12C 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ Feimary 6, 1873. 



drops falling ou them from the roof, especially if the roof was 

 not perfectly clean, or, if iron, was not thoroughly free from rust 

 and blemishes. True, much of this might be avoided by fluted 

 sashbars ; but though well aware of their importance in taking 

 condensed moisture out of the house, too many gardeners are 

 only too glad to get sashhars of any kind. These fluted sash- 

 foars are especially useful in flat-roofed houses w'here a high 

 temperature is maintained in winter. 



A great deal may be done to counteract this evil, and yet re- 

 main inside the point of safety, by simply keeping the houses a 

 little cooler and drier. As less vapour will rise there will be all 

 the less to be condensed, and consequently fewer and smaller 

 drops to fall. 



0KN.4MEKTAL DEP.UITMENT. 



Turfing in Winter. — Bough as the weather was, yet there 

 were tine sunny days in which turfing as well as levelling could 

 be done, though it will ever be found a future source of trouble 

 to do much particular levelling with soil at all frozen in lumps, 

 as, though you may get a fine unfrozen surface, these lumps 

 will sink unequally and present you with an uneven lawn after- 

 wards. If such lumps, from a covering of grass, &c., can be 

 avoided, leveUing and also turfing may be done in such frosty 

 weather as we have had, if these two conditions are attended 

 to — ttiat the soil should not be frozen, or be thawed, before the 

 turf is put on ; and secondly, that the turf itself, whatever time 

 it may have been taken up, should be free from frost. Of 

 course, the sooner turf is laid after being taken up the better, 

 but it often happens that it must be in heaps some time before 

 the ground can lie made ready for it. In all such cases when 

 frost is anticipated, it is worth the httle trouble to cover the 

 heaps with a sprinkling of litter. Very little will keep out the 

 frosts such as we have yet had, and even in a frosty day it wiU 

 <;ome oiit limp and clean, and may be laid down and beaten at 

 once ; whilst, exposed in even such slight frosts, you might as 

 well attempt to lay cylinders down flat. Besides, turf taken 

 up and rolled in the usual way with the earth side outwards 

 —(why always, we can hardly say) — suffers much from frost, 

 as the roots of the grass are apt to be killed. When frost 

 is anticii^ated, and heaps must be made and litter is scarce, it 

 would be much better to pUe the turf without rolling, and the 

 «arth side downwards. Very little litter round the sides would 

 then be almost sufficient, as the top being grass would of itself 

 be a great protection. Many years ago a good many yards of 

 turf were left roUed-up in narrow rows, and thus exposed to 

 three days of unexpected sharp frost, and though laid down 

 in a week afterwards, and looking not so badly at first, it got 

 worse as the days lengthened, and in May a lot of fine seeds 

 ihad to be sown over it and heavily rolled- in, thus entailing extra 

 labour and expense. 



In this frosty weather extra care will have to be taken of early 

 fculbs, i'c, out of doors, protecting them with a cone of cocoa- 

 nut fibre, dry ashes, &c. Pinks, Carnations, and Pansies out of 

 doors will be benefited by open twigs of evergreens stuck in 

 among them and removed as soon as the weather moderates, as 

 then such shelter would be injurious. Twigs with small leaves 

 answer best for this purpose, as, though the force of the frosty 

 winds is broken and calmed, the plants are not weakened as 

 they would be if covered over altogether. This is one of the 

 evils apt to be xjroduced by mats or other similar coverings, un- 

 less the weather is severe enough to arrest everything like 

 an attempt at gi'owth. Finer plants, as Auriculas, and potted 

 plants of the best Carnations, Picotees, Cloves, and Pinks, can 

 hardly be kept too dry. In the uncertain mild weather as 

 respects rains and dribbles, plenty of air should be given front 

 and back, but the sash tilted-up, not removed. In such frosty 

 weather with no sun, ijrovided the soil for the plants is dryish, 

 scarcely any air will be wanted. If the sun do come out, 

 elevate the lights at back, and keep the air on until after the 

 departure of the sun, and the air gets cold inside, when the 

 lights should be shut down, and in extreme cases a little cover- 

 ing given, but only in extreme cases. 



