262 



JOUENAL OP HORTICULTOBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 26, 1874. 



sticks ; these serve to support the Peas until they can lay hold 

 of the permanent supports. 



Planted out CanUJiowers on ground that had been deeply 

 trenched and well manured last year. In this soil neither 

 Broccoli nor Cauliflower will do any good during the late 

 summer months, but we can always maintain a good supply of 

 Cauliflowers during May and June. Strong plants are put out 

 under hand-lights in October, and are encouraged to grow freely 

 in open weather during the winter. A second lot is pricked out 

 into boxes and protected by glass lights, and to succeed these a 

 sowing is made in a hotbed late iu January. The plants just 

 put out are in drills, which are drawn deeply, and are thus pro- 

 tected to a certain extent from frosty winds ; the first time the 

 gi-ound is hoed the drills become fiUed, and the soil that falls in 

 serves as an earthing-up to the plants. The sorts preferred are 

 Early London, Walcheren, and Lenormand. 



Carrots, Lettuces, and Iladishes sown under ground vineries 

 make rapid progress. The Eadish requires to be thinned out. 

 It is necessary to sow the seed thickly, as mica generally dig up 

 and eat them before they germinate ; such depredations can be 

 prevented by trapping When the Lettuces are suiSciently ad- 

 vanced the thinnings will be planted out in the open ground, 

 and will come in a little later than the plants which have been 

 pushed-on under glass. It is in vain to plant them without some 

 sort of guard to keep off the sparrows, which would strip off 

 every vestige of green in an hour or two. The same sort of 

 guard that is used for the raws of Peas answers admirably for 

 this purpose. A thread of woollen yarn with a few feathers 

 attached run along the rows will sometimes keep them off. 



Vacant ground that was dug or trenched iu the winter may 

 now be hghtly forked over. The more the sm-face is stirred when 

 in a dry state the better ; in wet weather it is much better to 

 leave such work to a more suitable season. 



FRUIT AND FOKCING HOUSES. 



Pineries. — A very high night temperature is not essential in 

 Pine-growing, but if it is desirable to bring on rapidly the fruit 

 which is sweUing iu the fruiting house, there wiU be no danger iu 

 raising the night temperature to 7U', or even to 75° if the weather 

 is mUd ; shutting up early in the afternoon with sun heat, 8.5 ' or 

 90" may be obtained. The walls, paths, and any plants in the 

 house maybe syringed, but avoid syringing the Pines overhead ; 

 keep the evaporating troughs full of water at all times. We 

 have used guano water for fiUing the troughs ; it may do good, 

 and cannot do any harm to the Pine plants ; but tender subjects, 

 such as Ferns, are sometimes injured by it, and having once 

 used it in the same manner in a vinery until the Grapes began 

 to colour, we fancied that the Grapes tasted of it when they were 

 ripe. Suckers potted in the autumn should now be transferred 

 to their fruiting pots, if this has not been already done. If they 

 have become pot-bound, it is very Ukely that they will start 

 prematurely into fruit as soon as potted. Our own, which were 

 potted a month ago, contained a number of plants which had 

 become root-bound, and many of these have started into fruit. 

 We like a moderately brisk bottom heat for freshly-potted 

 plants, and this would also cause some to start if they had any 

 tendency to do so. Pines also require careful attention as re- 

 gards watering, and the water should be warmed to the tempera- 

 ture of the soil around the roots before using it. It will not be 

 necessary to look over the plants more than twice a-week, when 

 all requii-ing water should have a good supply ; but each pot 

 must be examined separately, and only watered if the soil is 

 dry ; better to under than to over-water them. 



Cucumber and Melon Rouses. — Where Cucumbers are grown 

 in heated houses, little can be added to the instruction given iu 

 previous weeks' " Doings," thinuing-out the old shoots, and re- 

 placing with fresh young ones once in a week or ten days. The 

 surface of the ground should be dressed over where required with 

 decayed manure. Syringe the plants every morning with tepid 

 water, and should thrips appear, fumigate with tobacco smoke, 

 and this must be done on three successive evenings, as thrips 

 are more tenacious of life than green fly. Maintain a minimum 

 temperature of 70". Our Melon plants wiU be in flower in a 

 week ; the growth, so far, has not been so strong as usual, but 

 the plants are healthy. When the growth is weakly it is 

 necessary to crop according to the strength of the plants ; thus, 

 if strong plants are allowed to bear six fruits, weak ones would 

 not be allowed to carry more than four. One important point 

 in Melon culture is to see that a sufficient number of female 

 flowers are open on the same day or the day following, as if an 

 interval of three or four days is allowed to intervene between 

 the setting of the fruit on a plant the fruit will not swell evenly, 

 and sometimes the lattr-set fruit will not swell at all. Wo do 

 not like syringing Melon plants much, but if red spider appear 

 there is no better way to destroy it, as the plauts can seldom be 

 washed with any bUght-destroyiug mixture sutticieutly strong 

 to destroy the parasite without also destroying the fragile 

 leaves. The same remark applies to painting the pipes with 

 sulphur, as is practised in vineries ; 65° is a suflicieutly high 

 temperature unless the weather is mild, when the thermometer 

 may nae to 70? at night. 



