AprU 2, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTIOULTUEB AND COTTAGE GARDKNEE. 



281 



root-pruning with all luxuriant trees. Moat persons may have 

 observed the effect of moving a large Pear tree very late in the 

 spring— it generally becomes covered with blossom buds ; such 

 in degree will be the effect of root-pruning at this period. 



Now is a good time to use sulphur mixed with soft soap and 

 clay as a paint, daubing it with a brush between the Peach, 

 Nectarine, and Pear shoots, to prevent the breeding of the red 

 spider.— W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST AND PRESENT WEEKS. 



FKUIT .*.ND KITCHEN GARDEN. 



Plum trees on the walls are now in full tlower, and pyramids 

 are also taking on their snowy covering. Notwithstanding our 

 heavy crops of all sorts of fruit last year, the trees are now all 

 thickly set with blossom buds, which will no doubt result in an 

 abundant crop if the weather be favourable at the time the trees 

 are in blossom. The nights have been frosty, but the ground 

 and air are remarkably dry for the season. 



Sowed Savoys and Brusseh Spmuts in poor soil. On clayey 

 soils we used to find the dwarf sorts of Savoy answer best ; a 

 variety which has been in cultivation for many years — Early 

 Dwarf Ulm, is excellent. On our light sandy soil the Drum- 

 head is not too large for us. Scrymger's Giant Brussels Sprouts 

 can be highly recommended; the sprouts are large and firm, 

 and the plant moderately dwarf. "We have kept the hoe at work 

 amongst all growing crops, fruit-tree borders, I'irc. 



Pricked-out Celery that was sown early in a hotbed. Celery 

 Bown early in heat has a tendency to bolt into flower ; but this 

 may, to some extent, be prevented by taking care that the plants 

 receive no check to their growth from the time they come 

 through the ground until they are ready to be dug up. The 

 first and most evident check they are likely to receive would be 

 at the time of removing from the hotbed to a cold frame the 

 box in which the plants have germinated ; this should be done 

 when the weather is mild, and the frame must be kept pretty 

 close for a few days. After being pricked-out the plants should 

 also be carefully watered with a fine-rosed watering pot, and be 

 placed in a close frame. 



FRUIT AND FORCING HOUSES. 



Vineries. — The Grapes have been thinned in all our early 

 houses, and the berries are swelling rapidly so that the laterals 

 do not grow out much ; whenever they do so they are pinched 

 closely back, as the houses are well furnished with leaves. It 

 has been recommended to allow the laterals to grow without 

 any pinching, as it is said the more leaves and branches there 

 are the greater will be the root-action. This may be all very 

 well in theory, but practically, as regards the training and ulti- 

 mate health of the Vines, it will not answer. If the leaves are 

 not freely exposed to the sun they wiU be flimsy in texture, and 

 the buds at their base wiU not be perfectly developed nor tho- 

 roughly ripened. In the case of Muscat Grapes, the berries 

 must also be exposed to the light before they wiU take-on the 

 desirable golden colour. The Black Hamburgh colours better 

 if the berries are shaded from the sun by the leaves ; a know- 

 ledge of this fact is useful when stopping and training the 

 young growths. Drying east winds are now prevalent, and at 

 such times the ventilation must be watched. When there is 

 little or no sun the smallest chink of air will be sufficient, but 

 when the sun is acting powerfully upon the glass it is necessary 

 to open the ventilators more, but when the wind is cold great 

 caution is necessary ; the house at such a time must be damped 

 frequently during the day. The inside borders of late houses 

 should receive a thorough watering, the houses to be shut-up 

 early in the afternoon. 



Peach House. — In the early houses the fruit wiU be going 

 through the process of stoning, and it will not swell perceptibly 

 for a period of six weeks. This is generally considered a critical 

 period, as some of the fruit may drop off; gardeners generally 

 provide for this by not thinning too closely at the first, reserving 

 some imtil the fruit begins to take the second swelling; but if 

 the trees are in good health, and the treatment they receive is 

 of the right kind, there will be no danger of the fruit dropping 

 at this time, presuming, of course, that it has been thinned 

 sufficiently at a previous time. The growing shoots must be 

 trained down to the wires, and those haviug a tendency to 

 groBsness cut out. It is best to train the young wood up from 

 the base of last year's wood ; this shoot and the leader will be 

 quite sufficient for the present. Syringe the trees thoroughly 

 night and morning; the trees at this time ought not to be 

 hurried with a high night temperature, G0° will be sufficiently 

 high, and as soon as it is perceived that the fruit has taken the 

 Becond swelling, 65° or even 70'' will do no harm, with a rise of 

 10° or 15° by day from sun heat, shutting-up the house between 

 three and four o'clock in the afternoon. 



