98 



JOURNAL OF HOKTIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Aogtut 6, 1868. 



flaone wood in order to direct as much of the energies of the 

 Vine ae poBsible into the fruit. If the spur-system of pruning 

 ia adopted leave as many shoots besides those in fruit as will 

 be wanted next season. Shorten bearing shoots one joint 

 beyond the bunch, or to the joint of the fruit, provided the 

 leaf ia preserved and one joint or lateral allowed to remain. 

 Pick out a few of the buds in the axils of the leaves towards 

 the points of these shoots, that the buds at their base may be 

 rendered more plump for the next season. If the long or suc- 

 cession-rod .system is followed, no short shoots need be left that 

 do not carry fruit, and these must be kept well shortened, so 

 that by removing all useless growth and picking out the young 

 buds in the axils of the leaves of such shoots, more strength 

 and fall exposure may be given to the long shoots intended 

 for bearing next year. Leaving a lateral with a leaf or two 

 attached has a tendency to strengthen the bud at its base, and 

 prevents this bud bursting if the shoots should be rather pre- 

 maturely shortened, but some gardeners object to leaving such 

 laterals, considering that they render the buds three-cornered 

 instead of plump and round. Grafts should now have their 

 bandages loosened and the shoots properly secured from wind. 



FLOWER GARDEN. 



Anytime after the middle of this month those hardy annuals 

 that stand our ordinary winters, and which flower from the 

 middle of April to the middle or end of June, may be sown in 

 very light soil on an east bolder in the reserve garden, or in 

 any open spaces in the shrubberies. When the flower beds 

 are dug over in February, these annuals could be transplanted 

 in groups according to their colours or the fancy of the owner. 

 At the same time the seeds of other annuals could be sown so 

 as to have no blanks in the beds ; even those beds filled with 

 spring bulbs, such as the dwarf early Tulips, Hyacinths, Nar- 

 cissuses, &o., should be planted or sown with these annuals be- 

 tween the rows of bulbs, and by the time the latter would 

 begin to fade the annuals would be gay and continue so till 

 the leaves of the bulbs were ripe. As soon as the bloom 

 begins to fade the whole could be dug over, the bulbs taken 

 away to be dried, and the beds planted immediately with 

 Strong, healthy, half-hardy plants intended for summer and 

 autnmn display. 



OnEENHOnSE AND COXSEBTATOnY. 



The early spring cuttings of Pelargoniums are now good- 

 sized plants ready to turn into the conservatory for the last 

 successions. If the house is large four or five of the plants 

 may be put into a large pot, and great bushes thus formed at 

 once to fill up recesses or vacant corners. The leaves and 

 flowers will soon turn to the light, and by turning the pots 

 round twice a-week fine plants will be secured without a forest 

 of sticks, which although sometimes necessary to show off 

 plants at an exhibition, are most intolerable in a well-regulated 

 conservatory. As the autumn advances the conservatory is 

 again kept more or less close, and much less water is given to 

 the plants ; those from the stove now in flower require but 

 very little water, and as soon as they are past their prime they 

 should be returned to the stove. It is the misfortune of green- 

 house plants out of doors that they too often are in vigorous 

 growth at the time they are housed for the winter, and this is 

 another reason out of many for growing the finer sorts in 

 frames and pits, as their growth can be thus regulated accord- 

 ing to their habits or the wishes of the grower. 



STOVE. 



After the middle of August, if the weather is dull, esta- 

 blished stove plants should not be watered late in the after- 

 noon ; the drier the stove is kept at night during the autumn 

 the better the plants will ripen their wood, and we all know that 

 on the perfect maturity of each season's growth depend in a 

 great measure the flowering and fruiting of exotic plants ; 

 ■therefore, allow the plants as much room as possible for th"* 

 next three months. This cannot be too much insisted upon. 

 An early vinery where the leaves have all fallen would be a 

 good place into which to remove some of the strongest speci- 

 mens from the stove for six weeks or so. Here, with a dry at- 

 mosphere and plenty of air and light, they would ripen their 

 wood perfectly, and the Vines would not be injured by the 

 treatment. 



PITS AND FRAMES. 



Every encouragement should now be given to frame plants 

 to grow to their utmost, the ligbts during most of the day ad- 

 mitting a portion of air, and towards the evening being taken 

 off altogether to let the plants have the night dews, which are 

 always heavy in the autumn, and make plants look green and 



healthy. We can always stop the growth when we think fit by 

 keeping the plants and frames drier, by having the lights off 

 during the day and on at night, or reversing our present system. 