Orchard House. — Since the trees came into flower the weather 

 has been very favourable to the setting of the fruit ; the atmo- 

 sphere has not at any time been close and damp, but drying 

 winds have prevailed nearly the whole time. The trees are 

 gently shaken twice daily, the house is shut up at 6 p.m., and the 

 ventilators are opened at six in the morning; if it is cold they 

 are opened a little in fine weather to their full extent. Our 

 trees are all in pots, and require careful attention as to watering 

 at this time, and no more water should be spilled about in the 

 house than can possibly be avoided. We found a use for the 

 hot-water pipes when the temperature registered outside the 

 house was IS"^ below freezing. If perfect success in orchard- 

 house culture is desired, a heating apparatus is essential. 



GREENHOUSE -iND CONSERVATORY. 



Camellias, Azaleas, and aU sorts of spring flowers serve to 

 keep these structures as gay as possible, and when there are 

 abundant supplies of flowers there is also much time taken up 

 in picking-over the plants, removing decaying petals, and re- 

 arranging. Allusion was made two weeks ago to the destruction 

 of red spider on New Holland plants ; it may not be out of 

 place to allude also to green fly on herbaceous Calceolarias, 

 Pelargoniums, Roses, Ac. This ought to be destroyed before 

 the effects of its presence can be discerned on the plants. 



We have been placing sticks to Hyaciuths, and arranging the 

 bells on the spikes with a pointed stick. We do not approve of 

 dressing flowers ; " floricultural millinery" is not to our liking, 

 and such instructions as were given in a contemporary recently 

 cannot be sufficiently deprecated ; its readers were told to 

 support the spikes with wires stuck into the bulbs, the beUs to 

 be supported with pins stuck through the flowers. AU the 

 dressing allowed either on the home stage or for exhibition 

 consists in arranging the flowers on the spike with a cedar 

 pencil, which is only assisting Nature. There is no neater 

 support than wire, but it ought to be bent in this way, and 

 not thrust through the bulb, which, like the " pin " or 

 " green-thread " system, is simply barbarous, and the man 

 who could condescend to such practices is not fit to be a 

 member of the gentle craft. 



Chrysanthemums are now requiring attention as regards 

 training. If handsome well-flowered specimens are to ' 

 furnish the stages in November, the foundation must now be 

 laid by training the young growths down to a wire fastened 

 under the rims of the pots. Shift the plants into larger pots as 

 they require it; our Pompons were potted last week into 5-inoh 

 pots from the cutting pots. The plants were also dipped in 

 tobacco water to destroy aphides. Cuttings of Perpetual- 

 flowering Carnations have been put iu ; this ought to have been 

 done early in February, so that the plants might have been 

 strong and well advanced by November. It is not too late yet, 

 and as they have been placed iu a warm house and a brisk 

 bottom heat they will soon form roots. The smallest " grass " 

 is selected for cuttings; this will root much quicker than that 

 which is thicker. Indeed, some of the miffy varieties, such aa 

 Prince of Orange and Ascot Yellow, will not root at all if strong 

 cuttings are put in. A goodly number of sorts have been tried 

 here, but only very few varieties are to be recommended, espe- 

 cially for small growers. Proserpine, La Grenade, Gloire de 

 Lyon, Prince of Orange, Ascot Yellow, Miss Jolliffe, Avalanche, 

 Blushing Bride, and The Bride (Turner), are the best. The last- 

 named is more allied to the Clove section, but it is a most beau- 

 tiful white, sometimes edged with rose. — J. Douglas. 



TEADE CATALOGUES EECEIVED. 



MUler & Sievers, 27, Post Street, San Francisco, California. — 

 General and Descriptive Catalogue of Flowering Plants, Bulbs, 

 and Seeds. 



Charles Turner, Royal Nurseries, Slough. — General Spring 

 Catalogue for ISli. 



J. C. Wheeler & Son, Gloucester, and 59, Mark Laue, London, 

 E.G. — Illustrated Book on Grasses. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



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

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 All correspondence should be directed either to " The 

 Editors," or to " The Pubhsher." Great delay often arises 

 when this rule is departed from. 



Wa also request that no one will writo privately to any of our 

 correspondents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable 

 trouble and expense. 



Correspondents should not mix up on 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. All articles intended for insertion 

 should be written on one side of the paper only. 

 Books (J. C. C). — CuthiU's " Moi-ket Gariiening Ruond Lonilou," aDd 



" lieo-keopiug." The latter you can have fiom our oOice if you enclose five 



post-oflice stamps with yoiu address. 



