280 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



THE GARDEN ORACLE. 

 We tender our hearty thanks to the many cor- 

 respondents who have expressed their appro- 

 bation of the "Garden Oracle and Econo- 

 mic Year Book for 1859," and we have the 

 pleasure of informing our friends that its sale 

 has already been such as to insure its continu- 

 ance. Though we did not get it out till the 

 14th, the impression is now nearly exhausted, 

 and though it makes more pretension to useful- 

 ness than elegance, it has won for us golden 

 opinions, for which it is our duty to be thank- 

 ful. The list of greenhouse plants to bloom 

 every day in the year, was a feature altogether 

 new to garden almanacs, and it was compiled 

 with such strict regard to the wants of amateurs 

 generally, so as to present a list of 365 of the 

 most useful and easily-managed greenhouse and 

 conservatory plants, that that alone is, we are 

 confident, worth more than the cost of the whole 

 work. If we had spread it out in large type, 

 and contented ourselves with the usual meagre 

 calendar, it would have occupied nearly thirty 

 pages, but we dealt with the Almanac as a 

 tourist does with his carpet bag — we stuffed it 

 as full as it would hold, with articles of real 

 utility. As the edition is nearly run oat, in- 

 tending purchasers should order it at once, as 

 the type, having been distributed, it may not be 

 politic for us to reprint it after the year has 

 turned. 



PLANT AND SEED EXCHANGES. 

 F. A. S. has eked out the Indian seeds much 

 farther than they were expected to go, and the 

 stock is now exhausted. There are still, how- 

 ever, many applications which came in since the 

 middle of the month, , and F. A. S. will en- 

 deavour to complete the lists as far as the 

 remaining seeds allow. Of many of the sorts 

 F. A. S. has parted with the whole stock to 

 readers of the " Floral World," and of those 

 she mostdesired, has kept but two or three each. 

 This is mentioned only that the few late writers 

 that may happen to be disappointed, may not 

 consider themselves slighted. The applications 

 were numerous beyond all expectation, and all 

 who stated distinctly what they wished tor, were 

 supplied as far as the seeds would go. F. A. S. 

 will please to receive the sincerest thanks of the 

 many correspondents she has obliged, together 

 with those" of the Editor of the "Floral 

 World, " 



*** The First Volume of the " Floral World," 

 containing 288 pages, and 100 wood cuts, with 

 two coloured prints, is now ready, and may be 

 had of all booksellers, or, post free, from the 

 publishers, price 6s., elegantly bound in cloth. 

 The volume would form an appropriate 

 present to a friend or relative fond of garden- 

 ing. 



Roses and Bedding-plants in London. — Sub- 

 scriber. — You have misunderstood "new ma- 

 nure " for "new soil." There is nothing like 

 fresh soil for all kinds of flowers, and the best 

 for the purpose is the top spit of a pasture, and 

 the older the pasture, the better. Whether you 

 should change the soil from the borders to the 

 beds, and bring up the subsoil, depends upon 

 the texture and quality of the material to be 

 dealt with, and whether or not the bedders did 

 well this past season. Will the soil grow a cab- 

 bage ? If it will, scarcely any kind of flower- 

 ing plant will do badly in it. If you believe it to 

 be worn, change it as far as circumstances 

 allow, and, in February, give the beds a dressing 

 from the muck heap, and over that a sprinkling | 



of sand, and fork them over, and leave the sur- 

 face loose. Your great mistake as to the roses, 

 was, having four feet standards. Whenever 

 there is the slightest doubt of roses doing well, 

 they should be planted on their own roots, and 

 in rich deep soil. If standards are used, they 

 should he on short stocks, with good heads, and 

 well worked. The rubbish that the smaller 

 seedsmen in London stick about their doorways, 

 and sell at eighteen pence a piece, are rarely 

 worth carrying home — they are the refuse of 

 the trade, the sweepings of obscure nurseries, 

 where picked plants would often be dear at a 

 gift. There is nothing like sending to a country 

 nursery, and telling the grower to send what he 

 thinks best for your purpose, and the expense 

 to which you are prepared to go. You then 

 make him, to some extent, responsible, and have 

 the advantage of his judgment. Yours, pro- 

 bably, failed for want of water at the roots and 

 overhead. We believe that roses would thrive 

 in many ungenial atmospheres, if they were 

 played upon with an engine, morning and night, 

 every day during the summer. Some years 

 ago we grew, cabbage, Provence, hybrid China, 

 and a few perpetual roses in a very smoky town 

 district ; we used abundance of pig's-dung, and 

 drenched them with water all the growing sea- 

 son, and they bloomed well, but were worn out 

 in three years. The excess of stimulants, 

 enabled them to resist smoke and continement, 

 but it eventually killed them just when they 

 should have been in their prime. As several of 

 our readers are in want of information about 

 the growth of roses in the neighbourhood of 

 towns, we offer the following lists of sorts as 

 those most likely to succeed : — 



ROSES FOR SMOKY ATMOSPHERES. 



Hybrid Perpetuals. — Geant des Batailles, 

 General Jacqueminot, Duchess of Norfolk, Leon 

 des Combats, Jules Margottin, Dr. Marx, 

 Jacques Lafitte, William Jesse, Madame Laffay, 

 Mrs. Elliot, Duchess of Sutherland. Baronne 

 Prevost, Madame de Cambaccres, William 

 Griffiths, Augustc Mie, Souvenir de la Peine 

 d'Angleterrc. 



Bourbon Perpetuals.— Boquet de Flore, Queen 

 Pierre de St. Cyr, Louis Odier, Souvenir de Mal- 

 maison, Acidahe", Sir J. Paxton. 



China. — Mrs. Bosanquet, Virginia, Fabvier. 



Noisette. — Aimie Vibert, Ophirie, Caroline Mar- 

 niesse. 



Most of the French roses stand smoke well, and 

 cabbage and Provence roses may be used freely 

 in the borders, but should have as good culture 

 as more expensive sorts. Tea-scented and moss 

 roses are not at all suitable. 



Epacrises and Ericas from Seed.— S. S.— The 

 month of January is the best time to put in 

 seeds of all stove and greenhouse plants, 

 where there is command of the necessary 

 amount of heat, to get the seedlings strong 

 before summer; and sandy peat is, in ninety-nine 

 cases out of every hundred, the best soil in 

 which to give them a start. Your failures 

 hitherto have arisen through attempting to raise 

 them in too low a temperature, and keeping 

 them too close when up. The pots or pana 

 ought to be kept quite moist, and the surface 

 of the soil should be sprinkled with silver sand 

 to prevent damping. These plants form fine 

 hair-like roots, and should, therefore, be trans- 

 ferred to turf-pits as soon as they are pricked 

 out, three or four round a small pot, and the 

 weather sufficiently advanced, as their roots are 



