470 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICDLTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENEK. 



( December 11, 1873. 



as possible. Where the roots of Apples, Pears, &o., are within 

 from 9 to 13 laches of the surface, over-luxuriance of the ti-ees 

 may soon be overcome by judicious summer pruning, merely 

 preserving as many leaves on the shoots as will insure a healthy 

 mutual action of the roots anil branches, and not so many as 

 will shade those buds at the base of the shoots and on small 

 short spurs that can only be rendered fruitful by a free exposure 

 to light and air. In extreme cases, such as in old fine-looking 

 Pear trees that have become barren in the centre, raising the 

 roots and supplying the tree with young wood would be ad- 

 vantageous . 



FLOWER GARDEN. 



The weather is now a little more favourable for new ground 

 work than it has lately been. Continue planting shrubs, trees, 

 Roses, and Rose stocks for fixture budding. Prune and nail or 

 tie-in all climbers on walls, trellises, pillars, &c. The florist 

 may now take breath if his Tulips are all safely in the ground 

 and in a growing state, and, comparatively speaking, out of 

 harm's way. He may now occasionally " overhaul " his col- 

 lection by looking through his book, when his favourite flowers 

 will recur with all their beauties to his fervent imagination. 

 I need not enlarge on his feelings, for those only who have 

 experienced them can appreciate how pleasurable they are. 

 The Carnation grower's chief care must now be to prepare his 

 compost for next season. His turf must be turned often during 

 the nest three months, carefully picking out of it the florist's 

 plague, the wireworm. His leaf soil also must be shaken-up 

 and sweetened, and a proportionate quantity of thoroughly de- 

 composed stable manure must be made sure of, whatever other 

 crop may go without. If he intends to have large and fine 

 flowers he must not be too fastidious about manure, but it must 

 be well rotten. Picotees are not so apt to become foul, or 

 "run," as Carnations, and they will, consequently, bear a richer 

 compost. Still, where Carnations and Picotees are gown for 

 exhibition, one hundred pots might easily be cultivated at 

 "high pressirre " in order to win some of the prizes. 



STOVE. 



A cautious application of fire heat must still be observed 

 here ; keep the temperature rather low than otherwise for fear 

 of exciting a x^remature growth. Cleanliuess and a judicious 

 use of the waiering-pot should be strictly attended to. A small 

 quantity of air may be advantageously admitted on fine days, 

 and will greatly assist in purifying the atmosphere of the house. 

 Many stove plants with large fleshy roots, such as the different 

 varieties of Ipomfeas, should now be allowed to go nearly or 

 quite dry, and they should be well framed-in. 



GEEENHOUSE AND CO.-fSEKViTORT. 



Attend to the removal of Chrysanthemums and all other 

 plants as they get shabby. Some of the early Camellias will 

 now be ready to take their place. Occasional tires will be useful 

 during dull, damp, or rainy weather, taking care not to raise the 

 thermometer ixunecessarily high. All drip must also be avoided. 

 Early Hyacinths will soon be in flower, and with care a succes- 

 sion of them may be kept up till spring. For late-flowering 

 bulbs the best pots are ■'i-inch (18's) for one bulb, and C or 7-inch 

 (32's and 2i's) for three bulbs, and where a fine display is sought 

 for, three grown together in one ])ob secure that object much 

 better than single bulbs. For potting, the soil should be as rich 

 as possible, such as one-half fresh loam cut from a pasture, with 

 the turf decayed in it, and well-decomposed cow or horse 

 manure, with a smaU quantity of clean sand well intermixed. 

 If, however, this kind of compost cannot be obtained, then 

 the lightest aud richest at command must be employed instead. 

 Drain etficieutly, aud after fiUing the pots lightly with the soil, 

 place the bulbs upon the surface, slightlypressing them into the 

 soil. After watering, it the soil is not sufficiently moist, set the 

 pots out of doors on a dry bottom, and cover them with old tan, 

 ashes, sawdust, &c. 



PORCING PIT. 



This structure must be kept fully occupied with all the dif- 

 ferent plants usually employed in forcing for the decoration of 

 the conservatory or drawing-room. In successfully forcing 

 many plants the application of bottom heat will be found indis- 

 pensable ; a well-constructed tank is therefore absolutely neces- 

 sary in this department. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST ^VEEK. 



FRUIT AND KITCHEN GARDEN. 



I.v this department the work has been similar to that noticed 

 in previous weeks' " Doings." We have been fortunate in 

 having a continuance of dry weather, which has given us an 

 opportunity to push forward all digging and trenching, as well 

 as making alterations, laying Box-edgings, &o. 



Planting Fruit Trees. — "This is a matter which is worth 

 noticing, aud may be useful to amateurs and others who have 

 had but little experience. If a fruit tree of any description is 

 planted in a careless manner without any previous preparation 

 of the ground, no after-treatment will cause the trees to give 

 the satisfaction which they would have done if properly planted 



at first. On looking over a very large collection of fruit trees 

 the other day, many Pears on the Quince, and Apples on the 

 Paradise, were observed to be planted irregularly — that is, as 

 regards depth ; the union of the stock with the scion was in 

 many instances from 3 to 9 inches above the surface of the soil. 

