l70 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Febmiry 20, 187S. 



lors are wanted by our coiTespondent as to the price, and heatinc power of the 

 Zigzag boiler. The Araott stove to which you allado is a portable one, which 

 you will find figured at page 28, vol. xiv., of The /ournal of Hokxicultcre. 

 It could no doubt be had through any of our principal ironmongers in large 

 towns. 



Spots on Rose Lewes (M. F. TT''.).— The leaves sent are not inferited 

 with any disease ; they are only spotted from being in a cold and damp atmo- 

 sphere. The loaves you sent arc of last year, and had not been shed, probably 

 owing to the soil havinc; been kept drier. The fresh leaves will come all right. 

 We do not recommend one seller or purchaser of plants in preference to 

 another, and we cannot depart from our rule in respect to cut flowers. 



Dahlia Treatment (Chcc). — They should be placed in a bos or in pans, 

 covered to the neck with light rich soil which is just moist, and set in a 

 gentle hotbed in March. When they have shoots about 3 inches long divide 

 the roots from the crown downwards, preserving a portion of old tuber to 

 each division; or the shoots may be taken off close to whence they proceed, 

 when 3 or 4 inches long, and potted in light rich soil singly in 3-inch pots, 

 inserting them half way in the soil, resting the base of the cutting on sliver 

 sand. Surround them with the saraeaud place them in agentle hotbed, plung- 

 ing the pots to the rim in coal ashes or other material. Water cax-cfully, keep 

 close, and shade from bright sun. In a fortnight or three weeks they will be 

 well rooted, i.nd should then bo hardened off, potting, however, in 4J-inch 

 pots, when the roots are matted round the sides of the smaller-sized pots, 

 and when the roots again show at the sides remove the plants to a cold frame, 

 setting them on coal ashes. Keep them rather close for a few days, then 

 admit air daily, water well, and keep them safe from frost. They may be 

 planted out at the end of May. The situation should be open, but sheltered 

 from winds, as the shoots are brittle. The shoots should be thinned, also the 

 flowers on each plant, pi-eserving the best and strongest. Keep the plants 

 well staked. The Dahlia likes a rich, deep, friable loam, enriched with well 

 decomposed dung. You will find particulars of the treatment of this and other 

 florists' flowers in our " Florists' Flowers," which can be had from our office 

 for five postage stamps. 



Potted Vines not Breaking [Ibid). — The cause of the Vines not breaking, 

 or breaking so very irregularly is probably due to the canes not having been 

 depressed, and they have not perhaps bean moistened two or three times a day 

 with water of the temperature of the house. Had you brought the ends of 

 the canes down to a level with the pot, arching them over, it is likely they 

 would, with moisture, have broken every eye from the base to the top of the canes, 

 and when all the eyes had broken the canes could have been tied up to the 

 rafters ; or had they been coiled around stakes we think they would have broken 

 more regularly. We should even yet depress the canes, bringing their ends level 

 with the soil or even below the pots, arching the canes over so as not to break 

 them, aud in this way we think you may even yet ensure tho breaking of every 

 eye, xinless they are rubbed off or have been otherwise damaged. We think 

 you have pruned them too short to ensure a crop, as the eyes at the bottom of 

 pot Vines are not nearly so well ripened as those on the upper part of the 

 ceans. We should have left them 7 feet, or even 8 or 9 feet long had the wood 

 been strong and hai'd, and the eyes prominent. 



Ferns, &c., for Hanging Basket in Conservatory (Amateur). — Ferns : 

 Adiantum Capillus- Veneris, A. setulosum, Davatlia dissecta, Nephrolepis 

 tuberosa, Niphobolus lingua corymbifera, and Platycerium alcicome. Flowev' 

 inrj plants: Convolvulus mauritanicus, Ivy-leaved Geraniums, with pink, 

 scarlet, mauve, and white flowers, also with variegated leaves, Heliotropium of 

 sorts, Lophospermum Hendersoui, Lithospermum prostratum, Campanula 

 garganica, Lynaria Cymbalaria, Lysimachia Nummularia, Trop.ToIum Lobbi- 

 anum var. Brilliant, and Triompho de Gand, Nierembergia gracilis, Sasifraga 

 sarmentosa. The whole are cheap, and may be had of any nm"aeryman ad- 

 vertising in our columns. We cannot recommend dealers. 



Preventing Rabbits Barking Fruit Trees (Idem).— The best preven- 

 tive we know is to wrap the stems to a height of 3 or 4 feet with a hay band. 

 The bands must be renewed every alternate year, but should be gone over 

 rinuaUy to see that the stems are covered. Strips of card paper dipped in 

 gas tar placed in slits in sticks thrust in the soil so as to be about 6 inches 

 above ground, and disposed around the trees, wiU keep rabbits off the stems so 

 long as the tar is fresh. If, however, the trees are dwarfs the only effectual 

 remedy is to wire the enclosure round with 2 feet 6 inch netting, and the 

 lower edr'e embedded 1 or 2 inches in the ground. We do not know of a 

 double White Geranium. 



