390 



JOUBNAL OP HORTIOOLTDBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENE8. 



[ May 21, 1877. 



the treea to the ground. If the aiiparatua used to fumigate is 

 placed nnder the covering daring a calm night the smoke hangs 

 abont the treea for a very long time. Ked spider does not 

 usually attack the leaves until the hot weather sets-in in June. 

 The best way to keep this peat in check is to syringe freely 

 about 5 or 6 p.m. on every hot dry day. A good garden engine 

 is the beat for thia purpose, as it throws the water with more 

 force than a syringe does. 



PINE HOUSES. 



A few Cayennes and Queens are ripening-off in the earliest 

 fruiting house. The temperature is still 70° at night, but it is 

 not necessary to maintain so high a temperature as this, and 

 perhaps the flavour of the fruit is better if the minimiim range 

 is 5° lower. A steady bottom heat of 85° or 90° is very essential 

 to success, and with the modern appliances of hot-water pipes 

 this can easily be managed. Our plan is to plunge the pots 

 in a shallow bed of spent tan from a foot to 18 inches deep, 

 and under which there is a range of 3-incb hot-water pipes. 

 We find it answers best to raise and maintain the heat in the 

 bed principally from the pipes. The best material to plunge 

 the pota in is tan, and our beds are seldom turned over unless 

 at the time of repotting, when the extra amount of bottom heat 

 caused by fermentation promotes a more speedy root-action. 

 We have not shaded any of the Pine plants as yet, and would 

 rather not do so, but it is sometimes desirable to place a slight 

 covering of tiffany over the fruiting plants to prevent scalding 

 of the fruit. On one occasion we were anxious to accelerate the 

 ripening of some Smooth-leaved Cayennes, and kept-up a high 

 temperature as well as allowed the full force of the sun's rays 

 upon them, and the result was that the fruit was injured and 

 decay set in before it was fully coloured. Any plants which 

 have not started into fruit with the others, and which do not 

 yet show aigns of doing so, ought not to be allowed to remain in 

 the same pots. The quickest way to dispose of them is to cut the 

 plant off close to the surface of the soil, remove about six of the 

 under leaves and then repot in fresh soil, using 9 or 10 inch 

 pots according to the strength of the plants ; plunge the pots in 

 a bottom heat of about 100°, and fresh roots will speedily be 

 formed. Indeed, it will be seen that there are a number of 

 roots ready to start into active growth close to the stem of the 

 plants at the time it is cut off.' We have also tried the plan of 

 shaking nearly all the soil from the roots of the plants and 

 repotting again with nearly the whole of them attached, but 

 this plan does not answer so well as boldly cutting the plants 

 ofi. The fruit ought not to be allowed to remain on the plants 

 in a very warm house until they are quite ripe. Perhaps the 

 best plan is to remove the plants with the fruit on them to a 

 better ventilated and cooler place. We find the fruit keeps 

 from two to four weeks if it is removed from the plant and 

 placed in a room where it is not exposed to a too free circulation 

 of air ; or the whole plant may be placed in the fruit-room 

 with the fruit upon it. Queens intended to fruit very early 

 next year should now be placed in their fruiting pots. A batch 

 of our own will be potted as soon as we can find room for the 

 plants. At present the house is full of plants with fruit in 

 various stages of ripeness; still, if tho plants which are now in 

 7-inch pots are not potted soon they will be much injured. We 

 shall pot them in 10 and 11-inch pots, using good turfy loam, 

 crushed bones, a little decayed manure, and a few lumps of 

 charcoal in each pot. 



PLANT STOVE AND ORCHID HOUSES. 



We have been potting-on cuttings of plants which were struck 

 early in the year, such as Bouvardias, Thyrsacanthua rufilans, 

 and all other free-growing subjects that it is best to propagate 

 annually. To grow these plants well they ought to be carefully 

 attended to, and be placed where they are pretty freely ex- 

 posed to light and air, but not to be in the full l)laze of a scorch- 

 ing sun. One very often sees such plants placed in a position 

 under larger specimens, and very much neglected in other re- 

 spects, so that good plants can never be formed ; but it is cer- 

 tain that if space and time cannot be afforded for them it is 

 better not to cultivate such plants at all. There are so many 

 now plants beiug introduced, and people are anxious to obtain 

 what is good amongst them even if their houBea are already 

 fully stocked; but every plant cannot have justice done to 

 it under such circumstances, consequently the weakest goes to 

 the wall. Stove plants never ought to be crowded together, as 

 the growths are not only weakened but they also become a prey 

 to insect pests. There are some stove plants of recent intro- 

 duction, especially "foliage" plants, that caundt be aaid to be 

 acquisitions, and it would perhaps have been as well if they 

 had not been introduced from their native wilds, as for the time 

 at least they usurp a place that ought to be occupied with better, 

 though perhaps older, plants. All flowering plants, such as 

 Stephauotis floribunda, Clerodendrou Balfourii, Bougainvillea 

 glabra, Ixoraa, AUamandas, &c., require considerable attention 

 to keep them clean, and those of a climbing habit ought to have 

 the growing ahoota trained into position before they become 

 entangled with each other. 



