January 13, 1363.] JOTJRJfAL OP HORTICULTURE AXD COTrAGE GARDEXER. 



were placed in a frame with a bed of leaves and horse-droppings, 



into a pit where a little fire heat could bo used, because the 



frame being in a rather shady place and the weather so duil, no 



moderate amount of air would enable one to dry the A ines, but 



the moisture and damp hang to them — a matter of no moment 



for the first few weeks, but which might have injured the buds 



as they were swelling. 



Or.XAMF.KTAL DEPAETJTEXT. 

 Here, too, pruuin?, planting, digging, and clearing have been 



generally practised, along with leaves-gathering. Conservatory 



plants were looked over. In stove, snmll plants of Ferns and 



other things repotted into aired heated soil. Pelargoniums 



were smoked with tobacco and capsicums — Scarlet Geraniums 



especially ; Variegated were potted separately ; and Verbenas, 



being very thick in 60 and 43-pots, were repotted into 32-sized 



pots, or several plants put into a 16-pot. Before doing this, as 



there were a few whitish marks, respecting which it was doubt- 

 ful whether they were white smears or might be mildew, and as, 



though I did not see any, I was rather suspicious that there 



might still be some vestiges of thrips left, a bucket was filled 



with sulphur laurel water, and, turning each pot with the fingers 



across the soil, pulled the heads of the plants several times 



through the solution, and then, to prevent the latter finding 



its way into the soil, laid the pots down on clean litter on their 

 | broadsides. After remaining there half-a-day, each potful was 

 | syringed round and round with clear water at about 130', and the 



pot watered so as to make sure of every fibre being moistened, 



and thus to be ready for shifting the following day. The soil used 



was light and rich ; and though the small pots had been nearly 



half-filled with crocks, all were left in, and the roots not dis- 

 turbed. After potting, the pots were plunged in a leaf-bed 



with a kind gentle bottom heat ; but iu all such mild weather 



the tops will have plenty of air. From what I have seen take 



place with Verbenas I have a reason for every one of these 



minutia?. One friend says, " Why not pot-oft' the Verbenas 



singly?" Weil, this I never like to do until the middle of the 



month and in favourable circumstances ; but as to finding room 



for a tithe of such potted-off plants I might as well attempt to 



fly. The little bottom heat at first after shifting will cause 



vigorous root-action. The plants can be shaken-out afterwards 



for earth-pits if we think proper; but our chief object is to have 



plenty of stubby short-jointed cuttings a month or sis weeks 



hence. I have several times stated how to make sulphur lime- 

 water : a gallon bottle of it will last ever so long. — R. F. 



35 



TJRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



W. Cutbusli & Son, Highgate, London. — Catalogue of Select 

 Vegetable, Flower, and Farm Seeds for 1863. 



Plymouth Seed Company, Plymouth. — General Price Current 

 of Kitchen-Garden, Floicer, and Farm Seeds. 1863. 



J. Illman, Wellington Place, Strood, Rent. — Catalogue of 

 Stove, GreerJiouze, Hardy JZxotic and British Ferns. 1862. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Loe-s^ia Sekpltng (J.O). — The two plants are now in most beautiful 

 health in Mr. Beaton's omnibus-pit. They seem much easier to keep than 

 speeiosa, and would make a gardenful of plants by next May were they 

 propagated to order. Gne of the plants flowered in September, and was 

 not then nearly so good as the same style of seedlings was at the Crystal 

 Palace ; but it was too late in the season to judge properly. They will not 

 be propagated, but will have a fair start in a clergyman's garden, and Mr, 

 Beaton will report oh them in August. 



Bcddtng Forced Hoses (P., Brentwood}.— Tour plan is founded on 

 scientific principle, and your plan and theory are both correct, and must 

 succeed ; but, after all that, the practice of the whole trade is against 

 you. \Ve shall enlarge on this question next week. 



