410 



JODENAL OF HORTICULTURE AKD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( Jnne 4, 1888. 



people say in Octeber the season was too cold to ripen the fruit, 

 or give some other excuse equally groundless. Continue pinch- 

 ing, pruning, and nailing-in summer wood ; and if insects 

 make their appearance on any part of the walls or on bushes 

 or standard trees, give them no rest till they are destroyed. 

 Boiling water is the shortest way of dealing with ants when 

 you find their nests. Remove all suckers from Filberts as they 

 appear ; examine the young fruit, and look after caterpillars, 

 as they are making sad havoc in some places. Shorten and 

 remove the summer wood of Currants and Gooseberries in the 

 manner recommended for fruit trees lately. Allow the leading 

 shoots to grow a fortnight or three weeks longer before stopping 

 them ; the result will be superior fruit, and finer-swelled and 

 better-ripened buds for next season. 



FLOWEB GARDEIf. 



Where the beds in the flower garden were prepared for plant- 

 ing-out as directed some weeks ago, it will be necessary, after 

 the ground is properly moistened, to hoe tbem over, distribute 

 the soil from the sides over the surface of the beds, and then 

 regulate the plants for the season. Make good all failures, and 

 in pegging the plants down place them as much as possible 

 with their heads pointing to the north, which will cause tbem 

 to be drawn upright by the sun more eflectually than if they 

 were pegged out at random. As soon as the leaves of seedling 

 Tulips become withered take up the bulbs. Great care must 

 be observed not to injure them, as in most cases they push a 

 bulb down several inches into the ground. Let them dry 

 gradually in the shade. The beds of Ranunculuses should be 

 frequently examined, as the green caterpillar, scarcelv dis- 

 tinguishable from the stalk, often lodges just beneath them ; 

 they are also much infested with the ouckoo-spit (Tettigonia 

 apumaria). Both are seriously detrimental to the bloom. 

 Still persevere in the extermination of the green fly on Carna- 

 tions, cither by brushing off or by the use of Scotch snuff. 

 Take off the laterals as they appear, and reduce the stems 

 thrown up by strong-growing seedlings to one, so that the 

 energy of the plant may be directed to the buds left. If you ex- 

 amine the buds of Pinks closely you may find some attacked 

 by a small grey grub, which eats its way through the lower 

 part of the calyx and devours the inside. An infusion of sheep 

 manure will prove highly beneficial to the plants by being 

 poured on the surface of the bed occasionally. Continue to 

 propagate Pansies by slips or cuttings, and every seedling of 

 inferior merit, or which is not a decided improvement on the 

 varieties already in cultivation, may be pulled up. 



OBEENHOCSB AND CONSERVATORY. 



Many of the greenhouse Polygalas might be so managed 

 (with a little pruning about this time, and keeping them in-doors 

 through the summer), as to come into flower early in January. 

 Try also Goodia latifolia and some of the Crotalarias in the 

 same way. Perhaps there are some who are not aware that all 

 the Correas treated after this fashion— that is, kept in the 

 greenhouse in vigorous growth all the summer, will begin to 

 flower late in the autumn, and continue to do so throughout 

 the winter, supplying the place of the Fuchsias. The Mexican 

 Fuchsia splendens is a late spring flowerer, but if it is treated 

 for the next three or four months as one would forcing Helio- 

 tropes — that is, cramped at the roots and allowed no more 

 water than will just keep it alive, then giving a good shift and 

 forcing it with the Roses, it will flower by the end of February. 

 The planting-out in the open ground of Fuchsias to be taken 

 ap in the autumn to furnish the conservatory is an excellent 

 practice which cannot be too much followed. This is about 

 the right time to plant out such plants. Leonotis leonurus 

 thus treated will produce double the quantity of flowers that it 

 would under pot culture. The Brugmansias also do well in 

 this way. Luculia gratissima delights in this treatment, but 

 about the beginning of July will be time enough to plant it out. 

 Gardenia florida and radicans improve very much under this 

 treatment. Turn them out about the beginning of July in 

 peat mixed with one-third leaf mould, and they need not be 

 taken up until the approach of frost in October ; then let them 

 be put in a close frame for wintering, whence they are brought 

 to theforcing pit in succession. Watering and training, with 

 attention to shading, are the principal points to attend to now 

 in the conservatory. 



STOVE. 



