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JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ October 24, 1865. 



The out-door Vines are trained on three systems — the old 

 spur, the Thomery above mentioned, and the Hoare system of 

 lung rod ; and I like the Thomery liest, for its compactness 

 and its preventing waste of walling. In the two latter nailing 

 is dispensed with by straining galvanised wire through eyelet 

 nails halt an iuch from the walls, about 9 inches from the 

 bearing rods, and tucking the young shoots under them as 

 they grow. No further trouble but that of stopping is required 

 with the horizontal arms of the Thomery system. Hoare's 

 plan requires vertical rods and wires, and shoots with heavy 

 bunches will probably require tying ; but the comfort and 

 saving to ray fingers and walls are enormous. The yield is, 

 perhaps, mucli the same with all. Youug wood gives larger 

 bunches ; old wood, I am inclined to think, higher flavour, and 

 it seems to have more ripening power. 



The gi-ound vinery is one of the many good things we owe to 

 Mr. Elvers. I grow four varieties in this manner — Black Ham- 

 burgh, Black Pi-iuce, ChasselasMusquc, and Grizzly Frontignau, 

 the last a mistalie ou the part of the nurseryman. They all grow 

 well, are very strong and healthy, and have rii>ened their fruit 

 easily. My ground vineries run east and west, and are roofed 

 ou the north with either slate or boards. They are wide enough 

 for two rods, and the northern Vine ripens its wood, though 

 not enjoying quite so much sun as its fellow ; but I train the 

 j'ods pretty near the edge of the frame, and throw the shoots 

 of both into the centre. They are ventilated with perforated 

 bricks, made in this locality, each brick having twelve rect- 

 angular narrow holes, so that birds and mice are prevented 

 from entering. These are set up edgeways, close together, on 

 another line of bricks bedded level in the ground. The south 

 front of the lights is hinged, so that, as in this hot summer, 

 the light call be raised an inch or two, so as to avoid burning, 

 which some of your correspondents complain of. Slates inside 

 I use very sparingly for the same reason, they often proving 

 fatal to a yoimg shoot or bunch on a hot May day. Flat tiles 

 keep the bunches nice and clean, and are quite sutBcient ; the 

 ground is quite hot enough for the ripening of the shoots. 

 Eed spider, as Mr. Elvers has told us, cannot exist in these 

 structures if a little sulphur is strewed on pieces of slate. 

 There is no necessity for overdoing it. Begin when you see 

 the first leaf with the yellow spots. 



I have always found it necessary to protect these grotmd 

 vineries from spring frosts, from which I suffer in the most 

 disheartening manner. A single mat, sack, or canvass bag 

 thrown over the glass is quite sufficient to save the shoots. 

 Vines are evidently quite at home in these structures, and if 

 it were not for the stooping required in tying the shoots and 

 thinning the bunches, I should increase my surface consider- 

 ably. My plan cost rather more than Mr. Rivers's, though the 

 hinged light is most comfortable, but is not nearly so expensive 

 as the "patent," so industriously advertised. I ran them east 

 and west on the border of a cool vineiy to drive off the incur- 

 sions of my groom gardener, who always attempted to make 

 it his seed-bed, and they must also assist considerably in warm- 

 ing and drying the border, and the groimd is thoroughly econo- 

 mised. 



In two cool vineries I grow eleven varieties, spurred in closely 

 to one eye. If I had more faith, I think no eye would be better 

 still. I continually find myself cutting off the sjuu' entirely, 

 choosing a shoot which has sprung from the rod itself. This, 

 of course, is in the spring. The names are Black Hamburgh 

 (half the surface of glass), Black Prince, Lady Downe's, Tren- 

 tham Black, INIuscat Hamburgh, Black Frontignan, White and 

 Grizzly ditto, Buckland Sweetwater, common ditto, and Chaptal. 

 AU ripen well, the old Sweetwater leading the van about the 

 13th of August, followed rapidly by Chaptal, the Froutignans, 

 and Black Hamburgh ; the latter and Lady Downe's keep easily 

 till February if frost will let me. The Muscat Hamburgh 

 is best eaten when first ripe. This I have grafted ou Sweet- 

 water and Black Hamburgh stocks ; to the former it is like a 

 young cuckoo to its step-mother hedge-sparrow; but the old 

 Vine does its best to nourish the big bunches. The flavour 

 is the highest and most composite in my experience among 

 Grapes. The piquancj' of Black Prince, gelatinous muskiness 

 of the Chasselas Musquc, sugary richness of Black Hamburgh, 

 and even the high aromn of the Muscat of Alexandiia, are all 

 represented in this wonderful Grape. The Froutignans are 

 very fruitful, ripen well, but are so capricious in shanking, 

 that they will never, I fear, be grown to profit under glass. 

