Febraary 2-1, 1870 J 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



close, moist, and shaded until the roots are working freely, and then 

 admit moro air. Afford plenty of moistnre and a temperature of from 

 50° to 55' at night ; and having" secnred a good growth, insure its ripening 

 by giving more air. 



Camellias for Early Flowering (A Young Grower).— The plants 

 should now be potted i, requisite, and be continued in a temperature of 

 from 50" to r>5~ at night, and of t".j by day without sun, rising to 70 '. 75 . 

 or more with sun, maintaining a moist atmosphere. Admit air freely, 

 and water copiously as required. When the plants ha%'e completed their 

 growth, and are forming their bloom bads, keep them rather drier and 

 with abundance of air, and after the buds are formed keep them as cool 

 as possible, and shade from bright sun during the hottest part of the day. 

 Continue to keep them cool and duly supplied with water through the 

 summer and autunm, and when you require them to bloom the tempera- 

 ture may be kept at 40 , and then raised to 50° in the course of a fortnight, 

 which is sufficient from fire heat at night ; and let 55° to 60° by day be the 

 maximum from fire heat, with sun and air. 



Growing Azaleas (Id* n). — Pot them, if necessary, now, and maintain 

 a temperature of 55° at night, with a rise to 60 or (i'j by day, and 70 Q to 

 75 with sun and air. Kc p a moist and rather close atmosphere, and so 

 encourage freo growth. When thi3 is complete admit air freely, and 

 expose fully to the sun, so as to secure the ripening of too wood and 

 formation of the buds. When the bud3 are set admit all the 

 and keep cool. The plants may be brought into flower by p] 

 in a house, or increasing the temperature of the house they are in to 50°, 

 and in the course of a fortnight to 55°. 



Dracaena Propagation (Idem). — The best mode of propagation is by 

 eyes. The plants should be cut down to within two or three eyes of their 

 base, and the part taken off should be cut into as many lengths as there 

 are joints, which should be inserted singly in small pots, vertically, in 

 light sandv peat and loam, just covering the eyes with soil. Place the 

 cuttings in a hotbed of from 75° to 80°, and keep them close and moist, 

 but avoid making the soil wet. "When they have grown a few inches high 

 remove them to the stove, shifting them into larger pots as required. 

 The top of each shoot should be formed into a cutting, wbieh will strike 

 freely in a temperature of from 70° to 75°, if covered with a hand-glass, 

 and kept close and shaded from bright sun until rooted. Ficus elastica 

 may be propagated in the same way at this season, bcth from eyes of the 

 well-ripened wood and the short-jointed shoots. 



Potatoes.— G. R. wishes for an opinion on the Saltan Pink Kidney by 

 some grower of it. 



Eplphyllum truncatcm Ste:js Falling (Alplui).— The stems flagging 

 and turning soft show the plants have few if any roots, and the stems 

 coming away at the joints would result from the plants being kept too 

 cool, and the soil too wtt. We advise you to pot the plants at once 

 shaking away all the old loose soil, and providing extra good drainage, 

 and a free open soil : place them in a house with a gentle heat of 55 c at 

 night, watering sparingly until the plants are in free growth. There can 

 be no doubt but placing them in a cold conservatory his helped to produce 

 the evil, if it has not been the sole ciuse of it. We can supply back 

 numbers of the Journal for January, 1869. 



Browallias (Gay Dreams}.— The Browallias are pretty annuals and 

 sneceed under the same treatment as Balsams— that is, they require to 

 be sown and grown in a hotbed or bouse where there is a good heat, as 

 that of a vinery or cool stove, until of fair size; and when showing for 

 flower they may be removed to the greenhouse or conservatory. They 

 give as little trouble as Balsams, and they are equally long-blooming and 

 pretty— indeed fine when well grown. Three or more plants should be 

 grown in a pot. 



Potato Sports [G, -We do not think there would Ve any 



advantage in a white-skinned Potato over a red one, and the change from 

 white to red cannot be considered an acquisition unless other properties 

 accompany it— such as greater productiveness and improved quality. 



