50 



JOUKNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENKR. 



[ July 17, 1873. 



earlier, and the rather moist atmosphere does not suit the flowers ; 

 but as plenty are to be had out of doors, it does not so much 

 matter. 



The 8i?ige PelarguiiiifDis ha^Ye been turned out of doors, and 

 they are cut over according to the time they are required to be 

 in flower. We have plenty of plants coming into flower which 

 will keep up a succession in-doors. Although they are plentiful 

 outside, it is not possible to cut them good enough for button- 

 hole and other bouquets, or for furnishing the vases. Double 

 Zonal Pelargoniums are valuable for many purposes, especially 

 such sorts as Madame and Marie Lemoine, These we have in 

 a cool pit with Picotees, late-floweriug stage Pelargoniums, 

 Roses, &c. 



In the plant stove there is continuous work. Climbers re- 

 quire attention once a-week at least. The growing shoots of 

 such plants as Hoya carnosa and Stephanotis floribunda twine 

 tightly round each other and the wires, and should not be 

 allowed to remain so, but be untwined and tied up loosely to the 

 wires. Such Orchids as LjcUa purpurata and some of the 

 Cattleyas are making vigorous root-growth; all repottiug that 

 may be necessary must be performed at once. We have just 

 done ours, using very turfy peat, with a little sphagnum moss 

 added to it. Cool Orchids, such as the Masdevallias, Odonto- 

 glos&um Alexandrre, and a few others, require very cool treat- 

 ment in the hottest summer days. Ours are grown iu a small 

 span-roofed house with the end to the soiith, but the heat is too 

 much for them, unless double shading is put over the glass, and 

 this causes them to become drawn. As we have no other suit- 

 able accommodation for them they are removed to a cold frame 

 wnder a north wall until the end of August. Amateurs and 

 others who can only grow a lew plants would do well to try this 

 plan. I saw plants of O. Alexandne only the other day slowly 

 ■dying through being grown in a house where the temperature 

 was too high for them, when the same plants would have grown 

 with the utmost vigour, and with but little attention, had they 

 been placed under a north wall in a cold frame. All the atten- 

 tion we give them is to tilt the lights about half an inch in the 

 morning at six, and to shut up the frame, after damping the 

 surface of the pots or syringing the plants overhead, at five 

 o'clock in the afternoon, 



FLOWER GABDEN'. 



Now that the beds are filled up they do not require much 

 attention, except to remove dead and decaying flowers, which 

 must he noted as weekly work for the rest of the season. In 

 wet weather trusses of Zonal Pelargoniums are destroyed if 

 withered flowers are allowed to remain iu the centres of the 

 trusses. 



We have been placing permanent sticks to Hollyhocks^ and 

 removing all side shoots. This grand old autumn-flowering 

 plant is seldom seen now as it should be ; in many places it is 

 grown, but in a mixed herbaceous border, where, indeed, it has 

 a fine effect as a back-row plant; but it is generally crowded-up 

 with other plants and shrubs, and the ground is not prepared 

 for it. The Hollyhock likes a very rich deep loam to grow in, 

 and, when well supplied with water, its gorgeous spikes tower- 

 ing to 10 or 15 feet above the surface of the ground have a 

 splendid effect. We prepare a place in the kitchen garden spe- 

 cially for them, as also for Phloxes and Gladiolus. We have 

 been placing sticks to the Gladiolus; they also look pretty well, 

 but certainly not better than usual. We are trying some ex- 

 periments with manure-waterings, but imtil this year not a drop 

 of manure water was ever given to them ; we fancy that it is 

 injurious to the corms. Phloxes had been supported by sticks 

 some time ago, but we looked over them, and tied any loose 

 spikes to the supports. 



