90 



^THE FLORAL WORLD A.ND QARDEN GUIDE. 



ugly name or disreputable conucctions; 

 therefore we want a registei-' iu which 

 every deserving plant may draw on for a 

 cliaracter. 



When should the greenhouse Daphne, 

 the blush white one, be pruned ? The 

 new shoots are now about an inch long, 

 and, if cut down in the beginning of April, 

 will it make bloom-jioints for next winter, 

 and can I root the pieces cut off? When, 

 too, is the time to prune straggling 

 Chinese Azaleas, and will they make bloom- 

 buds for next year ? I cannot give them 

 extra heat. Mr. Hibberd is quite right 

 ■when he says hard-eyed Dahlias do not 

 bloom well near town, neither do weakly 

 growing ones with small foliage. I have 

 always found the largest -leaved kinds best, 

 and I have tried some hundreds. Let me 

 recommend Cockney amateurs (and I am 

 one of them) to choose large foliage, and 

 bold robust growth. As to colour, blush- 

 white does not show the effect of smoke 

 80 soon as pure-white ; crimsons are good ; 

 orange (unless very bi'ight, aud where are 

 they to be found ?) are dull and miserable ; 

 Duke of Wellington degenerates into 

 sickly salmon ; lilacs should be shuuned as 

 a plague ■ crimson, or cherry and white are 

 first-rate, as well as similar colours to the 

 Empereur de Maroc ; deep crimson, or 

 black and white ; yellows, both light and 

 dark, are excellent, and not sufficiently 

 grown to balance the many dark colours. 



In bedding plants, I find, among Ver- 

 henas, Brilliant de Vaise, Lord Raglan, 

 Mrs. Holford, Old St. Margaret, Purple 

 King, Le Gondolier, Oi'ion, and General 

 Simp.sou, are all good ; Miss Trotter aud 

 Standard-bearer require a more open spots ; 

 Imperial Elizabeth grows too rampant, 

 and is shy of bloom ; Defiance is not at all 

 the thing, aud is very subject to green 

 fly. Geranhtms : Tom Thumb, too weak ; 

 but Punch excellent and hardy to keep 

 through the winter ; Cerise Unique ex- 

 cellent, but looks dull at a distance ; Com- 

 mander very good; but the two latter 

 difficult to keep. Calceolarias .- Yiscossiraa 

 beats all the old ones, as Rugosa, etc, ; 

 Amplexieaulis, extra, requires pegging 

 down. Wellington Hero, very good dwarf 



for an edging round Tiscossima. Petunias 

 will not do near London, nor Cupheas, 

 but bright-coloured Fuchsias look well as 

 short standards. M. C. 



[We should like to hear from you 

 pretty often ; we should get many a valu- 

 able notch out of your practice aud capital 

 style of reporting results. We will follow 

 out your suggestion as to greenhouse 

 plants, for we thoroughly agree with you 

 that the eternal round of Geraniums and 

 Calceolarias is sickening to the sincei-e 

 horticultural enthusiast. Might we not 

 expect the co-operation of many of our 

 readers iu such a mutually useful task ? 

 Let those who have had long and suc- 

 cessful experience with particular tribes of 

 plants, especially such as deserve rather 

 than enjoy popularity, furnish brief notes of 

 their methods of pruning, forcing, training, 

 etc., so that the peculiar treatment of each 

 may be made plain for beginners, and at the 

 same time furnish useful hints for old 

 liands. But of the queries put by M. C .— 

 Three j'cars ago we saw every one of the 

 Acaciasreferredto at Messrs. Weeks', King's 

 Road, Chelsea, and we would vouch for it 

 Messrs. Henderson of St. John's Wood, or 

 Mr. Veitch, King's Road, Chelsea, could 

 supply them all at from \s. 6d. to 5s. each, 

 for fair sized plants. Nurserymen are 

 blind to their own interests in not making 

 known the peculiar resources of their 

 several establishmeuts. They advertise to 

 the trade, and forget the public, who must 

 in the end be the purchasers of all they 

 produce. — If you cut back the Daphnes at 

 once, and encourage immediate growth by 

 means of whatever resources you have at 

 command, there will be plenty of time to 

 get the wood ripened for next season's 

 blooming. The cuttings can be rooted, 

 but there is not much certainty about it ; 

 but if you have some good stools of 

 D. lavreola, you may graft them on it, and 

 keep in a close pit till the grafts have 

 taken. The Azaleas must be cut into 

 shape the moment the bloom is over, in- 

 deed before it is quite over, and be kept 

 rather warm and moist, to encourage 

 growth and new breaks from the lower 

 parts of the old wood. 



EVERGREEN TREES AND PLANTS EOR VASES. 



I HATE a narrow plantation, skirting the 

 approach to the house, and it. would much 

 improve its appearance, if the soil had a 

 covering of vegetation. The .soil is drv 



aud deep, rather light, and, from the 

 growth of the forest trees, some eighteen 

 years old, the surface must be poor. Your 

 advice on this point will much oblige. 



