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JOURNAL OP HOETIODLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 19, 1874. 



wet, or it will be spoiled. When the soil parts freely from the 

 fork, and can easily be scattered, then is the time for mixing 

 or removal. 



The importance of this operation is very great. If well done 

 it may justly be regarded as the first step towards success; 

 but if badly, the most skilful and painstaimg culture wUl be 

 unavailing to produce good Grapes. A quantity of rich ma- 

 nure stirred into the soil at the time of planting will undoubt- 

 edly cause the Vines to grow with extraordinary vigour, but if 

 the roots are examined in the following autumn they will be 

 found to be fat-looking, white, juicy, soft, and containing very 

 little fibre. In the ensuing spring the Vines may start into 

 growth tolerably well, yet when the foliage begins to expand, 

 or soon after, signs of failure will inevitably appear ; the 

 growth ceases, flags, becomes of a pale sickly colour, and no 

 further progress is made till late in the season, after the form- 

 ation of some fresh roots, the whole of the gross unripe roots 

 having perished in the preceding winter. Besides causing this 

 wasted, and therefore useless vigour, a mass of rich manure 

 applied to the roots in a crude unmixed state is extremely 

 liable to bring mildew upon the Vines in its very worst form, 

 and therefore, if the soil appears to require manure, it must be 

 applied in the first instance in the way I have described ; then 

 the young roots that are formed in it will be small, firm in 

 texture, very fibrous, and of a brown ripened appearance, which 

 is precisely the condition that is necessary to enable them to 

 pass through the inclemencies of winter in safety. 



In selecting the Vines choose those having stout, brown- 

 looking, firm canes of a uniform circumference of not less than 

 an inch, discarding any that are of a slender attenuated ap- 

 pearance. The glowing accounts which have from time to 

 time been set forth of the numerous new kinds of Grapes are 

 apt to render the selection of sorts a puzzling matter, and to 

 induce beginners to venture upon the purchase of some that 

 are unsuitable for their purpose, from the prevalent and cer- 

 tainly very natural wish to grow the best kinds. For those 

 who only require a supply of really good Grapes of easy culture 

 irrespective of varieties, I would plant principally with Frank- 

 enthal, the best of the Black Hamburgh class, adding a Buck- 

 land Sweetwater if a few white bunches were required. But 

 when a selection is cared for, such as -wUl impart greater 

 interest to the culture as well as afford a pleasing variety in 

 the form, colour, flavour, and duration of the fruit, to those 

 two excellent Grapes I would add Royal Ascot, a very proUfic 

 sort, somewhat small in bunch, but with very large, round, 

 highly coloured black fruit ; and for the warmest part of the 

 house a Madresfield Court IJlack Muscat, a somewhat delicate 

 but most delicious Grape, side by side with which the king of 

 white Grapes, Muscat of Alexandria, should find a place. The 

 delicious little early white Grape, Ferdinand de Lesseps, too, 

 is very worthy of having one representative in such a vinery. 

 Its bunches are not large, but it is so robust and prolific that 

 a heavy crop of fruit may always be taken. 



The planting may safely be done in March or April, but it 

 is best to plant before the young shoots appear, so as to avoid 

 all risk of breakage. In doing this shake all the soil off the 

 roots, spreading them out evenly and at full length upon the 

 surface of the border, and covering with 6 inches of fresh soU. 

 Three feet apart is a good distance for the Vines. As the 

 season advances examine the roots and interior border fre 

 quently, giving water abundantly whenever it appears neces- 

 sary. If the Vines are all right as to condition and strength, 

 one rod only should be allowed to start from the bottom of the 

 trellis, letting it ramble as far as possible, and only checking 

 fresh growth by pinching as autumn approaches, in order that 

 both wood-growth and roots may be thoroughly ripened and 

 matured before winter. If, however, the Vines are weak, then 

 every shoot should be encouraged to grow so as to promote 

 vigorous root-action ; and although the thick and tangled 

 growth may present a useless purposeless appearance it is not 

 so in reaUty, for by it the system of the Vines will be so much 

 invigorated that in the next season a splendid cane may very 

 confidently be expected to replace the wild growth which is 

 almost all pruned away in autumn. — Edward Luckhdest. 



• Paxton Vinekies.— Mr. Luckhurst's experience (see p. 215 

 m our Journal of the 12th inst.), in growing Grapes in Paxton's 

 glass houses is that of every intelligent gardener who has 

 adopted them, whether with pot Vines or Vines in permanent 

 and properly prepared borders. We have many instances of 

 this, and receive many proofs of the durability of these 



" curious " but useful houses. Other constructions may be less 

 costly, but these, with iron gutters, &c., as now supplied, are 

 more durable, and claim to stand quite as well as the most ex- 

 pensive wood-and-glass houses. — Hekeman & Mokton. 