Orohida in many instances have started into growth, and thia 



must be encouraged if root-action has also commenced by re- 

 potting the plants if necessary. Orchids are very frequently 

 overpotted, and if specimen plants are in good health it is just 

 as well not to shift into other pots until those in which they 

 are growing are pretty well filled with roots. As a general 

 rule specimen plants of Cattleyas, Lasliaa, Dendrobiums, Ly- 

 caste, &c., are potted once in two years. If a plant shows signs 

 of diminished vigour or becomes otherwise unhealthy it is the 

 best plan to repot it when the roots start into growth, even 

 if it has been repotted within a less period than just named. 

 The compost may not be suitable, and the roots have thereby 

 Buffered injury; in that case it is best to clear off the old soil 

 and repot in fresh material in a smaller pot. 



FLOWEE GAEDEN. 



We have been very busy during the last week putting out the 

 bedding plants. It is a great advantage to be able to get them out 

 during a dull period and when the ground is pretty moist. When 

 it is necessary to plant out during hot dry weather the water- 

 pot has to be brought into requisition, sometimes before and 

 always after the plants are planted, entailing a vast amount of 

 extra labour with less satisfactory results. The plants ought to 

 be planted carefully. The object of some is to plant as many as 

 possible in a given time, but it is well to see that they are 

 sufficiently firm and planted at a uniform depth. We plant the 

 roots in the ground rather deeper than they were growing 

 previously in the pots or boxes. A very large proportion of our 

 plants this year were in boxes, and when the plants are planted 

 in dull weather they do not suffer from the effects of removal. 

 — J. Douglas. 



TRADE CATALOGUE EECEIVED. 



Messrs. F. & A. Smith, The Nurseries, Park Road, Dalwioh, 

 London, S.B. — Catalogue of Stove, Greenhouse, and Bedding 

 Plants. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*,* All correspondence should ba directed either to " The 

 Editors," or to " The Publisher." Letters addressed to 

 Mr. Johnson or Dr. Hogg often remain unopened unavoid- 

 ably. We request that no one will write privately to any 

 of our correspondents, as doing so subjects them to un- 

 justifiable trouble and expense. 



Address {Major M.). — Your letter has been forwarded. 



Cats and NEMopHrLA (R. J. H.).—'We have received similar complaints 

 from other growers of cats destroyiag Nemophila. We do not think that 

 any dressing of the seeds as you suggest -would save the plants from injury. 



Jersey Potatoes (H. C, South Hants). — Many, including the ripest o( 

 those jou refer to, are grown in frames and turf pits for supplying the 

 markets early in the season. 



Fernery Imperfect (C. W., Elstree). — Tho pockets for Ferns — com- 

 posed of clinkers and cemented to the wall, and which break off when 

 touched — can only he reu^edied by using stronger cement from a newly 

 opened cask. The cement you have nsed we think had been too long ex- 

 posed to tho air, and was what builders term " dead." 



Seedling Pansy {Ht-artsease). — The orange colour is extremely rich. 

 The flower was much crushed in transit, which prevents oar judging as to its 

 form, but we think the variety worthy of being jueserved. 



Phacelias [E. B.). — They are hardy plants, flourishing in ordinary garden 

 soil. There are several species, some being aunual and others pereuniaL 

 Probably Mr. Ware, Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham, or Mr. Parker, Exotic 

 Nurseries, Tooting, could assist you in obtaining what you require. 



Hard Water IE. 0.). — Tho Caterham water being impregnated with cal- 

 careous salts, owing to its coming through the chalk stratum, is not good for 

 watering plants. Boiling the water, or long exposure in an open tank before 

 applying it to them, would cause much of the cftlcateous salts to subside. 

 How much waters differ is told by chemical analysis, but we will only quote 

 three instance:!: — The Thames water is about ton times, and Trent water 

 nearly twenty-six times harder than Dee water. 



Insect on Koses iT. W. S.). — It is Otiorynchus notatus. Ai-e there not 

 some Fir trees near from which it may have come? It is a Fir tree speoieH. 

 No remedy against its attacks has yet been discovered. 



Exhibiting and Watering Roses {.4 }yould-be Exhibitor). — A trass 

 means the shoot as oat off from the Rose, and may have two or three blooms 

 on it. Single blooms are simply what the term implies. I would certainly 

 not water as you propose at mid-day. If it cannot be done at a better time 

 it had better be left alone. Cannot you choose dull days for watering ? After 

 the buds inserted last year have started they are apt to be blown out by high 

 winds, and so should be tied up to prevent it. — D., Deal. 



Carpet Bedding (Old Reatlrr). — A book containing designs for carpet 

 bedding and modes of planting them will, we believe, shortly be published. 

 You will hud many designs if you refer to the back numbers of this Journal. 



Hydrangeas not Flowering (Idevi). — The variegated Hydrangea flowers 

 when healthy quite as freely as the green one. It is impossible for us to tell 

 why yuur plants have not flowered without knowing something of their state 

 and the conditions under which they are growing — or dying. 



Design for Flower Garden fA Reader).— The design is suitable for 

 the ground. We doubt if the mixed Godetias will be satisfactory, and should 

 prefer the two circular beds being alike. Convolvulns minor is a good bedding 

 annual, but not a day must be lost in Bowing the seed, or the plants will be 

 late in flowering. Phlox Drammondii is in some districts and during some 

 seasons uncertain. As the central bed is large we should plant Stocks and 

 Asters about 18 inches apart with the Phlox; you would then be the more 

 certain of a display over a long period, as well as have greater variety. The 



