182 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



r August 15, 1867. 



t^em sufficiently to prevent the wind from blowing them down. 

 The wood left should uot be shortened, but should be allowed to 

 grow during the season. Climbers on walls, &c., should be 

 fastened in, and occasionally pruned to prevent them from 

 becoming too thick. As weeds increase rapidly on gravel walks 

 in showery weather, take particular care to keep them clean, 

 frequently rolling and sweeping them. Hoe and rake borders 

 and beds as often as they require it. Keep herbaceous plants 

 neatly tied up, removing all dead flowers, but do not cut the 

 plants down to the ground until their stems have begun to die 

 off, as it weakens the plants for another season. Propagation 

 by cuttings is now a most important business in this depart- 

 ment. If time can possibly be spared, let there be no delay in 

 this respect, not only mass flowers, but many in the mixed 

 beds and borders, require to be annually propagated in order 

 to secure a continuance of them. Such are sometimes termed 

 imperfect perennials, of whicji instances may be adduced, 

 in such plants as Peutstemon campanulatum and its varieties, 

 Chelone barbata (still a useful plant), the Antirrhinums in 

 great variety, and Coreopsis lanceolata, auriculata, and better 

 still, C. graudiflora. Mimulus atroroseus, too, requires looking 

 after, and deserves it. Many of these are old plants, but they 

 are still useful in contributing to the general effect ; at least, 

 cuttings of Peutstemon gentianoides should be secured betimes, 

 if well established they will flower sooner than seedlings. The 

 Maurandya, the Lophospermum, Ehodochiton, &c., as before 

 observed, should be well established in their store pots before 

 ■winter. Ten-week Stocks may be sown for pots, and a little 

 Mignonette every week until the beginning of September, for 

 pots. Let Rose-budding proceed, and for common purposes we 

 would recommend such as the old Crimson Perpetual, the Bour- 

 bon Queen, Phcenix, Armosa, Lafayette, Aimee Vibert, &c. 

 These, although not of the exhibition class, are, nevertheless, 

 most useful about the pleasure grounds of a country seat. 



GEEENHOUSE AND CONSEKVATOBY. 



The drenching rains which have been so prevalent and 

 general of late, will begin to cause a little anxiety amongst 

 plant-growers, as to the condition at root of some of the New 

 Holland plants. Ericas, &c., which are placed out of doors. 

 These matters are a severe test of the efficacy of the various 

 modes of drainage, and frequently teach the young beginner a 

 serious lesson. Cold pits or frames will soon be in request, if 

 at hand, if such weather should continue. Common structures 

 of this kind are, after all, much safer when placed under proper 

 regulations, than trusting tender or young stock to the mercy 

 of the elements unprotected. Give every attention to flowers 

 for a late display. Everything intended for this purpose should 

 be thoroughly established in the pot, late shifting will never 

 answer here. Now that all plant-structures are nearly empty, 

 or that the plants in them may be moved from one house to 

 another without sustaining any injury, painting and glazing 

 should be proceeded with ; in fact, uU kinds of repairs should 

 now be forwarded, and if the fines (should such exist) require 

 sweeping, let this be done. If any alteration is required in hot- 

 water apparatuses this sliould at once be completed. Badly- 

 set boilers, which consume fuel without producing much benefit, 

 should be reset on a right principle, and badly-constructed 

 boilers entirely removed. Nothing during the time of severe 

 frost is so disheartening to a gardener as to consume fuel with- 

 out receiving its full equivalent of heat. This is a most im- 

 portant subject. 



STOVE. 



Little fresh can be added here at present. Take evei-y means 

 in due time to harden or rather to ripen the growths already 

 made. It is rather too late to defer this until September. 

 Give air very freely indeed at all times, more especially 

 when the warmth of the natural atmosphere is a guarantee. 

 Nevertheless, shut up abundance of solar heat, with a good 

 amount of atmospheric moisture betimes in the afternoon. 



riTS AND FnAMES. 



