Angast 28, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



161 



very fine variety. It is later by a week than Jargonelle ; it bears 

 freely on the Qoince ; the fruit is larger than that of the Jar- 

 gonelle, more roanded, and though not quite so highly flavoured, 

 it is quite distinct in this respect, and is a good sort for small 

 gardens, not being a robust grower. 



Many of the pyramid Apple, Pear, and Plum trees require to 

 have the young wood thinned and cut back. We shall do this 

 at our earliest convenience. 



We have just finished planting out the Strawberry plauts. 

 It is late, but they were sorts that we could not get ruimers 

 from earUer in the season, being seedlings and new varieties. 

 We like to have them planted out by the second week in August 

 .it the latest. The eaihest-planted sorts have had the runners 

 cut from them, and are growing freely. 



OBCH.UID HOCSE. 



We are now enjoying the fruits of our labom-s here. Most of 

 the fruit are approaching ripeness ; much has been gathered, 

 and some of the latest sorts, such as Lady Palmerstou and Sal- 

 way Peaches and Victoria Nectarines, are quite green and hard. 

 Bellegarde Peach is just in ; Violette Hative is also in. This is 

 certainly distinct from Bellegarde, being paler in colour, but in 

 respect to quality one is as good as the other, and at the season 

 when they ripen no other Peach that I kuow can equal them. 

 We have also picked the American Peach Exquisite ; this is the 

 best yellow-fleshed Peach of its season, but is a shy bearer, and 

 will cause disappointment if the blossoms are not set by using 

 a camel-hair brush or shaking the trees twice a-day wh.n in 

 flower. 



As the fruit is cleared off the pot trees, those requiring re- 

 potting are attended to at once. The sooner the trees can be 

 repotted after the fruit is gathered, the better certainty of a 

 crop the following season. The potting should be performed in 

 a careful manner, and the pots used should only be a size larger 

 than those employed for the previous potting. The roots are con- 

 siderably reduced, so that the trees have a tendency to flag, and 

 would both do so and shed their leaves if they were not attended 

 to by being syringed two or three times a-day. 



FLOWER GAKDES. 



We have devoted much attention to this department. The 

 flower beds and borders had become considerably crowded, and 

 the " ribbons " had grown into each other. The shoots out of 

 place have been cut away, dead and decaying flower trusses 

 have been removed, and everything made as tidy as possible. 

 The flower beds are often neglected at this season, but it is as 

 well to keep them as neat as possible, and remove decayed 

 flowers and leaves periodically. 



Bedding Plants. — We have put in all our cuttings of Pelar- 

 goniums ; it is rather late for the more tender sorts, such as 

 the Golden Variegated and Golden Tricolors, so instead of 

 placing the boxes out of doors, as was done with the green-leaved 

 sorts, we placed them in a small airy house by themselves, 

 where the cuttings will strike root more readily. We shall not 

 put in cuttings of Verbenas, Ageratums, or any similar plants 

 until the second or third week of September. Centaurea candi- 

 (Ussima we have put in, one or two cuttings in GO-sized pots, and 

 the pots were placed in cold frames where the hghts can be kept 

 rather close for a few days, and the cuttings be shaded from bright 

 sxinghine. We seldom lose any cuttings, treating them in this 

 way. 



We have sown some Hollyhock seeds to produce flowering 

 plants next year. We save our own seeds from the best sorts, 

 and the batch of seedlings which we flower every year are much 

 admired. Very few of them sire in any way inferior to the 

 parents, and they are not so much trouble as propagating 

 named sorts from cuttings. The young plants are grown in 

 jboxes and kept in a cold frame all the winter, or they may be 

 pricked out in the open ground and covered with haud-hghts or 

 a glass frame. 



Lobelias. — Saved seeds of LobeUa speciosa, and sowed in 

 shallow pans or boxes. To have an early and good display of 

 this useful little bedding plant the seeds should be sown at 

 once, and when the plants are old enough to handle prick them 

 out in boxes about an inch apart. It is best to mark one or two 

 of the best plants and those most suitable for the purposes for 

 which they are grown, and save the seeds wholly from them; 

 by these means a selected and improved strain is obtained. 



Last n'eht, Sunday, we had a terrific thunderstorm; the 

 flashes of Ughtning were incessant, and tlie rain (or more than 

 an hoar fell in torrents. The rain was gauged this morning, and 

 1.20 inch was found in the receiver. The atmosphere is close 

 and hazy to-day. I hope it will not affect the Potatoes; no 

 diseased ones have been found as yet in our neighbourhood. — 



J. DolOLlS. 



TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



W. Cntbash i Son, Highgate, London, N. — Bull Catalogue. 



Dickson, Brown, it Tait, 43 and 4.5, Corporation Street, Man- 

 chester.— .4u<um» Catalogue of Dutch and French Flowering 

 Bulbs. 



Downie, Laird, & Laing, Staustead Park, Forest Hill, London, 

 S.E., and 17, South Frederick Street, Ediubm-gh. — Descriptive 

 Catalogue of Dutch Flower Boots. 



H. Cannell, Station Road, Woolwich. — Autumn Catalogue of 

 Florists' Flowers^ Bedding Plants, t{c.,for 1B73. 



Alfred Legerton, 5, Aldgate, London, E. — Wholesale Catalogue 

 of Dutch and other Flower Roots. 



