May 2 J, 1377. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTIODLTDRE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



379 



of the above houses again immediately after syringing while 

 the snu is still very hot, and scorching would take place as 

 Burely and perfectly as if the plants had been placed on the fire. 



Scalding, scorching, and rust are caused by too rapid evapo- 

 ration, and the manner of giving air is at the bottom of it all. 



" Admit air early " is very good advice, and must be attended 

 to, bat it is not all that is required. See that your thermometer 

 which you trust to so faithfully is not misleading you. Is it 

 encased in metal, or does it hang against any powerful con- 

 ducting substance ? Does the sun shine directly on it ? Hang- 

 ing directly in the sun's rays a thermometer is worse than use- 

 less because it does not tell the truth. The mercury may rise 

 perhaps 5' in a quarter of an hour, while you are giving air 

 carefully a little at a time, and flattering yourself how nicely 

 you are doing it without the possibility of a check on the 

 tenderest of foliage ; but a thermometer backed and shaded 

 on each side with 'wood will tell a very different tale, for while 

 the other is rising 8° or 10' this will only just begin to show 

 signs of life. Here, then, is a danger, that while watching a 

 thermometer and giving air in accordance with it we may be 

 actually lowering the real temperature although the mercury 

 is rising. 



There is another popular notion which I wish to call atten- 

 tion to in connection with the above, it is about sprinkling 

 floors, walls, &d. " Sprinkle more," say our advisers ; this, 

 too, may be very good advice, but sprinkle when ? What is 

 the effect of sprinkling the floor and walls of a hothouse on a 

 bright summer's day while the ventilators are wide open ? 

 Why, certainly to lower the temperature ,.nd almost certainly 

 to make the atmosphere drier by evapor^'ion. Did ever any- 

 one see a drooping plant revive simply from pouring water 

 about the paths while the ventilators were wide open and the 

 Bun's rays unobstructed ? I say. No. Sprinkle as much as 

 you like as soon as the house is closed, and the plants will 

 revive almost magically; but sprinkling for this purpose at 

 any other time can do no good, and I think it generally does 

 harm. — Wllll4ji Tatlob. 



KOSBS IN POTS. 



No more enjoyable flowers have lately been exhibited at the 

 London shows than Roses in 7 and 8inch pots. These have 

 chiefly been staged by Mr. Turner, Slough; Messrs. Paul and 

 Sons, Cbeshunt ; Messrs. Veitch & Sous, Chelsea ; Messrs. 

 Lane & Son, Burkhampstoad ; and Messrs. Wm. Paul & Son, 

 Waltham Cross. Ouly one amateur grower (Mr. Moorman) has 

 as yet stiged really well-grown plants this year ; but the fact 

 that Ue has done so, also that the garden under his charge is 

 only a small one, where the Roses are chiefly grown in brick 

 pits and unheated frames, suggest how many others there are 

 who have the same or greater conveniences, but as yet have not 

 commenced the cultivation of Eoses according to the most 

 approved mode of growing them. Roses in pots there are in 

 plenty, and excellent blooms are afforded from them in many 

 gardens, bat when fine blooms are combined with handsome 

 plants the Rose is seen in its fullest beauty. 



There are but few now-a-days who cultivate show Pelar- 

 goniums who are satisfied with plants having three or four 

 upright growths ?< feet high with a tuft of flowers at the top 

 and no foliage at the bottom. They endeavour to have dwarf 

 symmetrical plants, the foliage almost hiding the pots, and 

 the plants greater in breadth than they are in height. The 

 lowermost shoots on such plants are secured down to the rim 

 of the pot and trained out almost horizontally, the centre of 

 the plants being so furnished as to present the outline of a 

 flattened globe. Such plants are very beautiful, and vastly 

 superior to others which have been permitted to grow in their 

 natural upright manner, forming pigmy trees with brown bars 

 branobe?, exhibiting not art and culture — not Nature in her 

 own free and charming guise, but a combination of Nature 

 cribbed and art distorted. Roses in pots are as amenable to 

 training as Pelargoniums. The Roses which have been ex- 

 hibited by the growers named have been remarkable for their 

 grand blooms, luxuriant foliage, sturdy growth, and skilful 

 training. The foliage did indeed almost hide the pots, and 

 from twelve to thirty shoots were trained with the greatest 

 regularity, and each terminating with a splendid bloom. What 

 other plants can surpass these, or even equal them ? No others 

 which c»n be purchased eo cheaply and grown so easily. Their 

 cultivation, therefore, as suggested in your report of the Re- 

 gent's Park .Show, should be encouraged by every possible 

 moans, and prizes certainly ought to be offered for them for 



which amateurs alone should compete.'' Mr. Moorman,' who 

 sometime ago communicated an excellent article on the cul- 

 tivation of Roses in pots, would do well to return to the sub- 

 ject and tell the best sorts to grow and how to grow them. 