If late houses have not received any assistance from fire heat 

 the trees will now be in flower. Attend to the instructions 

 given two weeks ago, also see that the inside borders are well 

 watered. This ought to have been seen to before the blossoms 

 expanded, as, should the roots be in a very dry medium, a good 



soaking of water would cause the flowers to drop off. A Peach- 

 house border should not at any time be allowed to become dust- 

 dry. 



Dwarf Kidney Beans and Strawberries. — Our available space 

 for these is very limited, but we now get very good dishes of 

 both from spare shelves and stages in the Pine houses. For 

 small space there is no better Dwarf Kidney Bean than New- 

 ington Wonder, and instead of bringing on succession plants we 

 manage to gather a tolerably regular succession of pods from 

 the same plants. The Beans are gathered about once in two 

 days, and kept in a healthy growing state by frequent syring- 

 ing and watering with manure water. Earlier in the season 

 the difficulty with Strawberry plants was to obtain room for 

 them in a house with a night temperature of from 45° to 50° to 

 begin with, as they would not stand being removed from a cool- 

 orchard house to a night temperature of G5° all at once. W© 

 have sometimes been able to put up a hotbed for them, which 

 answers very well, as root-action is promoted by the bottom 

 heat. Now we remove the pots to the higher temperature at 

 once, as the flower trusses, though not yet visible, are sufficiently 

 developed not to suffer any harm from being forced into mora 

 active growth. 



PLANT STOVE. 



Achimenes and Gloxinias have been put a little in the shade 

 during the last few years. On one or two occasions they had 

 been invited at some of the London exhibitions, but the miser- 

 able examples exhibited did not justify the Societies in continu- 

 ing them in the schedules. The plants are not easily moved 

 about ; the flowers and leaves of both are fragile in the extreme, 

 requiring great care to transport them any distance. For deco- 

 rative purposes in the plant stove at home they are very useful ; 

 they are, besides, easily obtained and easily grown. The best 

 Achimenes we ever saw were grown with a little bottom heat, 

 and the best Gloxinias without. When growing, a moist warm 

 atmosphere is desirable for them, but watering or syringing 

 overhead they do not like at all. The potting material is com- 

 posed of turfy loam two parts, one part of turfy peat, with a 

 sixth part of rotted stable manure, a little silver sand being 

 added to it if requisite. The plants should be placed near the 

 glass, and must be shaded from bright sunshine. 



Votled. stove Palms and Ferns. Palms require to be potted 

 once a-year, and now is as good a time as any to do it, bearing 

 in mind that there is much more danger of over than uuder- 

 potting them. 'Thus, a plant in a 5-inch pot should not be potted 

 into one more than 7 inches in diameter, and other sizes in 

 about the same proportion. Should any of the specimens he 

 unhealthy it will probably be owing to defective root-action. 

 Such plants are turned out of their pots, the balls reduced, and 

 the plants repotted in clean pots well drained, and of the same 

 size that they were growing in before. The main ingredient in 

 the compost for successful Palm culture is turfy loam full of 

 fibre and torn to pieces by the hand. Very light sandy loam is 

 not so well adapted for the purpose as loam of a moderately 

 clayey nature. A little turfy peat and leaf mould added to it are 

 all that is required. 



Amaryllids have finished flowering and are now making their 

 growth. They require plenty of water and a position fully 

 exposed to the sun. 



FLOWER GAKDEN. 



We have put up our turf pit, and a large number of zonal Pe- 

 largoniums, LobeUas, and other moderately hardy subjects have 

 been placed out in it. Calceolarias have been planted out in a 

 trench where a mat can be thrown over them if the frost is very 

 severe. We have not been able to get all the bedding plants 

 out of the vineries as yet, but will do so as soon as possible. 

 Placed Carnations and Picotees in their flowering pots. The 

 young leaves of some of the plants were observed to be eaten, 

 and a search at night soon discovered the marauder at work in 

 the shape of the leather-coat grub. He seems to bury himself 

 in the soil by day and commit his depredations at night. The 

 earliest Auriculas are now coming into flower and requhe in- 

 creased attention ; as the pips expand the plants are removed 

 to a frame with its highest part to the south. Green fly has 

 also increased with more genial weather, and has been removed 

 with a camel-hair brush ; this is better than smoking the plants. 

 — J. Douglas. 



TRADE CATALOGUE RECEIVED. 



T. S. Ware, Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham, London.- SeZec- 

 tion of New, Bare, and Choice Perennials. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



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

 dressed privately to either of the Editors of this Journal. 

 All correspondence should be directed either to " The 

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

 when this rule is departed from. 



