204 



JOURNiL OF HORTICULTDBB AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ September 30, 1875. 



tliey are most satisfactory and effective. And so effective and 

 continaoua are they as plants for massing iu summer, tliat we 

 know of no other class that will yield the same solidity and 

 profusion of colour and bloom. 



The way to develope their capabilities to perfection is very 

 simple, and places them within the reach and enjoyment of all 

 who can command hand-glasses or cold frames, and ordinary 

 garden soil and manure. For summer and autumn blooming 

 the cuttings should not be put in too early. The character of 

 the early cuttings is never such as produce free-growing and 

 continuous-flowering plants. The very end of September or 

 early in October is the best time to propagate. Then is the 

 time that under the influence of cool moist nights they produce 

 plenty of young healthy shoots near the necks or bottoms of 

 the old plants. These small healthy growths that have never 

 formed nor produced a bloom bud are the cuttings that root 

 the most freely, winter with least care, and ever afterwards do 

 the best, and bloom the freest and longest. It is undesirable 

 to put in long cuttings with a shank and a dangling top. Two 

 joints in the ground and two out of it is quite sufficient. They 

 should be made iu a cool shady place, and put in the frames 

 and watered and shaded without being onco allowed to droop. 

 Any ordinary light garden soil will root them, but a mixture 

 of about equal portions of loam, leaf mould, and river sand is 

 best ; and 5 inolaes of this soil, resting on a rather firm bottom, 

 to prevent their sending down their roots deeply, and from 

 which they can be removed in spring with a ball and all their 

 roots, is preferable to a great depth of rich open soil. Kept 

 close, rather moist, and shaded from bright sun, they root 

 with scarcely one per cent, of misses, and get well established 

 before winter sets in. Plenty of air after they root is indis- 

 pensable ; and a slight covering over the glass in very severe 

 weather is about all the attention they require till planted in 

 spring where they are to bloom. 



As can be gathered from what has already been said, the 

 soil iu which they are to bloom should be deep and rich ; and 

 under such treatment few plants are so effective for the same 

 length of time, and at the same expenditure of time and labour. 

 The end of March or beginning of April is a good time to plant 

 out, according to the season and state of the weather. They 

 should be lifted with all the soil possible adhering to their 

 roots; and if the weather be dry at planting time give them a 

 good soaking of water, alter which they generally take care of 

 themeelvts. 



The new varieties of these sent out yearly are numerous, 

 and we have tested a very great number, and selected com- 

 paratively few. The most effective violet-coloured one that 

 has been tried is Viola cornuta Perfection : nothing of the 

 same colour that has been tried approaches this one for genuine 

 usefulness and effect. It is alike suitable for large beds and 

 scroll-work. It is a compact upright grower, and requires to 

 be planted thickly. The best purplish blues tried are The 

 Tory, Charles Dickens, and Alpha. Of yellows the two we 

 grow most of are Perpetual Yellow and Yellow Gem. The 

 former is the most wonderful plant to bloom we have ever 

 seen. It blooms all winter in the cutting frame, and blooms 

 until the snow covers it up next winter in the beds. As a 

 pale lavender Lilacina is most thought of ; and among whites, 

 Parity is probably the best of a great number tested : a good 

 white has yet to be raised. 



The effect of these in masses and long lines is very striking. 

 For filling the old Egyptian scroll to be met witli in many 

 gardens — when the centre circles are filled eithtr with Alyssum 

 or some goldeu-loaved Geranium, and the S's with Viola cor- 

 nuta Perfection, and the outer part of the design with Trop»- 

 olum Cooperii — the efl'tct is charming. 



A panelled border on a large scale, with a massive ground- 

 work of Viola Tory, with panels of variegated D.^ctyli3, having 

 a small specimen of variegated Acer in the centre of each panel, 

 with two or three lines of Viola Perpetual Yellow next the 

 bluiehpurple groundwork of Tory, and a margin line of Viola 

 Perfection, is very effective, particularly in the evening. As 

 a mixed bed few combinations are more chastely beautiful 

 than one planted plant about of Polemonium cffirulenm varie- 

 gatum — a plant not nearly so much grown as it should be — 

 and Viola Perfection. The variegated Periwinkle, young 

 plants, and Viola Tory, are also very efiective planted in tho 

 same way as the Polemonium and Perfection. 



A groundwork of V. Perfection, with margin lines of gold, 

 and panels of white Stock or Centaurea ragusina, makes a 

 very sweet combination ; many other combinations of hardy 

 and easily-raised plant.^, smh as those instanced, can bts carried 



out at halt the expense and labour required for those that have 

 to be raised in heat, and that do not last in bloom above half 

 the length of time. 



