cc 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 24, 1866. 



places, and yet we have still nothing of the kind, and feel a 

 difficulty often in obtaining the necessary amount of warm 

 water. Advising and practising are, therefore, frequently dif- 

 ferent things. We know of no plan so good for obtaining 

 moderately heated water. A boiler, large copper, or kettle, is 

 also useful for securing very hot water when desirable. We 

 would often boil manure water made from different kinds of 

 droppings if we could, and thus avoid taking the eggs and larvae 

 of insects into our soil. 



All the other arrangements, and the modes of management 

 seem very satisfactory. 



3rd, After carefully reading your treatment of the orchard 

 trees in pots, we have no doubt that weakness is the chief evil 

 with which they are affected, and that weakness might be the 

 result of using too large pots at first for the size of the plants, 

 and too little or too much nourishment, or an unsuitable soil 

 in the first case. To make sure of the soil, as soon as the fruit 

 is gathered, we would advise turning some of the plants out and 

 examining the roots, giving fresh loam, if necessary. There 

 is also just a possibility that the droppings you use for mulch- 

 ing may be rather fresh. If used fresh, and from high-fed 

 horses, the water that passes through them at first will be 

 rather strong ; but we can lay no great stress on this, in such a 

 case of experienced gardening, and where other subjects are 

 thriving so well. We think you have alluded to some things 

 in the treatment that will at least tend to promote weakness, 

 and render the plants less able to withstand the sun's rays in 

 spring and early summer, such as — 



1st, The cutting off the fibres so often that come through the 

 holes in the pots. We would advise never doing this except in 

 the autumn, to help the ripening of the wood. We would never 

 touch them during the summer. Hence the advantage of pots 

 standing on soil, or at least partly in the soil. These fibres 

 encourage growth, and the swelling of the fruit. 



2nd, There may be something in the soil being so loose. It 

 cannot be made too firm, with the help of a round stick to beat 

 it firm. 



3rd, You can hardly in autumn, if the trees are growing 

 well, take away 6 inches of the surface soil without taking 

 away and injuring the surface fibres, and this should be avoided. 

 If you can pick out the soil carefully from among a few fibres, 

 and put fresh soil among them, and water so that they suffer 

 no check, all well ; but when much depth can be removed 

 with safety, we would almost be inclined to fresh pot at once. 

 If the fibres are near the surface and healthy, be content with 

 from 1 to 2 inches of fresh compost. 



4th, In such a condition of your trees you are quite right as 

 to the_ early and continuous stopping. Let the shoots be 

 6 or 8 inches long before nipping them, and do it seldom until 

 the trees have gained strength. 



5th, After cutting the roots through the holes in the pots in 

 the autumn, top-dressing, watering, &c, do you leave the pots 

 exposed to what weather may come in winter, mild or frosty, 

 with only the glass protection over them ? If so, here may be 

 some cause of your disappointment. Pots plunged with a 

 little litter on the surface, will be safe from the severest frost. 

 Plants in pots however hardy, with the pots exposed to severe 

 frost, will have the roots injured, if the soil is not drier than it 

 ought to be, to be safe. If the pots were exposed all the winter, 

 this might render the roots less able to meet the wants of the 

 expanding leaves early in the season. If protected, of course 

 the idea goes for nothing. 



Lastly. Be tho real cause what it may, as the scorching 

 seems to take place only in spring and early summer, and 

 you give air early and plentifully, 'if you have no openings at 

 the ridge we would have some made, as the syringing in the 

 morning ought not to blister the leaves if there is plenty of 

 air and the glass is free from burning spots. That it is toler- 

 ably so we infer from the fact that the points of the leaves 

 wither up and the blisters are not made in the body of the 

 leaf, leaving the inference that in hot sun the plants have more 

 demands on them than they can meet. We would, then, for a 

 season or two lessen these demands in the early summer months 

 by slightly shading the house. This may be done by many 

 means. One of the simplest and the best, so far as economy 

 is concerned, is spattering the glass with whitened water, say 

 a piece of whitening as large as a good-sized marble powdered 

 and dissolved in a pail of water, and thrown neatly on with 

 the syringe. This done in the early sunny days might enable 

 the plants ere long to meet all the demands upon them without 

 flinching. These large squares of glass in orchard-houses try 

 plants at all weakly much more than the old houses. — R. F.] 



MIGNONETTE CULTURE. 



