j>i7 as, isn. 1 



JOURNAL OP HOBTICULTURB AND COTTAGE GABDEMEB. 



Pka (y. B. H.).—Tbo varioly you aont to us Is known aa tho Purplo- 

 poddud Fou. 



ScsDLnto PsnAHOOMiai {John Deant).—Tho flower wag quiu ihid' 

 The very crimson fl.ime ontrasta atrikingly with tho duad wliite oi the 

 ground culuur; but no judi^ment can bo formed from a singlo flower. 

 Send a potted plant to the Floral Committee of tho Royal UorticuUural 

 Society. 



VARIEO.ITED Phlox (/Ji'o),— Wo do not remember having seen a varie- 

 gated Phlox, but do not on that account consider it either rare or valu- 

 able. More varicKiitions in plants havo been brought to our uotico this 

 year than in any previous aeasou, and next year most of those variegations 

 will have pasaed away. VarioKatiou of itsolt dooa not give value to a 

 plant ; ita beauty or utility muat bo increased by tho variojiatiou, and tho 

 variegulioD muat be permanont or it is valueless. 



Dove I'UNT (C iI.).~U by this name you intend Perisloria ehita, it is 

 a Btovo Orchid, but might .lucceod in a warm greonhouso. If you write 

 to any of the chief nursorj'meu, who advertise in our Journal, they will 

 sund you particulars of price, <&o. 



Kkd Ccrrants I a SuhtcribfT fram 1848).— Raby Castle, Victoria, and 

 Goliath are synonyms of ono and tho same variety. 



CucuMDKU [liarr it Hu^drn], — Your Cucumber called " International," 

 of which you forwarded us a specimen, 24 inches long, is straight and 

 handsome, rather too much neck, but, neverthcleas, a very excellent 

 variety. 



DuiUA Tubes (W.H. M.).— Nest week. 



ViNEBY, Ac. (Amateur, SloW).—Yan cannot have all advantages from 

 any one plan. If you take the walk round the stage, tliough it should 

 bo narrow I'r at tho ends, you c.in walk round it. If the walk is on three 

 sides, you muat come back when you reach the division, unless you have 

 a door there, when, of course, the objection does not apply, and you will 

 do right in having your stage up to the division. You will be right whether 

 you have a door or not, if you do uot mind the turniog back. Of course, 

 you will gain all the width of the passage for stage. We would in ad- 

 dition to A, build tho walls c and b, so as to form the pit, and a wooden 

 coping to these four-inch walla would be the best. Such a pit could bo 

 filled with fermenting material before starting the Vines, and would be 

 useful for forwarding what you most liked; but wo would not grow Cu- 

 cumbers there below the Vines, as they might bring thrips and fly. Such 

 a pit with a trellis over it might be filled with bedding and hardy greenhouse 

 plants in winter, and after the Viues were in leaf, you could grow Mossed, 

 Foma, Calndiums, tender annuals, 4c. It matters little whether yoiir 

 wall c be higher than A or not, but il higher you would require a sloping 

 instead of a level stage iu winter. 



PoTTiNo Markchal Niel Rose — Planting RrsRS on the Manetti 

 Stock (C T.). — You may place this Rose in a larger-sized pot at the end 

 of September and any time afterwards up to November, u.sing a compost 

 of one-half turfy loam and ono-balf well-rotted manure and leaf mould 

 in equal proportions, adding sand liberally. Good drainage is essential, 

 and the soil should be used rather rough. In planting Rosea on the 

 Uanetti stock they should be covered with soil an iuch ortwo deeper than 

 tho bud, Ar the junction of the bud or graft with the stock should bo 

 covered with soil, but not deeper than 3 inches. 



Camellias Dnhealtht (Flora).— (The part of the stem sent is badly 

 infested with a fungus ; but that is not the cause of the plants' dying. 

 Tho parasite is only what may be found on the stems of all plants in- 

 fested with coccus or scale, which you may remove with tho iwint of a 

 knife, and afterwards wash clean the leaves and stems with a sponge, 

 using a solution of 4 or.s. of soft soap to a gallon of water, ."-yrlnge with 

 water at 140* . The painting of the house is injurious to plants at this 

 aoasoD, and the soda water you name, if strong, will destroy what it falls 

 upon. Wash tho M}Ttlea forcibly with a syringe, repeating this washing 

 twice or thrico in the course of a-week, using a solution of soft soap at 

 the rate of 'i ozs. to a gallon of water, and afterwards set them out of 

 doors, taking care to keep them well watered, but not in a saturated con- 

 dition. Take them in-doors in September. 



