October 21, 1869. ) 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



317 



\^RBENA VENOSA, AND HOW TO 

 PROPAGATE IT. 



^^S\*^y^ ITH all tliat Mr. Robson states respecting 

 wllpil^> Jn Verbena venosa I fully a<;ree. It is a most 

 l/5^mV5^™^'*'v' useful and efi'ective bedding plant, and, in 

 my opinion, is the only Verbena worth the 

 trouble of growing for bedding purposes. 

 ■^^ ^ . 1 1 endures all sorts of rough weather with- 



jfe;jr'^^^' ^ out being in the least tarnished, and re- 



f^ tains its colour to the end of the season 



^jf when beds of all other Verbenas are blanks. 



*SJi» I have often, for I have grown it for more 



than twenty years, wondered why it is so seldom to be 

 seen. The reason, no doubt, is the supposed difficulty in 

 propagating it in sufficient numbers ; and Mr. Kobson's 

 statement that not more that one in a thousand will strike, 

 if treated in the same way as other sorts of Verbenas, 

 proves that I am not far wrong in thinking so. 



Here we have not the least difficulty in striking it from 

 cuttings, either in the autumn or in spring; but there is 

 another mode of propagating it which I sometimes adopt, 

 and that is by cuttings of the roots. Wlien I take up the 

 old plants I carefully save the long roots — sometimes 

 2 feet long — which run just under the surface, take cut- 

 tings •') inches long from their points, and insert them 

 round tlie edge of tlie pot in the usual way ; they are kept 

 in a cold frame all winter, and in February or JNIarch 

 placed in the striking pit or frame, where they will soon 

 commence growing, and they make strong plants by turn- 

 ing-out time. The old plants may, instead, remain in the 

 heds until iMarch, and cuttings may be taken oft' then, and 

 placed in heat at once. 



Another method is to cut the roots in pieces witli two 

 joints, lay them thickly on the soil in pots, covering them 

 half an inch. They wOl soon root if placed in heat, and 

 will throw up shoots from every joint. 



To obtain a number of plants, principally to take cuttings 

 from in the summer, I always sow a pan or two of seed in 

 spring, and wlien the seedlings are strong enough I prick 

 them into ij-inch pots, and keep them under glass till 

 .Tune, when they are shifted into :!-inch pots. By the 

 middle of August they are fine, strong, bushj' plants, and 

 from them I talce my cuttings, instead of from the beds, 

 which produce cuttings very sparingly. 1 have at the 

 present time a number of pots of cuttings put in during 

 August and September in a cold close frame : all are struck 

 and growing freely, without, I believe, a single failure. — 

 John Greenshields, Tlie Gardens, Siirsdcn. 



TPuEATMEXT OF YOUNG VINES— GOLDEN 

 CH.UIPION GRAPE. 



I THINK the complaint of this Vine not doing at present 

 what was expected is owing to what Mr. Thomas Record 

 observes in page 241 — it has been exhausted by excessive 

 propagation. 



Might I call the attention of the readers of •■ our Jour- 

 nal " to the treatment I have adopted for all new Vines I 



No. 447.- Vol. XVII., New Semes. 



purchase from a nursery, and I never yet failed ? I turn 

 out the Vine from the pot : if the roots seem in a good 

 condition I repot into pots two sizes larger, using plenty 

 of broken oyster shells and bone dust, with any kind of 

 light sandy garden soil, and grow the Vine in a greenhouse 

 with plenty of air one season. This wiU restore the lost 

 constitution of the plant, fit the latter to be planted in 

 a vinery, and make a fine Vine, producing better fmit 

 than one planted at once in a vinery as received from a 

 nursery. Should the roots not appear all in good order, 

 carefully take away the soil, and if not full of life wash 

 them, and cut away the bad parts before potting. I should 

 adopt this method rather tlian inarch a Vine out of health, 

 be the stock what it might. 



In striking Vine eyes for my own use I use no heat, 

 but place them in pots in the Vine house ; few fail, while- 

 if I put in the eyes of any new Vine which I obtain from 

 a nursery there is seldom an eye that grows. Does not 

 this prove the vitality is exhausted — dead to a certain 

 degree ? And this is brought about by the constant ex- 

 citement used by nurserymen to produce plants. Again» 

 eyes can be taken to produce fruitftd Vines, and others 

 which are unfruitful from the first — i. f., would not produce 

 fruit soon in a small state. 



Some twenty years ago I planted some eyes of the Early 

 White Malvasia, Kienzheim, or Grove End Sweetwater, 

 known in Sussex as Lashmer's Seedling. I give all the 

 names by which I know it. The eyes from a fine robust 

 Vine, taken from spurs that produced fine Grapes, proved 

 very prolific : while those eyes taken from fine strong canes 

 which did not bear, were 30 per cent, inferior in producing 

 Grapes. 



Referring to the article I \iTote on " Grafting Vines to 

 Promote Hardiness " (page 21'.'). permit me to say some of 

 the Grapes will be sent for inspection to the Fruit Com- 

 mittee of the Royal Horticultural Society, and I tnist the 

 readers of " our Journal " will excuse my answering lettei-s 

 by post. My business requires all my time, but, on the 

 other hand, what I have observed during twenty-five years 

 of Vine cultivation shall be communicated in the pages of 

 "our Journal." — R. M. W., Mount Pisijali, near Sheffield. 



[You are quite right not to answer letters privately. 

 Those who write to our correspondents in defiance of the 

 request to the contrary we publish weekly, must have a 

 very weak notion of propriety, and no thought except for 

 their own convenience. — Eds.] 



AUTUMN RAMBLES. 

 Everybody is on the move in autumn ; some for plea- 

 sure, some for business, some because they have nothing 

 better to do, and not a few because others, from whom. 

 they cannot break away, will go. So I but followed the 

 general fashion when last month I wandered away from 

 my quiet vicarage for a fortnight's run : mine was one of 

 business— real, honest business. But then I have ever a 

 fancy for Ughtening the work by a little recreation, and 

 while others would be content to rest quietly after the 

 work they had in hand was done, I am for a ramble ofi' 

 No. 1099.— Vol.. XLII., Old Seshs. 



