184 



THE FLORAL WOKLD AA'D GARDE]\' GUIDE. 



of ordinary mortals wbu tremble at your luighty 

 judgments. While the Mussuluiau cries, " In 

 the name of the prophet, fitrs !" ve <lenizens of 

 a chillier dime exclaim, " By Jupiter, a good 

 strawberry is a dish for the gods." 

 Calceolahias Dyi>G.— J". A. P. — AVe can at 

 once gues.«, from your " inadequate descrip- 

 tion," the plant you wish ti) h;ive naiiied; it is 

 Gay.ania splendeus. It grows freely in any 

 »ood soil, blooms prolusely until stopped by 

 frost, and plays no tricks, as the calceolarias 

 ■do? therefore, it will, to a great extent, tiike 

 the place of that old favourite as a yellow bed- 

 der. A gi'eat many conjectures have been 

 made as to the cause of calceolarias dying off', 

 but none of them are satisfacfoiy. We will 

 add another to the number, and our opinion is 

 that the previous culture is the cause. We 

 find that the sudden deaths occur almost ex- 

 clusively amony: plants that were pot-bound 

 before they were turned out; if this is the 

 faufc, the rationale is not hard to trace. A 

 hard ball from a sixty-pot probably never gets 

 thoroughly moistenea Irom the day it is turned 

 out, and ;it turning out there is generally so 

 much to do that the calceolarias are plunted in 

 a. hurry, instead of being will wetted and 

 pressed up close when bedded. The sudden 

 deaths have happened every d:iy this season ; 

 in the best kept gardens as well as in the worst, 

 ■except where the soil is peaty and damp, and 

 m such places they have si cod well. We have 

 had two disti'ict sets of calceolarias under our 

 eye this season ; one lot was turned out of 

 eixty-pots in the usual way, and a large propor- 

 tion perished between the 10th and iiOlh of 

 July. Another lot was struck last autumn in 

 frames half filled with sweepings of peat, turf, 

 very rotten dung, and the arit swept trora par- 

 den paths. These were lifted out of their bed 

 with large roots, and the plants had never 

 touched a pot of any kind, and not one of them 

 has f.iiled yet ; so therelmm we deduce a prac- 

 tical lesson, and while profiting by it ourselves, 

 ■wish our readers to do the .^sanie. The beds 

 must match symmrtricallv ; say, 1, Annie grra- 

 nium; 2 and 4, Mrs. Holford verbi-na ; 3 and 5, 

 <3azania splendens ; 6 and 8, Tom Thumb or 

 Crystal Palace geranium, edged with blue 

 lobelia; 7 and 9, Purple King verbena; 10 

 and 12, Imperial Crimson geranium; 11 and 

 13, Magenta geranium. Get the sorts in now, 

 and propagate at once for next year. We do 

 not undertake to plant beds ; and if you do not 

 like the planting when done, you must not 

 lodge a complaint against us. 

 Roses. — Fvior. — Paul Kicaut is a hybrid Bourbon 

 summer rose ; it blooms but orce, and is then 

 done for the season. Though a first-class rose a 

 few years since, it is now third-rate, owing to 

 the great improvement effected in the class of 

 continuous Ijloomers. It is a capital rose for 

 exhibition at the end of June or eaily in July. 

 The entry in the list you refer to is a mistake. 

 Triomphe de Rennes ia a free-growing Noisette 

 in a sheltered position, but it will not run up 

 •with such speed as most others of its class. 

 H. P. Triomphe de Paris and Maria Portemer 

 are likely to o well with you, but Count Bo- 

 brinsky will lose character, and bother you 

 with mildew. Gloire de Santhenay, Eugene 

 Appert, and Victor Verdier, will be amougstthe 

 best of all roses for town, and the be.-t also for 

 any place where good roses are esteemed. We 

 shiiuld not advise you to use any of them as 

 climbers. Take Jules Margottin, or some of 

 the most robust of the Noisettes, and you will 

 be more sure of p.ccompli^hi' g your object. 

 Further notes will be acceptable. Why you 

 cannot do the Genei al we are puzzled to un- 

 derstand, but you are not the only complainant 

 against his carmine excellency. 



