Ootober 26, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL Of HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



359 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



Day 



01 



of 



Month 



Week. 



26 



Th 



27 



P 



28 



S 



29 



Sun 



80 



M 



81 



To 



1 



W 



OCT. 25— NOV. 1, 1876. 



J. Strutt bom, 1742. 



AlphoDse de Candolle bom, 1806. 



20 Sunday afxee Trinity. 



Average 



Temperature near 



London. 



Day. 

 55.6 

 55.1 

 54.5 

 54.0 

 54.9 

 58.5 

 52.1 



Night. 

 36.5 

 38.4 

 85.9 

 35.7 

 88.3 

 38.0 

 37.9 



Mean 

 46.1 

 46.7 

 45.2 

 48.8 

 46.6 

 46.0 

 46.1 



Sun 

 Riaea. 



h. rn. 



6 45 



6 47 



6 49 



6 50 



6 52 



6 54 



6 56 



Sun 



Sets. 



Moon 



KiBca. 



42 

 56 

 7 

 17 

 28 

 40 

 56 



Moon 

 Sets. 



fc. m. 

 11 49 

 morn. 

 1 4 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Days. 

 9 

 10 

 11 

 12 

 13 

 14 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



in. a. 



16 



16 5 



16 9 



16 13 



16 16 



16 18 



16 19 



Day 



of 



Year. 



300 

 801 

 302 

 303 

 304 

 305 

 306 



From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week ia 54.2 3 : and its night temperature 

 37.1°. 



VIOLETS, AND THEIR CULTURE. 



> T a time when many are purchasing plants 

 for stock and others making up their Violet 

 beds for the winter, it may not be inoppor- 

 tune to offer a few remarks on the culture 

 of this favourite flower. I am the more 

 induced to do this as, since my notes on 

 Violet- odorata pendula appeared on page 

 298, many correspondents have asked me 

 to give them a few hints on Violet-grow- 

 ing. I have replied to some privately ; but 

 within the limits of a letter it is hardly possible to do 

 more than give a few general directions, or even to give 

 them to everyone who asks. I will therefore enter some- 

 what more into details, premising that I do not write for 

 the skilful in such matters, as many of the readers of 

 "our Journal" must be, but for those to whom a few 

 plain directions will prove acceptable and helpful. 



The great mistake with many writers is that they are 

 not explicit enough; they are apt to fancy that nearly 

 everybody knows as much as they do themselves, and 

 are consequently afraid to enter into details which they 

 think are familiar to all. Now I must try and believe, 

 imperfect though my knowledge is, that there are others 

 who are in a still worse plight than myself — people who, 

 though they love Violets, have not the remotest idea how 

 those who grow them successfully and manage to have 

 them for six months of the year, accomplish those results. 

 As far as I know, then, they shall know ; and I will pro- 

 mise them that if they attend to my directions they shall 

 meet with a fair share of success. 



Everyone, though, is not so advantageously situated as 

 I am. This is a land of Violets. From February to May 

 the hedgerows, copses, lanes, and fields are in many 

 places carpeted with the delicate blossoms of this humble 

 yet precious little gem ; while at every roadside you may 

 make sure of gathering a few if you wish. As loDg as I 

 can remember Violet-picking has been one of my delights ; 

 and when absent from dear old Devon nothing ever re- 

 minded me so much of home scenes as the sight and 

 perfume of Violets. I quite sympathise with one of my 

 correspondents who writes, " Violets here, alas ! are few 

 and far between : when we lived in Devonshire we could 

 get as many as we liked." Well, cheer up, friend ; even 

 now if you want Violets, and want them enough to be 

 content to take a little trouble to grow them, this can no 

 doubt be accomplished. Where soil, situation, and climate 

 are propitious, as they are here, some of that trouble may 

 be saved, but not all. Listen, then. If you must have 

 Violets and plenty of them — Violets not only in spring, 

 when they come because they can't help coming, but 

 Violets in autumn and winter too — Violets not for one 

 month of the year only, but for six or seven right away, 

 make up your mind to this : No rough-and-ready or lazy- 

 bed systems will do. There must be strict attention to 

 the following rules, or you will not succeed : — 1st, Divide 

 your plants in spring ; 2nd, Attend to them in summer ; 

 3rd, Give them room and good quarters in autumn. 



No. 818.— Vol.. XXXI, New Sebieb 



Now, having impressed these general directions on your 

 memory, follow me while I amplify a little and explain. 

 What do you mean by "divide your plants in spring?" 

 Why, just this : Many people have an idea that the 

 making of a Violet bed is work that has to be done 

 about once in a lifetime. They have but to procure 

 plants, stick them in, and then go on gathering continually 

 year after year. Not long ago a lady said to me, " Violets 

 don't do with us at all, and yet I cannot make it out. 

 The plants seem healthy enough, but we get hardly any 

 flowers. What can it be ?" Lazy-bed system, of course, 

 I thought ; and so it proved. There they were, all run 

 together into one great mass. Flowers ! why, how could 

 they flower ? Two or three wretched little blooms might 

 manage to hang themselves out on the edges of the great 

 straggling mass ; but whatever superfluous energy the 

 plants had was expended in a nearly hopeless struggle 

 for existence — about twenty crowns competing with each 

 other in every G square inches of soil. No, that is not 

 the way to have flowers. If you want your plants to 

 bloom you must at all events give them elbow-room if 

 nothing more. 



I will suppose, then, that you have a bed of this de- 

 scription, or plants of some sort run together more or less 

 as they will be by spring, and that April — sunny, rainy, 

 fickle April — has come, and that you have gathered your 

 last Violet. Let this be the beginning of months to you 

 as far as Violets are concerned — a finishing-up of the old 

 year and a coming-in of the new. First you want a new 

 bed and fresh soil to set your infants in. Let it be well 

 worked and aired and liberally manured with either very 

 decayed manure, or, better still, wiih leaf soil ; and if 

 your soil is heavy the addition of a little sand is beneficial. 

 As to situation, I quite agree with Mr. Lee that an open 

 one is the best ; but in this you must be somewhat guided 

 by circumstances. If you dwell in a congenial clime 

 where the dry and scorching air of summer is tempered 

 by mild and balmy sea breezes, and where frequent mists 

 roll up from the bosom of the great Atlantic and water 

 the face of the earth, then do as I do — plant your Violets 

 out in a sunny and exposed position, and they will do 

 better than if shaded by trees or drawn-up by hedges. 

 But if, on the other hand, your lot is cast in a dry and 

 thirsty land, where the rays of the sun are powerful and 

 the. rainfall is under the average, give the Violets the 

 benefit of a little shade if possible, or the shelter of any- 

 thing that tends to lessen the excessive evaporation. A 

 border under a hedge (not a wall) facing east is as good a 

 position as can be found. 



Having your beds ready, take up your plants and pull 

 them to pieces, planting out each crown separately at 

 distances varying from 6 inches to a foot, according to 

 the variety. The weaker growers, such as the Neapolitan 

 and King, require, of course, lesB room than such strong 

 sorts as Victoria Regina and Czar. Give the fresh planta- 

 tion a good watering, to be repeated if the weather is 

 very dry at intervals of a day or two, until you see that 

 the plants are established and your spring work is done. 

 Now do not forget my next admonition. Attend to them 



No. HC3.— Vol.. LVI., Old Series. 