Since oiu' first young days in gardening, the last time we saw 

 what seemed a good collection of Auriculas, we felt as if some 

 one had given us such a knock at the heart as to stoj) for a time 

 all circulation of blood and all thought. There the fine-looking 

 plants stood in shallow frames, the 6 and 8-inch pots plunged 

 in ashes that seemed more wet than dry, for three-parts the 

 height of the pots ; and in a clear frosty day at the end of Decem- 

 ber, with a bright sun and a thermometer at the north side of 

 the wall standing at 22° below freezing point, the jjlants stood 

 fully exposed to keep them hardy, though the soil in the pots 

 seemed as hard as brick, and the rims of the pots were crack- 

 ing and splintering in all directions. We heard afterwards 

 that the plants bloomed badly. We should have preferred but 

 little frost to visit them, and if in such sun the plants with air 

 at back and a little at front had been unduly excited, we should 

 have preferred to have given a little shade to mitigate the force 

 of the sun, rather than such a full exposure to clear, dry 

 parching, frosty air. Two things we are too apt to forget, but 

 we make a present of them to all aspirants of progress. The 



neautiful and interesting alpine plants will, ere long, he dear 

 favourites with lovers of plants who have but little room. They 

 must not, however, think alone of their hardines.s, their being 

 natives of very elevated positions, or of high latitudes where 

 the cold is often intense, for that is no reason why they will 

 stand uninjured a similar amount of cold with us, any more 

 than that they would siu'vive the coddling we could give them 

 in a warm plant house. The best and most effectual of all 

 coverings, that of snow, covers them up in their natural habitats 

 just when the cold is intense enough to arrest all growth. Such 

 plants would suffer nothing from a long night of protected 

 darkness in continued frosty weather, provided they were kept 

 cold enough jusc to hve and not to grow. Though different 

 in their character, we have thus treated even Calceolarias and 

 other half-hardy plants, shutting them up for days and weeks 

 when there could be no benefit by exposing them in severe 

 weather. The conditions of safety must, however, be present — . 

 that frost to no great extent should reach them, and yet the 

 atmosphere roimd them should be so near the freezing point 

 that there will be no elongation or growth. 



Again, do not be led away by learned statements as to the 

 cold and frost that plants will stand in Australasia, and even 

 elevated tropical regions, and believe that such plants will with- 

 stand an equal degree of cold in our cloudy moist atmosphere. 

 There, in many cases to which reference is made, the air is much 

 drier and the sun seldom clouded, or, if so, at certain definite 

 seasons, and the tendency is to give to the wood of such plants 

 something of the hardiness of heart of Oak — very different from 

 the more spongy soft growth they make in our more dull and 

 less sunny cUTuate. 



We completed much potting and cleaning, and the general 

 treatment of houses and plants has been foreshadowed. W^e 

 had hard work in putting to rights an old boiler that gave way 

 just when we wanted it; and it furnished several reflections, to 

 which we may allude, and the more particularly as among the 

 first papers of these '* Doings " we had to record a similar mis- 

 hap at the coldest time but one of which we have any recoUec- 

 tion. That was comparatively a young boiler. From what we 

 can make' out, this one must have worked fully forty-five years. 

 We question if many of our new-fashioned boUers can ever boasj; 

 such a longevity, and on the whole it seems sound now. — E. F. 



TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



Edwin Cooling, 18, Irongate, and Mile-Ash, Duflield Eoad, 

 Derby. — Select Catalogue of Seeds. 



F. C. Heiuemann, Erfurt. — General Catalog der Sainen und 

 Pflanzen-handlwng . 



William Eumsey, Joyning's Nursery, Waltham Cross, London, 

 N. — Select List of Garden, Flower, and Farm Seeds, d-c. 



W. Samson & Co., and W. & T. Samson, Kilmarnock. — 

 General Catalogue of Seeds, Plants, d-e. 



Stuart & Mein, Eelso. — General Catalogue of Vegetable and 

 Flower Seeds. 



Archibald Henderson, Sion Nursery, White Horse Boad, and 

 North End, Croydon. — Catalogue of Garden, Agricultural, and 

 Flower Seeds. 



Edmondson Brothers, 10, Dame Street, Dublin. — Spring Cata- 

 logne of Vegetable and Flower Seeds, Boots, Sc. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*,' We request that no one will write privately to any of the 

 correspondents of the " Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 Gardener, and Country Gentleman." By so doing they 

 are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. All 

 communications should therefore be addressed solely to 

 The Editors of the Journal of Horticulture, d-c. 111, Fleet 

 Street, London, B.C. 



N.B. — Many questions must remain unanswered until next 

 week. 

 Books (J. E.).— Mr. Hivers's " Orcbarcl House" la putlisbed by Messrs. 



Longman & Co., Paternoster Eow. (.J Florist).— Yfe ilo not know the book 



you name. 



Dim.lAS OF 1872 (J. Oliver).— la " The Gardeners' Year-Book " are a list 



and description of them, and of all the new flowers. You can have the hook 



free by post from our office if you enclose fourteen postage stamps with your 



address. 



SiTrATiiiN (IT. ff.).— ■Write to Mr. Barron, Royal Horticultural Society's 



Garden, Chiswick; and to Mr. Smith, Curator, Koyal Botanic Gai'dous, Kew, 



telliuf,' them what you wish. 

 ScAHtET GERANinm FOR BEDDING (if. T. H.).—As you require depth of 



colour and abundance of flowers, the best scarlet Geranium to answer your 



purpose will be Waltham Seedling or Bayard. See Mr. Peach's notes on 



Geraniums which appear this week. 



Select Cabnations and Picotee.i (G. H. JB.).— Carnation.*— Garibaldi, 



Eccentric Jack, Lady of the Lake, Mayor of Nottingham, Illuminator, and 



Koseot Staplcfurd. Picotees — Lord Valentia, Miss Turner. .YdmiratiMU, Lady 



Elcho, Flower of the Day, and Miss Scwell. The '• Cottage Gardeners' 



Dictionary," which you can have fi-ee by post from our oflice for Is. 2d., 



f uniishesthe infonnatiou yuu lequhe. 



