350 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



RHUBAJtB AT Christmas. — Amateur. — Begin at once. Select a kyr good 

 roots according to the supply you wish, dig them up, let them lie on tlie surface 

 of the ground, exposed to all weathers, for a fortnight, then put them in pots or 

 boxes, as most convenient, and place them in a warm celhir, or any other warm 

 place, and you will have a supply at once. Take up and treat a few plants every 

 three weeks in the same way until Christmas, and you will have a supply until 

 that growing in the open ground comes in. A simpler plan would be to obtain 

 a few barrowfuls of tan, and lay it upon the floor of a warm cellar or brick pit, or, 

 in fact, any spare sheltered place, and plant your roots in it ; the warmth of the 

 tan will induces immediate growth. In this way is obtained the rhubarb supplied 

 to the London markets throughout the winter. 



Tmtomas. — B. S. — Tritoma uvaria and its varieties require the simplest cul- 

 ture ; they like a deep rich soil, are perfectly hardy, and are propagated both by 

 seeds and' division of the plant, which generally produces abundance of offsets. 

 These offsets, taken off after the plant has done blooming, potting them in well- 

 enriched loam, and placing them in a cold pit, or cool greenhouse, and shifting 

 on as they require till the end of April, will make fine blooming plants next 

 year. The bed must be prepared by throwing out the soil to the depth of two 

 feet then six inches of very rotten manure thrown in, then a layer of mould of 

 the same thickness, and the mould and dung mixed, and well incorporated with 

 a fork then more dung and more mould, till the bed is filled up to six inches 

 above 'the level, to allow of its settling down to its proper level. Here the 

 plants will grow amazingly, and send up magnificent spikes of bloom. The 

 somewhat untidy habit of the plant must be borne with, for the sake of the 

 beauty of its flowers. 



Vines. — M. E. — If the vines have borne well under the old treatment, it 

 would be foolishness to cut them away. If they have borne indifferently, and 

 you propose to replace them with young shoots, it will be best to cut the old 

 wood clean out, and thus throw all the vigour of the plant into the young wood ; 

 and if the young canes are already half way up the house, you would on this 

 plan secure a good crop next summer, and good strong wood for spurring in at 

 the winter pruning. Let us repeat, if the vines have borne well, don't cut them 

 down : you can still make something of the young shoots by denuding them of 

 all their buds but the two or three top ones when the leaves have dropped, and 

 laying them into large pots filled with rich soil, into which they will root and 

 form fine plants next summer, with two or three fine bunches on each. 



Bulbs fok Windows. — A New Subscriber. — You cannot do better than obtain 

 a supply of hyacinths, crocuses, snowdrops, jonquils, and early tulips for your 

 window. The only greenhouse bulbs we should recommend to you are LacJienalia 

 pendvla and L. tricolor, to be potted in fresh sandy peat, about a dozes bulbs ia a 

 five-inch pot. 



Mandarin Orange.— (S. S., WarwicksJiire.— The Otaheite is simply a variety 

 of the Mandarin. The Mandarin is Citrus nobilis. the Otaheite is G. nob His minor. 

 But the variation is eo trifling that a well-cultivated tree of the latter could scarcely 

 be distinguished from a tree cf the normal type. The flowers of this species, and 

 the variety, may always be known by their purple colour in the bud state. This 

 and the myrtle-leaved orange (C. vulgaris) are the most useful for small conser- 

 vatories, as they produce a large quantity of blossom and fruit in a very small 

 state. Three dozen fruit have been counted on a tree only a foot high, and which, 

 after being allowed to bear so many, would probably never grow any higher. In- 

 deed we may venture to say, that of all greenhouse shrubs, the Mandarin and 

 Otaheite oranges are as certain to repay good cultivation as any plants in cul- 

 tivation. 



Manure fob Roses. — Inquirer. — One of the best manures for roses is a mixture 

 of o-uano and wood-ashes spread on the surface of the soil in April, at the rate of 

 abo^it a quart for every tree. Bone-dust and guano are both good to dig in and 

 mix with the soil at the time of planting, but we should prefer half-inch bones to 

 bone-dust, and, if dug in and thoroughly mixed with the soil, wou.d b e lasting in 

 their effects. But there is nothing to equal stable-manure for roses. Your long 



