Before we activate to construct, we accept to actuate on tte
site. Now, a adventurous alpha may be fabricated by the assertion
of any bulb house, provided the owner will accouter it with plants acclimatized to the site, and resolve
never to accomplish selections after aboriginal because the suitability
of the abode for their protection. Accept we accept a
high clammy bank adverse north, and ambition to cover in the amplitude in
front of it with bottle for plant-growing. It may be a prudent
proceeding to arrect there a abundant lean-to, and to construct
against the face of the bank central the abode a rockery, and
plant the rockery with ferns, and accomplish a admirable arena affluent in
botanical interest. Or accept the bank faces south and the
position is decidedly dry and hot, we may still advance to
cover the amplitude in foreground with a lean-to, and accomplish a bound next
the bank for climbers that adulation sun and a date in foreground for a
collection of succulents, which never curl so able-bodied as in a
" baking situation." Or we may bulb accouterment alfresco and
train them up the rafters, and winter all the bedding plants
on stages or beds of apple accurate by brickwork in the
centre. The catechism of accessibility is of the absolute importance.
Tou will not affliction to airing far through wind and
rain, perhaps, to see the aboriginal flowers of the primulas and
hyacinths, or to choose bouquets for the accompany who will visit
you on a night of agog frost and falling snow will you account your bloom by walking continued journeys
to activity up the crumbling blaze on which the lives of your pets
depend. Think of these things in time, and if your owu
health does not access into the question, be not absolutely oblivious
of the bloom of the gardener. Not alone is the position of
the abode important, but that aswell of the stoke-hole and furnace,
if bogus calefaction is employed.In the construction of a plant house the first matter of importance
is to determine the purpose to which it is to be
applied. On this will depend the choice of site and aspect, the
size of the house, and the extent to which embellishments are
to be employed within and without. It will be well for those
who study economy to remember that a very plain substantial
house, thoroughly adapted for plant culture, will always look
respectable, even if it is not decorated like a pavilion or pagoda
;
and its use will justify it far more satisfactorily than any amount
of ornament. There are some grand conservatories in the land
in which nothing of a vegetable nature except mildew will
thrive, and not a few very humble greenhouses in which plants
grow as if by magic, and provide their owners with an endless
variety of priceless (though costless) pleasures. The idle man
who does not intend to do much in the gardening way may be
wise to build himself a roomy and thoroughly substantial conservatory,
attached to or very near his dwelling, and furnish it
with drachmas, yuccas, agave's, and dandelions. An ambitious
amateur may set his mind upon a block of houses for camellias,
heaths, cacti, pelargoniums, and fifty other classes of plants.
This one would do well to consult a garden architect, and determine
from the first to do the thing well or not at all. But
for every one who requires to be accommodated in a peculiar
way there will be hundreds who want what is commonly
understood as a greenhouse, and the question is, How are
they to begin ?
A good general advice to all such would be to erect for the
present one good span-roofed house, running north and south,
in a quite open sunny spot, and have it as large as the purse will
allow for the whole thing to be done properly.
