May 18, 1876. J 



JOUBNAIi OF HOBTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



388 



erect robnst growth ; and probably no Bose for a bed without 

 peggiug will make so grand a show of colour aa this large free- 

 blooming Perpetual. — H. Curtis, Devon Rosenj, Torquatj. 



SOIL FOR VINE BORDEBS. 



When I referred to this subject on page .S02 my object was 

 to show the unsubstantial nature of much soil included in the 

 (indefinite) definition, light turfy loam, also to point out the 

 error which U commonly made of placing soil in the borders in 

 an " icy cold " state. I was particular to deprecate the oppo- 

 site error of storing the soil when heated to dryness, and was 

 careful to urge that it should only be placed in a border when 

 in a healthily moist state. To the substance of my remarks 

 "Vine-Grower" has on page 341 taken considerable objec- 

 tion, and in doing so has imparted useful and suggestive 

 information. 



" VineGboweh's " remarks on fermentation taking place 

 in the soil after storing are interesting, and he adduces an 

 example of its action in raising the temperature of a Tine 

 border. This is possibly an exceptional case, but on that no 

 one can positively determine; for although "Vine-Grower" 

 adduces figures he uses the words " at or about," leaving 

 readers to guess what they like, and giving them a justifica- 

 tion for supposing that the temperatures were not carefully 

 recorded. That, however, is not of supreme importance so 

 long as the Vines flourished (which doubtless they did) satis- 

 factorily. The soil when stored " at or about" .35° might have 

 been 40°, and that is many degrees above " icy cold." I should 

 not object to place soil in Vine borders at a temperature of 40°, 

 but I do object to the use of it for Vme-border-making when 

 saturated with snow and rain in winter, and when the surface 

 of the ground is at or near the freezing point, and that is a 

 practice which I know has been adopted, and I know also with 

 bad results. 



A " Vine-Grower" has " never known any mishap occur to 

 Vines through deficient bottom heat," but that is not oonclu- 

 eive evidence that mistakes have not been made iu making 

 borders with soil at and near the freezing point, and that 

 losses have arisen in consequence. Had I not been practi- 

 cally acquainted with more than one instance of this nature 

 I should not have deemed the matter worthy of public notice. 



I know a gentleman who erected vineries solely with the 

 object of deriving a profit on his outlay by the sale of Grapes. 

 The border of one house was made in October when the soil 

 was " at or about 35°" — it was probably 40°: the border of 

 the other house was made at the end of January. The turf 

 for the borders was pared from the same site, but the surface 

 of that taken in .January wis crisped with frost during some 

 mornings). It was also very wet, and the whole of it was 

 within a few degrees of the freezing point when placed in the 

 border. These borders were both planted on the same day 

 with Vines from the same grower, and the same treatment 

 was given the two houses. How sound that treatment has 

 been the splendid condition of the Vines, especially in one 

 house, attest. Now as evidence of the pernicious effect of 

 using " ioy cold " soil, not £1 was realised from the house of 

 which the border was made in January until more than £50 

 had been derived from the sale of Grapes from the other 

 house where the border was maie in October. The soil of 

 these borders, I repeat, was precisely the same, and both 

 houses had precisely the same attention iu heating, venti- 

 lating, &a. The diiierent results were clearly attributable to 

 the different temperatures of the soil at the time of making 

 the borders. The Vines in the cold border started badly and 

 grew weakly ; the others started freely and grew vigorously. 

 In fact a season was lost by burying the cold ; and further, 

 the Vines which were planted in the January-made border 

 have never been in such a satisfactory state as those in the 

 October-made border. 



The owner of these Vines, who is an excellent and success- 

 ful grower of Grapes, ioapresses on all (and they are many) 

 who solicit his advice on Vine-growing, never to pare the icy- 

 oold surface off the ground in winter and bury it in that 

 state 3 feet deep iu Vine borders. He considers that he has 

 bought that knowledge at a cost of £50, and is firmly con- 

 vinced of its soundness. So am I. 



