342 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ May 12, 1870. 



complished in this way by nBing a decided colour for the centre, 

 and surrounding it with plants of the same kind bnt of less 

 intense colour, which should gradually diminish from the centre 

 to the sides. This, with well- contrasted edgings, particularly 

 for the larger beds, will be found more generally pleasing than 

 when masses of one colour are only employed. Select a shady 

 border, and give it a good dressing of rotten dung or leaf soil 

 slightly forked in, for planting with the runners of the different 

 kinds of Violets for forcing ; the Neapolitan is the best for 

 frames or pots, and the runners will now be found in a proper 

 state for removing. Plant them 8 or 10 inches apart, water 

 them abundantly in dry weather, and pinch off the runners as 

 they appear. If the soil is rich and open they will be stout 

 bushy plants by the autumn, and may then be either potted or 

 planted in pits for forcing. Auriculas must not now be 

 forgotten, because the amateur has many demands on his time. 

 Shade them in very hot sunny weather, though they cannot at 

 this season of the year be easily too much exposed, provided 

 the regular attendance is given to water, &c. Polyanthuses 

 cannot bear the midday sun except on very cool subsoils. A 

 shady situation under a hedge with a north aspect will be suit- 

 able for them during the next three months — that is to say, if 

 grown in pots. Dj not forget to fertilise some of the best 

 breeder Tulips in order to obtain good seed. It would be time 

 and trouble thrown away to cross yellow grounds with white 

 ones, or the contrary. In choosing sorts to save seed from, 

 let them be thick in the petal, round at the top, clean in the 

 stamens (for foul stamens, though, perhaps, not yet acknow- 

 ledged, are a very great defect), as much like the old Catafalque 

 in the cup as possible, and then the raiser of seed will not be 

 far wrong. Apply the farina with a small camel-hair brush to 

 the stigma of the variety intended to be operated upon, cover- 

 ing the flower with a hand-glass. Should the present dry 

 weather continue. Carnations and Picotees will want occasional 

 waterings, which when done should be done well. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



Camellias making their wood should have constant shading ; 

 the house should be kept very moist day and night, and the 

 plants frequently syringed. Pay every attention at this period 

 to plants of climbing habit, whether festooning from the roof, 

 up pillars, or on trellises in pots. Let stopping, thinniDg, 

 training, &c, proceed in a methodical way. Many of the con- 

 servatory plants are unproductive of blossom from the gross 

 Bhoots not being stopped. Those who grow that delightfully 

 sweet winter flower, the Cyclamen persicurn, will find it the best 

 plan to plant it out at this period in a highly raised bed in the 

 kitchen garden. This bed shonld be composed chiefly of peat 

 soil and coarse sand, to which a little sandy loam and a little 

 leaf soil may be added. It is truly astonishing what superior 

 plants they make in this way. I would recommend the common 

 Mandarin and Otaheite Oranges as valuable plants for forcing 

 into bloom in the winter months ; for that purpose they should 

 be kept rather under-potted, and the young wood pinched back 

 to form bushy compact specimens. The Daphne indica and 

 indica rubra are valuable as winter-flowering plants, as well as 

 for their fragrance. The Chinese Azaleas, which have been 

 some time growing, should be kept in heat until they have set 

 their buds, when they may he removed to the open air, as may 

 the Orange trees when the shoots become strong and firm ; 

 exposure afterwards, if they are protected from heavy rains, 

 will assist them to ripen their wood. 



STOVE. 



Centradenias, Eranthemums, Poinsettias, Justicias, Gies- 

 somerias, Clerodendrons, Euphorbias, BrngmanEias, Gesneras, 

 Vincas, with other ornamental stove plants, more especially 

 those intended to relieve the dull winter months, should at 

 this period have the highest of cultivation. They should be 

 allowed plenty of room and clear manure water, and should, if 

 requisite, have their rambling shoots stopped occasionally. 