EvEKGREl^s Cur Down by mi; WiKitn. — 

 3/. F. — We advised the removal of uni-ightly 

 shrubs to the reserve ground, and we adopted 

 that plan ourselves, and have now at command 

 a good eupply of shoots for propagation. Kven 

 myrtles, which appeared to be t stinct, have 

 made good growth Irom the roots, and euony- 

 mus the same. You will find on article by Mr. 

 Howlett, at page 208 of the Klohal WoELr for 

 1859, which will teach you how to turn these 

 summer shoots to account, to get up a new 

 stock of shrubs. Almost any of our hardy 

 evergreens will strike from cuttings of this 

 summer's growth, if planted in a sandy soil in 

 a shady place. The compo.'t shaken out of old 

 pots is capital stuff' to propagate hardy shrubs 

 in, if turned two or three times to sweeten it, 

 and then made up into a bed in a position 

 rather shaded or in frames and pits. Hollies 

 may be propagated from cuttings now, in sandy 

 soil on a north lorder, under hand-lights. 

 Leave the Cedrus deodara alone till dctoher, 

 then lift it, trim it up, and plant in fresh loamy 

 soil. It will do well in a north af^pect, if raised 

 above the level, but not if the position is damp. 



OncHARn House.— C. i;., £'«s^ ,SAc<?».— There is 

 no objection to lowering the level if the posi- 

 tion is dr3'. On a well-diained soil a more 

 equable temperature is obtained by lowering 

 the site of a house, but in a damp position that 

 advantage would be nullified by the injury re- 

 sulting from stai^nant moisture during winter. 

 We do not like the double hip of your diagram. 

 We would make it a span, and contract the 

 width. If you consult the Fi.onAL WoEi D 

 you will find an abundance of plans and dimen- 

 sions, from which you can select to work fiom. 

 See the Nos. for January, Feb) nary, and May, 

 185.5 ; February, April, September, and Octo- 

 ber, 1860. 

 Flowering Shkub.s. — fV. It. //.—The following 

 are free-growing deciduous kinds in high 

 esteem : — Weigelia rosea, pink, May ; Altheae 

 frutex, various, September ; Euonyinus Euro- 

 pa;us, red berries in autumn ; Ulex Euro- 

 paeus, fl. pi. yellow, spring; Viburnum oj-ulus, 

 white. May; ('himonanthus fragrans, white, 

 Feb.; Cydonia Japonica, this makes a capital 

 flowering shrub; Forsythia viridissima, yellow, 

 March ; Rhus cotinus ; Ribes atrosanguineum, 

 fl. pi., crimson. May. You might select, pur- 

 chase, and plant at once, or seieet now while 

 the shrubs are in full foliage, and plant in 

 October. 



Stkavvbi;i!ky Euknehs. — V. — The removal of 

 these must depend upon circumstances. If the 

 plantation is old, it should be rfnewed by de- 

 stroying the old plants, and trenching nnd 

 manuring the ground, and planting in their 

 place the plumpest and best rooted of the run- 

 ners. If the plantation is young and vigorous, 

 and no increase of stock is wanted, the run- 

 ners may be removed, and their removal will 

 strengthen the hearing plants. Those who tell 

 you that > emoval of runners will prevent bear- 

 ing next year, talk nonsense. 



LiGuniAN Bee— Black Bee.— It has yet to be 

 proved if these are in any respects superior as 

 to hardiness and honey -making to our old friend 

 Apis mellijica ; that "is to say, it has to be 

 proved in this country. As to their habits, 

 Ihey differ but little from the common bnney- 

 bee, and their value is at present a matter for 

 inquiry and experiment. Thoi gh we have as- 

 sisted in their introduction to this country, it 

 was simply in the interests of science, not from 

 any deep conviction of their superiority. 



A^AP.ior.s.—-i/jp/ifl.— Build the new pit to face the 

 north, it will thus be doubly useful, as you 

 have one in a south aspect already.— JB/TH?(';i.7/y 

 Co/^r/jp.—lleccived safely, thanks. 