The Hedychiums, Clerodendrons, Tineas, and other store 

 plants mentioned last spring as useful auxiliaries for flowering 

 in the conservatory in summer, should now be in good condi- 

 tion for flowering, and have large portions of air to inure them 



to the ohanse. The stove requires more air now, but still keep 

 up a strong moist heat, and let the plants stand clear of each 

 other. 



COLD PITS. 



Camellias, Chinese Azaleas, and the finer hybrid Rhododen- 

 drons that have been kept in heat since they flowered ought 

 now to be turned into these pits for three weeks or a month 

 before they are put out of doors ; and as they will be nearer to 

 the glass than they have been in the houses, they ought to be 

 shaded slightly during hot sunshine. The best time of the 

 whole year to graft them is when the bottom of this year's 

 growth is bard and begins to turn brown, and the three families 

 will take by grafting as freely as the Apple and Pear. Cold 

 turf pits are just as useful in summer as they are in winter; 

 and if they are only covered with the thinnest calico stretched 

 on frames hundreds of plants will live and thrive in them 

 better than anywhere else. Some of these should have a thin 

 laver of soil to plant out young seedlings in, or newly rooted 

 plants, and for young tender Roses, &o. All sorts of flower- 

 garden plants may be propagated in them for the next three 

 months, either in pots, or, which is better, planted out in abed 

 of light soil covered over with an inch of sand. Many other 

 uses for them will occur in practice. Any labourer can put up 

 such pits, and their size should correspond with that of the 

 Melon pits in the same establishment, so that the frames may 

 do for either. — W. EIeane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



SccH heat after the rain was trying to some of our vegetables, 

 and Caulijlowers heading nicely began to hang their leaves, so 

 that we were forced to give a little water, as we had not time 

 to shade. The soil on examination was found to be moist 

 enough, but the little additional water just kept the leaves bold 

 and unflagged ; if they droop much even in bright sun, though 

 all right in the morning, the heads are apt to come more open. 

 To insure whiteness as well as compactness, it is well to turn 

 some half-broken leaves over the flower, as the whiter the 

 vegetable is sent to table the more delicate it looks. Except a 

 piece of fresh-planted Cauliflowers, all other vegetables have 

 been left to their fate. 



Cabbages, i'C, have swelled up wonderfully, so that our 

 different plantings for succession threaten to come in too much 

 at a time. Yeitch's Matchless Cabbage still proves itself a fine 

 variety for the amateur having little room. It can be grown to 

 great perfection if planted one foot apart each way. Neverthe- 

 less, some of the larger kinds are useful when a large number 

 of servants have to be supplied. In a nice plantation of Veiteh's 

 there are only three or four " rogues," and of the different 

 sorts grown there has not been a single plant that has com- 

 menced running to seed. All the vacancies we owe to our 

 visitors the rabbits. Some years ago we had many bolters. 

 We hardly knew how the rabbits got out, but we found out how 

 they got in. They went up outside a wall some 8 feet in height 

 by means of some pea sticks and the bole of a tree, traversed 

 the top of the wall for a distance of 40 feet, and then dropped 

 down inside, a depth of more than 6 feet. Seeing the mark 

 where they dropped, one or two were trapped ; but their sys- 

 tem was only stopped by placing wire netting across the top of 

 the wall, past which they could not go. 



Our other work was chiefly confined to routine, sowing Peas, 

 Cauliflowers, Turnips, Radishes, i-c, and giving water to Pota- 

 toes at the foot of walls, where they were becoming very dry, 

 though almost fit for using. We may also mention that in 

 forwarded and protected crops we have only met with two roots 

 that had a trace of the dreaded disease. We have had nothing 

 of that peculiar rotting of the stems below the surface alluded 

 to last season. 



FBUIT GARDEN. 



Melons. — We are much obliged to Mr. Hall for his valuable 

 remarks in page 387. We have long been so struck with the 

 propriety of the cause he points out, that though we cannot 

 always secure what we want, yet we would rather, if possible, 

 not wet the foliage of Melons at all, if when under glass we 

 could not have the leaves dry at least before the sun struck on 

 them. In fact, if all be right, we hardly syringe Melons on 

 this account, and we have had fine crops, which, besides water- 

 ing the soil when necessary, never had any moisture on the 

 foliage that could be avoided. Mr. Hall will perceive that we 

 left air on at night, so that there was no confined vapour. 



