326 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE ASV COTTAGE GARDENER. 



October 17, 1865. 



Tike Lilites Ttrsed Teixow (IT. r.i.—Tbe cause is evident. Your 

 border is rich— probably too ricb— for the leaves are -very large and 

 robufit : growth, oonsequentlr. was continued longer than' usual, and 

 now that the colder season prevents bO abundant a supply of sap, 

 ulceration .shanking) of the fruit-stalks and yellow blotches mot natural 

 autumnal fadiogi are the consequence. If you give more air next year, 

 and have the surface of the border covered at night during the early 

 antuniu, and in summer daring cold weather and heavy rains, the evil 

 will be avoided. 



AccuEA Beabisg Berries {An Old Subteribgr). — Write to Mr. Standisb, 

 Hoyal Nurseries, Ascot, and tell him what you require. 



FoBaoKG A HocsE OF Old Glazed Lights tE. L. W.). — The plan you 

 propose will answer very well, and the houses will be very useful what- 

 ever the height of the side walls. The economy of your' ihree bouses 

 thus placed side to side will be that four walls, four wall plates, and four 

 water-spouts will do for the three houses. The two middle wall plates 

 may be hollowed out and pitched, to receive and take off the water. If 

 economy is the chief object, these walls may be from 34 feet in height, 

 and if there were a double ridge-board, with space "for ventilating 

 between, the sashes could be fixed, and little or nothiDg in the way of 

 rafters would be required for 10-feet-wide houses. 



Glass foe Vinery, Ac. (J. iJofcrrf*).— We have no doubt the specimen 

 of glass enclosed would do very well, and especially for plant-houses, but 

 for fruit-houses we would prefer clear glass, equally thick. 



Glazikg a Yinert iN. F. H.).—¥ot Vines we like clear glass best. 

 Supposing the pipes to be close to the windows, we would prefer planting 

 the Vines more within the house. The Vine stems shoul(ibe a foot or 

 18 inches from the pipes if possible. 



Early Forcixg of Strawberries f J. B.).— To have Strawberries ripe 

 on the 1st of March, you would require to have nice plants in pots, the 

 pots full of roots, and buds well swelled and ripened. Take these about 

 the middle of the month and place on a north aspect, and keep from rains 

 to rest the plants a little. If wet enough, and no protection be handy, turn 

 the pots on their sides with the plants facing the north. Protect them 

 from more than 2- or 3^ of frost. About the end of November clean the 

 plants by removing withered leaves, stir the surface soil, remove a little, 

 add a surfacing of rich compost, and place the plants about 1 foot 

 from the glass where you intend to force them. Ee careful that the 

 plants have no stagnant water, and especially before they are in bloom 

 and the fruit set. The place may be a frame, a pit, or a house, but much 

 bottom heat should be avoided, and, imtil the plants show bloum, the 

 soil should be dryish rather than very damp, but not so drv as to hurt the 

 plant. For the first fortnight do not let the artificial heat exceed 43', 

 in the second fortnight raise the temperature graduallyto from DO'toao-, 

 and not above 60'^ until the fruit be set, when you may raise it gradually, 

 from 5= to 10^ more if you wish to hurry the'fmit. With sxm heat and 

 air given early the temperature during the day may be from 10= 

 to 15= more, and in cloady weather from 3' to S° above the artificial 

 temperature. 



Grapes Shrivellixg (fi. D. J., Jer«ty).— Not knowing where the Vines 

 are nor how cultivated, how can we form any opinion of the cause of the 

 Grapes shrivelling? 



Nicker Ncts {J. C;.— They are produced by the Nicker tree. Gnilan- 

 dlna Bonduc. and arc powerfully tunic. We beheve they may be ob- 

 tained of the principal London druggists. Of the Plantain Bougies we 

 know nothing. 



HoNETsrcKLE FOR A RcsTic PiLLAR {An Amatextr). — You could not \ 

 have anything better in the way of Honeysuckle for the purpose wanted 

 than the comm:n one. or Woodbine. If well manured and watered, it 

 will bloom not only in summer but through the autumn. To be sure of 

 blooming in autumn as well as summer, and growing freely, we would 

 prefer Lonicera grata, or Evergreen Honeysuckle, the leaves remaining 

 for a part of the winter. It blooms also freely. It has not so much 

 yellow as the common Woodbine. You give us no idea of where you 

 live. Except in Devonshire, Jcc, we should hardly expect the CUanthus 

 and Pass ion-Flower to stand out of doors with a few ashes over the roots; 

 but considerably north of London the Eignonias named, and the Passiflora 

 ccETulea, will do with little or no protection. From the midland counties 

 northward the phmts, in addition to ashes over the roots, would be better 

 of a mat or evergreen boughs over the branches. We do not know of 

 such a French work as you require. 



