May 22, 1S73. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOKTIGULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



419 



as Stephauotis, Dipladenias, etc., ■which are liable to be infested 

 with mtaiy bu^', cannot readily be cleansed when the shoots are 

 twined-iu closely. 



We finished basketing and potting nearly all the Orchids re- 

 quiriug attention. In some instances the compost had become 

 sour ; this was removed, and fi-esh peat and sphagnum added. 

 No Orchid will thi-ive if over-potted, or if the peat and sphagnum 

 has become the least sour. 



We have been placing sticks to Tree Carnations and Roses. 

 The first-named have supplied us with plenty of cut tiowers 

 since Christmas^iudeed, we are never without them; at the 

 present time Tui-ner's Bride is in with very little forcing. It 

 is a very fine clove-scented variety. Some of the flowers 

 measured 3k inches across, but the smaller side flowers are most 

 serviceable for cutting ; they are waxy white, '^'ith just a tinge 

 of rose at the edge. Many of the varieties are apt to have the 

 calyx split by the flowers being too full. The best way to do 

 with them is to have a box at hand with indiarubber rings of a 

 small size ; these are slipped over the flower before it is too 

 much expanded. 



Shoio Pelargoniums are in full flower. We put a permanent 

 shading of tine tiffany outside the glass, as they ai-e in a house 

 where it is not convenient to fix rollers ; nearly all our other 

 houses are supplied with them, as permanent shading is inju- 

 rious to all growing plants. 



PLOWEB GABDEN. 



All the bedding plants are out, except the tender subjects, 

 such as Iresine, Coleus, Altemanthera, HeUotropes, tire. ; they 

 must remain under glass until the weather change. 



As we write the wind is veering round to the west; it is not 

 warmer, but an occasional drizzle of rain is falling. Though it 

 has been so dry we have not watered, except in an exceptional 

 case, where the planting was done under trees, or where httle 

 rain could reach them. A large proportion of our plants were 

 in boxes ; iudeed, with the exception of Zonal Pelargoniums, 

 which do best in pots, the others go out best from boxes. We 

 put in cnttiu^s of Phlox frondosa and Lithospermumprostratum. 

 The one makes a pretty bed of pink flowers on a dense carpet 

 of pale greeu, and the last-named makes an equally charming 

 bed of deep blue. They were inserted in light soil, and the 

 pots placed in a hotbed where the heat was almost spent. — 

 J. Douglas. 



TRADE CATALOGUE RECEIVED. 



T. Bunyard ct Sons, Maidstone and Ashford, Kent. — Select 

 List of Bedding-out Flants^ Greenhouse Plants^ dc. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



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

 correspondents of the " Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 Gai^dener, 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.j llljFleet 

 Street, London, E.C. 



We also request that correspondents will not mix up on the 

 same sheet questions relating to Gardening and those on 

 Poultry and Bee subjects, if they expect to get them 

 answered promptly and conveniently, but write them on 

 separate communications. Also never to send more than 

 two or three questions at once. 



N.B. — Many questions mast remain onanswered until next 

 week. 



Books {Eandon). — "Tlie Garden Manaal" contains full directions for 

 Eo86-culture. You can have it free by post if you enclose twenty postage 

 stamps and address. 



Aquilegia AtTREA (TT. If. H.). — Xou could procure the seed of tliis and 

 A. canadensis through any of the leading London seedsmen who advertise in 

 our columns. It is by no means expensive. 



EEDDiNi;-nrr (E.). — We cannot particularise planting; we can only criti- 

 ise that which is proposed. 



Heating liv Lr:xE-Kn.K {J. C). — There is no doubt such a mode could he 

 adopted SQCcessfuiiy in some places. Details must be advertised. 



Na^ue of Cress (Af. W. Wilson). — It is Barbarea prwcox, or Early Winter 

 Cress. It is quite hardy, and a splendid salad herb. Ic is known also by the 

 names of American Cress and Beileisle Cress. 



