January 20, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL. OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



stamps with toot addreBS. (T. Long).— " The Fruit Manual " only gives 



^o^^f.nc nf aafh Trar',e.*T " Thp ;s>ipnrt. mill Practice of Gardening ' 



descriptions of each variety. " The Science and Practice of Gardening 

 explains all horticultural proceedings, and details the reasons which 

 should guide them. 



Tropsolum tricolorum (P.. S., Motley}.— The index is for the second 

 volume of 1869, and on page '213 of that volume is the culture of T. trico- 

 lorum. 



Tenant's Bight to Remove a Geeexhocse and Shrubs (B. A.).— 

 We have repeatedly stated that before building or planting it is best to 

 have a written agreement as to what the tenant shall be entitled to re- 

 move. If such an agreement does not exist, the tenant has no right to 

 remove any plant, shrub, or tree that he has planted. As to a green- 

 house, if he attaches it to a wall he has no right to remove it, though he 

 might take away the moveable sashes. ErickworK, sr.ch as yon would 

 require for setting a boiler and forming a chimney, are not removable 

 without the landlord's consent ; but all the glasswork of a Paxtonian or 

 other greenhouse structure may rest merely on a layer of bricks, and 

 may all be removed at any time. Such a structure might be heated by 

 a gas or other moveable stove, with an iron tube for a chimney, which 

 would also be removable. 



Diamant Traube {Reuben Oates). — We do not know where you can 

 purchase a plsnt of this Grape. It is cultivated in the garden of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, at Chiswick. All nurserymen ought to 

 grow it. 



Select Flowers {Inquirer).— Ot Japanese Chrysanthemums: Auran- 

 tlum, Comet, Dr. Masters. Hero of Magdala, James Salter. Nagasaki 

 Violet, Prince Satsuma, Red Dragon, Diamio, and Wizard. Large-fioicered 

 Chrysanthemums: Beverley, General Slade, Fingal, Golden Beverley, 

 Guernsey Nugget, John Salter, Julie Lagravere, Mr. Wyness, Mrs. G. 

 Rundle, Prince Alfred, Prince of W»les, Princess of Wales. Pompons: 

 Bob, Golden Aurore, Lilac Cedo Nulli, lizzie Holmes, Prince Victor, 

 White Trevenna. 



American Papers (TT.).— Apply to Messrs. SamDSon, Low, & Co., Fleet 

 Street. 



Gladioluses tn Pots.— J. -", rr wi'l oblige some correspondents by 

 naming about a dozen cheap varieties which Bucceed under pot-culture. 



Hygrometer (G. P.).— Many other articles besides the awns of the 

 "animated Oat" indicate changes in the humidity of the air, but such 

 intimation is not sufficient for the gardener ; he needs an instrument 

 telling the actual amount of the changes. 



Spots in Pelargonium Leaves preventives 



of this spot appear to us to be as certain to keep it away as the opposite 

 treatment will be sure to bring it on. 1, Keeping the soil dryish instead 

 of moist in winter and spring, and, if possible, choosing a bright sunny 

 day to give what little water would be necessary, and spilling as little as 

 possible. 2, Setting the plants on a dry, solid substance.be it wood, slate, 

 or stone, with air beneath as well as above the shelves, platform, &c, in- 

 stead of standing the plants on beds of earth, ashes, &c. For extra fine 

 plants it is a good plan to set the pot on the bottom of another pot re- 

 versed. 3, Keeping the atmosphere sweet, airy, and rather dry, instead 

 of moist, close, and stagnant. 4, Giving air so early that all the foliage 

 should be dry before the sun shines much upon it. 



Roses (St. Edmunds).— We should recommend the following in addition 

 to what you have, though we should have been able to have given you a 

 better answer if you had told us how many more you had room for 

 White.— Baronne de Maynard and Mdlle. Bonnaire. blmk.— Souvenir de 

 Malmaison. Satin Pink.— Baroness de Rothschild and Atel Grand. Lilac 

 Pint.— Marguerite de St. Amand. Pink— Princess Mary of Cambridge 

 and M. Noman. Cerise. — Jules Margottin. John Hopper, and Madame 

 C. Crapelet. P.ed to Dark Red.— Senatenr Vaisse, Alfred Colomh, Madame 

 Victor Verdier. Pierre Netting. Duke of Edinburgh, and Xavier Olibo. 

 Marechal Niel and Celine Forestier. In a good mixed garden 

 soil they will do best on Manetti as dwarfs, care being taken to plant 

 the collar of the Roses at least 3 inches under ground. 



