288 



JOUP.NAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Oclobtr 7, 18W. 



for winter nse. The Celfnj leaf-miner is reported to be very 

 prevalent tliiR anliimn ; tbe best remedy, perhapfi, is picking 

 oS the affected leaves and burning tbem. W'here tbere is room 

 to spare in tbo Sfufbroom honBe, a little Sea-hate, if wanted, 

 may be forced. Tbe roots should be placed on a flight bed of 

 warm dung, filling np tbe spaces between tlicm with old tan, 

 or with the mixed Foil and manure from an old Mushroom bed, 

 giving a good watering to wash it in amongst the roots. The 

 bottom heat should not exceed 70', as too much heat is not 

 favourable to strong growth. Take advantage of wet days for 

 making fresh jlltisltroom beds, and clearing out those which 

 are spent ; also collect and prepare droppings for forming fresh 

 bels, by spreading them in a shed and turning them every day 

 until they are snfficiently dried to prevent excessive fermentation 

 after putting up. Carefully examine Onion stores, and remove 

 all the bnlbs in which there are any symptoms of decay, 



FBUIT GARDES. 



The fine weather which'we have lately experienced has been 

 very favourable to the ripening of lute fruits. Continue, 

 therefore, gathering both Apples and Pears, most varieties of 

 which will now be ready. Nonpareil Apples should be amongst 

 the last gathered, and the same may be said of Glou Morveau, 

 Benrio Kance, and Easter Beurro Pears. If Coe's Golden 

 Drop Plums be carefully gathered, wrapped singly in thin 

 paper, after remaining some days in a dry, airy room, and then 

 packed in shallow boxes, they will keep a long time, and so 

 will the Blue Imperatrice and the Ickworth Impcratrice, the 

 latter being the preferable Plum. It cannot be too often re- 

 peated, that all choice fruit should be gathered when perfectly 

 dry ; and in storing, wherever an extensive surface of fruit is 

 expoeeti, air must be admitted freely, for at this period ex- 

 halations are most abundantly given out, and more especially 

 by the early varieties on their becoming tit for nse. These, in 

 fact, ought not to be in tbe same apartment with the more valu- 

 able late-keeping sorts. Look frequently over the fruit room, 

 and remove at once any fruit that appears to be unsound. 



FLOWEB GAEDEN. 



Chrysanthemums are now everywhere occupying attention. 

 Let them be tied out, so as to display their blossoms to the 

 best advantage. Protecting materials must soon be prepared 

 for such plants as require to be covered up in the winter. 

 When dry fern can be had, it answers tbe purpose perfectly. 

 Choice sorts of Hollj-hocks may soon be taken np, potted, and 

 wintered in a cool house. They will be exceedingly useful for 

 furnishing cuttings, and these, if put in early in spring, will 

 make excellent plants for next season. Be careful to secure 

 against wind plants which have been transplanted, especially 

 those which are of large size. All such should never be left 

 until they are properly staked, or otherwise made fast ; it fre- 

 quently happens that the roots are injured through the tops 

 being rocked about. Deeply trench and riJge-up ground in- 

 tended to be planted with Dahlias and Hollyhocks next season, 

 BO as to expose it as much as possible to the weather, putting 

 in plenty of rotten manure, especially where the Hollyhocks 

 are to be planted, for these reqniie a rich, deep soil. Altera- 

 tions of grounds, and tbe planting of evergreens, should now 

 be carried on with dispatch ; but never attempt planting where 

 the soil is not in good condition. The drier soil is when 

 placed round the roots of newly-planted shrubs, provided they 

 are judiciously watered-in, the sooner they emit fresh roots. 

 Mulching is, however, requisite to keep out frost, and earlier 

 p the season to prevent evaporation. As tree leaves are 

 always in request, either as a fermenting material, or for leaf 

 soil, they should be carefully collected. If they are required 

 only as manure, they may be stored in any by-place and left 

 to rot ; but if, as is generally the case, they are in demand as 

 a cheap mode of furnishing bottom heat to Pines, as well as 

 for forcing diltorent kinds of vegetables, care should be taken 

 to keep them dry. For this purpose they should be stacked-up 

 in some back place, or behind the garden walls, where access 

 to them can always be had ; and after allowing time for them 

 to settle, put on a coat of thatch to effectually secure them 

 from rain. By these means they will remain fit for nse for a 

 twelvemonth. 



GKEEXnOUSE AND COSSERVATOET. 