Cuttings put in a few weeks ago will now be rooted, and 

 should be removed to a more airy situation for a few dnys to 

 harden off. Fill up the empty space again with fresh kinds, 

 no time must be allowed to pass by. (io on propagating all 

 the new and better kinds of Verbenas, Petunias, Heliotropes, 

 Scarlet and other Pelargoniums. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



The heavy rains of the Cth so baked the surface of the 

 ground, that it became necessary, weeds or no weeds, to loosen 



the soil among all young crops that the hoe or the fork 

 could have access to, in order to let a little air in and keep 

 the scorching heat of such days as Saturday out. It is seldom 

 that we wish to see a rake at work, except in making the soil 

 tine for small seeds ; but there is one instance before us in 

 which we might have found it better to have used an iron rake, 

 and that is in a small piece of Asparagus, well hoed and the 

 weeds left between the rows. These weeds, and some of them 

 of a fair size, too, are planting themselves most comfortably, 

 owing to the shosvery, dull weatlier, and will want another hoe- 

 ing in a bright day to let the sun shrivel them out of sight. If 

 we had had some salt we would have saved the hoeing, and 

 that is one of the advantages of salting this vegetable, that it 

 destroys the weeds as well as gives the plant what it enjoys in 

 its natural habitats. 



CauUjhiwer. — We forget now how many successions of this 

 we have at present ; but from digging down a piece of Straw- 

 berries we were enabled to jjlant out a good piece, which will 

 afford a fine autumn supply, andthelatest will stand long under 

 protection. We generally plant one piece later still, either 

 where we can protect it, or to be lifted and placed under pro- 

 tection. At this season we give less room to the plants, as 

 they will not grow so strong — say generally 18 inches between 

 the rows, and from a foot to 15 inches in the row. There is no 

 other kind of Greens or Broccoli that equals the Cauliflower if 

 it can be had good and compact. The latter matter is some- 

 times lost sight of at country cottage shows, where some huge 

 parasol heads, so run that you could push your fingers or even 

 your fist into the openings, are expected to beat compact, firm 

 heads, 5 or more inches in diameter. This is less to be 

 wondered at when those of refined taste are so often led to give 

 the preference to quantity rather than quality. 



Spinacli. — On ground from which Potatoes have been raised 

 we have sown the main winter crop, in rows from 15 to 18 inches 

 apart, and it is not too soon to do so on heavy, late land; on 

 light, early soils it would be time enough to do so about the 

 28th. We will sow a little piece more then, as it is always best 

 to be sure, as when too forward it is apt to suffer from early 

 frosts, and the two sowings afford a better succession in the 

 spring. Where ground can be spared it is well to have enough 

 of this tender delicious vegetable, as, though it exhausts the 

 soil, yet when it is cut down when strong and allowed to lie a 

 day or two, and is then trenched down, it returns to the ground 

 a good moiety of the nourishment that it took away. The 

 Prickly or Flanders Spinach is the best for present sowing. 

 Where there is much packing of vegetables and fruit to a dis- 

 tance, plenty of Spinich comes in useful fur packing material. 



Onions. — Sowed the Tripoli and Whitj Spanish for the main 

 winter crop for salading, and for planting fur the first crop in 

 spring. If we have a tine autumn, even in our stiff soil, these 

 will be over early, and will become too large even for salads ; 

 but if the autumn be shady and cold they will not be too early. 

 We shall, therefore, sowa piece more at the end uf the month. 

 Have our readers noticed how weakly most of our seedlings 

 come at this season of the year compared with the robustness 

 they assume in April and May, when the sun is approaching 

 his greatest strength, instead of receding from it? 



Turnips and Kadishcs. — Sowed a good breadth in rows, the 

 Radishes in intermediate rows, and to be cleared out before the 

 Turnips want the room. Will have another small sowing to- 

 wards the end of the month. The latter, especially, will pro- 

 duce but smuU Turnips in winter, but they will be firm and 

 sweet. It is rarely that Turnips should be used at table larger 

 than a middle-sized closed fiat. The sweetness will greatly 

 depend on youth and rapid growth. As fast as we could clear 

 ground we tilled it thickly withColeworts, Borecoles, Broccolis, 

 &c., as it is much more pleasant to cut them up in spring than 

 to go without a suflicient supply. 



In the stimulus given to the higher branches of gardening, 

 especially floriculture, some of the rising race of gardeners are 

 apt to think the kitchen garden beneath their notice, and the 

 usual results as to grumbling and piuchings follow. Let it be 

 clearly understood, that in all families where the exception 

 is not clearly made vegetables must ever stand first, fruit 

 second, and plants and flowers third. Whoever ventures so to 

 transpose their position as to give vegetables the third place, 

 will most likely be reminded in no very pleasant way of hia 

 error. 



Pras. — Late crops promise to be fine, and the rains have 

 made some sorts grow so fast, that we have been obligetd to 

 hold them up by imles connected with strings, as when the 

 haulm is broken or twisted the Peas do not swell regularly. 



