18t6.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



235 



are established in five or six inch pots, which 

 they will be by the middle of June, and this I 

 consider a good time to plant, or as soon after as 

 convenient. When strong plants are used, I 

 plant them about two feet and one-half apart in 

 the row and three feet between the rows. If the 

 plants are small, plant half the above distances, 

 thinning out every other row, and every alter- 

 nate plant in the remaining rows, after the tirst 

 season. When planted the house should be 

 shaded by painting the glass with turpentine 

 with a little white lead and oil added. This does 

 not destroy the paint on the woodwork, which is 

 the case when lime is used for shading. Give 

 plenty of air for a month or six weeks, leaving 

 the sashes open at night, until the plants are 

 well rioted in the new soil, which ensures a 

 stronger " break " of young wood than if the 

 house is kept close at first. After this, syringe, 

 and close the house early every evening. The 

 border should now have a good mulching of 

 stable manure, and after a time frequent water- 

 ings with liquid manure. When the nights get 

 cool, start a gentle fire to keep off the mildew, 

 and in winter the thermometer should be kept 

 up to fifty-five or sixty degrees by fire heat. 



No pruning will be required the first season, 

 except to cut out the scrubby, blind shoots near 

 the bottom which are apt to harbor " red spider." 

 In fact, a rose bush, which has been forced into 

 a soft, pithy growth, should never be headed in 

 or cut back in the manner in which we would 

 cut a hardy rose, as it never Iireaks strong. 

 Whole houses of fine bushes have been thus de- 

 stroyed, and I find it best when a house has 

 been treated in this way, to dig up the bushes 

 and replant with young vigorous plants at once. 

 In pruning, the shoots which have ceased to give 

 flowering wood should be cut clean out at the 

 bottom, and the shoots of the later growth left 

 entire, and if bent over and pegged down they 

 will break finely from the latent eyes, on the 

 lower part of the canes. I have practiced 

 this method, which is an old one, for years, and 

 find it works well, especially with old plants, 

 which many growers throw away, to make room 

 for young ones, while these at best take one year 

 before they give as good a crop of buds as old 

 plants treated in this way. 



The varieties suitable for marketing are Saf- 

 rano, Bon Silene, Isabella Sprunt, Yellow Tea, 

 Marechal Niel, Souvenir de la Malmaison, Niphi- 

 tos, in about the order named, and a few others, 

 which, however, are not grown largely by Flo- 



rists, and are, perhaps, more suited to the wants 

 of amateur cultivators, where variety is more the 

 object than market qualities. 



All of the above-named varieties may be suc- 

 cessfully grown in pots, if potted, in three parts 

 turfy Ion m and one part well-rotted manure, and 

 shifted as the pots become filled with roots, Avith 

 an occasional watering of liquid manure. 



-Should you deem the above worthy of inser- 

 tion in the Gardener's -Monthly, and care to hear 

 from me again, I may drop you a few lines on 

 some future occasion. [Please do. — Ed. G. M.] 



HISTORY OF THE DOUBLE LOBELIA. 



BY HENRY CHITTY, PATERSOX, N. .1. 



I selected a plant in a London greenhouse, 

 and carried to this country in my hand, as it 

 were. In fact, we had the Double Lobelia in our 

 nursery as early as June, 1873, and was getting a 

 nice stock of it. During my visit to your city in 

 September of tha* year, Mr. Buist asked me if 

 we had it, and made me promise him an early 

 plant. I promised him the first plant we sold, 

 which was October 1st, 1873. Our plants were 

 all set out among a lot of Double White Chinese 

 Primroses which were planted out in a bed in 

 one of the houses. On the last night of Septem- 

 ber the slugs, or snails, made an attack on them 

 and eat off every one of them even Avith the 

 ground. Not one of them ever grew the least 

 bit afterwards. It appeared to have poisoned 

 them. To say that I was disgusted and discour- 

 aged only partially describes my feeling at that 

 time. From that time to the first of last June 

 we imported about 30 dozen plants _ without 

 getting one alive. I even hired a man 

 to bring out some plants, telling him how to 

 manage them, but he not knowing the impor- 

 tance of the plants had them packed in a box, 

 and they were. lost. At last, upon leaving 

 London, I selected three fine plants, and I 

 landed in New York with them in full flower, 

 from which we soon had a stock. The plant va- 

 ries in color of flowers from a very light sickly 

 blue to a deep, rich, dark blue. The latter are 

 worth having, and Avith the opportunity at my 

 command I did not select the former. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Wall-flowers and Gilliflowers.— These old- 

 fashioned flowers do remarkably Avell under cul- 

 ture for greenhouse adornment in early spring, 

 and may be soAvn noAv for that purpose. There 