Pelarooniois (Idem) — It is now impossible to determine the parent- 

 age of the Show and Fancy Pelargoniums. In Sweet's time a great 

 many hybrids were figured and described by him and others as garden 

 varieties, and it is from those hybrids that our present race of cross- 

 breds have sprung. P. cordatnm is certainly not unlike many of the 

 Fancy section, and P. cucnllatum some of the Show kinds, but we know 

 nothing positive. Pelargonium zmale is a distinct species cultivated in 

 botanical collections, and it is not unlikely that the species you have 

 from South Africa may be it. We think your proposed crossing will give 

 some curious results if it should prove successful, which we very much 

 question. It is, however, well worth trial. 



Clematises as a Scree" {A. Q.).— Anything worse for a screen than 

 these could not well be conceived, and we do not know how you will get 

 them to any height without a trellis of some kind, for they are strictly 

 climbing plants, and where there is nothing to cling to they ore trailers. 

 We think them altogether unsuitable. A hedge of Berberis Darwinii, or 

 Laurustinus, as you wish for flowering shrubs, would be far more suit- 

 able, and both are evergreens, and after flowering will well bear cutting 

 to the shape required. The former should bo planted 2 feet, and the 

 latter 3 feet apart. 



Diluting Liquid Manure [E. M.).—lt is difficult to say how much 

 water should be added to the "drippings of heaps of manure in a yard 

 where cows only aro kept ;" but we have not found it necessary to dilute 

 such liquid, owing to rains making it weak enough. If, however, the 

 urine drains into the tank, then it will bo necessary to dilute the liquid, 

 but in dry periods only with twice its volume of rain water. It ought to 

 be applied to plants as soon as the buds appear, the pots being full of 

 roots, and discontinued when the flowers are expanding. 



Centadrea candidissi.ua Treatment (Brum.).— The leaf sent is that 

 of Centaurea candidissima, which is an evergreen half-hardy perennial, 

 much used at the present day for flower gardens. The treatment re- 

 quired is to keep it in a light, airy position in a greenhouse, and from 

 October to March give no more water than enough to prevent the leaves 

 from flagging. Pot it in March or April in a compost of two-thirds Uftht, 

 fibrous loam, and one-third sandy peat, with a free admixture of silver 

 Band. Good drainage is neoess&iy, watering freely with the growth. 

 When the plant is hardened- off it may be planted out at the end (if May 

 or beginning of Jane, and taken up in October before frost. Propagation 

 is effected by taking off tbe side shoots close to the stem, paring the 

 base smooth, and inserting them in silver eand singly iu small pots; 



then put them in a house with a temperature of from CO to 75", and a 

 bottom heat of 70 1 -, keeping them close and shaded until rooted, and 

 being careful not to keep them very moist or the sand wet, otherwise the 

 cuttings will damp off. Early in spring and the end of summer, are the 

 best times for taking off the cuttings. 



Incrustation in Hot-water Pipes fir. IT.). — All hot-water pipes will 

 become furred in time with a calcareous deposit. The best and simplest 

 preventive is putting 2 or 3 ozs. of muriate of ammonia (sal ammoniac), 

 in the water in the boiler. 



Management of Vines (J. S. H.).— We agree with you that you would 

 tave succeeded better if you had kept the Yir.es iu pots; and then, 

 again, we attribute your disappointment much to over-kindness to the 

 Vines. The rotten leaves over the hot-water pipes encouraged tbe Vines 

 to grow too long, and, no doubt, in consequence there was a want of 

 ripeness, and resting to tbe wood, though it seemed so plump and firm. 

 If the plants had been in pots you conld have taken them out in Septem- 

 ber. You might try a weight of a quarter of an ounce suspended from 

 the point of some of these tendrilled bunches. 



Seeds Given out to the Gardiner (A Go - ' Whether 



should a gardener have the seeds under his own care, or should he go 

 to the mistress tor them, whenever he wants a few ■"" " What next, and 

 next, and next I" Seriously, however, in large places it will conduce to 

 the comfort of all parties if the gardener looks after the seeds, and has 

 them under his care. In small places it i- often to the advantage of the 

 gardener if the mistress or master would take care of them. In such 

 places there is often no secure lock-up for seeds, and depredators of 

 various kinds are apt to get at them, much more so than in a secure 

 cupboard in a house. Such customs, when they exist, are generally 

 based on some prudential consideration. Meanwhile. 

 marks to make— First, if the lady docs not object to the trouble, the gar- 

 dener has no reason to grumble at having to make application for the 

 seeds as wanted. Secondly, These applications will in time become so 

 tiresome, that if the gardener secures by his at, and in 



duatrious conduct the confidence of hi e will, ere long, be 



relieved from the necessity of making many journeys to the house after 

 seeds. Unless he lives in tl - to be avoided if 



possible), the less he goes there the better, ■ The want- 



ing seeds might rather too often be made n matter of business. 