RE3io\aNG Greenhouse (fl. W. B.). — Without knowing all the facts we 

 cannot ad\ise. If the framework of the house is liied to the bricks or to the 

 wall you cannot legally remove it, but you may remove the sliding lights. 

 You may not remove either the boiler or the boiler house, but, probably, you 

 may remove the piping. 



Flow'er-«rot\T[ng for Sale {Inquirer). — There is more than one work on 

 market gardening, but we do not know of any expressly devoted to flower- 

 growing for sale, and we would not advise you to embark in it without some 

 other ^owledge than that imparted by books, as, apart from knowing the 

 way to cultivate them propsrly, ''a knack for business" is also required, and 

 everyone does not possess that. Moreover, the flower trade, liie that of 

 other fancy articles, is liable to all the caprices of fashion, so that a recom- \ 

 mendation to grow one class of flowers extensively this year might result in i 



finding no sale for it next. This kind of horticulture requires watchisg to 

 keep in advance of public requirements. 



Preparing Dung for a Mushroom Bed (Jnguircr).— We do not see any 

 barm in sweetening dung for the purpose in the full tun. although we have not 

 done so, as the place where we j;feiiferally sweeten it is sbaded by trees; but 

 we caimot think that in the preparatory state the dung can derive either good 

 or harm from the sun. In winter it is necessary to u^e a thed, otherwise it 

 would become too wet. We do less in preparing our Mushroom-bed materials 

 than most people, but use a portion of good fibrous loam, miied with the 

 dung in the bed itself. In summer it is more mflicult to grow good usefal 

 Mathrooms than in winter, as maggots and other enemies prevail to a greater 

 extent, and we apprehend that sweetening the dung in the sun will neither 

 increase nor diminish that evil. The son shines unobscured on a pafetora 

 field, and we know Mushrooms grow there. 



Flower-bed Arrangements {KittieY—Ton have unfortunately omitted 

 to state which of the four proposed plans is that adopted last year. All the 

 proposed modes are good, and each would look well, the great recommendation 

 of all being their simplicity. The centre is an octagon with ijjcur%'ed sides to 

 suit the eight circles that come round them, and these are succeeded by eight 

 other clumps rounded at the outside, the two inner lines terminating in a 

 point that comes in between the circles — a very neat arrangement. Now, 

 with your materials we wotild almost be inclined to plant in your centre bed 

 a circle of white Centaurea banded with Iresine Liudeni, as likely to be more 

 suitable in height than purple Verbena, then follow with Christine Geranium, 

 and if not part.cularly wedded to Sempervivum for an outside edging, uee a 

 nice band of your dwarf Ageratum. Now, bear in mind, that however thiff 

 garden is situated, either on the level or on the slope, very much will depend 

 on the beds being well arranged as to height of plants. One or two staring 

 beds among the ciicles, some 6 or 12 inches higher than the others, will 

 destroy the symmetry of the whole. These eight beds of scarlet and crimson 

 Geraniums should be as much as possible of a uniform height. In planting 

 you might have four pairs or two foxu^. If you did not particularly wish to 

 have ilrs. Pollock lor the outside beds, and to have fom of the eight beds 

 alternately much the same, then we would recommend banding or edging the 

 four Scarlet Geranium beds with white variegated-leaved Geraniums, and the 

 four crimson beds with Mrs. Pollock. Plants of the variegated Koniga among 

 the white-leaved Geraniums will rather improve them, and so would plants of 

 a dwarf blue Lobelia just peeping among ilrs. Pollock. Your outside range of 

 beds, if you have a dwarf Calceolaria as Aurea fluribimda, we would use for 

 four beds edged with Iresine kept well nipped-in, and the other four al- 

 tanately we would fill with purple Verbena and edge with Pyrethrum. You 

 will thus bring into use most of your materials, and the very simplicity of the 

 planting will constitute one of its greatest charms. As stated above, it will 

 be all the more striking if the heights be studied well, so that there shft H be 

 no staring bed in the group. 



FccHSLis, Pelargoniciis, and Roses to Flower in September [J. G.). 

 — The Fuchsias should now be nice young plants, from 6 to 9 inches high. 

