JOURNAL OF HOETICDLTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Jannary 11, 1877. 



to show at all ? Well, at tirst in tie hottest time of my ycuth 

 and when the Kose fever had its strocgest hold on me, I re- 

 moved the soil to the depth of 2 to 3 feet. Yes, and wheeled 

 it away and bronght the top spit cf Rraas, not from meadows, 

 for no one dare let me have that, but from the tides of roads. 

 I mixed this with manue, and the Eoses did splendidly. 

 These were raostly on the Briar, plants purchased from the 

 great nurserymen, and the year alter I made the beds I showed 

 in two classes (thiriy-tix and twenty-four) at the Cryttal Pulaoe 

 (my ch'hiit there), r.nd I was placed first in each class. Afttr a 

 year or two, however, ihis soil became a little stal*, and I 

 found I could not afton! to make Bose soil at the cost of about 

 £1 for each fquare y.".!.!, to I was obliged to thiLk of soma 

 expedient. 



I had never given the Manelti a trial, and as many fiienda 

 advised me that Eoe£s would grow anywhere and in anything 

 (Mr. W. F. Eadclyfi'e asterting that they would grow even in 

 brickdust), I bought a lot and tried them in a field of the very 

 poorest soil in this poor county. Every plant died, and I 

 was that year dependant upon the standards which were grow- 

 ing in the prepared Eoil for my show blcoms. Still I was 

 determined to try (he eoil sgain, but this time I selected an 

 old pasture which forms a part of my glebe. It faces the 

 south and has a low kitchen-garden wall at (he ba:k. I cul- 

 tivated this and dressed it with pig manure, ard I certainly 

 expected to do something there. But last year I was very un- 

 fortunate. The plants grew uncommonly well and gave great 

 promise of bloom, when one night in May a neighbour's sheep 

 broke into it and ato all my yourg shoots, and put me bcek at 

 least a month, and so niado me too late again for the shows, 

 and so I had once more to depend mostly on standards in pre- 

 pared soil. This year I hope io have no such bad Inck and to 

 do something with these plants. I should stror gly advise 

 your correspondent to remove the F.oil if he only wants to 

 grow a few Eoses. If, however, he aspires to hnudreds or 

 thousands let him buy up all the road drift or pay some farmer 

 to let him remove the grass at the sides of the lanes, mix this 

 with manure, lay it on the sandy soil, trench deep, and plant. 

 A certain amount of sand suits the Manetti very well. 



During the summer I should certainly advise him to water 

 both the roots and the foliage, for these hot sandy soils re- 

 quire a great deal of moisture. If be does this I think he 

 will find that he can grow good Eoses even in sand. — Wild 

 Savage. 



I SHOULD lite to supplement " Sand Hill's " list of Eoses 

 by adding a few which hare done well upon a sandy soil in the 

 neighbcurhood of one of cur large manufacturing towns 

 (Manchester). They are — Alfred Colomb, Boule de Neige, 

 Charles Lefebvre, Dupuy Jamain, La France, Marie Baumanu, 

 Madame Victor Verdier, Paul Neron, Princess Mary of Cam- 

 bridge, and Senateur Vaisse. I could mention many others 

 which will grow and bloom with more or less snccese. But 

 in Teas, in addition to Gloire de Dijon, Belle Lyounaise and 

 Homer are the only two which do any good without protection. 



While writing about Eo?es I should like to ask if there are 

 two varieties of Gloiie de Dijon ? Messrs. Cranston & Moyos 

 sent me some plants last season which are quite different from 

 any I have ever eeea, the young wood being of a deep red 

 colour, very tine foliage, end the blooms are tmall but of a 

 beautiful deep salmon colour. I have been told by a friend 

 that there is a kind known as the red-wooded Gloire. What 

 do the roearians s?y ?— J. B. 



JAPANESE CHK\'SANTHEMUMS. 

 I HAVE read with much pleasure the remaiks of Mr. Moorman 

 upon the Japanese Chrysanthemum?, which I am pleased to 

 see are gaining favour, and will cc nie into general cultivation 

 for their usefulness as decorative plants. Uy object in penning 

 these few remaiks is for the infoimation of your ablo corre- 

 spondent and other readers of this Journal, that the Japanese 

 varieties can be grown into specimens in any trained form the 

 cnltivator may require for home or exhibition purposes. I 

 will name a few that will make specimens which may be relied 

 upon, as I have grown (hem, and which have been 6tng(d on 

 the exhibition table and won the approval of Mr. Nawton from 

 the Inner Temple Gardens, London, who was a Judge at the 

 Liverpool Chrysanthemum and Fruit Show. The first seven 

 below have been grown into fpecimens, mushroom shape, 

 3,Uet over — James .Suiter, Ked Dragon, Comet, Eiidue, Yeitdo 

 Lilac,|Hero oI'Msgdalo, and Ecstum Album. Fair Maid of 



Guernsey, one of the best, will make a specimen. The follow- 

 ing I have grown, but they are too stiff growers to make good- 

 shaped plants — Dr. Masters, Wizard, Tasselltd Yellow, Eegalia, 

 Eobert Fortune, Auratum, Prince Satsuma, Nngasaki, The 

 Daimio, The Mikado, and Bronze Dragon. — W. Biggs,| Sand- 

 field Park. 