Gockds ok Poles (Adolphus). — One of our regular correspondents has 

 grown them on poles for the last two years, forming a series of arches 

 across a central walk in the kitchen garden ; but he thinks, from the short 

 'time the plane and its fruit remain ornamental, they hardly deserve the 

 trouble they give. A pear-shaped and a fig-striped one were about the 

 most ornamental in a dozen or twenty varieties; but they sport very 

 much. The best eatable varieties are the old Vegetable Marrow and the 

 Custard. We have heard of others being wholesome, out not so agreeable 

 as these. We cannot undertake to recommend nurserymen ; and such a 

 sporting plant as the Balsam is always prone to furnish single-flowering 

 plants from seed of the best double. 



Farfcgicm-lixe Cyclamen (T.). — We are requested by Mr. Beaton 

 to say tli3t a customer comes forward, who will give a fair price for 

 the Cyclamen with the leaves blotched like the leaves of Farfugium 

 grande, providing Mr. Beaton can assure Mm that the leaves are really so 

 marked. If "T.'s" friend will, therefore, send a leaf to Mr. Beaton, it 

 win be sent back by return of post if " T.'s " friend wishes it. 



HtrrKASTRvM BiCESTRi Ciltcrk (H. M. K. ).— There were two kinds 

 of it from the West Indies, one with larger flower- than those of tt.e other. 

 It is the most difficult of them all to manage, owing to its "singular con- 

 stitution." Naturally, it is not prone to expend itself in making offset 

 bnlbs like vour plant.' You cultivate it like aulicum and that race, otherwise 

 vour tale would bo different. Hippeaslrum equestre should lie dormant, in 

 a drv place in the stove, from the end of October to the beginning of 

 April, and then be watered until the plant flowers, or until the leaves are 

 at their full length— say bv midsummer. From that moment, from the 

 flowering, or from the leaves attaining their full length, it is a hardy 

 greenhouse plant, and in .Inly and August would do better out of doors 

 than in anv house ; but by the end of Augustit ought to be on a high back- 

 shelf in a greenhouse, be watered till tho end of October, and then turned 

 into a stove and water withheld, soon after which the leaves die down. 



Span-roofed Greenhouse (/. Buckley).— It is purely a matter of taste 

 and economv as to whether you have a house made with rafters and move- 

 able sashes,' or a fixed roof. Where much heat is not required, you may 

 give air by the moving of the front upright sashes ; where much fire heat 

 is wanted,' as in earlv vineries, it is a great advantage to admit air close to 

 the w-arming medium. With sashes, you could have the upper ones to 

 slide. "With a fixed roof, with three-inch rafter-sash-bars, you had better 

 have a double ridge, with a foot ventilator between and a cowl outside, as 

 Mr. Cox airs his houses at Kimpton ; or, as you seem to contemplate a 

 stage in the middle of the house, that ventilator could be drawn along from 

 the°ends, as is done bv Mr. O'Brien, at Mr. Bewley's, near Dublin, or by 

 Mr. Xiven, for front air, at Drumcondra, which we presume you have 

 noticed. Iu a fixed roof, the supports will do well. Of course there is a 

 bar on each side the whole length of the roof, against which these posts 

 abut. In a sliding roof with rafters, no posts would be necessary. For a 

 greenhouse alone,' the height of 12 to 14 feet would be ample in your ex- 

 posed place. The higher you go the more room for the Tines, but the more 

 exposed it will be. We would have the two ends pointing north and south. 



Cestaubea caxdidissima (J. C.).— "We have just seen ten plants of Cen- 

 taurea candidissima in No. 16-pots in a nursery, and the way followed 

 there would suit you and all other nurserymen. A dozen were bought 

 last rear for stock ; they were planted-out, and were too late for autumn 

 propagation ; thev were'lifted, and put into the big pots at once, and in 

 the beginning of December thev were put into a gentle forcing-house— say 

 into 50° of heat at night, and on the second day of the new year we saw 

 them just on the move ; and we advised an old practical hand to have alt 

 the centres of the heads of the plants to be stopped, by twisting a 

 piece of wire down the centre of each division of the heads, and that 

 stopping will increase the suckers and side shoots tenfold for cuttings. 