We do not now grow a collection of named Pinks; if we did, 

 the pipings would have been put in this morning. Our success 

 in striking these used to be remarked upon. We always put 

 them in after a heavy shower ; a piece of ground was prepared 

 in a shady place out of doors, and as soon as the rain came 

 they were put out. In this way we did not lose a plant. If 

 the pipings were taken off in dry hot weather we lost 50 per 

 cent., or more. — J. Douglas. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*^* We request that no one will write privately to any of the 

 correspondents of the "Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 Gardener, and Country Gentleman." 13y so doing they 

 are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. All 

 communications should therefore be addressed solely to 

 The Editors of (Jit' Jounittl of Horticulture^ dr., 171, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.C, 



We also request that correspondents will not mis up on the 

 same sheet questions relating to Gardening and those on 

 Poultry and Bee subjects, if they expect to get them 

 answered promptly and conveniently, but write them on 

 separate communications. Also never to send more than 

 two or three questions at once. 



N.B. — Many questions must remain unanswered until next 

 week. 



Curious Coincidences {Crito). — ^^'e are obliged by your bringing the 

 paragraph iii our contemporary to our notice. We were not aware that the 

 portrait of Thysacanthus rutUans had appeared in his pages iu 1868. We 

 admired it as published two or three months since iu the " Kiu-al New 

 Yorker," but the flowers were so deficient in form that we supplied our artist 

 with tiie " Botanical Magazine," in which the plant is figured, to correct it. 

 Had we known it had been originally published by our contemporary we 

 should have acknowledged it, as he ought to have done the portrait of Odon- 

 togiussum vesillarium which ho published only last Saturday, the day on 

 which he blames ns. \Ve employed Mr. Smitii to draw and engrave that 

 portrait, and pubUshed it la our number issued on the 15th of last May, a few 

 weeks — not a few years— since. 



Books (H, D. A'.). — B. S. 'Williams's "Choice Greenhouse and Stove 

 Plants." It is in two pocket volumes, to be had of the author, Victoria 

 Nursery, HoUoway, London. 



Van Houtte's " Pomona " (J. M. W. £.).— We do not know the number of 

 parts it will occupy. 



Descriptions of Plants {Ere). — We cannot afford space for descriptions 

 of plants. You must refer to Loudon's " Encycloptedia of Plants." 



Pelaruonicm Sport (H. B.). — We have seen several instances of totally 

 different blooms on the same plant ; and such sports occur in other much- 

 crussed plants. The petals of your specimens were all shed. 



Covering West and South Walls (A'.j. — As you propose turning the 

 7-feet walls to profitable account, we would advise, in the event wf your having 

 Pears, to grow only the veiy early and very late sorts, as, of early kinds, 

 Citron des Carmes and Jargonelle; and of late ones, Easter BeuiTe, Ne Plus 

 Meuris, Jostphine de Maliues, Zephirin Gngoire, Beurru de Ranee, and 

 Doyenni- d'Hiver. We are iuclined to think, if your situation is sheltered and 

 mild, that Tea aud Noisette Eoses might be more profitable, and very likely 

 command a better price than fruit. In this case you might plant Marechal 

 Niel, C«-liue Forestier, Lamarque, Uevonieusis, Gloiie de Dijon, Madame 

 Falcot, Niphetos, Saffrauo, and Vicomtesse de Cazes, which, iu all likelihood, 

 wiiuld give you buds more valuable than fruit. A few plants of Jasminum 

 nudiflorum mL\ed with them would help in the autumn and midwinter weeks 

 to afford bloom, and would, doubtless, attract customers as well as the Eoses. 

 Hot Water Piping for a Forcing Pit {Subscrlhcfs Grtiv/znc)).— The 

 hip-roofed pit that is 7 feet wide, 1"2 feet long, and 8 feet from the floor to 

 the apex of the span, contains about 360 cubic feet of space, and will require 

 6U feet of 4- inch piping to maintain a temperature of 65 during severe frost. 



