JtUy 23, 1874. J 



JOURNAL OF HORTICDLTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



81 



Gros Guillaume anrl Mascat of Alexandria have ripened per- 

 fectly with U8 in Essex, though no artificial heat was applied 

 after the fruit was set. Mrs. Pince's Black Mascat ripens 

 and finishes-off well treated in a similar manner. At present, 

 "while the Grapes are colouring, the temperature of the houses, 

 with air on at night, may fall to GS"^, or in cold nights to 00° ; 

 but it is only for an hour or two, as the sun has an effect on the 

 glass until late in the night, and is again having an influence on 

 the temperature before five o'clock in the morning. 



Peach House, — Whether there is any truth or not in the state- 

 ment that the average heat of our summers is lower than it was 

 twenty or thirty years ago, is a matter that may probably be 

 ascertained by actual research. Certain it is that the crops of 

 the finer stone fruits are much more uncertain than they used 

 to be, those of Peaches and Nectarines especially so. Out of doors 

 there is much difficulty in keeping the trees clean. Aphides 

 and red spider are persistent in their attacks, and cannot so 

 easily be overcome outside as they can under glass ; and then 

 the uncertain climate — rain, snow, or hail, and a freezing east 

 wind. Not only in tho " merry month of May," but even in 

 June, doth the ice king hold sway. Under glass the trees are 

 safe ; light and air can be admitted to them at all times, and 

 should the weather be dull and cold when the trees are in 

 flower, artificial heat can also be applied. Free healthy growths 

 are made one season, which will in due coarse produce well- 

 developed blossoms the following year. The same treatment is 

 necessary with early Peach houses as with early vineries : 

 thoroughly cleanse the leaves from red spider, and dust with the 

 syringe or garden engine. Indeed, the treatment throughout is 

 BO much alike that a good Grape-grower will also bo a good 

 grower of Peaches. 



PLANT STOVE. 



Potting and re-basketing a large proportion of the Orchids. 

 Phalienopsis grandiflorn, Schilleriana, and amabilis are the most 

 showy of the species, and should not be omitted from the most 

 select collectioffl. They are grown either in pots or baskets, and 

 thrive best when the potting material consists only of growing 

 sphagnum and potsherds. The most shady position in the 

 house, and a moist warm atmosphere, are the conditions most 

 favourable to their full development. During hot dry weather 

 syringe freely at least every day. Many persons who grow 

 Orchids are afraid to use the syringe. There are many species, 

 of course, that would be much injured if subjected to continiious 

 syringing, even during the summer months, notably Vitndas, 

 Aiirides, Saccolabiums, many of the Cattleyas, and other allied 

 genera; but during such hot dry weather as we have recently 

 experienced any of the species would be benefited by being 

 dewed overhead in the forenoon, so that the plants would be dry 

 by the time the house is shut-up. Cattleyas that were potted 

 required different treatment, but the major proportion of the 

 species succeed best in pots filled three parts full of drainage, 

 and in a compost of equal parts of turfy peat and sphagnum 

 moss. Most of the smaller-growing species do best in baskets 

 or on blocks ; a few even of the larger-growing species succeed 

 better in this way. C. Dowiana hung up in a basket or fastened 

 to a block of wood will grow and flower freely ; the same may 

 be said of C. superba, which also requires more heat than some 

 of the others. We had imported specimens of this fine species, 

 which failed to give satisfaction when potted like C. Mossia?, 

 Warnerii, Mendelii, ttc. After being shaken out of the pots and 

 fastened to blocks of teak they are doing very much better. 