 We should shift them into 6-inch pots, using a compost of three parts turfy 

 loam, half a part each leaf soil and old dry cow manure or well-rotted ma^ 

 nure, with one-sisth of silver sand, and a like quantity of pieces of charcoaL 

 — this compost we recommend for all the pottings. The shoots should be 

 pinched at every third or fourth joint, so as to insure a weil-f umished plant, 

 the leader being stopped at every 6 inches, and a well-disposed shoot of the 

 break trained in its place. The plants must not be allowed to flower, and 

 should be kept growing by syringing morning and evening, and giving copious 

 supplies of water, not allowing them to flag for want of it, nor, on the other 

 hand, giving any until it is needed. At the end of June or early in July 

 they should be shifted into 9 or 10-inch pots, and at the middle of July, or 

 from that time to the end, the stopping should cease, though it may be 

 practised on irregular growths up to the beginning of August. The plants 

 should then be allowed to go to flower. Liquid manore may be given, after 

 the pots ore full of roots, at every alternate watering ; the plants to bo 

 grown m your cool glass structure without heat, and admitting air freeiy. The 

 syringing should be discontinued when flowers are beginning to open. The 

 Zonal Pelargoniums, we presume, are nice plants, in say ti-inch pots. We 

 should stop them and tie down the shoots, disposing them equally all rotmd. 

 "WTaeu they have broken freely shift into 8-inch pots about the middle of 

 June, uud keep them stopped up to the middle of July ; all trusses of bloom. 

 to be picked off op to August. The plants should have the lightest part of 

 the house, be kept near the glass, and be sprinkled overhead morning and 

 evening. Tney would do well in a cold frame with plenty of air. The 

 " fancy " Pelargoniums, by which we think you mean those with variegated 

 leaves, should be potted now, again in June, and be grown in a cold frame, 

 not wetting the fofiage, but shadiug lightly from bright sun, training the 

 plants out neatly, and not stopping after June. The Roses, we presume, are 

 in pots and plunged out of dours, and have been potted ; if not, it should be 

 done at once, and without disturbing the roots much ; 8-inch pots will be 

 lar^e enough. At the end of June cut each shoot hack to within five leaves 

 of its base, removing the buds as they show. Encourage growth by frequent 

 sprinklings or syringings overhead and copious suppUes of water at the roots, 

 gi\'ing at every alterL.ate watering weak apphcations of liquid manure. The 

 plants will make fresh growth, and flower at the time you wish, if kept in a 

 sheltered open position. It maybe necessary to shield the plants from ex- 

 cessive wet; if such prevail in rieptember they should be placed under glass 

 with abundance of air. See that they do not root beyond the pots. The soil 

 named fur the Fachsias will suit all the others. 



Weeding Onion Bed (St. Bridget). — The market gardeners near London 

 hand- weed, and, however large your plot, we recommeud you to adopt the 

 same practice. After the hand-weeding we should have the ground between 

 the rows stirred with a narrow-bladed hoe. 



Hyacixths in Border (T. IF".).— They will bloom again next year if left 

 undisturbed until the leaves die. 



Asphalt Walks (A. B.), — Take two parts of very dry lime-rubbish, and 

 one part coal ashes, also very dry, and both sifted fine. In a dry place, on a 

 dry day, mix them, and leave a hole in the middle of the heap, as bricklayers 

 do when making mortar. Into this pour boiling-hot coal-tar; mix. and whea 

 as stiff as mortar, put it 3 inches thick where the walk is to be. The ground 

 should be dry, and beaten smooth. Sprinkle over it fine gravel; when cold, 

 pass a light roller over it, and in a few days the walk will be solid and water- 

 proof. Another book about Roses, besides that you have, is Rivers's " Rose 

 Amateur's Guide." 



Daphxes and Ehododesdrons for a Cool Greenhouse (Inquirer). — 

 Daphnes are elegantissima, Fortunei, indica alba, indica rubra, japonica foliis 

 variegatis, and odorata. They succeed in a oompost of equal parts sand; 