Frfit sekt to the Royal HoETicrLTCRAL Societt [B. S.). — Whether 

 your box was received, and, if bo, why the fruit was not exhibited we 

 cannot tell. You must write to the Assistant Secretary for the informa- 

 tion. 



Pear fob East Wall {H. F., Ely).—.^ large dessert Pear to be ripe by 

 December on that aspect would be Duchtsse d'-A,ngouleme. 



Books IE. C. P.). — The work, so far as we are aware, has only reached 

 a third edition. 



Potted Gerakicms on a Vint Border {H. ^.).— The roots coming 

 through the holes in the pots would certainly impoverish the border. 

 Unless the pots were very close and small, and the plants large, the roots 

 would do no great harm, but if the contrary they would prove injurious 

 by impoverishing and shading the border. 



Roses is Pots (7d^m).— Place in a sheltered yet open situation, plung- 

 ing the pots to the rim in coal ashes. If not yet potted this should be 

 done at once if needful. Prune the Koses in November after the greater 

 portion of the leaves have fallen, and place in a cold frame or pit, plung- 

 ing the pots to the rim in ashes. Protect from heavy rains and severe 

 frost ; from the former by drawing on the lights, and from the latter by a 

 covering of mats. Here they may remain until wanted for forcing. 

 Introduce them into a cool house at first, with abundance of air and all 

 the light practicable. Begin vrith a temperature of 40-', gradually in- 

 creasing until 50- be attained when they are in leaf, and give a tempera- 

 tnre 5*^ higher to bring them into bloom. Unless they are strong, and 

 ])4Te well-ripened wood, the bloom will not be fine. 



Potato Disease (C Inne$}, — It is due to theFortyfoldsbeingan earlier 

 Potato than Regents that the disease has shown itself sooner in the 

 former. We found our Ash-leaved Kidneys much diseased when taken 

 np, whilst Myatt's Prolific. Jackson's Seedling, and Lapstone, taken up at 

 the eame time, were free from the disease, but we now find all equally 

 bftd. 



Ice-Hocse (J. 3/<*/,).— There is no book upon the subject, but if you 

 enclose four postage stamps with your direction, and order No. 173 

 of our Journal, you will find in it a drawing pjid directions for forming 

 an ice-house. 



Thrips on Ferks {ilr. T. L. Taylor).— Choose a still or calm evening, 

 and with tho atmosphere of the feraery dry, and Uie fronds dry also, 

 shut the house up closely, and fill it quite full of tobacco smoke, so that a 

 plant cannot be seen from the outside. Svringe the plants in the 

 morning; and. not on the same night but on the following one, fill the 

 house again with tobacco smoke. Let the plants stand a day and then 

 syringe. This will kill all thrips at present existing but it will not 

 destroy their eggs. Watch for the reappearance of the insect, and amoke 

 again with shag tobacco, or good tobacco paper will do. Be sore that 

 the fronds are dry. and do not fumigate too hard, or they will become 

 brown, and be destrojcd by the smoke. Your Ferns being greenhouse 

 kinds it is not necessary to use fire heat, except to keep the temperature 

 at 40% and to can^e a circulation of air in damp weather. For stove 

 Ferns the temperature should be from 50^ to 55" at night. (L. X*.). — 

 The frond of Platyloma adi;intoides or Pteris hnstata is infested with 

 thrips. The insect is encouraged by a dry atmosphere, and it is most 

 troublesome in an atmosphere too warm and too dry for the species. 

 The first step to root out the enemy is to cut away all the worst infested 

 fronds and bum them, and then to fumigate as above directed. Keep the 

 house moist by sprinkling the floors, &c., twice daily, morning and 

 evening, and fumigate whenever you find a very thin black insect 

 beneath the wljite places on the fronds. You will sometimes find it 

 on the upper side also. Do not overdo the fumigation; just fill the 

 house with smoke, and repeat the operation on alternate nights rather 

 than smoke too hard one night in the hope of killing the pest at once, for 

 by doing so you may kill many of the fronds, especiaUy of the Adiantnm 

 family. 



Wintering Cixeeaiua maritima {Lex). — You may keep them over the 

 winter in a cool dry airy part of the greenhouse, giving no more water 

 than is sufiicient to prevent their flagging. They do well uuiler tho 

 same treatment as Geraniimis. The tubs being well drained, and the soil 

 light and porous, we do not think that yon have anything to apprehend, 

 only keep them in a dry, cool atmosphere, and no more than just moist 

 at the root. 



Removing Green Figs (C.).— We should think your climate warm to 

 ripen Figs on a west aspect. The reason tho crop on the west was small, 

 andthiton the tree on the south aspect aband'ant, is that the greater 

 warmth of the latter ripened the wood more fullv. Yon may pick ofTall 

 the fruit about half swelled, but those of less size should be carefully re- 

 tained. Were you to leave all it is probable that a few might ripen a 

 month to six weeks earlier than usual ; but it oftener happens that they 

 fall in spring jus^t after the appearance of the leaves. 



