March 28, 1806. ] 



joukjSTAL of horticulture and cottage gardener. 



255 



each. Forced roots, that have been taken up for the Mush- 

 room-house, when divided and planted in deoiJ rich soil, 

 generally beat seedlings, however carelully they are treated. 

 Asparagus, Sea-kale, and Rhubarb should now be sown. 

 Where there is plenty of these for winter, a good security is 

 obtained lor a well-served table. Gave the general routine 

 attention to other vegetables. It is to bo hoped that the 

 snow and hail will bring warmer weather, as these severe 

 frosts and easterly and northerly winds are not only keeping 

 things back in the garden, which may be a great advantage 

 ultimately, but are keeping the pastures from moving, a 

 very serious matter to all possessing flocks and herds, espe- 

 cially if scarce of corn and fodder. 



FRUIT GABDEN. 



Fortunately the cold winds kept the buds of fruit trees 

 so backward that we liope they will suffer but little from the 

 severe frosts. On Monday morning fixed a number of extra 

 Laurel twigs among the shoots of Apricots and Peaches, 

 and shut the orchard-houses at night, as we are anxious to 

 keep the trees from opening their bloom until as late as 

 possible, without shading them. Even when the thermo- 

 meter I'ell to 18° below freezing point it scarcely affected 

 these orchard-houses ; but then they had been shut up early 

 in the afternoon, enclosing a good amount of sunshine. 

 But for that we should have found it necessary to have pro- 

 tected the pot plants, as Peaches, Strawberries, &c. It was, 

 therefore, .so far fortunate that there were bright days along 

 with cold nights. The very brightness of Monday, the 20th, 

 following after the leaden cold sky of Sunday, and coming 

 after such a severe frost, with an excessively cold tempera- 

 ture in the shade, rendered firing and air-civing a matter of 

 some importance. The safest plan, in all such cases, is to 

 let the heating medium cool as long as the sun shines, and 

 to give only a minimum of air, and that, in ordinary struc- 

 tures, at the highest point of the roof. A strong artificial 

 heat in such days is not merely waste, but the dry parched 

 air that must necessarily be admitted robs tender plants of 

 their vital juices without mercy, and sickness and inroads 

 of insects are the general consequence. Even damping and 

 shading, under such circumstances, are better than intro- 

 ducing great draughts of cold air among tender plants, or 

 those made tender by forcing. It is of importance so to 

 keep things under glass hardy, that they may stand the 

 rays of the sun without flinching; but plants that will do 

 so in general will often be distressed when the sun shines 

 very brightly for a day after several days of great dullness. 

 A little shading and a moist atmosphere, then, will just 

 enable the plants to accommodate themselves to the changed 

 circumstances. The bright sun, though so desirable in 

 general, must, in such circumstances, be regulated, and 

 fresh air, though also desirable, does not necessitate the 

 sending a northern icy blast among tender plants. 



Disbudded Peaches, arranged Vines, potted Melons, moved 

 Strawberries to the best places at command, aad set out 

 and regulated the second orchard-house, appropriating the 

 front part of the lean-to house to three rows of trees in pots 

 again, as that longer time may be obtained for forming a 

 definite decision as to planting, &c. Last season they did 

 very well, and would have done better, could we have 

 ■watered enough. That, in fact, is one of the chief objections 

 •we have to growing fruit trees in pots. We hope, however, 

 that this season we shall not be annoyed by such scarcity of 

 •water as during the last season. Strawberries are now 

 coming better; but we have had more blind pots than usual, 

 though -n'e are thankful to say that ours are not nearly so 

 bad as those of numbers of our correspondents. We refer 

 a greater per-centage of failures than usual^ to our shortness 

 of water last summer and autumn, and being obliged as a 

 last resource to use liquids in anything but a fit condition. 

 One of our readers told us the other day, that of his nice- 

 looking Strawberry-pots four-fifths had failed. That is 

 certainly a very great drawback. Last season ought to have 

 given us first-rate fruitful plants, but it is just possible that 

 some little neglect in watering under such sun and heat 

 might have starved the fruit-bud even when the plant con- 

 tinued to loot well. We found our own plants much smaller 

 than usual, owing to our drought, split themselves irp into 

 several buds or crowns, which we never like, as we always 

 prefer one strong, well-ripened, single bud. 



