410 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. r November 14,1865. 



ought to be no growth inside if the temperature isilow enongh 

 to be only a very few degrees above freezing ; but in practice 

 we have found that the plants fairly struck and gi-owing would 

 •ometimes change their colour a little, at other times have 

 damped leaves upon them, which would require to be taken 

 off ; whUst those with not a root, or one or two about an eighth 

 of an inch in length, would look as green and stubby after 

 being shut up a month as when they were only a week inserted. 

 Patience, then, with Calceolaria cuttings, we advocate to all 

 who wish to make a fine display with hardy plants next 

 season. We shall be quite content if they make roots in as 

 many weeks as they would require days, or even half-days, in 

 a slight hotbed in March and April. We have done exceedingly 

 well with spring-struck plants, but we Uke those from cuttings 

 inserted in autumn better. As a recommendation to patience 

 we may add that cuttings inserted in the beginning of November 

 last year, and that had scarcely more than the sproutings of 

 roots in the beginning of January, were amongst our best 

 plants this season. The very simplicity of the whole affair is 

 against it with all those who will not have patience to wait. 



If we cannot take up most of the Dahlias soon, we shall 

 place a little earth against their stems. Most of the beds have 

 now so much lost their beauty that we have commenced clear- 

 ing away slowly the summer residents. We say slowly for two 

 reasons— first, the weather being in general so unsuitable, and 

 then on a dry day the bulk and weight to be removed being so 

 much out of the common, owing to the great heat of the sum- 

 mer, and the warm rains in the autumn. The material, as 

 Geraniums, Pentstemons, Calceolarias, Verbenas, Ageratums, 

 &c., has been largely used in banking up lots of frames, to 

 keep frost from them, part will be used for covering a lot of 

 rubbish, which we will attempt to char and burn, and the rest 

 will go to the rubbish-heap, and be sprinkled over with earth. 



Among a variety of other matters we may mention potting 

 and shifting. We planted a pit with Violets for winter and 

 spring gathering, potted bulbs, made fires in the conservatory in 

 the day to dry up extra damp, and were busy in filling all gaps 

 and holes in the glass, as every such opening admitted water 

 and cold air. It is of Uttle use for the gardener being disturbed 

 if named Jack-of-all-trades, for though holding that every man 

 will db that best to which his attention is chiefly devoted, there 

 are many things that must be done when it would not be con- 

 venient to wait for a regular tradesman. In our younger days 

 we have not seldom turned glazier in our dinner hour, when we 

 had the misfortune to break a square or two of glass, and the 

 chief point was to get the putty coloured so that the particular 

 superintendent should not see that an accident had occurred. 

 If there was a spice of concealment it might receive a little 

 justification, because it kept matters smooth, and injured no 

 one, as after the glass had been broken it could not be helped. 

 Ko, the helping must be done by carefulness in preventing an 

 accident, and not by excuses afterwards. In all gardens not 

 large enough to keep a painter and glazier, the gardener should 

 never be without a cutting diamond, glass, and putty. Hardly 

 anything looks more dismal than sashes abounding in holes. 



" Stella " wishes to have an answer in this place on two 

 matters. First, as to Cineraria maritima. Let the edgings of 

 two beds remain as they are, and if they stand the winter well, 

 cut them freely down in April, and they mil shoot regularly 

 for the summer. As respects the other two small beds, take 

 the plants up carefully, prune them well back— sav, within 4 or 

 6 inches of the soil, pack the plants lightly in pots, and keep 

 them in a dry place as recommended for Centaureas, and next 

 season you may plant them out ; but our chief object in ad- 

 vising you to cut the plants in is, that thus vou may obtain 

 myriads of nice, firm, young shoots, which, slipped off when 

 from 3 to 4 inches in length, will strike fast in a little heat, 

 and for moderate edgings wQl be far superior to old plants, 

 and not throw up flower-stalks as older plants do. Secondly, 

 as to Japan and other Lilies which were potted last autumn 

 and have flowered pretty well, and of which the stems are now 

 withered, the best plan you can adopt is to take a portion of the 

 surface soil away, top-dress with rich compost, and place the 

 pots on what you say is the damp floor of your little cellar. 

 Supposing the soil is dampish now, from the" moist stones the 

 pots will take up enough of moisture for the winter, and may re- 

 main there imtil the shoot begins to show above the soil.— R. F. 



TRADE CATALOGUE RECEn^ED. 



F. & A. Dickson & Sons, 106, Eastgate Street, Chester.- 

 Catalogtie of Eases. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— November 11. 



The supply is moderate, and a fair amount of business is being done^ 

 prices remaining pretty nearly as last week, with one or two exceptions. 

 Foreign imports are light au compared with what they have been in some 

 seasons, Pears and Apples not keeping any better on the other side ol 

 the channel than thoy do on this. 



FRUIT, 



Apples ^ sieve 1 



Apricots doz. 



Cherries lb. 



Chestnuts bush. 12 



Currants, Red ^ sieve 



Black do. 



Figs doz. 1 6 



Filberts lb. 9 



Cobs lOOlbs.120 140 



Gooseberries. . ^ sieve 



Grapes, Hambro.. . lb. 3 6 



Muscats lb. 5 8 



Lemons 100 8 14 



d. B. d 

 0to2 

 

 

 20 











3 



1 



d. 

 0to5 



Melons each 3 



Mulberries. ... punnet 



Nectarines doz. 



Oranges 100 10 20 



Peaches doz. 



Pears (kitchen)., doz. 







