December 5, 1878. ] JOURNAL O% HORLICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 421 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
ye Day DECEMBER 5—11, 1878. Tem Nera aC ar | Sun Sun | Moon | Moon | Moon’s ios Day 
Month’ Week EG e Rises. | Sets Rises Sets Age Sine vols 
| Day. Night: Mean.| h. m.| h. m.} h. m.| h. m| Days, | m. s. 
5 TH Royal Society at 8.30 P.M. 49.0 | 35,2 42.1 7 81 3 50 iy alys 3 14 11 9 10} 339 
6 F Geologists’ Association at 8 P.M. | 48.2 | 36.7 42.4 7 52 3 50 1 34 4 25 12 8 45 | 340 
7 Ss Sale of Bulbs at Stevens’s Rooms. | 48.4 | 38.5 | 43.5 7a 58 3 50 1 56 5 37 13 8 19 | 341 
8 | SUN | 2 SUNDAY IN ADVENT. | 46.9 | 33.6 | 43.0 7 55} 3 49} 2 37 6 48 14 7 53 | 342 
9 |™M London Institution at 7 P.M. | 46.7 | 34.9 | 40.8 7 56) 3 49) 3 9 7 53 (o) 7 26 | 343 
10 | Tu | Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society at 8.30 P.M. | 47.0 | 328 | 39.9 | 7 57] 3 49] 4 4] 8 53 16 6 59 | 344 
E 11 W Society of Arts at 8 P.M. | 46.5 | 32.6 | 39.5 7 58 3 49 5 12 (39 17 6 32 | 345 
| | | 
From observations taken near London during forty-three years, theaverage day temperature of the week is 47.5°; 
30.0°. 
and its night temperature 
ZONAL PELARGONIUMS IN WINTER. 
Cor=00 class of plants is more valuable for winter 
ss decoration than Zonal Pelargoniums, and no 
y A 2 plants are more accommodating to the culti- 
ep 
Ne 
vator than they are. No flowers are more 
oO) 
showy than these, nor better adapted for cut- 
ting purposes, for they last well in a cut state. 
On the plants for the decoration of the con- 
servatory the flowers continue in beauty for a 
great length of time. Their flowers indeed are 
freely produced at all seasons, but are never more 
welcome than during the winter. 
We have watched with much interest from time to 
time how some growers have weighed Vesuvius in the scales 
and found it wanting. This variety was at one time highly 
popular, but now large-trussing varieties are advocated to 
be grown instead. Why this should be the case we are at 
a loss to know. We have tried a number of the large- 
trussing varieties and have certainly found them fall very 
short of producing the quantity of flowers that Vesuvius 
does ; and further, if we had relied entirely upon those 
that produce large trusses we should not have had the fine 
display of bloom we bave had for some time past. Vesuvius 
through the dark and dreary months of the autumn is just 
as free as it is at midsummer, while the other varieties do 
not produce their blooms so freely in winter. We have, on 
plants treated the same in every respect, four or five blooms 
on the above-mentioned variety to one on the others. Our 
plants are principally grown in 6-inch pots, and many of 
the Vesuvius have twenty trusses open on one plant pro- 
pagated in March last, while the others rooted at the same 
time have only three or four, and many only one and two 
trusses. Vesuvius produces its flowers in great profusion, 
although not so large in the truss, which renders it better 
adapted for cutting purposes, and they last when cut equally 
as long as the others. : 
Our plants are chiefly struck from cuttings and rooted 
during March and April in thumb-pots, afterwards potted- 
on as they require more root room until they are placed in 
6-inch pots. As soon as all fear of frost is over in early 
summer, the plants previously well hardened off are placed 
outside on beds of ashes, and are liberally supplied with 
liquid manure through the summer, the shoots being stopped 
and the blooms picked off as they require it. We pot them 
as firmly as possible in rich fibry loam and sand, adding to 
the loam alittle bone dust. The old plants that we save and 
repot to grow into a little larger size are rested after bloom- 
ing for a time; they are then cut back, and after they 
have well broken they are taken out of their pots and the 
whole of the soil is shaken from their roots ; the plants 
are then placed in smaller pots, kept close until they take 
to the new soil, and then hardened off and placed ontside, 
and treated the same as the others. They remain outside 
until frost compels us to take them in. ‘ 
An early vinery or Peach house where the trees and Vines 
have cast their leaves is a good place for them at first, or 
better still is a light airy house where they cam be placed 
near the glass. As we want them to bloom we introduce 
No. 923,-VOL. XXXYV., NEW SERIES, 
them where the temperature can be kept at 50° at night, 
which is sufficient to bloom them in; if much lower when 
the plants are in flower the petals soon damp. We have a 
sport from Vesuvius which is equally as free as the original, 
but a little larger in the truss and more of a rosy-scarlet 
colour ; it possesses all the good characteristics of its parent, 
and is very useful. Wonderful will, we believe, turn out 
to be a good winter-blooming variety. We have not tried 
it largely yet, and are not in. a position to say much of its 
merits. If for winter work with its double flowers it is as 
free as its parent it certainly will be great acquisition; but 
we shall not discard Vesuvius until we find something 
better. 
The following varieties are worth growing for winter 
decoration :—Miss Strachan, Mrs. Jacoby, White Princess, 
Mrs. Hetley, May Queen, Harry Turner, Miss Skipworth, 
Rainbow, Overall, Mrs. Whiteley, Mrs. Huish, Rob Roy, 
Mrs. Groves, Mary Pearson, Brutus, Incomparable, Matilda, 
Mrs. Muster, Lady Emily, Prince of Wales. The latter 
comes next to Vesuvius for freeness ; then Mary Pearson, 
Mrs. Jacoby, J. Gibbons, a good dark; and Matilda and 
Lady Emily are good pinks. Many others are worth grow- 
ing, if not so free, for the distinct shades of colour they 
possess.—W™. BarpNey, Norris Green, West Derby. 
THE TOMATO DISEASE. 
BLIGHTED ToMATOES are becoming as common as blighted 
Potatoes, simply because both of these vegetables are sub- 
ject to the same kind of disease, arising in each instance 
from the same causes—a falling temperature and heavy 
rain ; or, in other words, cold and wet. This fact renders 
the cultivation of Tomatoes in the open air an exceedingly 
speculative matter, and even when planted against walls 
there can be very little certainty of securing a crop unless 
the plants are brought on under glass and have the fruit 
set by the time the plants are turned out. Then by plant- 
ing in rich sail, by exposing the fruit fully to the sun, by 
retaining only enough branches and foliage to insure a 
quick swelling of the fruit, to promote which bi-weekly 
applications of sewage or rich liquid manure should be 
given, we may fairly hope to save the crops before the fatal 
change of weather sets in during August. 
A remedy which will occur to all is to plant under glass. 
This, however, will prove a delusion and snare if due watch- 
fulness and care be not exercised to exclude cold draughts, 
especially if dull, chilly, wet weather set in. It was only 
last summer that I learnt this to my cost, and it may help 
others if I tell how it happened. 
In a long lean-to Peach house many Tomatoes were 
planted, some close under the glass along the front and 
others against the back wall between the trees. At one 
end a considerable space of bare wall was entirely devoted 
to Tomatoes, and they were so vigorous that they had grown 
right up to the top 10 feet high, and were laden with large 
clusters of green fruit. To retard the ripening of some of 
the Peaches the ventilators were kept wide open along the 
top day and night, and while this was done the weather 
became dull and wet, and gusty winds were prevalent. Two 
Ney 1573,—VOL. LX., OLD SERIES. 