I mat be excused recurrence to the cultivation of this plant 

 when I say I write in order to meet the wishes of many corre- 

 spondents. I am the more diffident, as at page 430, Vol. V., 

 New Series, I gave my then experience ; and in Vol. IV., page 

 272, our able and experienced coadjutor, Mr. Fish, goes fully 

 into the subject. It is not that I have anything to add to the 

 one article or differ from the other, but solely from the number 

 of inquiries, that am I induced to take up the subject. 



For some time I have striven to obtain a hardy Mignonette 

 having the fragrance of Reseda odorata, but my attempts have 

 hitheito proved unsuccessful, for neither our own species 

 (R. lutea) from the chalk, nor its near neighbour from the 

 Mediterranean (Palestine) — viz., R. mediterranea, a large flower- 

 ing annual, will hybridise with the Egyptian species (R. odorata). 

 Question, Is there any known hybrid between an annual or 

 biennial and a perennial ? 



The out-door culture of Mignonette is that of a hardy annual. 

 Like many it does the best from self-sown seed, and in some 

 instances is the reverse of certain from sown seed. Ground 

 that at any time has been occupied with Mignonette will for 

 many years annually produce a number of plants ; but in one 

 or two instances seed has almost entirely failed on ground 

 newly broken up, and though there were few plants in the first 

 year, in the second their number was by no means small. 



Mignonette thrives best in a rich, loamy, well-drained soil, 

 and does fairly in most soils and situations. It succeeds best 

 when sown not very early, and when the soil is in good working 

 order. The ground should be well worked, enriched by a 

 dressing of leaf mould or well-rotted manure, pulverised, and 

 raked fine. The seed should be scattered thickly andievenly, for 

 it is much easier to thin than to transplant this plant. The 

 end of March is sufficiently early to sow on light and dry soils, 

 but the seed will vegetate more freely if it be not sown so soon, 

 the plants coming up when self-sown chiefly during May. On 

 strong soils it does best when sown from the beginning of 

 April to the middle of May, and that is the time during which 

 the seed is most sure to vegetate. The seeds being sown, they 

 should be thinly covered with light fine soil to the depth of 

 about a quarter of an inch. Should the weather prove dry, a 

 gentle watering occasionally will do much to secure speedy 

 germination, and the healthy growth of the young plants. 

 When sufficiently large to handle, the plants should be thinned 

 to 3 inches apart, which is a good distance for plants in lines ; 

 but for clumps it is not well to leave more than five of the 

 strongest, and for beds they should not be left nearer than 

 6 inches apart every way. The size of plant and flower are 

 dependant on the goodness of the ground and room afforded 

 the plants. An open situation is the only suitable one, and 

 beyond a good watering during dry weather, nothing more is 

 needed for the growth of Mignonette out of doors. 



Its culture in boxes is the same as that in the open ground, 

 only the box should have holes at the bottom, and a drainage 

 of crocks or the sittings of the compost to one-fourth the 

 depth, the remaining space to be filled with a compost of 

 good turfy loam two-thirds, and one-third leaf soil. A gentle 

 rapping of the box on the potting-bench or floor will settle 

 the soil sufficiently to allow of the seeds being sown and covered 

 with soil, leaving space below the edges for watering. The box 

 being placed in a warm situation, the seed may be sown in 

 March, and if the soil be kept moist the plants will come up 

 well. In their early stages the plants are impatient of much 

 watering, and it is only after they attain a good size, have 

 been thinned, and fill the box with their roots, that a good 

 supply of water is necessary, and then weak liquid manure 

 may be given at every alternate watering. To have fine plants 

 it is necessary to thin them well. To have fine.healthy plants, 

 successionar- sowings may be made up to the end of May or the 

 beginning of June. 



In Pots. — For plants to bloom early, or in autumn and 

 through the winter, small and clean pots should be selected, 

 and those known as GO'S are the right size. These being 

 drained, and filled to within half an inch of the rim with a 

 compost of turfy loam, leaf mould, and sandy peat in equal 

 parts, with a free admixture of silver sand, and the surface 

 being made smooth, scatter half-a-dozen good plump seeds 

 thereon, and cover with a quarter of an inch of fine soil. The 

 back of a Cucumber or hotbed-frame is the best position for the 

 pots, and there the plants will soon appear, the soil being kept 

 moist. When the plants come up the pots should be brought as 

 near the glass as practicable, and give air plentifully to keep 