 The latter should be done forthwith, as young wood made late 

 in the season will not produce winter flowers. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 

 Sunny days, cold nights, and a dry parching atmosphere 

 have been the characteristics of the week. Almost every night 

 has been frosty. On the 3rd and 4th inst. the frost was sharp 

 for the season — how cold on the ground we do not know, but 

 on the north side of a wall, at 5 feet from the ground, the 

 thermometer indicated at 4 a.m. 5° or 6° below the freezing 

 point, but the temperature rose rapidly after the sun was 



above the horizon. In pastures, fields, and gardens we 

 never knew growth proceed more slowly, owing, especially in 

 heavy land, to the coldness of the ground, as the heat that 

 is absorbed during the day seems to be pretty well radiated 

 back again at night. Peas and Beans grow, it is true, 

 but very slowly. Watering has been out of the question, 

 except to a few early Peas, and a piece of Cabbages, which 

 rather delight in a moist cool bottom. The latter, refreshed 

 with sewage, did improve vastly afterwards. Asparagus has 

 been little affected by the weather, yielding profusely, and 

 neither it nor anything else in the vegetable way was at all in- 

 fluenced by the frosty nights, partly because the shoots were 

 thawed before the sun reached them, as the sun was kept off 

 by some fine Elm trees. The dryness of the air and its still- 

 ness helped also to secure us from danger. Ws have seen 

 Asparagus shoots hopelessly blackened with half the amount 

 of frost we lately had. Expecting it to come we gathered 

 pretty closely every night, but still a few shoots would be 

 missed or come] up during the night, and none of these was 

 injured. The air was dry, but the surface of the ground, owing 

 to the scattering of salt, was moist. A little salt is a good 

 moistener for dry soils ; its free use on walkB is Bure to make 

 them moist ; therefore, when salt is employed to clear walks of 

 weeds, it should be used early in the year. If used in autumn, 

 there is nothing to prevent the walks being damp in winter. 

 All plants that thrive within reach of the sea spray, as Aspara- 

 gus and Sea-kale, are greatly benefited by salt sprinklings. 



Asparagus Cutting. — For some time we have grown our 

 Asparagus chiefly in rows 2 feet apart, planted on ridges at 

 first, which get levelled in the course of time. This does away 

 to a great extent with bed-making, and permits of a more free 

 rotation of cropping. Could we manage it, we would give our 

 chief surface-manuring to our beds when we had finished 

 cutting, so as to encourage free growth in summer. As to the 

 cutting all or leaving some, we have resolved to cut no more 

 from a piece we shall be likely to force, but to let all grow 

 so that the growth may be more quickly perfected, and the 

 buds ripened in the autumn. After trying many modes we 

 have been tolerably well convinced for some time, that it is 

 best in the main gathering to gather all — that is, to cut the 

 small shoots as well as the large ones, until we give up cutting 

 altogether. The smallest shoots when short and young are 

 just as useful for soups, &c, as the larger shoots are for the 

 vegetable dish. We have carefully gone over the Asparagus 

 ground, taking all the best and leaving the small to keep on 

 the growth. Growth was thus, no doubt, maintained, but we 

 believe the result of these weak shootB being left was to keep 

 a great many buds dormant that otherwise would have burst 

 into shoots if all the first shoots, Bay towards the end of May, 

 had been cut ; and then these later shoots, coming away simul- 

 taneously, would ripen good buds at their base to grow freely 

 next season. We came to the conclusion that when we cut 

 all at first, we had thicker beds in the summer, and a better 

 supply of shoots next spring, than when we more carefully left 

 the weaker shoots as if to keep on a languid growth. 



No doubt circumstances will greatly alter cases, and there 

 are few rules without exceptions, but the subject is worthy of 

 the attention of our readers, and we Bhould be glad to learn the 

 experience, practice, and opinions of others on this matter. 

 The prudent man will not be too tightly tied to any rules, but 

 will be chiefly guided by circumstances. As an illustration, in 

 all good loamy Strawberry soils, we would consider it next to 

 barbarous to mow down the beds and rows of Strawberries after 

 the fruit was gathered ; but we have seen many beds of Straw- 

 berries on rich light land that made such an abundance of long- 

 stalked leaves, and these so spotted and browned by the sun as 

 to be unfit to return much to the roots, and thus mature the 

 buds, that we would have little reluctance in cutting all such 

 browned foliage away at once, and thus encouraging freEh green 

 foliage that would be near the ground, which would be accom- 

 panied by plump ripened buds, that would bear plentifully the 

 following year. The exceptional circumstance would not at all 

 render the cutting off Strawberry leaves in summer generally 

 advisable. 



Sowed Onions for succession, as stated last week, more 

 CarrotB for succession, the main crop of Beet, Salsafy and 

 Scorzonera, Turnips, and Radishes ; also we earthed up the 

 earliest Canliflowers, and protected seeds and seedlings from 

 birdt. 



Earthing-up CauUflou-ers under Glasses. — We generally leave 

 five plantB to a hand-light, and if we can spare the light we 

 keep it longer over the plants than is generally done, as an 



