48 



JOTJENAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ July 21, 1863. 



affair, as they form such immense bushes ; and unless 

 potted-up earher than they can be spared from the flower 

 garden, they require much more room and care than can be 

 afforded them in quantity, and except under very favoui-able 

 circumstances they do not bear the lifting well. 



Three years ago I planted out upwards of four hundred 

 plants ; and one of the most effective and novel combinations 

 I ever saw was Centaurea and PeriUa plant for plant. The 

 bed was a diamond bed, forming the centre of a cluster of 

 beds on grass. It was raised to a cone 5 feet above the 

 level of the turf. I well remember being severely found 

 fault with by some fair critics when the bed was newly 

 planted. The surface was paved over with blue bullet-like 

 stones from the shore, and it certainly looked odd ; but by 

 the time the stones were all hid, those who had most 

 severely criticised the bed had begged a thousand pardons 

 for their mistake. The PeriUa, of course, was the taller 

 by a few inches, and, viewed from the distance, it was con- 

 sidered the best imitation of rockwork. The same season 

 another bed was planted with blue Lobelia, and then the 

 Centaurea dotted aU over it, so as to leave a ground of blue 

 running among the feathery foliage of the Centaurea. 



When Lobelia speciosa has been used for groundwork in 

 panel-borders, a single plant of Centaurea has been used 

 for the panels ; the blue and it form a very chaste and 

 pleasing combination, and the two plants are thoroughly 

 distinct in character. This year it is used for panels alter- 

 nately with Christine Geranium where the groundwork is 

 Lobelia speckled thinly with Gazania splendens. In another 

 wide border it is planted in the centre of panels of Pui-ple 

 King Verbena where the groundwork is a deep scarlet. 

 The Centaurea is raised quite above the level of the panel 

 of purple ; and even at this date the effect is very pleasing, 

 and will be more so as the purple fills fully up and becomes 

 more massive. Raised in the same manner it forms a beau- 

 tifol centre to a cone of Scarlet Geraniums. In oue instance 

 or two it has been surrounded with a circle of Clu'istine in 

 the centre of Tom Thumb. As a vase plant edged with 

 Lobelia it is most lovely. It also looks well in vases edged 

 with dwarf Scarlet Geraniums. 



As a plant for placing in gold vases on the dinner table 

 it is most acceptable, and stands such work well — in fact, 

 this is one of the most useful plants of the day. It would 

 be a great step in the right direction if it were possible to 

 plant over flower gardens to a larger ertent with plants 

 diverse from and more picturesque in character than the 

 everlasting and monotonous masses and lines of Geraniums, 

 Calceolarias, and Verbenas ; and this want is being more 

 largely acknowledged every year, and the more so as taste 

 becomes more refined and alive to the fact that beauty con- 

 sists not alone in gaudy colour's, however strikingly in con- 

 trast or nicely harmonised. David Thomson. 



TETRATHECA VEETICILLATA CULTURE. 



In answer to " J. M." we reply that the plant is rightly 

 named. Full directions for culture were given in a previous 

 volume. It requires when young to be grown chiefly in 

 sandy peat, well drained, and never allowed to become very 

 dry. It also requires a temperatui-e of from 45° to 4S° in 

 winter, with a due proportion of air ; and in summer, if the 

 top is fully exposed to the sun, the pot should be sheltered 

 by plunging or shading, or placing in a double pot, as, il' 

 the pot is fuUy exposed, the roots are apt to be iniured. 

 It generally blooms most freely in early spring and summer; 

 and that gives, as it were, the keynote to its culture. Left 

 to itself, it soon becomes weak and rambling ; and therefore, 

 to secure anything like compactness, rather free pruning 

 must be resorted to when the plant has nearly finished 

 blooming, taking care, however, not to cut farther back than 

 the current year's wood, as it breaks badly from older wood. 



