15C 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTIOULTOBB AND OOTTAGB QABDENEB. 



[ FebruaT7 25, 1875. 



not GO good for its purpose as when preTiously mixed and 

 incorporated. For young plants peat and leaf mould can be 

 added at the time if it is required, but it is not at ail necessary 

 that it be mixed in the heap for using in the large quantities 

 which a general collection of established plants need. 



It has long been my practice at this season of the year to 

 set apart a portion of time for soil-mixing, and I cannot, as 

 the year rolls round, look back with greater satisfaction to any 

 other work or preparations that I may have effected. It is 

 work of which I have felt the benefits duriog every week, and 

 often every day in the week, of the whole summer. I do not 

 hesitate to advise all who have not done so to set about a 

 similar mixing of potting soil at the first convenient oppor- 

 tunity, being confident they will find the advantages of the 

 plan to be great, and possibly of more value than Ihey can at 

 the present moment appreciate. 



Many plant-lovers, and especially amateurs situated in the 

 vicinity of towns, experience considerable ditliculty in procuring 

 a supply of soil suited to their wants. They read about turfy 

 loam, roadside trimmings, and hedge-bottom parings, which 

 only makes them feel their wants the more keenly as none of 

 this coveted soil is within their reach. With those who have 

 means the difficulty vanishes — indeed there is no difficulty, as 

 they eau purchase all they want ; but many another cannot do 

 this, yet cherish their friends, the plants of their dwellings, 

 and know not what to procure for their sustenance. Such 

 must turn to the flaky surface soil of any ordiuary garden or 

 field. This the frost has purified, and the dry winds of spring 

 have drained of its moisture, and it is in a condition to grow 

 most ordinary plants weM. This soil collected when dry — 

 scraped off the surface just as deep and no deeper than the 

 frost has penetrated — is the best substitute for turfy loam that 

 can bo recommended. Broken bones and oyster shells will 

 keep it porous and afford a long-wearing stimulant ; and when 

 the plants are in active growth and the pots are filled with 

 loots, and yet a further push is necessary, a thimbleful of 

 guano sprinkled on the surface of a 0-inch pot and watered-in, 

 will add a richer hue of health to the foHage and give substance 

 and colour to the flowers. This repeated once a-week will do 

 much to compensate for any original poverty of soil, and will 

 show that a plant can after all be assisted to grow and afford 

 pleasure without tho assistance of the gardener's sheet anchor 

 — turfy loam. 



These notes — the outcome of actual practice in town and 

 country, where soil was plentiful and where it was scarce — are 

 commended to gardeners and amateurs at a period of the yei'.r 

 when the detail of practice may be useful to both. — A Practical 

 Gaboeneb. 



A SELECTION OF VEGETABLES FOR EARLY 

 SOWING. 



Those having the use of a hotbed for Cucumbers, &c., at 

 this time of the year will have no difficulty in finding enough 

 to fill up the spare corners with if they look over their seed 

 packets. By a judicious selection of varieties, and sowing at 

 the proper time, the sea&on of many useful vegetables may be 

 considerably lengthened. 



Bbhs-sels Sprouts can scarcely be sown too early. I have 

 more than once found that those sown ou a hotbed in February 

 lasted quite as late in the following sprinj; as those sown in 

 April, and they commence bearing much earlier. They are 

 never too early; Brussels Sprouts are always in season if they 

 can bo procured. They must be pricked out under haudlights 

 or gome kind of shelter before they commence to get drawn, or 

 they will be useless. I have not found anything bettor than 

 the imported seed as supplied by our principal seeasmen. It is 

 of the greatest importance to have seed of a good stock. 



Early London Cauliflower well repays for treatment similar 

 to the above. If sown early and pricked out ou a little bottom 

 heat, the plants will be very little behind those sown in autumn 

 and protected through winter, and will be far less trouble and 

 probably of better quality. 



Bath Cos and Tom Thumb Cabraoe Lettuce sown now, and 

 pricked out under glass, will be fit for use in May, before the 

 antnmu-planted ones are scarcely over. The Cabbage varie- 

 ties turn in quicker than Cos, and Tom Thumb is the earliest 

 amongdt them and one of the hardiest. Why does everybody 

 recommend White Paris Cos and its varieties for summer? 

 They are not equal in quality to the Green Paris Cos when 

 well blanched. 