 Our friend had done the Pine Apple suckers long since on that plan, 

 stopped them, and put more strength into the fruit-a better plan, he 

 said, than teasing a good fruiter by tearing-off so many suckers. 



CATKRriT.r.iR (T. F. B. C.).— It is a caterpillar of the Noctuida?, and 

 most probably of Xoccua meticulosa, the Angle Shades With. This cater- 

 pillar had been very destructive of our correspondent's Begonias and 

 Cinerarias. 



Evergreen-bed (B. B.).— As vou have "Rhododendrons already, and 

 wish a srradnated rise in the evergreen-bed from the ed-mg of Roses, the 

 best plan would be to plant the first row of Andromeda nonbunda, about 

 10 inches or a foot high, and a foot from the P.oses, and make the bed ot 

 different sizes of Berberis aquifolium. After a bed of one high colour ot 

 P.hododendrons, a bed of this Berberis is the most telling evergreen-bed 

 that has yet been made. Mind, the Roses must be Chinas and kept very 

 dwarf, otherwise the effect of the bed is soon ruined. 



Beetroot Edging !A Constant Reader:.— Our correspondent asks "Will 

 Beetroot make a good edging to Calceolaria floribunda, or can you give me 

 a better '" Beetroot would make a good edging to any of the bedding 

 plants ; but the question is, who would like it save a farmer, and he would 

 find a much better use for it. 



Bkddeb Geraniums (Hem).— Christine, edged with Mangles*, wou'd bs 

 more tellinsr than Bijou or Mountain of Light, or any ot the other 

 variegated Geraniums, or all of them nut into one bed could be with an 

 ed°-in" of Mangles', and for this reason— that there is no contrast and no 

 combining of tints, when a bed of variegated plants is edged with a varie- 

 gated plant of the same kind as that iu the bed. 



List of Bedding Geraniums (_Idem).— There are two kinds of Alma 

 Geraniums as bedders— Mr. Dennis's large pnrple perpetual ot the green- 

 house class, and the variegated Alma. Both these are the very best in 

 their respective sections, and both of them arc less miffy, to a certainty, 

 than anv other kinds of equal merit in their strains. The best dwarf >ose- 

 gav Geranium is Earon Ricasoli, and " D., Deal " puts it first in the lists ot 

 ias'lvear. But to decide which is "the best" of anything in gardening 

 is a'fulile attempt, for tastes differ. JJowever, we shall enumerate the 

 good, the better, and the best, according to our liking after a while. 



Cocoa-xxt Fibre Dust ( W. H. TJ.-A hundred times we have said 

 that this refuse is dust, more like brown snuff or mahogany sawdust tnra 

 anvthing else, and vou send us a bunch of hair-like fibres and ask us it 

 that is it ! Such fibres will do to cover pot-drainage, but for nothing else. 

 (T. B. 21.).— This is the right material, though not so fine as it is usually. 



Painting with Gishurst Compound ( TT. P.).— The painting of the 

 walls, &c, of a Grape-house and orchard-house with Gishurst compound 

 could do no harm if done now, so that the strong scent would be gone 

 before the buds swelled ; but, unless there is some particular reason, we 

 do not see much to improve in the plan. If the walls were full of holes 

 and insects, then it would be desirable. 



Mulching and Watkbing Tines (itfem).-When to do so? is too in. 

 determinate, and depends, especially watering, on the time you wish them 

 to grow, and if drv or moist at the roots. Mulching can do no harm at 

 anv time. Night soil, either liquid or otherwise, should be used m small 

 dose-. Last Year we knew some fine young Tines ruined, because their 

 owner imagined nothing could be too rich or too gross for them. 



Cimellia Flowers Deformed {An Inquisitive Vnder-Gardener).— 

 When plants are verv healthv, the appearance you complain of— the 

 flowers defective, or twisted on" one side -is often the result of the centre 

 of the ball being le:t drv, or too much water remaining from defective 

 drainage : iu either case the root-action being deficient. If neither of these 

 is the source of the disappointment, it would be advisable to tie a woollen 

 thread round the buds when swelling freely, to keep them from splitting. 