Bed inside a Greenhouse \Idftn). — Your bed would look best planted 

 with Tulips. Hyacinths, and other bulbs. You might have for instance at 

 back a row of (fiflTerent kinds of early Tulips, a=; Potteb.ikker, white; 

 Belle Alliance. Sunbeam, both scarlet; and double Due Van Thol. and 

 Toumesol ; and then two rows of Hyacinths, red, blue, and v.hite, edged 

 with Crocus, yellow, bine, and white, with a few Snowdrops, and SciUas 

 to give variety. Now is the time to plant them, the earlier the better. 



PorrrsG Weak Yocng Vines ( C. Inius).— Tot them in February, shaking 

 most of the soil from the roots, and disentangle these if possible without 

 breaking fhem. Use pots 9 inches in diameter, drain them well, and em- 

 ploy a compost of turfy loam, that from rotted turves is the best, and if 

 cut S inches thick, and about half rotten or decayed, it could not be im- 

 proved upon, except by mixing with it when laid up to rot one-third of 

 manure. Pot an inch or two lower in the pot than tkey were the year 

 before, and spread out the roots towards the sides of the pots. Cut the 

 Vines down to three eyes, and when they have grown a few inches make 

 choice of the strongest, rublting off the others. Train this upwards to a 

 stake, and when the laterals show stop them at the first leaf. Syringe 

 morning and evenin?. and keep well supplied with water, but let the soil 

 show signs of drj-ness before giving any. Upon no consideration must 

 they be allowed to suffer from the want of it. neither will they root well if 

 the soil \ie kept in a saturated condition. In June, or early in July, the 

 roots will be matted round the sides of the pots; shift the Vines forth- 

 with into thirteen or fiftee-^-inch pots, draining well, and using the soil 

 as before. If a quart of half-inch bones were added to the soil required 

 for each pot and mixed with it, half being placed at the bottom of the 

 pot over the droinRge, the effects on the growth would be apparent in 

 that and the following year. If you could train the canes 15 inches from 

 the glass all the better. Stop the laterals as before at the first ji>int, and 

 at every joint after the first until the canes are 10 feet long, then take 

 off their ends. The laterals will grow rapidly, but never heed them until 

 the middle of September, when their length should be gradually reduced, 

 and finally cut them away quite close early in October. ^Iiilst growing, 

 water at every alternate watering with weak liquid manure. After the 

 middle of September lessen the supply of water, and discontinue it when 

 the leaves turn yellow. Keep the Vines clear of red spider and they will 

 bear fruit in the year after. 



Najif.s of Frcit (J. F. B.).— The Apple has never appeared, or if so 

 there was no indication whence it came. {Q. S.). — Plum — Coe's Late 

 Red. Apples— 1 and 4, HoUandbury ; 3, Keswick Codlin ; 5, Shepherd's 

 Seedling; 7. Ord's Apple. (J. Halt').— I. Louise Bonne of Jersey; 2 and 

 S, Beuri-H Diel ; 5, Althorp Crassane ; 6, BeurreUe Capiaumont. iW. N.). 

 ~1 and 6, Beurre Bosc ; 2, S, and 5, Dumelow's Seedling: 4, Blen* 

 heim Pippin. Glou Morceau, Knight's Monarch, Easter Eeurre. Beurre 

 de Ranee, Ne plus Meuris, and Jostphine de ilalines grown as pyramids, 

 and Passe Colmar on a wall if the situation is much exposed. {J. J. B.), 

 — 2, Beurr^ Gris d'Hiver ; 4, Calebasse ; 5, Brown Beurre ; 7, Gansera Ber- 

 gamot ; 8. like Beurre Bennert ; 9, Easter Beurre ; 10, Van Mons Leon 

 le Clcre ; 11. Comte de Lamy ; 18, Louise Bonne of Jersey. (Mr. WaUon), 

 —Flemish Beauty. {G. fl".).— Holland Pippin. 



Names of Plants {W. G. B.) — We cannot undertake to name planta 

 from leaves only. {AUO%ea\. — It is Asplenium bullnferum. an Australian 

 and New Zealand Fern. {A Kentish Jtfani.— 1, Pteris serrulata: 2. Cyrto- 

 mium falcatum; 3, SelagineUa pubescens; 4, Doodia eaudata : 5, Adi- 

 autuni pubescens ; 6, Pteris hastata ; 7. P. longifolia : 8, Asplenium 

 ebeneum. {A Constant Sub$crihcri. — Athyrium Filix-ftEmina. BlechnuiB 

 occidentale var. This will not survive the winter ont of doors. W. F-U 

 — Onychium lacidom. 