 Then take Dendrobiums : Some of the species will not thrive 

 unless they are potted in a good body of turfy peat and fresh 

 moss ; others would linger out a miserable existence under such 

 treatment, and ultimately perish. We have potted D. formosum 

 and D. nobile in the same way ; the one made vigorous growths, 

 and the other died ; placed in a basket with very little material 

 for the roots, the plants grew and flowered freely. D. McCarthife 

 makes the strongest growths when there is little else besides the 

 basket for the roots to cling to. Vandas, Saccolabiums, Acrides, 

 Arc, have been potted in crocks, with a little fresh sphagnum 

 near the surface mixed with them, finishing-off the surface with 

 live sphagnum. After the plants have been potted and basketed 

 it is best to maintain a moist warm atmosphere for a few days, 

 keeping the house rather close. — J. Douglas. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*,* It is particularly requested that no communication be ad- 

 dressed privatehj to either of the Editors of this Journal. 

 All correspondence should be directed either to '* The 

 Editors," or to *'The Publisher." Letters addressed to 

 Mr. Johnson or Dr. Hogg often remain unopened un- 

 avoidably. 



We also request that no one will write privately to any of our 

 correspondents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable 

 trouble and expense. 



Books (W. J.). — Loudon's "HortuB Britannicns," cannot be had in parts. 

 Mesere. LoDgman & Co. are the pablisher.s. 



Rose Buds, &c. (Nannie).— They are enn-acorched. Thin the Grapes. 

 Cut the Vine brenchea back to half their length. 



Double Pansy (R. AlUin).— The ooloor, rich dark purple, and the very 

 doable flowere, render it a desirable variety. 



Black Hamborqh Grapes (Silaa Gauge).— The box and its contentswere 

 smashed flat, and not a caterpillar to be detected. Send again in a tin or 

 wooden box. 



Vine Leaf Rusty-patched (J. S.). — We oan detect no indicatinn of 

 injury by a caterpillar. The brown patchee are oaased probably by deficient 

 air-moisture. 



Sussex Anchor Hook (Capt, B.). — The maker is Mr. H. Ilodeon, nay* 

 ward's Heath, Sussex. 



Journeyman Gardener (F. C). — The paragraph in Loudon's " Encyclc- 

 ptEdia" which you require is as follows: — "The period of appreuticetihip 

 being finished, that o( journeyman coraruences, and continues, or onght to 

 continue, till the man is at least tweuty-Uve years of age. During this period 

 he ought not to remain above one year in any one situation — thus, suppoying 

 he has completed his apprenticeship in a private garden at the age of twenty- 

 one, and that his ultimate object is to become a head-gardener, he ought lirat 

 to engage himself a year in a public botanic garden ; the next year in a public 

 nursery ; that following, he should again enter a private garden, and contiuue 

 making yearly changes in the most eminent of tliis class of gardens till he 

 meets with a situation as head-gardener. The coarse to be followed by an 

 apprentice intended for a trades man- gardener is obvious ; having finished hia 

 period in a private garden, let him pass through a botanic and nursery gar- 

 den, and then continue in the most emment of the olass of publio or tradcE- 

 men's gardens to which he is destined." 



Geraniums for Pot-culture (N. B.). — Thomas Speed, Virgo Maria, M» 

 Rendatler, Corsair. lanthe, lago. Rose Reodatler, Madame Mezard, Madame 

 Rudersdorff, Miss Rose Peach, Warrior, and Eugenie Mezard. 



Salpiglossis Culture (Flycatcher). — It is a curious and showy half-hardy 

 annual, requiring to be sown in a hotbed early in April, and planted out in 

 good rich light soil in May or early in June. You may now pot-uff the plants 

 singly, or two or three in a pot, in light loam and leaf soil or well-rutted 

 manure, shading fnr a few days, and when the pots are full of roots shift into 

 7-inch pots for flowering. Keep the plants well supplied with water, and they 

 will flowtjr in the greenhouse in a light airy position at the end of summer. 



