December 1, 18G3. 



JOUENAL OP HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



427 



they are being called and popularised by such names as 

 " Red-hot-pokers," " Volunteers," &c., by those who do not 

 care nor try to remember the frightful names by which 

 gardeners know them. With what sort of a name the 

 " Johnny Bottle " style of man, I will not say gardener, may 

 dignify them it would be hard to divine ; although I should 

 not be surprised t« hear that it is " Tree-Tuoamers." It 

 seems, however, possible to be " a, very good gardener," and 

 at the same time be " grievously ignorant " of I's and my's. 

 There is about Tritomas, particularly to a person who sees 

 them for the first time, something very striking and beau- 

 tiful when densely marshalled in long straight lines. In 

 this manner they are somewhat extensively grown here as 

 back lines to flower-borders, more especially Tritoma uvaria 

 glaucescens and T. Rooperi. On a line of the former 

 variety, 140 feet long, I counted one day last autumn 857 

 blooms ; and if anything in the form of a line of flowering 

 plants deserves to be described as gorgeous this certainly 

 did, and this variety cannot be too strongly recommended 

 for the purpose. 



T. Rooperi is a variety not so well known as it deserves 

 to be, it being of no less merit than T. uvaria fi-om the fact 

 that it is equally beautiful, and has the great merit of 

 commenomg to bloom when T. uvaria is past. It continues 

 in flower here nearly the whole winter. While I write 

 (November 18th) it is sjjlendid, and last winter it flowered 

 through frost and snow. It is a much stronger grower than 

 any of the others, and throws up its enormous spikes of 

 flower to the height of 6 and sometimes 7 feet, and some- 

 times there are smaller heads of bloom lower down from the 

 same main stems. By planting these two varieties alter- 

 nately in the rows a display of Tritomas can be had for five 

 months in succession. 



I should like much to see a long line of T. Rooperi and 

 Gyneriuni argenteum planted time about, and think the 

 effect would be very striking at this dull season, when out- 

 door flowers are so scarce. The somewhat stiff and marshal- 

 looking style of the Tritoma with its orange and scarlet 

 flowers would help to heighten the effect of the beautiful 

 plumes of white, drab, grey, and purple of the Gynerium. 

 They would both thrive well in the same soil, as they like 

 good feeding and a good exposure. 



It has been aflirmed that T. uvaria perpetuates itself true 

 from seed, but such has not been my experience of it. A 

 few years ago I sowed a quantity of seed, and have flowered 

 a great many plants in two long back lines, each IGO feet 

 long, and there are scarcely two plants alike. They differ 

 in habit, and more especially in colour, there being all 

 shades from a pale yellow to a bright scarlet ; but very few of 

 them are of equal merit with the original, while only one is 

 considered an improvement on it from its coming into bloom 

 a fortnight earlier, remaining longer in bloom, and having a 

 larger spike of a brighter colour. 



Propagation is easily effected by division of the roots, 

 and where numbers are more the object than a few plants 

 that will bloom the following autumn, every eye on the 

 roots will make a plant ; but when the object is to obtain 

 a, more limited number of plants that will flower in a short 

 time, the plan is to lift the old stools and divide them with 

 as much root to each plant as possible. Where room can 

 be afforded them the best way is to divide in autumn as 

 soon as done flowering, and pot each plant singly into six- 

 inch pots and winter them in a cold pit or frame. In the 

 following April they wiU have rooted nicely, and should 

 then be planted out in rich deeply-trenched soU, and in 

 autumn each plant will yield one or more blooms according 

 to its strength, and they will form fine flowering stools for 

 the following season. When this cannot be done it is a 

 good way to divide in April and plant where they are to 

 bloom. They are very fond of leaf mould well decayed, and 

 the ground should be well enriched with it. They bloom 

 best if allowed to remain undisturbed for some years, and 

 when they become too thick in the rows they can be thinned 

 out. Of coiu-se in time they become immense stools, and 

 unless a border can be devoted to them as immense speci- 

 mens, lifting and replanting or reducing becomes a matter 

 of necessity to keep them within bounds. 



