526 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 21, 1876. 



may {be cut back close to the stems annually in March or 

 April, when young leaves will speedily be produced and have 

 a neat and pleasing appearance all the season. 



Ivy may be grown as standards, bushes, pyramids, and 

 " umbrellas." The vigorous green-leaved kinds make good 

 standards. Strike the cuttings in pots in July or August, and 

 keep them in a cold frame during winter. In April pick out 

 those with straight leaders and plant them out in well-manured 

 soil, keep them trained to stakes, and in July pinch the side 

 shoots into two or three leaves ; the next season cut the leader 

 back to the height required for the standard, preserve the side 

 growths for forming the head, and train them out so as to 

 keep vigour in them, but pinch the side shoots so a3 to prevent 

 them taking the lead and depriving the head of support ; the 

 next season cut the leaders back to three buds. By following 

 this treatment for about four years good specimens will be 

 established ready to be planted for ornamentation on lawns or 

 in shrubbery borders. After so planted out remove the side 

 shoots from the stem a few at a time, commencing at the 

 bottom, when clean stems will be produced, and the heads oau 

 be trained to any shape required, or be left to flower and fruit 

 in their own wild way. 



Pyramids are easily formed by inserting a few stakes in the 

 pots, and taking the side shoots round the stakes, which will 

 soon be furnished, and in the autumn, after growth is finished, 

 tying the stakes firmly together at the top. If the plants have 

 been kept growing freely they will be of good size to be 

 effective the second year, and may be kept in the same pots 

 for several years, provided the Boil is good loam and manure. 

 During the summer plunge the pots in old leaves or cocoa-nut 

 refuse, and keep the plants well watered. Plants so treated 

 make good specimens either for flower beds, conservatories, 

 corridors, or rooms during the winter months. " Umbrellas " 

 may be fornnd by taking a shoot straight np and training it 

 out on a head of wirework until the outline is covered, then 

 pinching the side shoots so as to form the head into a dense 

 mass of foliage. The side shoots must afterwards be removed 

 from the stem, as previously stated. This style is useful for 

 various purposes of decoration. 



Bushes can be grown in pots of either the climbing or fruit- 

 ing varieties. I have seen the yellow-berried variety (H. ehryso- 

 oarpa) look beautiful in winter with its bright berries and green 

 foliage. It takes time to grow good bush specimens. In all 

 respects they require the same treatment as the others, and 

 should not be pruned unless a strong shoot push out beyond 

 the rest. All fruiting varieties are well adapted for bushes, as 

 they require no training, and are useful in the flower garden 

 during winter. 



The following are some of the varieties I am acquainted 

 with, and they consist of the largest and smallest leaved kinds 

 in cultivation — namely, H. canadensis, H. algeriensis, H. den- 

 tata, H. Boegneriana, H. digitata, H. digitata nova, H. chryso- 

 carpa, H. Dondierien6is (minima), H. maculata, H. elegantis- 

 sima, H. sagittaefolia, H. taurica, H. Caenwoodiana, H. palmata, 

 H. chrysophylla, and H. elegantissima marginata. — Alfred 

 Alderman. — (Read before the Wimbledon Gardeners' Improve- 

 ment Society.) 



A GAEDEN OF HABDY FLOWERS.— No. 4. 



PLANTS WITH A HISTORT. 



How to plant a garden to ensure a maximum of pleasure 

 with a minimum of future trouble. This was the gist of 

 "Ignoramus's" appeal, and I am trying to show how it may 

 be done ; but in doing so I must be careful not to mislead my 

 amateur friends. Gardens are perhaps especially subject to 

 the mutation of time, and the " once for all " system is ap- 

 plicable to very few gardening operations. It is true that 

 much labour and expense may be avoided by planting hardy 

 flowers ; but weeds will grow, the flowers become crowded, 

 blossom and foliage perish and become unsightly, ''change 

 and decay" are ever going on, and therefore for a garden of 

 any kind to be kept in good order a constant and daily super- 

 vision must be maintained, except perhaps Justin midwinter. 



Now, do not turn away with the idea that if you follow me 

 there will be nothing for it but to have professional assistance 

 during the greater part of the year, for I certainly do not mean 

 to advise such a course. If the owners of small gardens wish 

 to derive much pleasure from them, hired help, except for the 

 more laborious work, must be dispensed with. Spend part 

 of every day in your garden, even if it be but a brief hour. 

