348 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 15, 1874. 



plants should bear fruit next year ; usually all runners and 

 flowers produced are piuched off as tbey are formed. Of course 

 Buch a system cannot be recommended, as a season is lost. Ou 

 heavy soils such plants produce very large crops the first year 

 that they are allowed to fruit. 



FRUIT AND POKCINQ HOUSES. 



Vineries. — The late houses wliere Grapes are hanging require 

 constant attention, as, owing to the heavy rainfall, the berries 

 are much more liable to mould now than they will be a month 

 hence when the leaves are removed from the Vines. The 

 houses are ventilated as soon as the day is sufficiently advanced 

 to dispel the damp, and the heating apparatus is warmed and 

 allowed to cool down again before the house is shut up at night ; 

 the ventilators should be closed at night to keep the damp out. 

 All mouldy berries should be cut out as soon as they are per- 

 ceived, as one mouldy berry, if allowed to remain, will spoil a 

 xphole bunch in a few days. We do not keep any plants in the 

 houses, except such as do not require water. 



We have pruned the Vines in the early houses, and are now 

 washing the woodwork with warm rain water in which just a 

 little soft soap has been dissolved; strong soapy water brings 

 the paint off the wood, it is also injurious to the glass, which 

 shoiild be washed with clean water. The next operation is to 

 wash the Vines also with soapy water, but before doing 60 all 

 Buperflaous bark is removed with the thumb nail and finger. 

 Many persons strip the Vine to the quick, which is wrong, as it 

 exposes the thin inner bark to the action of the atmosphere, 

 and the sun may also act upon it injuriously. The rods are 

 now dressed with the mixture which has been recommended in 

 previous numbers. It may not be necessary to remove any of 

 the soil from the outside borders, but we take about 3 inches 

 from the surface inside, and replace it with the previously 

 prepared rich compost — that is, if the borders are rather poor, 

 for it is a mistake to feed the Vines when they do not re- 

 quire food ; such treatment will give large berries, but the first 

 quality — flavoiir, will be wantiug. Another object gained by 

 removing the surface soil is, that all the eggs or larvae of 

 insects are taken out that may be contained in it. The fresh 

 compost should be trodden-in firmly with the feet, or pressed 

 down with the ht.nds in corners where the feet cannot reach it. 

 The outside borders merely require a dressing of manure, 

 which is lightly forked-in. 



Eugenia Vgni. — Many persons hold this in esteem as a dessert 

 fruit. It was brought into notice very nearly twenty years ago 

 with a great flourish of trumpets. Ou the strength of leading 

 articles in some of the horticultural papers many persons bought 

 plants, and it was grown far and wide both as a pot plant and 

 on low walls in a warm position. It has not secured much 

 public favour in either way ; but when well grown in pots in a 

 warm greenhouse the fruit is quite as large as the largest Black 

 Currants, and the flavour is very pleasant. The plant is readily 

 propagated from cuttings, and will bear a few fruits the second 

 year. With proper treatment, in four or five years large bushes 

 may be formed, and we never yet saw a failure. The potting 

 material should be turfy loam torn-up by the hand, added to 

 which is a fourth part of leaf mould and a sixth of rotted 

 stable manure; the spent droppings of a Mushroom house 

 answer as well as any other. It will succeed either in sunshine 

 or shade. 



Fassi flora e{lulis. — We have gathered this for the dessert from 

 stray plants put out in the plant stove ; and as the fruit hangs 

 for some time in good condition after it is ripe, it is often avail- 

 able for extra dishes when such are required to make up the 

 table. At Urumlanrig Castle a lean-to forcing house is devoted 

 to it, and from the trellis overhead at present hang hundreds of 

 ripe and ripening fruit, each as large as a hen's egg. It is in 

 great request there for dessert purposes. Its great enemy is 

 mealy bug, which breeds rapidly in it, so that if a plant is culti- 

 Tated in the stove it ought to be in a position where it can be 

 syringed daily. The plant makes roots very freely, and hence 

 must either be grown in a very large pot, or, what is much 

 better, planted out in the border of the house. The same potting 

 material answers for this as for Eugenia. 



Melon and Cucumber Houses. — Getting ready plants for pro- 

 ducing early spring Cucumbers. Varieties that do not produce 

 seeds freely are grown here, and to keep up a true stock propa- 

 gation is effected mostly by cuttings ; and what is at present 

 noteworthy is the difficulty — nay, the impossibility — of keeping 

 the plants in life more than four or five months in our light 

 sandy soil. In medium loam we have had no difficulty in keep- 

 ing the plants growing for nearly twelve mouths. The glass 

 had become dirty during the summer months, and must now be 

 cleansed at all events. To keep the plants in a healthy growing 

 condition they must have all the light possible, and as much air 

 as can be admitted during the day in fine weather. Melous 

 ripening should have a dry atmosphere and air admitted freely, 

 with a temperature of 60° at night, and a rise of 10° or 16° by day. 



PL.INT STOVE. 



Unless in warm days we do not syringe any of the occupants 

 of this structure now, and water is applied with cintion to the 



roots. Calanthe vestita lutea and rubra are in flower, and 

 are very useful for decorative purposes, a-j so few of the Orchid 

 family are at present in bloom. Thiuniug-out any climtiers 

 that are obscuring the light from plan(s underneath, and cleans- 

 ing tlie glass from dirt, which does little or no harm in summer, 

 but it ought to be removed now.— J. Douglas. 