BRUSSELS SPROUTS. 



A GARDEiJER to be sucoosstul must be prepared for all emer- 

 gencies, and especially must he havo a full supply of the staple 

 vegetables at their several periods cf uso. An unusually hot 

 and dry summer has been followed by an unusaal scarcity of 

 Brussels Sprouts. The late planting of other greens, and the 

 prolonged autumn, have resulted in a tolerably good supply of 

 produce, but late-planted Biussels Sprouts have proved, as 

 such planting always must prove, a failure. 



For the production of " Sprouts " in great quantities and of 

 the fiist quality a long season of growth is essential. In 

 order to ensure this, and to have a supply of this esteemed 

 vegetable as early as possible and irrespective of the seasor, 

 I have for many years raised plants similarly to raising Cauli- 

 flower plants — that is, sowing the seed early in September and 

 wintering the plants in frames, and sowing again iu January 

 in boxee, snd transplanting the plants in a sheltered place to 

 ba ready for final planting in April or May. I have many 

 times — indeed every year — found the advantage of that prsc- 

 tice, but never more so than after hot and dry summers. 



Autumn-sown Cauhflower plants are now fully too early. 

 It has been impossible to prevent them from growing too freely, 

 and theiG is a danger of many of them " buttoning." This 

 emergency must be provided against by now sowing a pinch oi 

 seed under glass, and let me advise that a little seed cf Brussels 

 Sprcuta be sown at the same time. It should be sown very 

 thinly— I mean that the seeds should not be nearer than a. 

 quarter of an inch from each other ; the plants will then come 

 up sturdily, and will not damp-cff as they c'o when town thickly. 

 Tbe seed pans or boxes should be placed in a very light honso 

 or frame from whence frost is excluded. When the plants 

 show their primary leaves they should be pricked out in other 

 boxes. About March they will be stout plants ready for being 

 planted at wider distances near a wall or other place where- 

 they c;in be sheltered with a spare frame-light, hand-lights, or 

 mats. They will be of full planting size iu May, and are cer- 

 tain to produce a valuatle crop of Sprouts early in antnmn. 

 No more trouble is incurred in raising a hundred or more of 

 these plants than in raising Stocks, Asters, or Lobelias, snd 

 the vegetables will bo of far more value in due time than the 

 flowers, more serviceable and more appreciated. In produeing 

 the best possible supply of Bvussela Sprouts in the autumn 

 and throughout the winter, the plants cannot be raised too 

 early in the spring. I recommend, therefore, that a portion at 

 least should be raised under glass in tbo manner described, 

 and they will produce a crop which cannot fail to be extromely 

 useful let the season be of whatever nature it may. — Maekbt- 

 Gaedekee. 



TRAINING VINES— LATE-HANGING GEAPES. 



The observations and suggestions by " A Noeidees Gae- 

 DENER " upon training Vines at page 549 of the Journal of 

 the 28lh of December, are most instructive. I never could 

 conceive any common stnao iu growing Vine rods like broom- 

 sticks, denuded of branches and foliage, contrary to the natural 

 habit of the Grape Vine itself. Of course there is a medium 

 " 'twixt wild luxuriance and stinted growth," and that is a 

 moderate extension by which fruit, leafage, and wood bear 

 relative propoitions, and thus preserve the health and sym- 

 metry of the parent stock, or Vine. Imagine the distortion of 

 Vines, thickened iu their upper length of rod, and spindle- 

 shanked at the base of the bole, or with pot-bellies and drum- 

 stick legs. How can the circulation of the sap be equal and 

 regular so as to feed branch, twig, leaf, and fruit alike of such 

 Vines ? The question is aimply that of pruning and training, 

 as " A NoETHEKN Gaedeneb " evidently has perceived. I will 

 relate my own experience, 



A few years ago I erected a new vinery some 'J5 feet long by 

 18 feet wide, the front lights of which I had constiucted nearly 

 feet high from the border to the eaves of the roof lights, 

 thus forming a glazed frontage on each side of the vinery, 

 along which wires were drawn from end to end horizontally, 

 the wires of the loof lights being alto drawn across the house, 

 and not perpendicularly as is utual. My object was the 