 Medium-sized plants, such as those referred to, could not fail 

 to be appreciated wherever provided, and there is no reason 

 that they should not be seen in the majority of gardens 

 where flowering plants under glass are cultivated and 

 cherished.— W. S. P. 



TRIFLES— GIVING AIR. 



" There is such a bother made here about a trifle." These 

 words came to me on the wind as I turned away after having 

 given one of my assistants a slight " wigging" on his want of 

 attention in the matter of early air-giving in the forcing house. 

 I shall not soon forget the stern, hard-to-learn lessons of at- 

 tention to trifles which I learned from an old Yorkshire 

 gardener. He was one of the old school : shrewd, clever, 

 and practical, but having something of the irritability of 

 genius, was easily provoked, specially so by little things, little 

 neglects and thoughtlessnesses, and could lay down the law in 

 his choice vernacular with, sometimes amusing, and always 

 positive impressiveness. He used to say that the top lights of 

 every glass house ought to be opened a little every morning if 

 only for a quarter of an hour, just to let off the bad air and 

 vapour. The old man's theory is good, very good, the only 

 evil is the pushing of it to extremes. My own opinion in 

 this matter is, that if a little, ever so little, air cannot for 

 economy's or other reason's sake be left on all night in forcing 

 houses and pits, a little should be given early in the morning 

 at the highoBt point of the house or pit — that is, if the wind is 

 not blowing-in at that point. If the wind — a spring north-easter, 

 let us say — be blowing iu the direction of the top air-openings, 

 it would be much better not to open the lights there, but to 

 open them at the bottom. As to the quantity of air to be 

 admitted, each man's skill must be the regulator in this matter 

 as in so many other gardening operations and arrangements. 



In those peculiar days we so often have in the early part of 

 our English seasons, " summer days and winter nights," if 

 a little air is not admitted early in the morning the plants 

 run a double risk, first of being almost parboiled by hot vapour, 

 and then to counteract this high temperature, the effect of the 

 brrning sun I have mentioned, of being half frozen by the icy 

 air which is allowed to come in to lower the house to a health- 

 ful temperature. Now, if a small opening had been made early 

 in the morning at every opening sash, even though that open- 

 ing be only quarter of an inch, the heated vapour would have 

 so escaped, and the plants been so dry in consequence, that if 

 the sun had raised the temperature to 90° or 100° there would 

 have been no harm done. 



It is difiioult to make even most zealous assistants see the 

 force of this. Touth and inexperience make them undervalue 

 little matters. I would, however, impress this truism upon all 

 gardeners, that " good gardening consists in attention to 

 trifles." It has been well said, " Trifles make-up the sum of 

 human happiness ;" and obversely of its misery. And when 

 another great man has defined genius as being " a capacity for 

 taking trouble," attending to trifles, it becomes us all to think 

 seriously about them. Our young people do not see these things 

 as we see them, and remembering one's own weaknesses we 

 must be as gentle and forbearing as we can. Young men, at- 

 tend to trifles ; old men, reprove kindly. — X. 



UNHEALTHY VINES. 



Ijipeefect root-action is undoubtedly the primary cause of 

 most of the ills that Vines are heirs to, and the Editors have 

 done well in calling especial attention to the fact. The term 

 clearly and unmistakoably implies the existence of unhealthy 

 roots, and unhealthy roots are caused by bad soil or defective 

 drainage, or by both. The evil is traced to its source. Is not 

 the remedy as clear as the day ? Get rid of your bad soil, see 

 that the fresh soil contains plenty of liard gritty matter, lay 

 2-inoh drains feet npnrt from back to front of the bottom of 

 the border into a -1-iuoh pipe running along the front, and 

 your Vines will cease to suffer from imperfect root-action. 



This repetition of advice, often given but loo seldom acted 

 upon, will show how much importance I attach to the matter. 

 I may add that in my own practice I do not rest content with 

 well-laid drains, but keep myself constantly informed of their 

 action by means of a shaft of brickwork, through which the 



