319 



GAEDEN GUIDE EOE OCTOBER. 



E sincerely trust that oar readers have had as good fortune as ourselves, 

 I since the genial rains of the "second summer." We are now enjoying 

 good dishes of peas from sowings made at the end of July, and late- 

 sown turnips are doing so well that we almost forget how our early 

 sowings all perished. "Well, this should be a busy time in every de- 

 partment of the garden, as almost every kind of work usually postponed until 

 winter may now be done, and better done, too, than when frost, rain, and snow 

 interrupt our labours. October is the best month in the whole year to plant hardy 

 evergreen shrubs of every kind, provided the ground is ready ; it is a time, too, 

 for planting roses and fruit-trees, and for a grand clean up everywhere, and for 

 beginning works of improvement. Those who hope to see spring flowers when the 

 days are again lengthening, must be busy now in planting and potting bulbs, and 

 in securing stock of all such good things as arabis, alyssum, polyantluis, primula, 

 and other early flowering plants, of which we have given selections so frequently^ 

 that we need not even name them now. Any kinds of hardy herbaceous plants 

 may be planted now, and they will be well rooted before frost occurs. Chrysan- 

 themums are fast advancing into flower, and should be in such a state as regards 

 training, etc., etc., as to need nothing but water or weak liquid manure to keep 

 them going right. See that all pits and frames are clean before putting plants into 

 them. 



TO COEEESPONDENTS. 



Keepixg Large Zoxale Pelargoniums through the "Winter. — A Lady 

 Gardener. — You need experience very little difficulty in preserving the large 

 plants you have standing about on your lawn. They will do -very well in your 

 greenhouse. Keep them dry all the winter, with just sufficient heat to keep the 

 frost from them. Early in March, cut them back, and directly they begin to push, 

 take them out of the pots, remove a portion of the old soil, prune the roots, and 

 repot in the same sized pot. Use good fibr}^ loam, mixed with a little rotten dung 

 and leaf-mould. By this system of management, which is as simple as anything 

 can well be, the plants can easily be kept in a fresh, flowering condition any 

 number of years in the same sized pot. We have kept large plants in outhouses 

 all the winter. The principal point is to get the wood thoroughly ripened before 

 housing. This can be easily effected by v^^ithholding the water a few weeks before- 

 hand. The doors should be open in fine weather, and in frosty weather the plants 

 must be laid on their sides, and a good tliickness of dry hay placed over them. 

 We would not advise you to prune them now, but you might trim off" a few of the 

 straggling branches, if the plants are likely to take up more space than you can 

 spare. 



Keeping Late Grapes. — R. P. — Keep the house dry, and use as little fire as 

 you possibly can to effect this. Houses in which grapes are to be kept through the 

 winter ought to have no plants growing in them, as the dampness arising from the 

 watering which has to be done has necessarily a very prejudicial effect upon their 

 keeping qualities. Look over the branches occasionally, and thin out any of the 

 berries that show the least sign of mouldiness, for one will soon aff'ect the other. 



Removing Leaves from Wall Trees.— Po;«a. — After there has been sufficient 

 frost to affect the leaves, so that they part readily from the branches, you may go 

 over them lightly with a new birch-broom, to remove a iew to expose the wood 

 more fully to the light and air. Work the broom in the same direction as the buds, 

 and use it very lightly, so as to remove those only that are fully matured, or you will 

 do more harm than good. We have often swept a few of the ripest off" in cold 

 seasons, when the wood is not so ripe as it should be. 



Pruning Laurestinus. — F. G. — If you prune these now, you will cut away all 

 the flowering shoots, and instead of having handsome bushes full of flower, you will 

 have nothing but skeletons of old and bare wood. If they should happen to break 

 this autumn, which probably they would do, the growth would be tender, and the 