Small Gbeenhouse (Brighton).— We do not see why your 8-feet- square 

 house should not succeed. It will be quite time enough to bring your 

 well-wrought sweetened dung into the house, sav by April, and get the soil 

 so heated as to plant out by the beginnini - ■ • ■ Vou could raise the 

 plants by having a bed at one end, and covered with a hand-light, 

 or such a little box as was alluded to in "Doings of the Week," in our 

 number of February 3rd. A small frame would be very useful in such a 

 house. In growing Melons on a shelf at the top, boxes would be better 

 than pots, as the sun heats the latter so mach. Cucumbers and Melons 

 do very well in the same place until tbe Melon? approach the ripening 

 time, when they want a drier air than the Cucumbers. We would rather 

 advise yoa to have a thin calico division, and to grow Cucumbers at 

 one end and Melons at the other. Use stronger, Crmer soil for the 

 Melons. We would try Ivy for the proposed trellis. 



Red Beet as a Redder. — "I am much obliged for your correspon- 

 dents' answers to mv queries about Beet, but I am afraid I did not 

 make it sufficiently clear that I wished to have information on the best 

 method of managing Beet for dec-native purposes, to introduce ;^s a back- 

 row plant iu a ribbon- border. I want, in short, to know whether it is 

 better to sow it in moderate heat, or in the open ground ; whether it ought 

 to bo transplanted, or sown where it is to stand; and what is the best 

 way to prevent its running to seed ? It was so handsome in rows down 

 the Bide of a walk in a new quarter of bush fruit trees last year, that I 

 intend to try it in my flower garden, but I must have it early.— C. P. 

 Peach." 



Forcing Rhubarb on a Vine Border (W. N.).— Rhubarb and Vines 

 cannot be expected to thrive in the sarae border, for the Rhubarb roots 

 will mononolise the nutriment from the soil, and the shade of their leaves 

 must be verv detrimental to the roots of the Vines. The best plan would 

 be to remove the Rhubarb from the border altogether, force a part of it, 

 and plant a part, which, being coversd with litter, will come into use 

 nearlvas soon as that forced or placed in a cellar; indeed, unless the 

 cellar be artificisllv heated, by taking up the Rhubarb with as good roots 

 as possible, planting where it is to remain, placing pot3 over the crowns, 

 and covering with hot litter, you would have Rhubarb sooner than in the 

 cellar. Force no more than half the roots this year, and the other hall 

 will be available for forcing next year, and will afford a succession. You 

 are right as to the treatment of the Vines. 



Making Asparagus Beds (Idem),— The ground should be well trenched, 

 and if there is a verv heavy clay soil remove it, replacing it with good 

 light soil. Manure he~avily as you propose, and apply sharp sand liberally. 

 Turn over so as to thoroughly incorporate the manure with the soil. 

 April is a good time to plant. Plants one and not more than two years old 

 are best. 



PRnruxA Culture (A Lady Subscriber). -Ik is of little use expecting 

 good flowers unless you have seed of a good strain, and we should attri- 

 bute the damping off to the plants being potted too deeply, and too much 

 water being given. In potting, the soil ought not to be brought higher 

 than the leaves, for if it touch them they decay at the base. The short- 

 ness of the footstalks of the flowers is a result of weakness, in most cases 

 caused by defective root action. 



Gesnera Leaves Spotted (/. L.).— The red spots on the leaves we are 

 unable to account for, except by the house being kept nioUt, and air 

 being admitted in cold currents." The name of the plant is Sparmannia 

 africana. 



Treatment of Succulent (K.).— We aro unable to name the plant 

 from the specimen sent, which was smashed, and too small for identifi- 

 cation, but we think it is one of the Mesembi-yanthemums. Being a kind 

 having stems, you may propagate it by cuttings, taking the parts that are 

 firm, and inserting them in sand; be careful of damp, and place them 

 on a shelf in the greenhouse slightly shaded— they will root freely. 

 Succulents require to be potted when their flowering is past ; or it may 

 be done now, using a compost of turfy sandy loam four parts, me part of 

 crocks broken small, and one part of old cow dung, with one-sixth of 

 silver sand. Water rather freely when in full growth, and encourage with 