Climuino Devoniensis Rose not Flowering [B. Q. ff.).—The fact 

 of your liose being cut off to within 2 feet of the ground is in a measure 

 auflicieut to account for its not flowering. We suppose your plant is 

 against a wall, and if so, and in good rich soil, with the mere removal of 

 the tips of the shoots it will in a abort time flower freelj^. All it appears 

 to waut with you is growth, and to this end a top-dressmg of manure in 

 autunm will do good, tho watering being copious dm-ing dry weather in 

 summer. 



Vapour from Hot-wateb Pipes {C S.).— It is a very common practice 

 to sprinkle water on tho hot-water pipes during the forcing of Vines ; 

 and when the pipes are not vorj- hot, doing so, as well as sprinkling every 

 available surface twice or thrice a-day, is not injurious; but if the pipes 

 are vei'v hot sprinkling them is calculated to do more harm than 

 good. 



Traintno FntJiT Tbbrs tpon Roofs {J. C). — Your proposed training 

 is novel, and not likely to answer for tho Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot 

 trees, though it may do for Pear and Plum trees ; but wo apprehend the 

 shoots ul these will be difllcult of training, and that their leaves will very 

 soon injui'o the roof. Tho best trollising is galvanised wire, as you pro- 

 pose, but wo think yonr chances of a crop are very small in respect of the 

 Peach, Nectarine, and Apricot trees, which would be better kept on tho 

 nine-feet wall. Tho covering of your farm-yard with galvitnised wire 

 netting will not injure tho lower parts of tho trees nnlcss tho mesh of 

 the netting bo small, when it will interfere with their fruitfulness on 

 account of tho sun's rays being obstructed. As the trees are young wa 

 advise you to remove the 31, ai.d to plant standards, with stems of the 

 height at which the wire is fixed, providing you see your way to get at the 

 branches for the purposes of pruning and training. 



OXALIS CORNICULATA BtmBA iPrrplex).~ll 18 easily propagated from 

 seed sown early in Maroh aud placed in a gentle heat ; or a few good 

 plants taken up in autumn, planted in a cold frnnio or ]>it in a dry, 

 loitered situation, and treated like Calceolarias, will in March furnish a 

 number of running shoots. These, if taken off with the poiula, or even 

 with only two or three joints, potted, in small pota or pot in soil at 2 or 

 '■i inches apart, with or without heat, will soon become good plants ; but 



they succeed best with a mild bottom heat. In dry. gravelly aoUA ibiM 

 Oxalia ia quite hardy, seeding on tho walks, from whioh the plants tn 

 not easily eradicated. 



LILIC5I OIOANTEDM OFFSETS (An rruK SubKr{hrT).—lX il nsoal for 

 this plant after flowering to throw up ofl'seta or euokera, which should b* 

 removed and potted oIT singly, and these in their turn will flower and 

 give their quota of offsets. 



Watebino Vines (A Co-mtant Bender).— Now that tho Grapes ar» 

 swelling a good watering would do good ; but if they ore coloured it will 

 not bo of service. You should have given at least three good waterings: 

 one when the fruit was set, when about half swelled, and again a short 

 time before they changed colour. 



Market Phas (A'ocict).— Advancer, and a few days later Voitofa's For- 

 fection. 



Eradicatino Dandelions from a Lawn (Younn Amatfur\.—ka the 

 weather ia now moist dig thorn np with a Dock-apud, which you can 

 obtain of any ironmonger, and there ia still time for tho turf closing In 

 around tho openinga ; or you may defer it till spring, when you may take 

 them up as soon as you con discern them. Caually they dio by frequent 

 cutting, and they are not often troublesomo in lawns frequently mown. 

 Daiaioa and Plantains are more dilHcalt to doal with. We have seen tha 

 latter as well as Dandelions cut off just under tho surface early in spring, 

 and a pinch of salt applied to tho root that was left ; but tho plants sent 

 up suckers laterally, so that the evil was not mnch diminished. 



Taking Two Cnops or Hav in a Year (/rfern).— Unless the land l3 

 naturally good two cropa of hay will be found very exhausting, and heavy 

 and expensive manuring will be necessary to enable it to support snob a 

 drain on its rofourcos. In districts where two orops are cut it ia usual to 

 manuro with well-rotted dung or compost in a tolerably pulverised con- 

 dition between the crops— say in tho middle of July; otherwise, where 

 irrigation is available, that moans is adopted to renovate the ground. In 

 your case we should think a good dressing of nitrate of sods between tha 

 two crops would be most easily applied, and would cause no troubla 

 nor annoyance ; but if you continue to expoot two crops each year yea 

 must apply a more bulky manore in winter. As you say your aoU is thia 

 aud resting on the red sandstone, we wonid advise you to collect as much 

 road scrapings as you can, together with all aoouringa of ponds, ditches, 

 Ac. If these can be brought together in summer, dung mixed with them, 

 and the whole turned once or twice, the heap may be laid on before 

 Christmas at the rate of at least twenty one-horse cartloads per acre, 

 spread over the surface, and harrowed in during winter. Such dresaings 

 help to destroy the moss ; but if the soil is at all inclined to be o( a 

 clnyey nature, let lime bo mixed with the ditch-parings and turfy matters. 