William Paul, Waltham Cross, London, N. — Bulb Catalogue. 



H. Curtis & Co., Devon Rosery, Torquay. — Descriptiue Cata- 

 logtie of Selected Roses, d-e,, 1873-74. 



B. S. Williams, Victoria and Paradise Nursery, Upper HoUo- 

 way, London, N. — General Bulb Catalogue — Catalogue of Fruit 

 Trees, Roses, d-c. 



F. & A. Dickson & Sons, 106, Eastgate Street, Chester. — Cata- 

 logue of Dutch Flower Boots, d-c. — Catalogue of Select Roses, d-c. 



Sutton & Sons, Reading. — Autumn Catalogue of Bulbous 

 Flower Roots, Plants, Seeds, dc. 



John Matthews, Royal Pottery, Weston-super-Mare. — Illus- 

 trated Catalogue of Poiterg, t&c. 



Lawson Seed and Nursery Company (Limited), 1, George TV, 

 Bridge, Edinburgh, and Southwark Street, London, S.E. — 

 Catalogue of Dutch Flower Roots, d-c. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



',* We request that no one wiU write privately to any of the 

 correspondents of the " Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 Gardener, and Country Gentleman." By so doing they 

 are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. All 

 communications should therefore be addressed solely to 

 The Editors of the Journal of Horticulture, it'c, 171, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.G. 



We also request that correspondents wiU not mix up on the 

 same sheet questions relating to Gardening and those on 

 Poultiy 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 nest 

 week. 



Books iJ. W. C.).— Sowerby's "British Plants "is a very liitjlr-priced book. 

 We do not linoiv where you cau obtain a copy. (ZJ. T. O.). — " Plans of Flower 

 Gardens, &c." may be had post free for 5«. -kd., aud *' Sanders on the Vine" 

 for 5s. Id. 



Paris Nurseries (G. Bodt:n\ — Call on Messrs. Vilmorln, Andrieus, and 

 Co., Qaai de la Megisserie, and they will give you introductions. 



Fruit-tree Renovating {Old Siihsniber, B. E. House). — In reply to 

 your query as to the old gardener being rewarded by publishing his mode of 

 treatment in a pamphlet, we reply, as did our neighbour " Punch," on an 

 equally precarious proposal — " Don't." If his mode is written and sent to oa 

 we will write to him or to you, and state truthfully whether we thinlc it novel, 

 or, if worth publishing, what we would give for the MS. to publish in this 

 Journal. If we thought depreciatingly of it we would return the MS., and 

 we need not add we hope, though we do, that we should not make any use of 

 the communication. A pamphlet is too low-priced to pay for advertising, 

 and without advertising there would be no sale. 



CEPHAI.OTIJ3 FOLLicuLARis (All Old Subscriber). — It is a greenhouse plant, 

 therefore may be exhibited in a class for greenhouse plants. 



Tubers on Potato Stems {IF. W.). — They often are so produced. The 

 cause, probably, is the blossoming, or production of tubers by the roots, being 

 checked. 



Time for Transplanting Koses {C W.). — The third or last week in 

 October is to be preferred, but they may be removed earlier if the roots are 

 dug-up with care, if kept watered in dry weather, and the shoots not too much 

 shortened. 



SwAiNsoNiA Seedling {Flora). — We see no difference from the parent 

 species. 



Peas {E. J., Lincoln). — We camiot undertake to uaiiie Peas from the pod 

 alone. 



Aspect for Greenhouse {M. S.). — The beat aspect for a greenhouse is 

 south; the wall against which it is placed aud forming its back must have 

 the ends east and west. An east or west aspect would do for plauts, but the 

 gouth is far preferable, and as you have Vinos in view, indispensable. 



Propagating Alyssum vabiegatum, Ga/.ania splendens, and Aoe- 

 ratum {Alpha).-— Ail are propagated by cuttings, which should be taken off 

 now. Select short stubby shoots of young growth '2 or :{ inches long, cut 

 them below the lowest joint, and insert them about an inch apart in pans or 

 pots. The leaves should be removed from the lower part of the cutting for 

 about two-thirds their length, that is, the depth they are to be inserted in the 

 soil. The pots or pans ma/ be prepared (or the cuttings as follows :— Fill 

 them a quarter their depth with droinage, over that place an inch-layer 

 of the sittings of two parts fibrous light loam, and one part leaf BoU, and to 

 the sifted soil add a fourth o( sand; mil and hll rather firmly to within 

 three-quarters of on inch of the rim. Cover with half an inch thick of silver 

 sand, water gently, ^and stand on one side for two or tliree hours before 

 inserting the cuttings. After insertion water gently, and when dry place 

 in a cold frame on ashes, and keep close and shaded from sun. They will root 

 slowly but surely. After the beginning of September thoy will need to be 

 placed in a mild, sweet hotbed, but from August up to September, and even 

 the early part of the latter month, thoy root well in a cold frame, and are the 

 sturdiest plauts. They may bo struck up to the middle of October in boat. 



Hotuko in Greeniioi/se {One Anrious). — It would, no doubt, bo a great 

 help to the Pelargoniums and Fuchsias in spring to give them the benefit of 

 a hotbed after potting. It would encourage free rooting and the breaking. 