 Procure as many of the plants as you can yourself, plant them 



with your own hands, and cherish them. Avail yourself of 

 every trip or tour countrywards to enrich your store, and your 

 garden will constantly grow in interest as well a3 in beauty ; in 

 interest especially, because its occupants — the offspring of 

 your own exertions, either by propagation or collection — will 

 possess a charm altogether distinct and superior to that of 

 plants planted or cultivated by hireling hands. They will 

 speak to you in a language understood by you alone, recalling 

 to memory many a bright hour of your life, incidents of travel, 

 cherished acts of friendship, scenes that you have visited " long, 

 long ago." Do my readers yet understand what is meant by 

 " plants with a history ? " Do they recognise the fact that by 

 devoting a little of their own superfluous energy to their 

 gardens they may not only have the enjoyment of healthy 

 recreation — invaluable at the moment, but secure a fund of 

 future enjoyment, from which they may draw largely without 

 any risk of exhausting the source of pleasure so pure, and so 

 unselfish withal ? "I found that Parsley Fern on a mountain 

 in Westmoreland." " These tufts of Saxifraga we brought 

 from the ruins of a Fictish fort in the Isle of Skye." " That 

 Silene maritima was pulled off some rocks at Torquay by 



J ." " I brought those Maidenhair Ferns and the Coro- 



nilla from Lecco, and we found these Cyclamens on Monte 

 Campione." Such are a few of the remarks one hears made of 

 "plants with a history," often followed by anecdotes — inci- 

 dents of the road or descriptions of scenery. 



Many Buch anecdotes could I repeat were my object simply 

 to amuse. One of them is worthy of a place here as serving to 

 enforce my teaching. Walking round a garden a short time 

 ago, which was literally crowded with " plants with a history," 

 I paused to examine a curious and uncommon form of the 

 familiar Heart's-tongue Fern. The plant was a fine one, and 

 had a special corner devoted exclusively to it. " Ah !" Baid 

 its owner, " that is a great treasure, and I got it in a curious 

 manner. I was shooting in Ireland, and shot a snipe which 

 fell right into this Fern. I saw at a glance that it was a rarity, 

 managed to pull it up, and went off with the snipe in one 

 pocket and the Fern in another." There, " Ignoramus, " that 

 is the spirit with which real lovers of a garden are imbued. 

 Cultivate it, and you will find that life has one more pleasure 

 worthy of the name, that gardening is not so very difficult 

 when you throw your heart into the work, and that a garden 

 tended in the manner in which I am trying to aid you to tend 

 yours is about the nearest approach to the " philosopher's 

 stone" that has been or it is likely will be discovered. In the 

 garden you will always find food for the mind as well as for 

 the body. Cherish, then, your garden, and it will become a 

 veritable treasure-house of " rich memories," suggestive of 

 kindly thoughts and noble aspirations. 



Christmas-tide is near. Many gardens will aid in making it 

 joyous, and that many more may have a similar result before 

 the close of the " next new year " is the " Christmas greeting " 

 of — Edward Luckhurst. 



GRAPE VINE MILDEW, 



On account of a pretty general prevalence of mildew on 

 Vines during the past season the various popular remedies 

 have obtained a considerable amount of attention, and more 

 than usual has been written about them. I have attended to 

 the culture of the Vine for about eighteen years, and never 

 saw mildew on my Vines until the past summer, and as my 

 treatment of it was a complete success I gladly avail myself of 

 your pages to make it known. 



In July the pest made its appearance in a span-roofed house 

 80 feet long, planted principally with Lady Downe's. The 

 Vines first attacked, however, were two Muscat Eamburghs, 

 but the disease spread with considerable rapidity throughout 

 the house. Sulphur waB recommended to me as the only anti- 

 dote, which I applied to the hot-water pipes in a liquid state, 

 and as a powder to the bunches and foliage most affected. I 

 continued these applications for four or five weeks without 

 making any appreciable improvement in the condition of the 

 Vines. 



By this time I had begun to fear that the whole crop would 

 be sacrificed or at least materially injured, when I bad a remedy 

 brought under my notice which had been successfully tried by 

 Mr. Harrison, of Darlington, for Roses. It is advertised as 

 " Silk Cocoon Liquid Manure," and is from the silk mills of 

 Messrs. Litter & Co., Manniogbsm near Bradford, and was 

 sold at that time- by their agent, Mr. John HarriEon of Whash- 

 ton near Richmond in Yorkshire, who is now dead, but I believe 



