THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



Ill 



from the very best flowers, which always pro- 

 duce the least, it is waste of time even to sow 

 it. Pay a good price, and go to the most re- 

 spectable dealers, and then do your best to 

 grow it well. We will suppose you to have 

 clone as advised last month, and now some of 

 the seedlings begin to look promising. Sow 

 again for pinks, carnations, and picotees the 

 first week in June, and sow now auother pinch 

 of pansy. As soon as your seedling pinks are 

 large enough to handle, pot them into thumb- 

 pots, in a mixture of peat, very old cow-dung, 

 silver sand, and yellovv loam, equal parts. 

 When they fill those pots with roots, shift into 

 sixties, in three parts turfy loam, one part old 

 cow-dung, and one part leaf-mould. Keep these 

 for blooming in pots, and let the last shut be 

 into ten-inch pots, in pairs, with plenty of drain- 

 age. Give plenty of water, and keep in a cold 

 frame till frost sets in, and then move to the 

 greenhouse for early bloom. Allow only one 

 stem to a plant, give liquid manure frequently, 

 and thin tiie bloom buds, aud you will have good 

 flowers, some better ttian others, and the very 

 best to be kept and propagated by pipings. The 

 summer sowiug is for tue main stock. Sow on 

 a rich border, and as soon as the plants will 

 bear transplanting plant them three inches apart 

 in a bed, in two parts turty loam, and one part 

 old cow-dung. Give plenty of water in dry 

 weather till the middle of September, and then 

 remove them to the places where they are to 

 bloom, the soil to be enriched for them. The 

 most promising to be potted in pairs, in three 

 parts chopped turf, not smaller than walnuts, 

 with all the dust mixed with it, and one part 

 old dung. Pansies you may sow every three 

 weeks all the summer. Those to bloom in the 

 open ground to have a soil liberally enriched 

 with cow-dung, and made light, if necessary, by 

 the addition of sharp sand. Water liberally . 

 give preference to a spot partially shaded, and 

 you will soon have plenty i.f bloom. Prom tlie 

 best take cuttings ot youug side shoots, avoiding 

 all old hollow stems. Those to bloom in pots 

 sliould be in a mixture of turfy loam, well rotted 

 or slightly charred, to kill the grass, and oue- 

 third dung trom a cucumber bed. Begin with 

 thimble-pots, using at first a very sandy com- 

 post. Shif. a- required. Use no artificial heat, 

 iiloom them in seven-inch pots, aud suade while 

 in bloom. Plenty of water and weak liquid 

 manure. 



Vines in a Curate's Vinery. — 2f. S. — To leave 

 a vine " three feet in lengtu, the thickness of a 

 cedar pencil, with a dozen buds on it," as re- 

 ceived from the nursery, will not do. Cut it 

 down to the plumpest bud, about six buds from 

 the base, and rub away the three lowest buds. 

 Vou will thus have perhaps three buds and a 

 leader. Let the leader start along with the 

 buds left below it, till these side shoots are 

 two inches long. Then pinch them back, and a 

 a fortnight afterwards remove them altogether. 

 Vou wili thus get a straight strong rod to train 

 along the trench. Next season, cut back the 

 leader to twelve buds from the base, and then 

 the side suoots are to be allowed to push till 

 they show their bunches, and theu be stopped 

 one bud above the bunch, and aU laterals be 

 stopped two buds from tue base of the shoot 

 they come from. Every year you must leave 

 on each spur a bud for fruit and a bud for 

 wood, the wood bud to be the one next the 

 base ot the spur, aud the fruit bud to be the 

 fourth or tilth from it ; the intermediate buds 

 to be removed. Glad to hear of the profit 

 you derive from the perusal of the Floral 

 World. 



Trop^olum Culture. — T. 8. Euthferland.—We 

 cauuot say why your Tropseoluii) Jarratti and 

 tri colorum should die oft' so suddenly. Very 



likely the pots were not well drained. They 

 like peat and rotted turf from a loamy pasture. 

 Turn them out, and you will perhaps discover 

 better than we can guess why they failed so 

 suddenly. 

 Lime-Tree Caterpillars. — J. Y. — " A row of 

 lime-trees in the front of our house for the last 

 two years has been devastated by a small green 

 caterpillar, which has literally destroyed the 

 leaves before they came to maturity. Can you 

 suggest a remedy ?" Limes have many enemies, 

 as we know to our own vexation, having a piece 

 of lime-hedge that is frequently disfigured. 

 The caterpillars that attack limes are those of 

 the lime hawk-moth, canary shouldered thorn- 

 motb, buff-tip, gypsy, dagger, and vapourer. 

 As soon as they appear, lay a sail-cloth, sheet, 

 or tarpaulin under the trees, and shake the 

 trees or beat them with large poles, and num- 

 bers will be dislodged, and may be destroyed 

 by sweeping them into a hole and covering 

 with earth. Repeat this process frequently, as 

 many escape the first beating, and also capture 

 the moths which may be found sitting on the 

 trunks of the trees, where they collect to de- 

 posit their eggs. 



SOLANUM CAPSICASTRUM— F.RICAS DONE BLOOM- 

 ING. — Lansdowne. — This must be treated as an 

 annual, and when the fruit shrivels throw it 

 away, and keep up a succession of plants from 

 seed. The ordinary mixture used for calceo- 

 larias will suit it admirably. Sow in dung- 

 heat, and grow the plants fast in full sunshine 

 and with plenty of air and water all summer. 

 Ericas done blooming should be repotted if 

 they require it ; if not remove the surface soil, 

 and dress them with fresh peat, full of grit and 

 fibre, and put them in a cold frame, setting 

 each pot on an inverted pot. All pots must be 

 well drained, and plants have air night and day 

 all through the season. Shade from the fierce 

 mid-day sun. 



Lite Vinery and Greenhouse. — Mr. Howlett 

 does not state how the front sashes of the 

 vinery, at p. 25 of February Number, are to be 

 made to open. I should like to know. It strikes 

 me that a plan of a late vinery, to be used also 

 as a greenhouse, s ly 34 feet long by 11 broad, 

 or even of somewhat less dimensions, witu 

 provision for merely keeping out frost, and au 

 approximate estimate of the cost, would be 

 useful to your readers. The price mentioned at 

 p. 25 of this year, namely, £3-'0, is an appalling 

 sum. It is true that by comoining and docking 

 the plans, given at various times in the Floral 

 World, such a house could perhaps be arrived 

 at; but, besides that, an inexperienced person 

 would have some difficulty in doing this — he 

 might fill into some mistake. The author of 

 the plans could do it at once with e.ise. — 

 Alexander Bayle. — Each light is to be hung 

 by what are called " butt joints " to the top 

 plate, so that when required open, the bottom 

 is to be pushed outward. There are plans in 

 use by which the whole of the sashes of a house 

 ' may be made to open at once. One method is 

 by having an iron bar the whole length, to 

 which is attached jointed levers, so that when 

 a handle is pulled at one end of the building, it 

 gives a contrary action to the levers, and they 

 in consequence push open the lights. A clever 

 blacksmith can manage this; but the least ex- 

 pensive plan is oue ihat h.is been long in use, 

 and consists in attaching a flat iron bar to the 

 lower edge of each light, by meaDS of an eye 

 and a staple, so that it has liberty to work ; the 

 bar to be pierced with holes to fit on to an iron 

 pin fixed in the sill, so that the light can be kept 

 iu any position desired ; when the 1 ght is shut, 

 the pin woul i be in the first hole, and the bar 

 itseli would lay across the lront stage. The 

 other matter will have attention at some future 