 Wo would not lime, however, whore iron prevails, and this we expect ia 

 tho case in tho soil you describe. Wo hardly think it la worth while 

 sowing Italian Kyo Graaa on an esiating pasture aa yon describe, but we 

 would BOW a little Clover; and we must remind you that taking two cropa 

 of hay in one season is unfavourable to tho finer pasture Grasses doing 

 well, aa in most cases where this is practised tbe coarser Grsssos only 

 prevail, many of the finer Grasses being deatroyod by their more 

 rampant brethren. 



Diseased Grapes (T. P.I.— The berries of Lady Downo's Grape you 

 enclosed are very badly spotted. It usually arises from defective root- 

 action. If tho roots can bo kept warmer and watered occasionally with 

 weak tepid liquid manure, and more air admitted, the disease may be 

 arrested. Pick off the diseased berrioa as soon as dcto«tod,but tho disease 

 ia not infectious. 



Potting Azaleas (A Constant Reader).— U i« not too late to pot Ajoleae 

 after they have made their growth, care being taken not to injure tha 

 roots, and not to over-pot. 



Tacsonia Van-Volxemi Tbeatjibnt (T. H.)— Your plant should be 

 put to rest in autumn, and kept dry at the root during the winter. About 

 the middle of February it should bo pruned, and may bo repotti-d, remov- 

 ing mnstof the old soil, and have a lees-siaed pot. A compost of two- 

 thirds Ught turfy loam, and one-third leaf mould, with a free admixture 

 of tilver sand will grow it well, free draiusgo being provided. The pot 

 should bo placed in a gentle hotbed, tho soil being kept only just moist 

 until growth fairly commences, when tho watermg should be more 

 plentiful. When the pot becomes filled with roots, the plant should have 

 a ahift into the pot in which it is to bloom, and bo again plunged m the 

 hotbed unia it recovers from tho potting, when it may tie gradually with- 

 drawn from the bed. The atmosphere should be moist, and the roota 

 must not suffer Irom want of water, but a saturated soil is bad. 'The 

 shoots ahould bo regulated upon tho wire frequently, and must not bo too 

 much crowded. It cannot have too much light, and free ventilation 13 

 essential. It does admirably in a warm greenhouse. So far as we know 

 it will not survive the winter and bloom out of doors even against a wall, 

 but we have not tried it. 



STBAWBEBBiEa ON A l-LOPlUG BANK (W. Ji.).— We think that U you 

 give the Strawberries time they will bear fmit, especially if you afford a 

 good mulching of littery manure in June, and water them dnnng dry 

 weather. Raspberries would probably succeed if the situation is not too 

 much exposed, and the ground might, by being dug up and left rougn 

 through the winter, be made suitsblo tor sowing with Orasa seeds next 

 April. You may sow Fcatuca duriuscula, 4 lbs. ; Cynnsurua cnstatus, 

 8 lbs. ; Festuca tennifolia, '2 lbs. ; Poa nemornlls, 2 lbs. ; Poa tnviolia, 8 lbs. ; 

 LoUum perenne, 24 lbs. ; TriloUum rcpona, 8 lbs. ; and Iriiohum minus, 

 4 lbs. The above quantity is for an acre of ground. 



Roses on Light Son. (P. M. N.).--Your soil being light it is hardly 

 possible to manuro ;it too heavily. Wo recommend n good dressing of 

 m annre in November to bo left on tho surface, and neatly pointed-in m 

 a pring, when vou may apply a dressing of aoot between the plants, 

 m aking the soil quite black. If you were to hoe the ground in a day or 

 tw o afterwards, put on a mulching of short littery manuro 3 inches thick, 

 and give copious waterings in dry weather, you would have Koses lor 

 bouquets in plenty. Those named in tho "Garden Manual will siut 

 you. 



Names of Plants (A. ltoherUon).~We oonnot undertake to name vn- 

 ritliea, nor so many, and not unless each specimen is numbered. (Mr« 

 SmuHc).— Philadelphus speciosus. (John.- Deutzia aonbra. {I. H. B.). 

 — ij Spima ulmaria; 2. Hypericum perforatum; S, Aspidlum Filix- 

 fcemina ; 4, Allosorus erispns ; 6, Aspidium spinulosum ; 6, Aspidium sp. 

 (A. A'.).— Erica cerlnthoides. 