Mr Gray, Eglinton Castle Gardens, has succeeded in raising 

 some purple, yellow, and white varieties, which, both for habit 

 and general effect, are superior to any yet in cultivation, and 

 we hope they will soon be distributed. — D. T. — (The Gardener.) 



NOTES ON VILLA and SUBURBAN GARDENING. 



RooT-sioBiNG. — We have now arrived at the beginning of 

 October, a month rather busy in the matter of takiug-up, col- 

 lecting, and storing the various crops of the garden. Most if 

 not all root crops appear to be fairly advanced towards the con- 

 dition for housing. Fine weather should always be chosen for 

 the above work. I do not like the soil to be in a soddened stato 

 when a crop, such as Carrots for instance, is taken out of it ; 

 neither are these crops in such a fit condition for keeping when 

 much wet succeeds a period of fine weatker, such as we have 

 just had. The roots under these conditions take-up too much 

 moisture for long keeping, and it requires a longer period to 

 have them thoroughly dry before packing away; therefore, as 

 the weather is at present threatening, it would be well to take- 

 up Carrots, Beet, Potatoes, and Onions. Parsnips, take-up as 

 wanted, but leave the general crop iu the ground. Salsafy and 

 Jerusalem Artichokes may also remain iu the ground and be 

 takeu-up later in the season. 



All roots should be judiciously thinned before storing. I like 

 to cut the tops off Carrots and Beet at two different times : 

 first, when taken up the -tops are cut half down, but after they 

 have been under cover and become dry the tops of the Carrots 

 are cut close off, and those of the Beetroots to within 2 inches 

 of the root. The iJoints of neither are touched. I have often 

 found that if a Carrot begins to rot it does so quite as often 

 when it is cut at the point as it does at the top. Beetroot 

 is generally one of tho best of keepers under the usual con- 

 ditions. Generally speaking roots have nothing bat makeshift 

 places in which to be packed away — either too damp or where 

 there is not sufficient protection from frost, or the material in 

 which they are packed is of the wrong sort. It should be tho- 

 roughly dry, and not liable to go soon to decay. Clean dry sand 

 is, perhaps, the best of all, but coal ashes are the worst. I have 

 kept roots ^^•ell in chopped straw when sand could not be had. 

 They are put on a layer of this at the bottom, and upon boards 

 to keep clear from the ground, then the chopped straw in about 

 8 or 9 inch lengths is laid crosswise to the roots. In all cases 

 the roots are laid-up root and point alternately, and if in a cool 

 but not too dry a place they remain plump through the whole 

 winter. The object of having the straw short is, that it can be 

 easier laid-in, and again can be easily removed a little at the 

 time as the produce is taken away, and during the winter 

 months when the roots require to be looked over the work can 

 be (lone much quicker and cleaner. 



It is sometimes necessary during winter to protect from frost 

 by some sort of covering. Now this should be moved and re- 

 placed as often as the severity of the frost comes and goes. I 

 mean that if a sudden thaw succeeds a frost the covering should 

 be removed, otherwise it is apt to bring on a kind of sweat, 

 simply from the sudden extremes of temperature, which is 

 almost certain to generate d^ cay. Again, if the roots are packed 

 in sand or dry earth it should be iu the house or under cover, 

 and free from any contact with moisture; and when once a 

 Bufiicient quantity is collected in the house it is not well for 

 it to be taken out again except for the purpose of cleaning or 

 drying afresh, when it will last some years with trifling addi- 

 tions. I have stated this because many persons have a difficulty 

 in obtaining sand, which gardeners as a rule can get plenty of. 

 — Thomas Becoed. 



DUNEEVAN, 



THE RESIDENCE OF J. MclNIOSH, ESQ. 



A F0RIY-5IINUTE3 ruu by train from the metropolis will in 

 almost any direction take the visitor to some dehghtful country 

 spot, which by its proverbial salubrity, its pure air and agree- 

 able natural landscape is selected by the affluent — city mer- 

 chants and retired professional men — as affording scope for 

 ijflated and more or less pretentious country residences. 

 Such a place would Walton-on-Thames appear to be and the 

 district surrounding. The traveller who alights at Walton 

 station on the London and North-Western Bxilway is at once 

 satisfied that he is clearly beyond the land of coekneyism. 

 The scene savours of quiet country sweatnesa, and is, iu 

 tact, " truly rural." 



Tha aspect is a woody one, and the ground ia undulated. 

 The roadsides are flanked by masses of verdant Oaks and 

 Elms, and the distant hills, or rather knolls, ara tapped with 