Utilising Chamber Slops {H. W. 23.).— It is not safe to use them 

 undiluted to flowering plants, but they may advantageously be poured 

 between the rows of Cauliflowers and other kitchen-garden crops in 

 summer. The strength of this form of liquid manure varies so consider- 

 ably, sometimes the slops being little beyond urine and soapy solutions, 

 and at others very little of either, that it is very difficult to give instruc- 

 tions how to use them. If like the former, the slops should be diluted 

 with six times their bulk of water ; if like the latter, they will not require 

 dilution. Careful investigation and judgment must be exercised. 



Spent Hops fop. Mulching Sira-.veep.p.ies {Idem), — You may use them 

 as you propose as a mulching to keep the fruit clean. They are no more 

 manuring than any other description of decaying or decayed vegetable 

 matter, as leaves, grass, ic. ; but by preventing evaporation they keep 

 the soil moister than it would otherwise be. They make when a foot to 

 18 inches thick an excellent fermenting material for hotbeds. 



Tacsonia Van-Volxeni and Plumeaoo capensis (H. F.).— Both will 

 succeed in a glazed passage not exposed to draughts, and on that account 

 kept too low in temperature, and the evaporation rapid or the atmosphere 

 too dry. All they require is sufficient heat to exclude frost. 



Management of Vines IF,". S. D.).— We have a dim recollection of 

 your case. We do not consider that two 3-inch pipes on each side of a 

 span-roofed vinery 13 feet wide are sufficient for anything like forcing, 

 but still that piping at the sides and one end ought to keep out more than 

 5' of frost— that is. when the thermometer is at 27 . We think it ought 

 to keep out frost when the outside temperature is down to 10 or la°, or 

 even lower, in a quiet night. We think it is very likely that, as you 

 say, the pipe3 have sunk unequally, and that would greatly impede the 

 circulation. The large stones on which the pipes rest would have pre- 

 vented that, except for the moving-about of the ground ; but with the 

 help of a small level it is easy to make such small pipes level by means 

 of pieces of tiles and slates beneath them. If the pipes have a cistern at 

 the farther end they will do on the level, but better still if for the 21 feet 

 in length in the house they rise gradually, say 3 or 4 inches to the 

 extreme end ; and, if there is no cistern, have an open air-pipe there, say 

 a small gp.s-pipe, one tnd passing through the pipe to the water, and the 

 other end going out of the house 2 or 3 feet higher, and the end bent 

 down. This slight rise is more necessary, ~s the boiler, a small one, is 

 22 feet from the vinery. You do not say how it is used, but if not used 



at all the pipes should be placed packed in nonconducting materials ; 

 or if in an open chamber, then the chamber should open into the vinery, 

 so that the heat given off there should go into the vinery. A small 

 opening near the boiler would thus secure fresh heated air to the vinery. 