 Is it not curious that plants should grow better in turf pita 

 than in those made of bricks? I suppose bricks heated by 

 the sun absorb too much of the moisture from the plants at 

 night. Many of the more tender Heaths suffer much from 

 wet autumns, and nurserymen turn these into pits or green- 

 houses about this time. Pits are by far the best places for 

 such plants, as the glass can be put off or on as circumstances 

 may require. Chrysanthemums and Violets must be well at- 

 tended to from this time. Give abundance of liquid manure 

 to both, now that they are strong enough to make use of rich 

 food. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



KITCHEN GAEDEN. 



Still no rain with ns, except a few drops that scarcely re- 

 freshed the foliage ; and in the extreme dryness of the soil and 

 the parching heat, planting out vegetables of any kind is almost 

 out of the question. What we have planted of Cauliflower, 

 &u., has been protected by a 5-inch pot placed over each plant 

 during the day, and after a few days lifted off at night. 



This would not disturb us so mucb, as we trust rain must 

 come, and then we might bring up our leeway, for after 

 rains vegetation will make very rapid progress, as the ground 

 is like a huge hotbed; but the difficulty will be to obtain good 

 plants to fill it nilh, owing not so much to the heat and dryness 

 as to the depredations of the fly, which seems to miss nothing 

 that produces cruciform flowers. Wo have a border of Cauli- 

 flowers that otherwise would have produced well, as, owing to 

 having been several times watered with house sewage the plants 

 are strong, but there is scarcely a green leaf on them owing to 

 the attacks of the fly. A fresh piece we planted out was out of 

 sight in a couple of days — not a vestige left but the stumps at 

 the roots, and that after using sprinklings of ashes and other 

 deterrents. We have found no safety for the young plants 

 after planting except covering with a pot, and in the seed beds 

 nothing will save them except a covering of some sort during 

 the day ; and for this purpose, for want of a better, fresh spraea 

 branches often act well, the tly having a great dislike to the 

 aroma given off by the branches. We found that lots of 

 young plants, as Cabbage?, Stocks, Wallflowers, &o., would soon 

 have been out of sight if we had not placed some old sashes 

 over them, whitened them to moderate the heat, and given air 

 back and front, putting on the sashes in the morning and 

 taking them off in the evening, as the fly is the most active 

 when the sun heat is the most powerful. 



If the fly is as destructive elsewhere it will he next to im- 

 possible to keep the earliest sowing of Cabbages, unless pro- 

 tected with some material during the day. Mats would do 

 very well, especially if made to smell unpleasantly ; but old 

 moveable sashes are very good, as, even with plenty of air back 

 and front, the fly will scarcely ever go beneath the glass. What 

 was, and would have continued to be, a fine border of autumn- 

 sown Stocks, has for the present lost all its attractiveness, for 

 most of the foliage is yellowish or as prettily perforated as the 

 Lace Plant. If we have plenty of raiutall and a few dull days, 

 we think they would break afresh, and be good again. All our 

 neighbours among the cottage gardeners unite in saying that 

 without some protection better than soot, ashes, or sawdost, 

 it is of no use to sow their little beds of their favourite Cabbage, 

 as the plants that are good to-day will be gone to-morrow. 

 Contrary to our custom, we will sow them and Lettuces ia 

 places covered with an old frame and sashes. 



Let us bear in mind the importance of trying to meet the 

 difficulty. Were we a little short of supply just now it might 

 be passed over, as, except where water and labour are abundant, 

 such continuous drought and heat will tell their own tale ; but 

 when all this is gone, and the rains of autumn and the colds of 

 winter have come and gone, there will be few excuses enter- 

 tained for the want of the usual supply at the u^ual times. 

 It is of little use discussing tbe propriety or the reasonable- 

 ness of such expectations. We must act as if we well knew 

 that the expectations will be entertained all the same, and if we 

 are unsuccessful in one mode, we must try others. Not that 

 these expectations are always reasonable. If they were, the 

 world would not be exactly what it is. In such districts as 

 this, where we have had none of the downpourings which have 

 visited the metropolis, the effects of the drought will show 

 themselves, and for a considerable time, do what we may to 