 In every case where trees on the above stocks are planted, the 

 union of stock with scion should be level with the surface of 

 the ground. In some instances the nurserymen are to blame 

 for working the stock too high. We have had a Chaumontel 

 Pear tree in a pot sent home worked on the Quince stock 

 13 inches above the surface of the soil. The result of treating 

 the trees in this manner will be early productiveness, but the 

 fruit, though of good flavour, is small, and the trees v.'ill not 

 long continue in good health. Apples worked on the Crab 

 stock, and Pears on the Pear, should not be planted deeper than 

 they were in the nursery. Sometimes the trees do not come 

 home with good roots. In many cases the purchaser is to blame 

 for this ; people try to buy in the cheapest market, aud will not 

 pay a fair price for their trees. Walking through a plantation 

 of fruit trees one day with the nursery foreman, we came to 

 some labourers carefully lifting some large specimens ; they 

 were saving the fibrous roots by digging a trench and working 

 the earth away from the tree, which seemed to be their usual 

 plan of operations. They were immediately stopped by the 

 foreman, and told to dig the trees up by driving their spades into 

 the ground nearer the bole, and to wrench the trees up without 

 removing the earth. We were ordering trees and became 

 alarmed, remarking that we did not care to have the trees just 

 ordered lifted in that way. The answer was something like this, 

 and is suggestive, " You select the best trees and pay the best 

 price, it will be different in your case ; those they are lifting are 

 a job lot, it would not pay us to be careful with them." Our 

 advice to planters is this. Go to the nursery, select your own 

 trees, and pay the best price for them ; they will be by far the 

 cheapest in the end. Nurserymen have to pay rent and taxes, 

 and these are also times of dear labour ; they are also like the 

 fruiterers and " costers " — much of their stock is unsaleable, or 

 must be disposed of at a sacrifice. Trees that do come home 

 from the nursery with the roots mangled should have the 

 injured part cut clean off with a sharp knife, and in planting 

 see that the radius of the hole is wider than the longest roots. 

 These should not be bent to go into a narrow space. The best 

 material to place round the roots is decayed tm-fy loam, and if 

 the loam and ground are poor a little rotted manure may be 

 mixed with it. 



FORCING HOUSES. 



Fine Apples. — At present, airing the houses and maintaining 

 a moderately moist temperature are all that they require ; the 

 bottom heat can easily be kept-up to about 3,5^ by using the hot- 

 water pipes under the beds. Where houses are not fitted with 

 such appliances, and the heat must be kept-up by tan or other 

 fermenting material, the labour is great, and it is almost im- 

 possible to keep the roots healthy. From our small stock we 

 have not been able to cut any Smooth-leaved Cayennes as yet ; 

 but even now the Queens keep remarkably well, and are of ex- 

 cellent flavour. This is attributed to maintaining a steady and 

 moderate bottom heat from the hot- water pipes, and ventilating 

 the houses as freely as possible. We have had mealy bug on 

 some of the plants as the fruit was ripeuing-off. This is not 

 the first time it has appeared on our plants, and in every case 

 the evil has arisen from surplus plants being brought in from 

 the stove. The pest is not found upon the leaves, but on the 

 fruit, and it can only be removed with great difficulty. 



Tinerirs. — Until the Vines break in the early houses a repeti- 

 tion would be monotonous. In the late houses nearly all the 

 leaves are down, and the Grapes may be expected to keep better. 

 We were asked the other day which were the best keeping 

 Grapes, and the unhesitating answer was Lady Downe's, and 

 next to that sort we place Gros Guillaume, but the latter does 

 not keep so well as Lady Downe's when cut from the Vine and 

 hung up with the stalks inserted in bottles of water. The fruit 

 will not take up the water ; a bunch weighing 3 or 4 lbs. will 

 not take up so much water as one of Lady Downe's weighing 

 1 lb. This we have proved with many bunches for two succes- 

 sive years. As a consequence, the berry-stalks soon shrivel, 

 and then no water is taken up. 



Lilji of the Valleji and Sjnrcsa japonica. — We placed some 

 of these in the forcing house. Successive batches should be 

 placed in a very gentle heat at first. The first, especially, wiU 

 not stand much heat, which causes the flowers to be thrown-up 

 without the leaves, which is objectionable. There is not so 

 much danger of this if the pots are plunged in gentle bottom 

 heat. The pots should be removed to a cooler house just as the 

 first flowers open, for, if they expand in heat, they will not stand 

 well after being cut, or when placed in the greenhouse. The 

 Spir.'ca (Hoteia) japonica is invaluable either for cutting or for 

 decorative purposes. The pure white feathery sprays do well 

 for mixing in all sorts of bouquets, especially for coat flowers, 

 aud for small glasses in the drawing-room. We liave a nice 

 stock of S. palmata. This we shall not use for very early forcing, 



