392 THE GARDENER. [Sept. 



break into growth, they may be well reduced at potting-time, and re- 

 placed again in the same size of pot. The second season's treatment is 

 much the same as the first, only the plants can be allowed to flower 

 towards the end of summer, or early autumn of their growth. The 

 shoots should be stopped as they grow, and the growths supported 

 with a few stakes as they require it. When grown for exhibition, more 

 stakes will be required in training the plants than are necessary " when 

 grown entirely for home decoration," and the plants should be well 

 filled with young wood. The same shape should be adopted that is 

 common with Heaths when grown for exhibition. 



The compost most suitable is rich loam, manure, and leaf -mould, with 

 plenty of coarse sand and a quantity of charcoal mixed with it, to keep 

 the whole porous. Vinca alba and its red-eyed variety V. occulata are 

 the two most worthy of being grown. V. rosea is not so serviceable, 

 and its flowers are not very brilliant in colour. Wm. Bardney. 



WINTER VEGETABLES. 



All kinds of vegetables are very nice and highly valued when they 

 become ready for use for the first time in spring and the early part of 

 the season ; but I do not think there is any time when a variety of 

 choice vegetables are more prized than throughout the winter. The 

 period to which I refer begins about the November term, and ends 

 about All-Fools'-Day. Maybe about the first-named date vegetables 

 may in many cases be plentiful ; but as the year wanes, especially 

 with an accompaniment of severe weather, supplies as a rule become 

 suddenly less, until many things are eaten with a relish which would 

 be quickly consigned to the dunghill at midsummer. Very often this 

 is not the gardener's fault, as none of us can set Jack Frost at defiance 

 with everything that we grow. Still with many things there is a pos- 

 sibility of doing much in the way of storing and protecting, but first 

 and foremost it is important that we have plenty to treat in these 

 ways. Empty quarters in the vegetable-garden are never creditable, 

 especially in autumn ; and although many may say vegetables are not 

 wanted in winter and spring, good crops of winter stuff are hardly 

 ever out of place. It is late now to try to make up for lost time in 

 the way of sowing, but on sheltered south borders Spinach, Late Tur- 

 nips, and Horn Carrots may still be sown, with a fair chance of their 

 becoming useful. Coleworts, too, may still be planted, to supply little 

 heads about the New Year and afterwards. The prickly-seeded winter 

 Spinach is one of the best crops any one can have from November 

 until March. It is very hardy, and very useful in the kitchen, and 

 one good patch of it gives a surprising quantity of leaves. We sow 

 it two or three times during both August and September, in rows 15 