NOTES FROM MY GAEDEN, 1873.— No. 5. 



AUniCULAS. 



I HAVE SO often written on the subject of this, one of my 

 earliest loves, that I fear, like many a poor fellow who is espe- 

 cially spoony, and bores his friends with gloomy eulogies on 

 the eyes and hair, the charming manner and elegant figure of 

 his inamorata, until they wish him and her irrevocably tied, 

 when, cynics do say, he will begin to find out that he was a 

 little bit mistaken ; so my disquisitions upon the charms of 

 this perhaps my favourite florists' flower may prove irksome 

 to the general readers of the Journal, but I am sure not so to 

 the real florist, who is not tired of hearing how his pets thrive 

 in other hands than his own ; and so, although I have nothing 

 particularly fresh to notice, I shall yet say how they throve 

 with me in 1873. 



I find that there is no flower of which we can determine so 

 little the character of the future bloom as the Auricula, both 

 as to time of flowering and quality. Thus, this has been a 

 pecuUarly mild winter, and in the early autumn I should have 

 said that we should have had a very early bloom. My plants 

 were top-dressed earlier than usual, and I should have in 

 January safely affirmed that they would have been at their full 

 bloom by the middle of April. Now, I am afraid I shall have 

 none in, and from what I hear from many quarters it is the 

 same with other growers. But I am not writing about this 

 year's prospects, but about last year's doings. However, it is 

 not irrelevant, for the same thing took place last year. The 

 winter, although not so mild as the present one, was yet mild, 

 and equally then did I anticipate an early bloom ; but by the 

 time the April Show at the Royal Horticultural Society took 

 place it was with the greatest difficulty I could get six in flower ; 

 and even Mr. Charles Turner with his immense collection was 

 so hard pushed that he had to put in a yellow self (Gorton's 

 Stadtholder) to make up his twelve. And let it be remem- 

 bered that one cannot do with the Auricula as with most other 

 florists' flowers ; you cannot force it. If your Hyacinths are 

 late you can push them on ; if Carnations are late you can 

 bring them, if in pots, into the house; you can put glass over 

 your Dahlias, or forward your Gladioli by enclosing them ; but 

 the Auricula will not stand it — nay, more, I do not believe 

 that you can advance it by so doing. I recollect some years 

 ago a wiseacre, who knew as much about the Auricula as I do 

 of Sanscrit, when I complained that the day fixed for a show 

 was too early, said I had yet to learn some of the first elements 

 of the art of growing flowers, and that if they were not ready 

 I should make them be so. I should Uke very much to have 

 set him to grow a frame of Auriculas. 



I am more than ever confirmed in my opinion that a great 

 deal too much fuss has been made about the difficulty of grow- 

 ing them, and that a few simple facts borne in mind wUl 

 enable anyone to grow them successfully ; and at the risk of 

 repeating myself I will enumerate what these facts are, for I 

 hope to see the number of those who admire this beautiful 

 flower increasing. Some have, I know, recently undertaken its 

 culture, and I hope many more will foUow. First, the Auricula 

 is very impatient of damp, and therefore not only an airy 

 situation but an airy frame should be chosen for it, with ven- 

 tilators that you can open when it is dangerous to lift the 

 sash. I never allow rain to fall on my plants, and as a conse- 

 quence the beautiful white foliage of some sorts does not get 

 splashed, nor does water lodge in the heart of the plants. 

 Although I would not unnecessarily expose them to frost, yet 

 frost is not so injurious to them as damp. Secondly, they 

 Uke good but simple compost, ^^'hen one reads through the 

 nostrums recommended by some of the old growers I am not 

 surprised that they were for ever dilating on the difficulty of 

 growing them. I beUeve that a simple compost of good loam 

 and cow dung in the proportion of two-thirds of the former to 

 one-third of the latter, and a little sharp sand, is about all 

 that is required. They will root well in this, and then in the 

 beginning of February the soil should be removed to the depth 

 of an inch or more, and the pot fiUed-in with well-decomposed 

 sheep manure. Thirdly, they require — absolutely require — to 

 be in a northern aspect in the summer. Old Mr. Lightbody 

 used to keep his in that position summer and winter. I have 

 also done so more than once, but on the whole I rather prefer 