Soil for Rhododendron and Hardy Azaleas (H. F. F.).— As yoiu* soil 

 is light and rich, it will grow Cedrus Deodara well if the situation is sheltered 

 from winds. For the Rhododendrons wo should advise you to add to it some 

 cocoa-nut fibre refuse as you ijropose, aud some good tiu-f chopped up rather 

 small; and you may further add leaf soil or old cow dung, all of which are 

 good for Rhododendrons ; and in such materials they grow better with us 

 than in peat. 



H^-bridising Geraniums (^f. Tr.).— There is but one way of effecting the 

 hybridisation of plants, and that is to apply the pollen of one species to the 

 stigma of another. Most of the present race of Geraniums are not hybrids, 

 but cross-breds. You will need to remove the stamens of the flower you 

 wish to operate on before the pollen is ripe, and envelope the flowers iu a 

 gauEe bag both before and after the pollen of the other has been applied to 

 one or all of the horn-like stigmas. When the seed vessels enlarge you may 

 remove the bag. The best time to apply the pollen is in the early part of the 

 day, and the plants seed more freely when they are kept rather dry, so as not 

 to be gross, a dry well- ventilated atmosphere being necessary. 



Gladioli in Pots (Idrm). — Place three in a 6-inch pot filled with a com- 

 post of two parts light turfy loam, one pai-t old cow dung or leaf soil, and one 

 part sandy peat, the whole well broken up and mixed, adding a sixth of silver 

 sand. Place the bulbs on silver sand, and surround them with the same 

 material. Cover them about an inch deep with soil. If the soil be moist no 

 water should be given. Plunge the pots in ashes in a cold frame or pit, water- 

 ing sparingly until they begin to giow, then water more freely; admit air 

 abundantly, and protect from frost. ^Vhen they are growing freely water 

 abundantly — not over watering, and when they arc advancing for flowering 

 water twice weekly with liquid manmc. The flowering pots should be 8 inches 

 ju diameter ; shift into them when the roots are slightly matted' round the 

 sides. Ajfford plenty of head room, but place the plants near the glass, and 

 syringe twice a-day to keep down red spider. 



Best Varieties of Fruit Trees (Sam. -Boicrrs).— -It is not easy to 

 enumerate the best sorts of fruit trees for a given locality. We have found a 

 variety succeed well in one garden, but not in a neighbouring one. Winter 

 Nelia Pear does not succeed with ns, and a friend a few miles distant thinks 

 it quite first-clasa. Your soil being light and near the gravel is naturally not 



a good one for fruit trees. The best Apples for you are— Adams's Pearmairi, 

 Court- Pen du- PI at, Cox's Orange Pippin, Early Harvest, Golden Pippin, Early 

 Margaret, Kerry Pippin, King of the Pippins, Old Nonpareil, Pitmaston Non- 

 pareil, Scarlet Nonpareil, Mannington's Pearmain, Reinette du Canada, 

 Golden Reinette, Reinette Jaune Hativo, Ribston Pippin, syke House Russet, 

 and Sturmer Pippin. The following are kitchen Apples— Bed ordshure Found- 

 ling, Blenheim Pippin, Cox's Pomona, Dumelow's Seedling, Emperor Alex- 

 ander, Galloway Pippin, Gloria I\Iundi, Gooseberry Apple, Hawthornden, 

 Kentish Codlin, Lord Suffield, Mere de Menage, Norfolk Beefing, Tower of 

 Glammis, and Warner's King. Pears — Beurre Bosc, Beurre d'Aremberg, 

 Beunt- d'Amaulis, Beurre Giffard, Beurre Superfin, Conseiller de la Cour, 

 Doyenne d'Ete, Fondante d'Automne, Jargonelle, Louise Bonne of Jersey, 

 Mai-ie Louise, Madame Treyve, Summer Beurrt- d'Aremberg, Williams's Bon 

 Chretien, and Zephirin (irV'goire. PZum,";— Angelina Burdott, Goe's Golden 

 Drop, Golden Esperen, Groen Gage, Guthrie's Late Gage, Jefferson's, Kirke'a, 

 Purple Gage, Reine Claude de Bavay, and Transparent Gage. Kitchen Plums^ 

 Diamond, Early Prolific, Mitchelson's. Orleans, Pond's Seedling. Prince of 

 Wales, Prince Englebert, Victoria, and Washington. Chnrics — Bigarreau, 

 Bigan-eau Napoleon, Black Eagle. Black Tartarian, Elton, Florence, Governor 

 Wood, Kentish, Knight's Early Black, May Duke, Morello, and Royal Duke. 



Slugs (J. S. S.). — You had better sprinkle quicklime of an evening between 

 the crops. The slugs are then on the surface. If the soil is heavy it would 

 be improved, and the slugs extirpated, by paring and burning Cinches deep of 

 the whole surface. Brown's "The Forester," is the best book on manoging 

 woods and plantations. There is no small-priced work on the subject that is 

 practical and trustworthy. 



Mass of Mushrooms (J. L. F.). — A group of Mushrooms, more than fifty 

 in number, and weighing 17 ozs., grown on a hotbed is large, but not a 

 phenomenon. 



