The amateur gardener, a guide, revised and ed. by W. Robinson1880 |
Common terms and phrases
allowed amateur Asparagus autumn beautiful bedding plants better bloom border branches buds bulbs bushes cabbages calceolarias cauliflowers celery chrysanthemums Cliveden cold cold frame colour conservatory covered crop cucumbers cultivation culture dwarf early earth endive feet flowering plants foliage frame freely fresh frost fruit fruit-trees fuchsia garden Gentiana acaulis geraniums glass green greenhouse ground grow grower grown growth half-hardy plants hardy heat hotbed inches indoors injury keep kinds leaves lettuces light soil liquid manure loam Madame manure moist month open air pelargoniums pinch plenty possible potatoes prevent propagated pruning removed require rich ripen roots rose rows sand Seakale season seed seedlings shade shoots shrubs Silene pendula soon sown specimens spinach stem sufficient summer surface syringed taken things thinned tion transplanted trees trench turnips varieties vegetable vines wall warm weather winter yellow young plants
Popular passages
Page 176 - They perish at a touch. As they breathe through the pores of the skin, water alone — the grand promoter of life and cleanliness — is death to them; and they are still more subject to sure destruction when to the water is added an active poison, such as tobacco, or a substance that adheres to them and stops the process of breathing, such as glue, clay, sulphur, soft soap, and the preparations that are specially made to annihilate insect hosts.
Page 182 - In using a mixture or preparation for the first time, it is advisable to try it on one plant only, and that, of course, the worst in the collection affected. If the preparation is too strong or too weak, the truth will be declared by the state of the plant within twentyfour hours ; thus a little caution may save a great loss. Another good rule is to employ the several preparations rather less powerful than advised until experience has been gained, for we have not only the strength of the medicine...
Page 60 - ... to the plants, and firmly trodden in against them, so as to keep the edging exactly in the position required. The trench should always be made on the side next the walk, and after the soil is pressed down, and the walk gravelled, the gravel is brought up, over the soil, close to the stems of the Box, so as to cover the soil at least an inch in thickness, and to prevent any soil being seen on the gravel- walk side of the Box.
Page 137 - Late planting and deep planting both tend to defer the time of blooming, although there will not be a great difference in any case, and as a rule the late bloom is to be preferred, because less liable to injury from frost. The shallowest planting should ensure a depth of...
Page 136 - ... placing them in the heat in which they are to flower. Those to bloom at Christmas should be potted in September, those to follow may be potted a month later. If a long succession is required, a sufficient number should be potted every two or three weeks to the end of the year ; the latest potted will, of course, flower in frames without the aid of heat.
Page 136 - In small pots one hollow crock must suffice, but the 48-and 32-sized pots can be prepared in the usual way, with one large hollow crock, and a little heap of smaller potsherds or nodules of charcoal over it. Fill the pots quite full of soil, and then press the bulb into it, and press the soil round the bulb to finish the operation. If potted loosely, they will not thrive; if potted too firmly, they will rise up as soon as the roots begin to grow, and be one-sided.
Page 60 - Boxedging once properly made, and clipped every year, so as to form a miniature hedge, about three inches wide at bottom, three inches high, and two inches wide at top, will last ten or twelve years before it requires to be taken up and replanted ; but, if the edging be allowed to attain a larger size — say, six inches wide at bottom, six inches high, and three inches wide at top, — it will last fifteen or twenty years, or probably a much longer period.
Page 181 - A special preparation may be made as follows : Take six pounds of soft soap, and dissolve in twelve gallons of water, add half a gallon of strong tobacco water, and dip the plants in the mixture. Before they become dry, dip again in pure rainwater to remove the mixture. If too large to dip, apply the mixture with the syringe, and in the course of a quarter of an hour or so syringe with pure rainwater. Our illustration shows the Thrips in the larval and winged state, natural size and greatly magnified.
Page 181 - ... inconspicuous. But the black deposit they make reveals their existence to the experienced eye, and the debilitated condition of the plants they have attacked would soon compel attention were there no such deposit to tell the tale. The Indian Azaleas are apt to be beset by Thrips, as the Grape-vine is by Scale, the Pineapple by Mealy Bug, and the Rose by Green Aphis.
Page 60 - The trench should always be made on the side next the walk ; and after the soil is pressed down, and the walk gravelled, the gravel is brought up over the soil, close to the stems of the Box, so as to cover the soil at least an inch in thickness, and to prevent any soil being seen on the gravel-walk side of the Box. This also prevents the Box from growing too luxuriantly ; as it would be apt to do if the trench were on the border side, when the plants would lean...