 "White Frontignan, in my experience, is the most healthy, and, 

 perhaps, nearlj' as nice as the Eed. Chaptal has large hand- 

 seme bunches, exquisitely sweet berries, but must give place 



to Buckland Sweetwater, which merits all the eucomiumB 

 it has received. Our Nestor of fnut-gardening has called 

 this variety a true "White Hamburgh," and its handsome 

 well-shouldered bunches with large elegant berries, gelatin- 

 ous, and full-flavoured, fonn the most beautiful contrast on 

 the dessert dish. Neither the wood nor the general habit is 

 quite so robust as in the Hamburgh, and there is, perhaps, a 

 slight heretlitary delicacy in these points. Not much need be 

 said of the Black Hamburgh. Its besetting defect, imperfect 

 colouring, may be traced in almost every instance to over-crop- 

 ping, or its analogue, deficient supply of proper nutriment to 

 its roots. In this brilliant year complaints of want of colour 

 are numerous, and deficieucy of heat cannot be alleged. Mere 

 ammoniacal manm-es are powerless in averting this defect. 

 The border must contain sufficient bone earth, and the bunches 

 must be unsparingly thinned in number and individual bulk. 

 Much experience on this head may be gained from friuting 

 Vines in pots. Want of colour is a fatal defect, and the flavour 

 is always more or less spoiled. Though showing a handsome 

 cyliudi-ical bunch, colouring uuder almost any treatment, and 

 most prolific in bearing, I am yet at a loss to "know why Black 

 Prince should still be considered a first-rate Grape. It is 

 certainly brisk, piquant, not deficient in sweetness, but it is 

 thick-skinned, and can with difficulty escape the charge of 

 coarseness. 



Mine are shallow borders of light friable materials, bones, 

 and ashes, refreshed two or three times a-year with the empty- 

 ings of a manure tank. The largest leaves and thickest shoots 

 do not always show the best Grapes the next season ; but I feel 

 that in this and many other points I should be only repeating 

 what is so often given in The Jouhnal of HoRTicnLTUBE, and 

 as it is, must apologise for the length of this communication, 

 which will hardly escape the Editorial scissors. — J. H. H. 



[No fear of the pruning scissors being applied to such com- 

 munications, and the more we are favoured with, the more 

 shall we be obhged. — Eds.] 



CYCLAMEKS AND THEIR CULTURE. 



(Concluded from page 314.) 



With respect to the cultivation of Cyclamens as hardy plants, 

 the red and white neapolitanum are, perhaps, the most beauti- 

 ful of all during the late autumn and winter months. What 

 woidd be finer than the white neapolitanum in a row 1 foot 

 from a Box-edging, and another of the red 1 foot behind it in 

 a ribbon-border ? Why not plant them thus with good balls in 

 October, and at inches apart ? They are, indeed, beautiful 

 objects from the beginning of November tUl spring. 



In some localities these plants will not succeed, but except 

 in cold clay soils and bleak situations, there are few places in 

 which they cannot be grown. The only season in which I 

 knew them injured was 1860, when the foliage was cut off to 

 the ground ; but as a proof of their hardiness, although mauy 

 other plants were killed in that extremely severe winter, the 

 roots of these were uninjured. On the other hand, I have 

 grown them in strong rich soil, and they have been killed by 

 10° of frost, whilst in light wcU-di'ained soils they stood our 

 ordinary winters uninjured. 



C. europspum I have not found hardy until recently, and 

 this, I think, was m consequence of growing it in too rich and 

 wet soil. It is, I am quite sure, not to be grown as a hardy 

 plant in cold wet soils ; it does best in an elevated, dry, stony 

 situation. It was with me a most sickly plant, and would not 

 bear so much frost as a Calceolaria ; though no frost had any 

 effect on the root, yet it became weaker, as we might expect, 

 from losing its foliage early every year. To grow it it should 

 be planted on an elevated site, such as rockwork not too diy, 

 and if it be shielded from the midday sun in summer. I find it 

 succeeds better than when fully exposed, though it likes an 

 open situation. In such a position, with a soil composed of 

 leaf mould, peat, and light loam in equal parts, free drainage, 

 and plenty of fresh air, though in a sheltered nook, it is one of 

 the prettiest and sweetest flowers in any garden. 



C. repandum, like C. europffium, likes fresh air, and it is not 

 so tenacious of life as the last, but will perish if kept in a wet 

 soil whilst in a dormant state. It is quite hardy, however, and 

 requires nothing but a free, open, well drained soil, and then 

 it blooms in spring, but generally not before May, though it 

 will sometimes do so in April. It is a good plant for flower- 

 garden decoration in April or May in favourable localities, but 