Beo Cakeaue sown in a frame in spring is much better than 



when sown in autumn, the heads being smaller, and conse- 

 quently there is less waste. 



Veitch's Autumn Giant Cauliflower is a sjilendid vegetable 

 for autumn, but duiiug the last two seasons, and especially 

 the last, I have found it of the greatest service in August. It 

 was sown in a frame in February and planted out early, and 

 when the dry weather came at midsummer Autumn Giant had 

 fast hold of the subsoil, and the hot weather exactly suited it. 

 Walcheren, on the other hand, just planted, could not even 

 exist. No amount of watering at the root would save it ; the 

 parched atmosphere quickly dried up its tiny leaves almost as 

 completely as if they had been in an oven. Could they have 

 been potted and protected for a few days before planting-out 

 they might have succeeded ; but there was quite enough to do 

 in most gardens last midsummer without potting Cauliflowers. 



Tomatoes cannot be sown too early. I sow in January in 

 heat for the principal summer crop. If afterwards checked it 

 will not harm them, provided they are kept clear of insects. 

 The earliest variety is Orangefield Dwarf Prohfic, and the 

 best is Hathaway's Excelsior. 



Early Celery. — I find the best is Sandringham White ; but 

 no white variety in my opinion can compare with a good red, 

 such as Major Clarke's or Leicester Red, for quality. The 

 first week in April is the time I sow my main crop of Celery ; 

 it is then ready to go out quite as soon as the weather is fit 

 for it, and it never receives a check. 



Scarlet Kunner Beans. — By a little scheming I have been 

 able to gather these out of doors for two or three seasons by 

 the first week in .July — once even by midsummer day. The 

 Beans are sown three in an 8-inch pot in April and kept under 

 glass ; after they have made three or four rough leaves they 

 are pinched back, and kept continually pinched at every joint 

 as fast as they make growth till a little before the time of 

 planting-out in June, when they are more in the shape of 

 Gooseberry bushes than ordinary Scarlet Kunners. They have 

 stakes placed for them to run up ; but they never grow so strong 

 as later-sown ones, and they are in full bearing in a very short 

 time after planting. I have them much earlier than I have 

 ever been able to produce Dwarf French Beans outside, for 

 which in my opinion they are more than a substitute. 



Early Carrots. — Those who have to produce these cannot 

 do better than stick to the Dutch Forcing, or French Forcing 

 I believe it is now called. 



Peas. — For those who want quality I have not yet seen 

 anything so good as Little Gem. If grown near to a south 

 wall it comes into use as quickly as the earliest of the round 

 varieties, for these being taller cannot be grown in such a 

 position without injuring the occupants of the wall. 



Potatoes will scarcely come in undt-r the above heading; 

 nevertheless, I wish to say that the old Ashleaf is still the 

 earliest good Potato. Eoyal Ashleaf and Veitch's Improved 

 Ashleaf are of better quality and mue'u more productive than 

 the old favourite, but they are not so early by a fortnight, and 

 they are stronger growers. — W. Taylor. 



DEDTZIA GRACILIS AND ITS CULTURE. 

 What is there amongst our early-flowering plants more 

 useful or more graceful than the Deutzia gracilis, with its 

 stems covered with snow-white blossom ? It is excellent for 

 bouquets, and most enlivening amongst the green-foliaged 

 plants in the conservatory. It ought to be more grown than 

 it is. No plant can be more simple to manage. "To keep up 

 a succession of bloom from Christmas to the end of February 

 pot early in November three dozen young plants in clean well- 

 drained pots ; for soil using two parts loam, one of leaf mould, 

 and a little rotten stable manure and sand. Place them on 

 ashes in a cold pit or frame ; give plenty of air, but do not 

 water them for a week after they are potted, as the soil turns 

 cold and wet, and afterwards sour. About the beginning of 

 December take one dozen of them into a temperature of 60' to 

 flower at Christmas. In the middle of the same month bring 

 in a second dozen to flower through January, and in this 

 month bring in the last dozen to flower through February. 

 When they have done flowering place them on ashes in au 

 open situation outdoors to grow and ripen their wood, keeping 

 them well watered, and when the plants become too large 

 divide them. — W. Dodgson, Metchley House Gardenn. 



Gkowinii Hyacinths in Moss. — I have in the greenhouse an 

 ornamental wire basket, in which I put six Hyacinth bulbs ou 

 2nd January last, and to see them now I think you would say 