 These matters attended to, we have no doubt you will obtain more heat 

 from your pipes. For all great works in houses it is important to have 

 piers "to receive the joints of the pipes to prevent them moving. For 

 want of them we are frequently obliged to fresh level some of ours. As 

 far as we can judge, your treatment of the vinery since you have had 

 charge of it has been quite correct ; still, with the border all inside, we 

 are sometimes apt to err on the side of dryness of the soil, because if we 

 wish the Grapes to hang long we can scarcely have the soil on the surface 

 too dry ; and, just as in your case, when the house is to be filled with 

 bedding plants, &c, in winter, it is quite as well not to have the soil 

 beneatb them soakingwet. as it renders more fire heat necessary. Hence, 

 if the Grapes in such a house were cut, say, in October, it would be good 

 policy to clean the house, give a moderate watering so as to reach the 

 roots, and either have the surface rather dry or a little dry surfacing 

 added before the bulk of the plants were introduced. Let it never be 

 forgotten that when a vinery has to serve many purposes you must not 

 be content with thinking of one thing alone. Hence in such a hotise as 

 yours, that has to suit various purposes, the giving as much water and 

 top-dressing in the autumn as would prevent the roots suffering from 

 dryness, and another watering of manure water a fortnight or so before 

 you increased the temperature of the house to break the Vines, and that 

 water tepid, would, so far as autumn and spring were concerned, have 

 been sufficient, and the last watering would not at all affect the pot 

 plants injuriously, as the sun would be gaining power and more air could 

 be given. Lastly, there are many modes for arriving at one definite 

 result, but then it is often requisite to adhere to one mode, and not to mix 

 several. Of the correctness of the advice given by your employer's friend 

 we need say no more than that the man of the greatest intelligence and 

 the most extended practical observation and experience is ever the most 

 diffident of himself and the most charitable towards others. You ara 

 placed in one of those circumstances which many a young intelligent 

 man finds very trving, and in which he can only keep himself right by a 

 mixture of firmness and prudence. In this respect we question if yon 

 should not have carried out in its entirety the advice given. In that 

 respect you should have let it be clearly understood that you would have 

 no responsibility forthe result, that you would faithfully work asadvised, 

 but that the credit of success and failure should alike be given to the ad- 

 viser. With Vines so weak, we should not have objected to dressing 

 the surface with pure cow dung, though we might have demurred to 

 "iving so much as three cartloads, or twenty large barrowloads of such wet, 

 cold stuff as you represent, or at least would have preferred washing the 

 virtu-s out of'it into the soil by degrees, instead of drenching it at once 

 with two thousand gallons of cold water, as soon as the Vines were 

 pruned, and when the roots were comparatively inactive. We think 

 that as a gardener feeling somewhat responsible, you acted prudently m 

 rn'vin" six hundred gallons of water instead of the two thousand, for 

 ~y -n that quantity is more than we should have thought of giving at one 

 time under the circumstances. But, then, from this exercise of pru- 

 dence yon take the most of the responsibility on your own shoulders, 

 and if the Vines next season are not everything to be desired, the ad- 

 viser has the power to say, " It could not be otherwise, as you did not 

 carry ont my specific directions." Onr general advice in all such cases 

 is Take no responsibility when you merely carry out the plans of others ; 

 but if these must be carried out, let it be seen that you do so faithfully, 

 and conscientiously. Every experienced reader can jodge of your case. 

 The floor of the span-roofed house will be 21 feet by 13 feet, and we pre- 

 sume all that is border for the Vines, the roots being all inside. We will 

 pass by the three loads of pure wet cow dung. You have given to every 

 square foot of surface, something like nine quarts of cold water. To the 

 space you tught, according to your adviser, to have giv<n about twenty- 

 nine quarts of water to the square foot. With roots comparatively inert, 

 we can see little benefit in so much water passing them, and that rather 

 rank too. If the border is very well drained, such an abundance of 

 liquid mi"ht pass away without doing much injury ; but if not well 

 drained we can imagine such a lot of rank, rich water turning the border 

 into little better than a motass, and causing disease and decay in the 

 best of the young fibres. No wonder that, when in the late frosty weather 

 you could give but little air, your " vinery had an awful smell, and that it 

 was bad for your many plants." It would be a good plan to keep an open 

 trench to exclude tree roots from your ground. Raspberries grown and 

 trained in lines, may he planted from 12 to 18 inches apart. 



Dry Rot in Timber (<?.)■— From your description we should say your 

 i timber is affected with the dry rot, a result of depriving it of a free circu- 

 lation of air. You must first remove the cause— damp and derivation of 

 fresh air Secure a thorough current by ventilation from opposite points, 

 | -nd cut off damp by raising the timber on dwarf walls laid on a concrete 

 or asphalt base. Nothing will k^ll the insect in the wood, but once it 

 1 e 'ins every tainted portion must be removed Steep or well wash the 

 wood with 5 lbs. of chloride of zinc to twenty-five gallons of water. It is 

 the best preventive of dry rot. 



Piping to Heat a Lean-to Vinery (T. H. D.).— For such a house, 

 10 feet' by 11, by 10, you would, to be safe in forcing, require about 80 feet 

 of 4-inch' piping. Less than that would do if you commenced forcing 

 four or six weeks later. We presume you have settled how and where 

 the pipes are to be placed. The boiler alluded to will answer very well, 

 as you can easily change the combustive properties of a boiler, by the 

 arran»ement of air admitted to the Sre. Almost any small boiler, how- 

 ever, would suit your purpose. It will always be an advantage to have 

 pipes on the Eame level, instead of one above each other. Thus, sup- 

 posing that you had all the pipes in the front of your house, then if all 

 were on the same level, you could have two or three flows and one return. 



Soils {W.I. G.).— No. 1 would do for potting-off bedding plants in 

 spring if mixed with one-third sharp Band. No. 2 is a poor loam, but 

 would do for potting purposes if mixed with one-third leaf mould. No. 3 

 is a peat only fit for fuel. 



Tanks, &c. (R. /.).— 1. Bear in mind that except for givingan additional 

 amount of heat, and for securing bottom heat for what you may choose 

 to place in and grow in yonr pit, there is no necessity for a tank at all 

 in your pit in the vinery. Itmatters but little of what a tank is made- 

 iron brick and cement, or even wood, further than as regards lasting. 

 With water in your tank, and a perforated covering, you will always be sure 