Altering Lean-to Greenhouse {J. A.). — As your house of 40 feet must 

 not be a fixture, we would obtain leave from the landlord to fix a IJ inch board 

 by 7 inches to the ba;k wall to receive the ends of the rafters. Wo would 

 have the whole wood and glass. The front sill we would lay on short stout 

 sleepers laid on the ground, and havo upright studs between that and the 

 wall plate to receive wood and glass in front, part to be a wooden ventilator. 

 All these we would fix with screws, so as to be easily moved. You do not say 

 the width, but the best plan will be to have your rafter sash-bars about 

 16 inches apart, and groove them to receive glass of that width. These 

 could be packed firmly with strips of soft cord, &c., beneath, and thus the 

 glass could be easily taken out and repacked. You could not heat with a flue 

 without leaving it behind you, unless there was a regular agreement to the 

 contrary. On the same principle, if you used hot water, the best plan would 

 be to have a small portable boiler complete in itself, requiring no fixing, and 

 in that case boiler and pipes could be moved. In your case, with the two 

 divisions, the simplest plan would be to have a small iron stove in each house, 

 and take a 4-inch pipe through the roof, using a square of sheet iron with a 

 hole in it instead of a square of gla.«s. 



Heating an Orchard House and Vinery (Amateur).~lt is so far im"^ 

 portant that the orchard house is lower than the vinery, as the flue entering 

 the irchard house first will give off its greatest heat there; but that wiU 

 enable you to make it the earliest house. Then, if there is no special draw* 

 back, the flue in the vinery would act better if it were near the front of the 

 house instead of near ihe back wall. First, with the furnace sunk as stated 

 you could heat both houses with one flue. Second, yoiu* mode of sinking the 

 flue in the orchard house near the front and chambering it over will do, but 

 then, besides an opening at each end of the orchard house. It would be ad- 

 visable to have a grating opening: In the middle ; in fact, a good covering for 

 the flue might enable you to dispense with chambeiing altogether. If not 

 inconvenient, why not have the flue under the pathway, the top of the flue 

 forming part of the pathway ? Thkd, for the orchard house, we would recom- 

 mend a brick flue, and as there is only one, we would have it at least 8 or 

 9 inches wide, and 8 inches deep inside measure. Fourth, you can heat the 

 orchard house separately by having a small chimney at the point where it 

 rises to go into the vinery. Fifth, to heat both houses when desirable, and 

 the orchard house separately when desirable, with the stokeliole at the same 

 place, the first flue should terminate in a brick box, with a damper to pre- 

 vent the heat going farther, and sending the smoke into the chimney. 

 When the heat is wanted to go on, shut-up with a damper the hole in this 

 chimney and take out the other, so that the heat shall pass into the flue of 

 the vinery. If you could place yom- stokehole at that point you could heat 

 either house at will. Now you must heat the orchard house before you heat 

 the vinery. Sixth, approving of bricks for the orchard house, in order to inter- 

 fere as little as possible with the Vine roots in the vinery, we would use 8 or 

 9-inch hard-burned pipes there ; Portland cement pipes would answer ad- 

 mirably. The brick box at the end of the flue in the orchai'd house should 

 be raised high enough, aud be covered ■nath a wide tile or stone to receive 

 these cylinili-icai pipes, and if they rise a little all the way to the chimney they 

 will answer all the better. At all corners it is well to have a brick bisfor 

 cleaning, and then neither the flue nor the pipes need be disturbed. Seventh, 

 the simplest plan would be to take the flue on without the intermediate 

 chimney. The size of the funiace should be about 30 inches long, 14 inches 

 wide, and 16 to 18 inches high. Eighth, when you ripen Peaches, Grapes, 

 Ac, we are not sanguine of ripening a second crop in pots, unless you apply 

 the heat early, and then if you did, so as to have early fruit, yon would need 

 a much larger flue. A great many plants, and even salads and vegetables, 

 may be kept in winter after the leaves have fallen. 



Treatment or Horizontal-trained Pear Trees {Frank Corbctt). — 

 Certainly, allow the upper branches to grow out as far as the imder ones In 

 order to fill up all the wall surface. 



Vines Failing {B. C.).— From the specimens enclosed we beheve ono of 

 two things to be the cause, either that the wood was imperfectly ripened last 

 year, or that it is from defective root action since the Vines were started. Tho 

 temperatuie was right, and if you gave the pots enough water, wo do not 

 know what more you could have done. When starting pot Vines we prefer a 

 rather higher temperature for the roots, either by placing thom uear the hot* 

 water pipes or plunging them in a bottom heat of about 85\ 



Plantin Back Wall of Vinery (J. W. S.).— Pot Vines trained to the 

 wall would be as good as anything. We have seen Figs do tolerably well 

 planted out on the back wall of a vinery. 



Catekpillahs on Filbert Trees (A Subscriber). — Y'oiu- case is a very 

 common one amongst Filbert -growers, and those who grow them on a large 

 scale have tho same enemy to contend against. Many of them adopt hand- 

 picking by women and children ; or when the caterpillars are very numerous, 

 cloths are spread underneath the trees in as quiet a way as possible, so as not 