2 4 



dessert doz. ;1 6 4 



Pine Apples lb. 7 10 



Plums A sieve 5 



Quinces | sieve 3 4 



Raspberries lb, 







Strawberries lb. 



Walnuts bush 14 





 

 

 

 

 

 



a 









 

 9 



VEGETABLES. 



Artichokes each 



Asparagus bundle 



Beans Broad., bushel 



Kidney.. ..^ sieve 



Beet, Red doz. 



Broccoli bundle 



Brus. Sprouts.. i sieve 



Cabbage doz. 



Capsicums 100 



Carrots bunch 



Cauliflower doz. 



Celery bundle 



Cucumbers each 



pickling .... doz. 



Endive score 



J'ennel bunch 



Tjarlic and Shallots, lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish . . bundio 



s. d. s. d 

 4to0 6 

 









 

 

 

 

 9 

 

 4 

 

 

 6 

 

 



s 



1 



2 

 

 1 

 

 3 

 1 

 

 

 1 

 

 8 

 3 

 6 



Leeks bunch 



Lettuce per score 



Mushrooms pottle 



Mustd. & Cress, punnet 

 Onions per bushel 



pickling quart 



Parsley ^ sievo 



Parsnips doz. 



Peas quart; 



Potatoes bushel 



Ividney do. 



Radishes doz. bunches 



Rhubarb bundle 



Savoys doz. 



Sea-kale basket 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes J sieve 



Turnips bunch 



Vegetable Marrows dz. 



B. d. 8. 



8 too 

 10 2 



1 6 

 2 

 3 











2 6 



3 

 6 

 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Plants ron Conservatory Pillars (A Subscriber, T. H. S.).— Twelve 

 of the best plants and climbers for the pillars of a conservatory are Jas- 

 minum gracile variegatum. Lapageria rosea. Plumbago capensis, Rhyn- 

 cosnermum jaMminoides. Cestrum aurantiacum, Luculia gratissima, 

 Habrotharanus Aubletii, H. elegans, Sollya linearis, Tacsonia Van Voli- 

 emi, Tecoma jasminoides, Bignonia grandiflora, and none of these is mora 

 graceful than Mimosa prostrata. 



Pots and Potting Strawberries for Forcing (A Subscriber, Coskam, 

 Hants). — For nmners of the present year we prefer pots 4J inches in 

 diameter, well drained, and filled with rich tiirfy loam beaten firm, and 

 the runners are laid in these in July. We detach the runners from the 

 parent plants in September, keeping off all runners prior to and after 

 this, and place the pots, in double linefi. on boards 1 foot from a south wall. 

 Thpse are for the early forcing to give fruit in March. Our second lot is 

 prepared in the same manner, only we use six-inch pots because we em- 

 ploy larger kinds of Strawberries — namely, Keens' Seedling, Eclipse, Ac. 

 All alter the first and second lots are fruited in six and seven-inch pots. We 

 never pnt or plant after September, and place them first in small pots for 

 the successional crops, thence transferring them into fruiting pots as 

 soon as the small pots are filled with roots. We presume your plants are 

 as yet unpotted. Tlie pots we should use would be G inches in diameter, 

 and we take up with balls, and pot firmly. A bed of leaves about 

 18 inches high being made, a gentle heat would rise ; in this bed we would, 

 plunge the pot^^ about half their depth, which would escite a speedy root- 

 action, and the materials becoming cold in ten days or a fortnight, a 

 frame and lights might be placed over the plants to protect them from 

 wet and severe weather. They will require to he started in January to 

 fruit by the 1st of April. Cinerarias require blooming pots in proportion 

 to their size. Small plants should have six-inch pots, and good plants 

 those of 8 or 9 inches in diameter, up to 12-inch pots for very fine 

 specimens. 



Lifting, Planting, and Pbepartng for XiyEsildem). — Youmay safely 

 lift the Vines ten years old, only be careful not to injure the roots mora 

 than can be helped. March is the best time to plant young Vines. Your 

 house will accommodate seven Vines, the two end ones should be planted 

 18 inches from the ends, and may consist of two Black Hamburghs ; the 

 others may be one Muscat Hamburgh worked upon the Black Hamburgh 

 stock, on which it is excellent for outside planting; if not worked, omit it 

 and plant two Trentham Black, or one if a worked plant of the Muscat 

 Hamburgh be planted, one Buckland Sweetwater, one Foster's White 

 Seedling, and one White Frontignan. The border should be dug out 

 2 feet 6 inches deep, and the width of the house, the bottom sloping to 

 the front, where there should be a drain to carry off the water. The 

 bottom should bo covered with 3 inches of lime riddlings beaten quite 

 firm, except over the drain, which is not to be concreted. On the con- 

 crete place 9 inches of rubble, as brickbats and rough stones, and on this 

 lay a turf grass-side downwards. Upon this place 2 feet of the following 

 compost well incoi-poratcd — viz., turves 4 inches thick from a good loamy 

 snil, light rather than heavy, chopped ^ith a spade but not much, and 

 add to each cartload two but^hels of boiled half-inch bones. If the soil is 

 hea\T. add to each cartload the same quantity of old mortar rubbish as of 

 ' half-inch bones. Make the border now, and it will settle to 20 inches 

 , deep by March. Let the border be made during dry weather. Avoid 

 j manxu"e and leaf mould, which become a soapy mass in a year or two. 

 You can at any time enrich the border by top-dressings of manure. The 

 Vines ^vill grow sufl&ciently strong for a year or two without manure. 