PROVINCIAL HOBTICULTUKAL EXHIBITIONS. 



[Secretaries will oblige us by informing us of the dates on 

 which exhibitions are to be held. Although we cannot report 

 them fully, we shall readily note anything especially excellent, 

 and we wish for iuformatiou on such specialities to be sent 

 to US.] 



NOVEMBER. I NOTEUBER. 



Jersey 11 R. H. S. of Iieland 26 



Bury St. Edmunds (Chrjsanthe- | 



mums) 17 and 18 DECEMBER, 



CambridgcBliire 19 i York 1, 2, aad 3 



TBADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



J. Moore, Goodhope Rose Nurseries, and 52, Market Place, 

 Warwick. — Catalogue of Select Boses. 



J. Booth, Pole Lane, Failsworth, Manchester. — Catalogue of 

 Carnations, Pirotees, and Piniis. 



F. & A. Dickson & Sons, 10(3, Eastgate Street, and Upton 

 Nurseries, Chester. — Catalogue of Select Boses. 



H. Blandford, Dorset Nurseries, Blandford. — Catalogue of 

 Boses, Fruit Trees, Ornamental Trees, Shruhs, itc. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*,* All correspondence should be directed either to "The 

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

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

 ably. We request that no one will write privately to any 

 of our correspondents, as doing so subjects them to un- 

 justifiable trouble and expense. 



Correspondents should not mix up ou the same sheet questions 

 relating to Gardening and those on Poultry and Bee sub- 

 jects, and should never send more than two or three 

 questions at once. AU articles intended for insertion 

 should bo written ou one side of the paper only. We 

 cannot reply to questions through the post. 



Books (H. IT. IT.). — The wort you name is published by T. Drew, 13, UdI- 

 ver&ity Street, Loudon, W-C. The price is Ss. fid , bat the edition is out of 

 print. {J. L.}. — "Florists' Flowers," to be had at our office, price 4(J. 



Pampas Grass (C W.) — Your Pampas Gra's with li!4 spikes of flowers 

 upon it is no doubt B handsome specimen. It is not unusual for the plaut to 

 grow so large. 



Grasses (H. Lee). — Nog. 8, 7, 8, 11 are not annual. 



Yucca Flowering iRob'»loti). — It will in all probability die after flower- 

 ing, but from the base will arise suckers, oiiO or more, so that you need not 

 have any fear of losing the plant. Other crowns will come, fi-om which you 

 will have flowers in duo time. 



Annuals to Flower in Spring in Greenhouse (R. S. P.\ — The seeds 

 should be sown in 4- inch pots, scattering them thinly over the surface, and b« 

 covered lightly, about the diameter of the seeds, with fioe soil. Haody fibrous 

 loam, with a tbii-d part nf leaf soil or old manure, and a tree admixture of sand, 

 will grow them well. "Wben they are an inch high they should be thinned to 

 that distance apart, leavinftthe strongest. and abouta fortuigtit afterthinning 

 they may be shifted into 6-inch pots. They sh-uld have the lightest aud most 

 airy position, watering carefully. Asperitla azurea setosa, Dartouia aurea, 

 Calandrinia umbellata, Campanula carpatica, Candytuft, sweet-scented, 

 Clarkia pulchella, and vars. alba and marginata fiore-pleno, CoUinsia bicolor, 

 C grandiflora, C. verna, Gilia tricolor rosea splendens. Godetia roseo-alba, 

 Gypsophila elegans, Eaulfnssia amelloides, Laetheoiacaliforniea, Leptosiphon 

 densitioros, and variety albus, Liuaria bipartila splendida, Lupinus nanus, 

 Mignonette, Neinophilas atomaria, iusii^is, maculata, Nolarja atriplicifolia, 

 Platystemon californicus, Silene pendula, and vars. compacfa, rnberrima, 

 Venns's Looking-glass, blue, Viacavia oculata, and Whitlavia grandiflora. 



Wintering Hollyhocks, Rose Cuttings, and Bedding GERANirMS 

 (St. Edmutid). — Yiiur ghrden being walled, we^'.-houUl plunge the HiUyhock 

 aud Itose cuttings in pots in ashes in a sheltered corner to the rims of the pots, 

 and shelter them in very severe weather with mats placed on sfalies, or a little 

 bay or dry litter wilt answer as well, removing it whenever the wea'her is 

 mild. The basj of the south-east aspect will be beat. The Geranium cut- 

 tings will winter safely on bread shelves in the kitchen window if you take 

 care to see that they have air whenever the weather is favourable, and keep 

 them duly supplied with water. Having shutters it is hardly likely your 

 plants would suffer from frost, but on a cold night you could keep on a gentle 

 tire. We think it is more from the drying beat that your plants will suffer 

 than from cold. With care, however, wo think you will succeed. We know a 

 case of several hundred cuttings being wintered in kitchen windows. 



Wintering Bedding Geraniums in Propagating Frame tF. I.).—.Ka 

 you have no provision for affording top heat, it will unduly excite the plants 

 into growth, especially at the roots, which ought not to have a higher tempe- 

 rature than 55^ to 60^. Could you not expose the tank on both sides, say a 

 couple of inches, so as to allow of the heat passing more freelyfrom tbetank s 

 surface to the atmosphere ? This would probably give you all the top heat 

 you require, which should be from 40° to 45-. In severe weather, and especi- 

 ally at night, you might lessen the necessity for fiie heat considerably by an 

 external covering of mats, &c. Your other query was answered last week. 