After pruning, keep the plant rather dry, cool, and quiet 

 until there are signs of breaking ; then put in a coLl pit 

 or other place ; and, with the excej^tion of giving more air, 

 treat the plant as to syringings, &c., much the same as was 

 recommended the other week for Epacris. As the young 

 shoots grow mort au- must be given ; and if in fine days in 

 September the pi;tut should be exposed to the sun fuUy, 

 the more ripened and short-jointed will the wood be, and 



the more covered will it ultimately be with bloom. What 

 potting the plant requires should be given when the young 

 shoots are about 2 inches in length. After that repotting 

 watermg should be done very carefully, so as not to saturate 

 the new sod, sHght syringing and shading being resorted to 

 in preference until the roots are working in the fresh soil. 

 As the plant gets large, and an eight-inch or larger pot 

 may be necessary, fibry sweet loam in the proportion of a 

 third or so may be added to the peat, along with some 

 pebbles, broken pots, and nodules of charcoal to keep the 

 soil open. 



Cuttings of the points of the shoots wiU strike at any 

 time, but the best cuttings are thinnings of the young 

 shoots about 2 inches long formed after the regular pruning. 

 For these a small pot— say a small 60, should be three- 

 parts filled with drainage with a slight covering of rough 

 peat and sand, and a surfacing of half an inch of pure 

 silver sand. Place the cuttings round the sides of the 

 pot, the heads of the cuttings pointing inwards. Water 

 well, and then place the small pot inside of a five or six- 

 inch pot, stuff' between with moss, cover with sand, and in 

 the space between the two pots phice firmly a bell-glass 

 with a conical head, and set anywhere so as to command 

 a temperature of from 50° to 60°, and where shade can be 

 given when necessary with a piece of paper over the glass. 



The cuttings, with the glass down, will stand a good deal 

 of sun morning and evening. If kept too close and shaded 

 they wiU draw very spindly and weak. To neutralise that, 

 and also prevent the cuttings damping, move the glass a 

 Uttle at night, and as soon as the cuttings callus freely taie 

 it off' altogether at night, if there is no likelihood of the 

 tender cuttings being dried from being placed near a heating 

 medium. To prevent damping on the one hand and drying 

 up on the other, it will be found preferable to keep the 

 place round the cuttings moist, and even to water the space 

 between the two pots instead of watering the little pot in 

 which the cuttings are placed. We have not grown the plant 

 lately ; but, by the above mode, we have found every cutting 

 strike and grow freely. In potting-off we first placed four 

 round the sides of a small 60-pot, using chiefly sandy peat 

 with a little charcoal about the size of bird-shot, watered, 

 kept close, and shaded from bright sun until they were 

 growing freely and each plant was forming a nice little mass 

 of roots, when each of the four plants received a single pot. 



The plants were frequently stojiped by jjinching-out the 

 points, and brought under the general routine of manage- 

 ment. In potting place the drainage as dii-ected the other 

 week, so that wherever the plant is placed worms cannot 

 get in from beneath, as the plant will not thrive with worms 

 about the roots ; and, though they may be dislodged with 

 clear Ume water, we always found the plant disliked such 

 applications, or even hard weM water of any kind. If raia 

 water cannot be had, and spring water must be apphed, it 

 should stand in the sun twenty-four hours before being 

 used.— R. P. 



GRAPES AND MELONS FAILING. 



The Grapes in my hothouse I perceive are drying-off; 

 their appearance a few days ago was luxuriant. I have been 

 speaking to a gardener about it, and he says my head man 

 gives them no longer any water, contending that, the Grapes 

 having swelled, the Vines should be di'ied-otf. Common sense, 

 one would think, indicates a totally different plan ; for when 

 the plant requh-es the greatest nourishment, then the 

 gi-eatest moisture should be administered. This is my 

 theory. Am I right ? 



From precisely the same cause, I think, my Melons are 

 good for nothing, and not bigger than a cricket-ball. My 

 man may be right : if he is, it strikes me as the greatest 

 anomaly in nature. Another thing I should mention in 

 regard to the Melons — the bines run all over the frames, and 

 would get out if they could. Does not this exhaust the 

 plant ?— E. B. 



[We feel that it is a very delicate matter to pronounce 

 upon the fitness of a certain treatment, when it is a matter 

 of dispute between a gentleman and his gardener, where 

 the data given are necessarily so meagre. When Grapes 

 are dead ripe it is often advisable to keep the borders rather 