The soil in that case was not heated by the fermentation of 

 the vegetable matter iu it, neither was the soil of the border 

 which was made in October overheated by the same natural 

 prooees. Overheating might, however, take place by storing 

 during the hot months of summer, and on that matter " Yine- 



Growee" has communicated a seasonable hint. His remarks 

 also on the evil effeots of the overdryness of the soil are 

 unexceptionable. Probably neither " Vine-Grower" nor my- 

 self would in our practice make any serious mistakes in 

 making a Vine border ; but with some amateurs the case is 

 different, and it is well that both Bides of the question be 

 seen and studied. — A Northern Gardener. 



AURICULAS. 



If Mr. Camm feels " a lame dog " at Auriculas, I am sure 

 other friendly hands than mine will also gladly " help him 

 over the stile " of his difficulty. 



I once reported incidentally in these pages that I had tried a 

 few of the commoner green and grey-edged Auriculas in the 

 open border. They did not die, and did not bloom well. 

 They had no protection from weather, and they made small 

 hard weather-beaten plants. However, they were not tried a 

 second time, for compassionate friends, thinking they looked 

 poor outcasts, begged them out of their misery. If Mr. Camm 

 is not an old nurse with Auriculas, and has only a few, I 

 would not recommend him to trust edged flowers out in the 

 borders. As he has bell-glasses he had better pot the plants 

 and keep the glasses over them in bad weather, or even always ; 

 they can be set on three pieces of wood, say 2 inches high, on 

 which the pot rim can rest to admit a circulation of air. The 

 pots should be kept off the ground on slips of wood, and the 

 plants all summer in a north aspect. He might plunge the 

 pots in ashes and have tile laths placed parallel so as to hold 

 a line of bell-glasses over the plants ; but in an open border it 

 would not be easy to keep too much wet from about them- 

 without a total covering. 



Edged Auriculas are not meant for outdoor work, for tho 

 simple reason that a drop of rain upon a flower ruins it. 



With respect to Col. Champneys, he is a most rampant 

 grower and could bloom twice five pips with ease, though 

 whether he could give them to stand real florist scrutiny I 

 doubt. A friend of mine was going to show a Champneys 

 two years ago, but it was so very big that it could not be 

 placed in his box. 



As to what would be considered a fine truss for exhibition 

 I can only say, Just so many pips of sterling quality as you 

 can get flat upon a truss. Show at the National, and you will 

 find that you have a fine truss if you can get six or seven to 

 stand the test of the best judging. 



I am glad of this occasion to refute what seems to be a 

 dandelion-rooted notion southward about na northern florists 

 — that we pull our Auricula trusses to pieces, lowering the 

 blooms to the minimum allowed. 



I beg to say that we are not so flat as to knock our Auriculas 

 on the head in that way. It we had a dozen correct and even 

 blooms ou a plant, that plant would carry the twelve. Trust 

 me that at the National Auricula Show we crowd all canvas 

 in the race. Our plants are not under bare poles — not under 

 needlessly thinned trusses. Even in the classes where three 

 pips will qualify for competition, twice that number are left — if 

 worth leaving. It all turns on that— if worth leaving. If not, 

 they spoil the good ; they are dead weight in the race. Are we 

 to blame in this, whose object is expressly to keep the flower 

 to its high standard of beauty and excellence, and to raise that 

 more and more? Every point in a florist flower ia so much 

 beauty added to that flower. 



There are principles in all properties, and no such rough- 

 nesses as mere size and quantity, which in this connection 

 may be termed the brute force in flowers, should outweigh the 

 higher power of quality and refinement. — F. D. Horner, 

 Kirkby Malzeard, Eipon. 



COMPARATIVE HARDINESS OP SPRING 

 BEDDING PERENNIALS. 

 Our spring beds in exposed gardens have been severely tried 

 by the last two winters, and annuals are very late in blooming. 

 With a view to the future, I hope some one of your readers will 

 send a more complete list than I can subjoin of the most use- 

 ful plants for spring purposes, classified as below. 



1. Extremely Zfrtcrfi/.— Arabis albida, Alyasum saxatile, Au- 

 brietia, Daisy, Polyanthus, Primrose, and Sempervivum oali- 

 fornicnm. 



2. Hardy.— Iheris, Myosotis, dwarf Phloxes, Silene, varie- 

 gated Daisy, hybrid Violas, Wallflowers, and Violets. 



