balcony to the East, 100
Balcony to the North, 98
Balcony to the South, 107
Balcony to the West, 103
Bean, Spanish, 100
Buddleya, 112
Bulbs, choice of them, 21
C.
Cactuses, 34
Camellias, 84
Christmas rose, 119
Chrysanthemums, 106
Cleaning of plants, 18
Clematis, 124
Clianthus, 112
Cobea, 100
Crocus, 25
Currants, 138
D.
Delphinium, 125
Digitalis, 99
Double window, 143
E.
Echinocacti, 35
Epamprement, 137
Epinoche, 91
F.
Fruits grown on the terrace, 129
Fuchsias, 116
Fruit trees, dwarf, forced, 138
Flower bulbs, 21
G.
Galanthus, 118
Garden in the apartment, 11
Garden on the étagère, 31
Garden on the flower-stand, 44
Garden on the mantelpiece, 20
Garden on the terrace, 120
Garden on the window, 96
Gesneria, 147
Glass shelves, 145
Gloxinia, 147
Glycine of China, 124
Grafts à la pontoise, 82
Grafts of Camellia, 84
Grafts of Orange, 80
Grafts, what practicable, 78
Greenhouse, cold, 56
Greenhouse, warm, 73
Grevillea, 146
H.
Hepatica, 99
Hibiscus, 125
Hollyhock, 124
Holly, variegated, 122
Honeysuckle, 124
Hyacinth, flowering in water, 21
Hydrocharis, 92
Hypericum, 99
I.
Ivy, Irish, 98
J.
Japan quince, 119
Jonquil, 24
K.
Kennedia, 146
L.
Larkspur, 125
Ligatures for grafts, 81
Lobelia, 146
M.
Mandevillea suaveolens, 46
Melocacti, 35
Mesembryanthemums, 38
Mignionette, 102
Mimosa pudica, 92
Mimulus, 99
N.
Nemophiles, 99
Nipping off buds, 134
P.
Pansies, 102
Passion flower, 46
Pelargoniums, 71
Periwinkle, 122
Plants bought in flower, 45
Plants for the double window, 130
Plants for the flower-stand, 45
Plums, 137
Pruning grapes, 134
Q.
Quince, Japan, 119
R.
Ranunculus, 62
Ranunculus, aquatic, 94
Raspberry bush, 137
Rhodiola, 5
Rice, grafted, 92
Rose, Bourgainville, 124
Rose, Boursault, 124
S.
Sedum (stone-crop), 38
Seed-bed, 58
Sempervivum (house-leek), 5
Shrubs, branching, 124
Shrubs, climbing, 124
Slips in the cold portable greenhouse, 66
Slips in the warm portable greenhouse, 73
Slips of begonia, 69
Slips of camellia, 74
Slips of chrysanthemums, 71
Slips of dwarf succulent plants, 68
Slips of leaves, 68
Slips of pelargoniums, 71
Slips, rose, 71
Snow-drop, 118
Spanish beans, 100
Sparmannia, 148
Stapelia, 36
Stock gillyflower, 102
Strawberry, Alpine, 132
Strawberry, Chili, 132
Strawberry, Goliah, 132
Strawberry, Queen of Great Britain, 132
Strawberry, Virginia scarlet, 132
Strawberry, Wilmot superb, 132
T.
Terrace, balcony, 110
Terrace, garden, 120
Thinning grapes, 134
Thunbergia alata, 46
Tomatoes grafted on potatoes, 78
V.
Vases, hanging, 101-104
Vine cultivated in flower pot, 133
Violet, double climbing, 47
Virginia creeper, 124
W.
Watering, 13
Warmth, 16
Winter rose, 119
Wood pink, 46
Y.
Yxora, 148
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The epacris is a New Holland shrub, which the first settlers
mistook for a kind of heath, and which is still called heath in
Australia, where the true heath (_erica_) is unknown.--Mrs. Loudon’s
_Ladies’ Companion to the Flower Garden_, edited by A. J. Downing.
[2] Tussilago--coltsfoot. _Vanilla tussilago_ is probably the tussilago
fragrans.
[3] Round-shaped cacti, which take their name from their resemblance,
in form and spines, to a curled-up hedgehog.--Mrs. Loudon’s _Ladies’
Companion to the Flower Garden_.
[4] HAND-GLASSES--Portable frames or covers, formed of iron, zinc,
or wood, and glazed. These glasses differ from bell-glasses in being
longer and composed of numerous small pieces of glass, which are
fastened together by narrow strips of lead. Hand-glasses are generally
square; but they may be made of an octagon, or any other shape that
may be found most convenient; and they are sometimes made with a pane
to open to admit air, or with the upper part to take off. This is
very convenient; for as hand-glasses are chiefly used for protecting
half-hardy plants during winter, it is necessary to give them air
every fine day, and it is very troublesome to be obliged to lift the
hand-glass off the plant, and to lay it on one side, whenever this is
done. Bell-glasses, on the contrary, being principally for preventing
the evaporation of moisture from the leaves of cuttings, do not
require any opening, as the plants seldom want any air till they have
rooted.--Mrs. Loudon’s _Ladies’ Companion for the Flower Garden_.
[5] Peat mixed with sand.
[6] From the word _pompon_, the worsted ornament worn in soldiers’
caps, in lieu of feathers.
[7] Frog-bit--a pretty little British water-plant with white
flowers.--Mrs. London’s _Ladies’ Companion for the Flower Garden_.
[8] Description of the water ranunculus in America by Dr. Darlington,
of West Chester, Pa., in his _Flora Cestrica_:--
“_Ranunculus_, Linn., (Latin _rana_, a frog, the plant often growing
where frogs abound.)
“_Ranunculus aquatilis_, Linn., water ranunculus; _Vulgo_, river
crowfoot.
“Root perennial. Stems numerous from the root, procumbently floating,
nine to eighteen inches long, very slender, smooth, jointed, branching,
and usually throwing out a couple of filiform roots at the joints.
Leaves alternate, one at each joint, ... segments half an inch to an
inch long.... Petals white or ochroleucous, yellow at base....
“Habitat, flowing waters; Brandywine, frequent. Flowers June to August.
“_Observation._--I have often found this plant entirely submersed (and
usually in swift-running water) so deep that the flowers certainly
never reached the surface. Professor De Candolle enumerates five
varieties of this species, four of which Professor Hooker gives as
natives of British America; but I have only met with the present one in
this county, (Chester County, Pa.)”
[9] The althæa is an hibiscus.
[10] The eighth, being peculiarly a French strawberry, has been omitted.
[11] It would be well to try this method with other grapes.
[12] Order Bromeliaceæ (the pineapple family) consists of American
and chiefly tropical plants; with rigid and dry channelled leaves,
often with a scurfy surface; a mostly adnate perianth of three sepals
and three petals, and six or more stamens; the seeds with mealy
albumen.--Gray’s _Botanical Text Book_.
[13] Order Gesneriaceæ, consisting of tropical herbs, with green
foliage and showy flowers.--Gray’s _Botanical Text Book_.
[14] There is an interesting history of the yxora in Mrs. Loudon’s book.
Transcriber's Notes:
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Perceived typographical errors have been changed.