THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



233 



selection of twenty-four for this season's 

 plantinj^ is as follows : — Light. : Madame 

 Vidot, Souvenir de la Eeine d'Angle- 

 terre, Madame Rivers, Anna AlexiefF, Ma- 

 dame Domage, Alex. Belfroy. Medium : 

 General Washington, Jules Margottiu, 

 Belle de Bourg la Reiue, Madame Knorr, 

 Mademoiselle Haimvin, Senateur Vaisse, 

 Victor Verdier. Jiarlc : Beauty of Wal- 

 tham, Charles Lefebre, Francis Arago, 

 Louis XIV., Francois Lacharme, General 

 Jacqueminot, Lord Raglan, JLadame Fur- 

 tado, Madame Pauline Villot, Pr cc 

 Leon, Ornement des Jardins. 

 Lapageria rosea, Fuchsias dropping 

 THEIR Blooms. — Like many others as 

 ignorant of its requirements as myself, I 

 was tempted last February to buy a tiny 

 plant of Lapageria rosea. I was told 

 that it would grow almost as rapidly as 

 a convolvulus, but alas, it threw out only 

 one leaf in two months. In April I read 

 with great interest your directions for its 

 culture, and devised a mode of carrying 

 them out on a smaller scale, which some 

 of your readers may he glad to try. I 

 placed my plant in its pot upon an in- 

 verted empty pot, set in a large saucer. 

 On a shelf just above I placed ahyacinth 

 glass filled with water. A strip of cloth, 

 half in the water, half hanging down, 

 the end lying on the earth of my Lapa- 

 geria pot, acts as a syphon, carrying 

 down a constant tiny stream of water, 

 which drains off through the inverted 

 pot into the saucer below. The hyacinth 

 glass requires filling and the same emp- 

 tying about every other day. Since this 

 has been done I have repotted the plant, 

 and find that its roots are grown large, 

 strong, and healthy. The plant looks 

 well, but very few leaves have yet grown, 

 and it has not shot up at all. Tt is in a 

 veiy small conservatory, very sunny and 

 airy. I have no blinds, window and 

 door generally open. Pelargoniums 

 bloom in it most splendidly, leading me 

 to think that it is a mistake ever to shade 

 them from the sun. My fuchsias do not 

 succeed at all. I should be very thank- 

 ful for any information on their culture. 

 I have tried them in a small house heated 

 for achimenes and gloxinias, in a cooler 

 vinery, and out of doors. The leaves 

 lose their colour and drop off, and the 

 flowers, though abundant, are small, and 

 often imperfect. The flowers of Rose of 

 Castile crack and wither. Why is it ? 

 — Constant Reader. [As the Lapage- 

 ria has made plenty of healthy roots, 

 it will probably throw up a strong shoot 

 by and by, but you will never do much 

 with it, we fear, ia a pot. Still we would 



not discourage you, and hope hereafter 

 to hear more about, it. Pelargoniums 

 rejoice in sunshine, and it is only for de- 

 licately-coloured "varielies that shading 

 is necessary. It is at exTiibitions that 

 tlie nice points of cultivation are tested, 

 and we should never expect an exhibitor 

 to win with varieties of light and deli- 

 cate colours that had never been sliaded. 

 We cannot tell why it is your fuch- 

 sias fail; we can give you this general 

 advice. Grow only young plants, pot 

 them in a mixture of two parts cocoa- 

 nut dust, one part yellow loam, and one 

 part rotten dung, the whole thoroughly 

 blended. When we hear of fuchsias 

 dropping their blooms, we always think 

 the drainage mu^t be defective, or that 

 the plants do not get enough water. We 

 grow all the varieties of fuchsia we can 

 get hold of, and they are scattered about 

 the place under all sorts of conditions, 

 some in the lean-to, wlieie it is very 

 warm, some in a house called the " cor- 

 ner-shop," where thej' are very cold, and 

 a large number out of doors, where they 

 are burnt, buffeted, and drenched, and 

 yet they all bloom profusely, and have 

 very little attention. It surely must all 

 depend on bting properly potted in the 

 first instance.] 

 Roses. — Will you say what sort of manure 

 ought to be given to roses in a clayey 

 loam, where stable-dung is scarce. I 

 have an abundant supply of vegetable 

 mould from the refuse of the garden, 

 elc„ and lime, and of course can procure 

 guano or bone-dust. Is salt good for 

 roses? I want to miike a long bed for 

 roses to have three rows, that in centre 

 to consist of moderate-sized standards, 

 and the outer rows of low standards or 

 dwarfs, or plants on own roots, or on 

 Manetti. What ought to be tlie width 

 of the bed, and at what distance in the 

 row ought the plants to stand ? In your 

 vol. for 1862 (vol. v., page 142), you 

 give directions fir shortening long stan- 

 dards by notching in Ot;tober, etc. 

 Would it not he a good plan to make the 

 notch some time before the phinting, so as 

 to allow the callus to form? Last year 

 I notched, or rather took a ring of bark 

 off of a twig of the Rose Unique, and 

 when the callus was formed, I made a 

 slip of it. It struck, and is doing well. 

 — No Name. [One of the best manures 

 for roses is a mixture of guano and wood- 

 ashes spread on the surface of the soil in 

 April at the rate of about a quart for 

 every tree. Another good mixture is 

 soot and salt used in the same way. 

 Bone-dust and guano are botk good to 