In most places Ghrysanthemnms will soon be the chief 

 features of attraction, and where these are largely grown, 

 which they should bo wherever tbere is a demand for flowers 

 late in autumn, they make a fine display, and are worth every 

 necessary attention to preserve them in beauty as long as 

 possible. They are very impatient of a dose, rather moist 



atmosphere, and if the house contains plants requiring snch, 

 the Chrysanthemums should, as far as practicable, be placed 

 in the coolest part, where air can be given freely at every 

 favourable opportunity, for unless they can bo freely exposed 

 to air, their foliage will soon be attacked and disfigured by 

 mildew, especially if the plants are bushy and well grown. 

 See also that they are kept well watered at the root. Use fire 

 heat only when absolutely necessary, either to prevent the 

 temperature from falling too low, or to dry the atmosphere. 

 If Pelargoniums, Cinerarias, and Calceolarias must be wintered 

 in the same house with Ueaths and other hardwooded plants, 

 they should be kept as much as possible by themselves, as they 

 will require a somewhat closer temperature than hardwooded 

 plants ; but where circumstances admit, these should occupy 

 a house or pit by themselves. Cinerarias and Pelargoniums 

 intended for late flowering will do very well in a cold pit if the 

 weather should not prove unfavourable; but those intended 

 for flowering early should be placed where fire heat can be nsed, 

 so as to preserve the foliage from damp. Koses for early forc- 

 ing must soon be pruned, and placed where they will at least 

 be safe from heavy rains. When American and other shrubs 

 are used for forcing, these should be taken up and potted with- 

 out delay, placing them in a cold pit until they are wanted for 

 forcing, or in a turf pit, where they can be protected from 

 severe weather by straw mats, shutters, or other covering. 

 Summer-flowering twiners, v^hich usually become unsightly at 

 this season, should be cutback freely, as well as any others 

 that will sabmit to this treatment. 



COLD riTS. 



The time has now arrived for putting in readiness straw 

 shutters, or whatever else it may be intended to use for cover- 

 ings. Straw shutters, if well made, are expensive in the first 

 instance, but are considered by many to be tbe most efficient 

 of all coverings in use, and taking into account the time they 

 last, they are, perhaps, as cheap as any. Kxpose the stock in 

 pits freely to air at every opportunity, so as to check growth 

 and render the wood firm. Little water will be reqnired at the 

 roots, but look over the plants every few days, withholding 

 water until it i» absolutely necessary, and then giving a mode- 

 rate soaking. Heaths and other plants subject to the attacks 

 of mildew, must be closely watched, and suljjhur applied the 

 moment the enemy is perceived. — W. Keaxe. 



DOINGS OP THE LAST "WEEK. 



Gardens Invadrd by Hoots of Trees. — .\u old correspondent 

 proposes using clay in another way, and we regret to say that 

 we can hold out to him little hope of success. He has a neat 

 little flower garden in an open spot, with every advantage of 

 full sunshine, while gusts of wind are kept out by a wide belt 

 of trees, of which Ash, Elm, and Lime form part. Lately, 

 though he changes the soil of his beds frequently, they soon 

 become a mass of tree roots, and the flowers cease to thrive. 

 His soil is a loam, in all respects good but for the interloping 

 roots. He has clay fit for bricks at a short distance, and he 

 purposes taking out a trench 2 feet deep all round bis little 

 flower garden, and by means of boards making a wall at least 

 9 inches wide of rammed clay, hoping this will make the roots 

 turn back. We have no faith in the cfticacy of the clay wall 

 however firm. The roots, if they cannot easily pass through 

 it, will go beneath it, and rise into the good soil, or go over tbe top 

 of it, and strike down. Though such surface-rooters may not 

 like the clay much, we have seen Ash and Klra roots filling 

 clay with rootlets as thickly as they could well be, and all the 

 more when something like instinct indicated to them that there 

 was rich feeding-gronnd beyond. 



We recollect of a well in a garden being filled with Lime-tree 

 roots instead of water, and such a mass that they resembled a 

 cheese or a piece of wood in firmness, and yet the roots to find 

 their way there must have first passed a macadamised road, 

 gone under the house and outhouses, and through part of the 

 garden to the well. Boots often become similarly matted in 

 drain tiles, and then it is impossible for water to pass. The 

 masses of rootlets become so wedged-in, that they can only be 

 seen by breaking the tile. 



We have no faith, therefore, in a wall of clay, however 

 puddled and hammered, in keeping out roots. Many kitchen 

 gardens and flower gardens, however, snffer constantly from 

 tbe incursions of the roots of trees, which in the fine foil soon 

 spread like a network throughout. The only effectual mode 

 in a flower garden for giving the flowers justice, and yet pre- 