In most localities it is necessary to protect them from 

 severe frosts by putting a little moidd or a few half-decayed 

 leaves round their collars the same as is practised with 



Globe Artichokes. In our light soil here we draw some of 

 the soil round them with a spade or hoe, and they stand our 

 severest winter with such protection. When grown for 

 back lines the tangled foliage can be trained to grow all to 

 the back simply by being drawn or pushed back in that 

 direction occasionally, and then there is no difficulty in 

 having a row of dwarfer plants close to them where such is 

 required. 



Can any one give information as to the merits of T. media 

 and T. pumila ? I have not seen them. They are much less, 

 I believe, than the two I have spoken of T. BurcheUii has 

 been discai-ded as worthless. — D. Thomson. 



POTATOES. 



In watching the sailing for some past of the good ship. 

 The Jouenal of Horticulture, a certain instinct as to its 

 handling has caused me to think that any volunteering of 

 mine would be superfluoiis. So many new and better sailors 

 have appeared on board, that an old hand like myself had 

 better remain ashore making practice. Corporal Trim fashion. 

 But in a letter which I received from the Admiral lately, 

 he there says, " You are not dead, &c. I never saw such 

 a superior show of Potatoes as at a little local show at 

 Daventry. How are they in Oxon ? " Now, of course, a hail 

 from the quarter-deck found me wilUng to push off and pidl 

 a rope ; and as I have not been idle, I trust that my muscles 

 and tactics may be found up to the mark, and allow me to 

 appear creditably amongst the rigging. 



At the Agricultural Show here, a few weeks ago, I over- 

 heard this remark — " You shoidd tell your people about you 

 (Santon Harcourt and neighbourhood), to come to the Wood- 

 stock Show, and they would meet with competitors worthy 

 of their steel. I do not know where a better assortment of 

 Potatoes can be met with than there." I really think the 

 observation was a just one, and I never saw, with the ex- 

 ception of the Great International Show at South Kensing- 

 ton last year, a better assortment of Potatoes than what we 

 had here this year. I take a little credit to myself for the 

 result, for during a sixteeu-years residence I have annually 

 introduced some of the newest and best varieties from 

 all pai-ts of the realm ; and although for certain reasons I do 

 not now appear amongst them as an exhibitor, I stiU con- 

 tinue to introduce new and approved kinds on trial, both for 

 the benefit of ourselves and our neighbom-s. The following 

 are the results of my practice and observations as regards 

 Potato-culture this year : — 



On March the 18th, I planted Daintree's Seedling, Shut- 

 ford Seedling, Mitchell's Early Albion Kidney, Dalmahoy, 

 Lapstone Kidney. The Daintree's Seedling were well foliaged 

 above ground by April the 26th, and the Mitchell's were 

 peeping up. On the 29th, from the feel of the air and the 

 look of the sky as I was walking down Piccadilly in the 

 evening, my worst fears about them were fuUy realised. On 

 my return to Woodstock on the 6th of May, they were black. 

 The Shutfords at the latter date were just taking the lead 

 of the Dalmahoys, the Lapstones having by their tardi- 

 ness escaped the frosts ; but the Daintree's, not to be con- 

 quered, sprang forth again, and soon became equally forward 

 to look at with the best of them. I did not attempt to dig 

 the Daintree's this year as a first early, my practice last 

 season having taught me that it was injudicious to do so. 

 I allowed them to remain tiU after the earliest sorts, and 

 then had, what all must acknowledge to be, an early Potato, 

 which is a good cropper, of good size, and of the very 

 best quality. . 



On June 2nd, we were using some of the last year's Dam- 

 tree's, and if I had chosen I could then have begun and con- 

 tinued to dig new Daintree's. On July 23rd, I dug up a root 

 o{ the latter, which gave twenty-four Potatoes, all of good 

 size except two. They weighed 2J lbs., and fi-om then tUl 

 the middle of Januarv, when I anticipate the exhaustion of 

 its store, they have, and wiU, constitute our preferable sort 

 for cooking. 



August 12th, lifted the crop. They were a beautiful 

 sample, not one of them diseased, and they averaged from 

 several careful admeasurements, 28 lbs. per four square 

 yards, which gives within a fi-aetion of 15J tons per acre. 



Jidy 24th, dug a root of Dalmahoys, which gave twenty- 