Vines with Fruit on Laterals [A Subscriber). — It is not good practice 

 to allow f rait on other than the first shoots of the Vine ; thoee on the laterals 

 should be removed, which they would be if the laterals were stopped at the 

 first joint or leaf, and the subsequent growth from them also stopped at its first 

 leaf, and this throughout the beason. The shoots of Vines on the short-spur 

 or one-rod system should bo stopped at the joint beyond the fruit, and any 

 shoots, which are laterals, arising from these shoots or first shoots ought to 

 be stopped at the first leaf, and each growth as produced stopped at the first 

 leaf. The growth onght not to be confined to one joint only beyond the 

 bunch, hut each succeeding growth limited to one leaf. The mildew may 

 have appeared on the Vines from a deficiency of air; but it may have another 

 cause, as a wet and rich border, combined with too close and moist an atmo- 

 sphere. It will not permanently injure the Vine3, its progress, we presume, 

 having been arrested by the application of flowers of sulphur. Admit air 

 freely, applying gentle fire heat, and so secure the thorough ripening of tl ft 

 wood. 



SpiBffiA japonica after FLOWERING (.4 Consta7it Beader).—V7e should 

 plant out in good, rich, rather moist soil, looseuing the sides of the ball with 

 a piece of wood; make the soil tolerably firm about the bail, and water well 

 after planting and in dry weather. When the leaves have fallen you may 

 take up the plants, divide the crowns if they are too large for the size of pot 

 you wish to have them in, and keep them in a cold pit plunged in coal abbes 

 to the rim until yon wish to start them. A few pots introduced at intervale 

 of three weeks from early in January to March will afford jou a euccesBion oS 

 flowers. 



Azalea Leaves Falling (Julia).— The leaves you sent us have the ap- 

 pearance of being scorched or injured by some solution. It would not be 

 caused by the sulphur placed on the Vines, but if the sulphur was hurnert, o? 

 placed upon a hot surface so that fumes were given off, the Azaleas would be 

 the first to suffer. It is hardly likely, however, that they alone would show 

 evidence of injury without other plants in the greenhouse being similarly 

 affected. An overdose of t<.ibacco smoke would cause it, but we think 

 the roots are not in a healthy state, and that the plants are dead at the 

 collar. 



Cucumbers Diseased (C. H. J.).— The rind of fruit you have sent ns is 

 spotted and marked with an ulceration or gangrene, due in most instances 

 to an over-rich moist soil, with a deficiency of bottom heat the shoots being 

 crowded, so that the elaboration of the sap is very imperfect, and it finds 

 outlet through the skin of the fruit. Thin-out some of the oldest and all 

 yellow leaves, stop each shoot at the joint where the last fruit showing is 

 visible, and afford additional bottom heat. If the heating medium is a dung 

 bed, line it, leaving a little air on at night for a few days after the application 

 of the lining, and keep the atmosphere rather dry, the soil not so moist, 

 watering only to keep the foliage from flagging, and we think you will soon 

 be free of the disease. We could not dintiuguish the plant; the epecimen 

 gent U9 was destroyed by the post-ofiice punches. 



Moles { F. T.).— The best mode of getting rid of these useful but annoying 

 workers is to trap them ; traps should be set in their main mns, or where 

 they pass firm ground. You may free your flower beds of them by placing 

 Elder leaves in the runs. Ihe traps may be had of any ironmonger; if net 

 in stock they could be had by order in a few d'lya. Take them in the field ; it 

 is useless to endeavour to keep them from the gai'den so long as they exist m 

 the field. 



Heating a Small Greenhouse (B. TT.).— In yonr case we shonld pref' r 

 a hot-water stove boiler with hot-water pipes, and to keep out frost you will 

 require a flow-and-return 3-inch pipe along one end and the front of the 

 house. By a hot-water apparatus withiu the house you will utilise the heat 

 of the stove, and it will only require attention after ten or mt re hours. You 

 will see snch stoves advertised in our columns. Write to one of those jou 

 think likely to meet your wants, stating what you require, and asking for 

 an estimate. 



Box FOR Hedge lliicm). — The common round-leaved dwarf kind employed 

 for edging beds and borders will in time form a hedge 3 feet high, but it does 

 not grow nearly so quickly as the much- longer Tree Box, and that we advise 

 you to procure. 