Grape Bags — Pears as Diagonal Cordons for a Wall (Amateur). — 

 No patent material for making Grape bags has come under our notice. The 

 No. 3 Hexagon netting made by Haythorn, of Nottingham, is an excellent 

 material, stouter aud more durable than the ordinary gauge. To avoid rubbing 

 the Grapes, distend each bag by fastening slight wire hoops on the inside near 

 the bottom, aud another ueai' the top, fastening the mouth of the bag around 

 the bunch-stalk with an elastic band. By this means the bloom remains in- 

 tact, and the air plays more freely among the berries than when the bag 

 touches the sides of the bimch. The following Pears are choice kinds that 

 ripen iu succession during soveu or eight mouths — Jargonelle, Williams's 

 Bon Chrtl'tieu, Desire Cornelis, Belle Julie, Marie Louise, Millot de Naucy, 

 Beurrt- Bosc, Urbaniste, Comte de Flaudre, AViuter Nelis, Zt-phirin Grcgoire, 

 Doyenue Defais, Doyenne du Comice, Duchesse d'Orh-ana, Knight's Monarch, 

 Beurre Sterckmana, Beurre de Eance, Jean de Witte, Elisa de Heyst. 



Peas (Thomey). — We never heai-d of any vaiieties of the names you men- 

 tion. 



Seedling Begonia (Dorstishire). — Begonia santhina is yellow-flowered, 

 and a portrait of it is in the " Botanical Magazine." Yours is a pretty variety 

 ot it. 



Vegetable Marrows not Swelling [MoHhi).—'\\e attribute the non- 

 swelling of the fi-uit after setting to the cold state of the soil, or to the cold 

 weather; we think the former is the cause. Ihe treatment caunoc be far 

 wrong. Try watering with weak Uquid manui'e at a temperature of 70- to 75''. 

 Hot weather will most likely set them right. 



Vines for Planting-out (A flea </('?■). —The Vines you propose planting 

 out in autumn, and which are now in pots, we should at once shift into 10 or 

 11-inch jjots. A fortnight afterwards reduce them to one cane each, unless 

 you want them with more than one cane or rod, and cut the laterals to one 

 joint each. Train the shoots or caues about 1 foot from the glass, and let 

 the cane run to the length of 8 to lU feet, then stop it. Keep the laterals 

 pinched-in to one leaf. The supply of water should be liberal during the 

 growing period, but reduce it gradually when growth is complete. Cut the 

 laterals close-in in September, and prune the canes to the height required 

 when the leaves have lailen. 



CDcraiPEns foe Winter Fruiting {Idcm).—1o have fruit at Christmas 

 and throughout tlie winter sow the seed in the first week of September. The 

 kinds we advise are Volunteer and Telegraph. They are good, certain, and 

 handsome. 



Melons with Male Flowers only (J. A.). — If your plants have made 

 more than two joints of the side shoots without showing fruit we should cut 

 away the main shoots, and traiu fresh shoots from the collar of the plant in 

 their place ; stopping these when they are 6 inches from the side of the frame. 

 Probably the plants are not sufficiently advanced for the appearance of the 

 fruit blossoms. They should fruit on the second vines, and mostly at the first 

 or second joint of the laterals. We would not lot the temperature fall lower than 

 ()5" at night, and 70^* to 75' by day, with a rise from sun htat to HO' or 90'^. If 

 the temperatm-e is too low, male flowers abound; if too high, female flowers 

 predominate. 



Carnation Seedlings Dying off iFrank TT'.).— From your description we 

 should say your plants have died off from the attacks of wireworm or some 

 grub in the soil used. There is no remedy but to scrutinise the soil minutely 

 before sowiug, and to have it well exposed to the air before use, turning it 

 over frequently, and sprinkling with soot at each turning. Mix some lime 

 rubbish with the soil. The application of soot water would tend to prevent 

 the mischief coiuplained of. Place some pieces of Carrot just under the soil. 

 It is likely the grubs will leave the Carnations for the Carrot baits, when they 

 may be taken and destroyed. 



Preparing Rose Cuttings {Arturns). — Take off the cuttings as soon as 

 the flowers are shed ; the wood is then ripe. The cuttings must be of the 

 current year's growth, without any portiou of old wood. They may have 