Some coi-respondents have also desired us to say, that 



presuming a Strawberry-house is more desirable than shelves 

 put up anywhere and everywhere, what is the kind of house 

 we would recommend ? and to this we reply, that without 

 saying a word against the plans and houses for Strawberry 

 growing lately given by our coadjutor, Mr. Abbey, were we to 

 have the pleasure of building a Strawberry-house, we would 

 closely follow the section latelj' given of the Strawberry- 

 house at Enville. The practical man knows that such a 

 house need never be a single hour unoccupied in any day of 

 the year. 



OKNAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 



Out of doors the work has chiefly been turning over flower- 

 beds, rolling the lawn, and pruning shrubs when the -sveather 

 would permit. The frost has rendered a little protection 

 necessary to Tulips, Hyacinths, and even Pinks and Car- 

 nations newly planted. Fortunately the ground was dry, or 

 some things would have suffered much from the cold. Annual 

 seeds but for that would have suffered if sown early. The 

 period of germination just when the little stem and roots 

 protrude is the most trying, and hence it is that self-sown 

 seeds generally suffer less from changes of weather than 

 those artificially sown. Natural instinct, as it were, tells 

 them the best time for bursting their shell. We have known 

 beds of Mignonette so'wn in March, that never produced a 

 plant, whilst seeds self-sown in autumn from plants from 

 which the seeds were gathered, after being exposed to all 

 the changes of winter, produced a thicket of plants in May, 

 when left entirely to themselves. Even in the case of hardy 

 annuals, those sown in autumn often do better than those 

 sown very early in spring. In general, April is soon enough, 

 when a regular crop of plants is desired. 



Hyacinths Forced. — There are very general complaints of 

 these not coming up to the mark this season. Various 

 reasons have been assigned — the late frosts of last spring, 

 or rather early summer — the taking the bulbs out of the 

 ground earlier than usual as respects the season of the year 

 — and, owing to the demand for bulbs being greater than 

 the growers could supply, sending bulbs into the market 

 with fewer years' growth given to them than usual. Our 

 opinion is that there may be something in all these causes 

 united. What with spring flower gardening, and the winter 

 and spring supply of flowering bulbs, the regular growers 

 in the Low Countries find it hardly possible to get land 

 enough for their purpose. One of our eminent nurserymen 

 told us lately that within two or three years his trade in 

 bulbs had increased fivefold, and that if he pushed it at all 

 he could sell many more could he fuDy satisfy himself as to 

 the quality. Even this season some of the seemingly finest, 

 hardest, plumpest, well-ripened bulbs turned out with him 

 rather inferior. With all this, however, we think it right to 

 state that amateurs and small purchasers do expect more 

 from their bulbs than is qrrite reasonable. If you purchase 

 a dozen plants of one variety from a nurseryman, there will 

 often be variations among them as to growth and habit for 

 which it would be diflicult to give a reason. This is espe- 

 cially likely to be the case with bulbs. A very little differ- 

 ence in the age, in the growth and the ripening of the pre- 

 vious season, will tell on the strength and beauty of the 

 flower-stems when forced the following spring. Often the 

 proprietors of nice villa gardens are apt to become dissatis- 

 fied, and perhaps blame the gardener, when, do what he 

 will, of their dozen or score of Hyacinths each one does not 

 come up to their expectations. They go to a spring show, 

 and they cannot conceive how their dozen of bulbs should 

 not be ijretty well as good as any dozen exhibited at Regent's 

 Park and Kensington by such good growers as Messrs. 

 Paul, Cutbush, itc. They forget that these great growers 

 make bulb culture a speciality, whilst bulbs form a small 

 item in the things demanding their gardener's attention. 

 Besides, we are quite sure that they would oftener be satis- 

 fied rather than dissatisfied with the number of really good 

 flowers they obtain from a small collection, if they knew 

 that the best growers, with all their acquaintance with the 

 best kinds, and giving them the very best treatment, fail 

 to bring every bulb equally good. A gentleman lately 

 grumbled that, after giving an order for eighteen of the 

 best Hyacinths, intending to compete in a class of twelves, 

 he found it was no use trying for anything but sixes, and, 

 to make sure of being fu-st, he must be content with threes. 

 Well, if he took honours in sixes, and in the face of good 



