48 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 20, 1863. 



GARDENIA AND POMEGRANATE CULTURE. 



The following hints are in answer to the inquiries of an 

 Irish subscriber, and refer to the two hardier kinds — radicans 

 and florida — the first growing compact as a dwarf bush, and 

 the second rising more upright as a larger shrub ; both pro- 

 ducing large, double, white, sweet-scented flowers ; and both 

 coming to us originally from the flowery land of China. 



1. Propagation.. — Any time during the summer will do ; but 

 from the 1st of March to the middle of April I consider the 

 best, as the plants will then be well established before "winter. 

 Small shoots, about 2 inches in radicans, and 3 inches in florida, 

 of nearly a season's growth answer well placed in well-drained 

 pots, in sand and covered with a bell-glass. These pots may 

 stand on the surface of a mild hotbed for a fortnight or three 

 weeks, and then be plunged in a bottom heat of 80°. If the 

 bottom heat is from sweet tan, or dung and leaves, no bell-glass 

 will be required, as the vapour from the dung, &c, with a thin 

 shading in bright sunshine, will be quite sufficient to prevent 

 wasting-perspiration from the cuttings. In such a place the 

 cuttings will root quickly, and then should be potted-off and 

 placed back again in the same place, kept close at first, and air 

 given as the roots work freely into the new soil. Then nip out 

 the point of the plant to make it bushy ; and if a small 60-pot 

 was first used another shift may be given into a 54 or a 48; keep 

 growing witli heat and mois- 

 ture, and give more air in 

 autumn that the plant may 

 stand cooler in winter. After 

 a second summer's growth 

 the plants will be large 

 enough to bloom in the fol- 

 lowing spring. 



2. Soil. — This should be 

 heath mould and loam, and 

 a little sweet leaf mould and 

 silver sand. The heath mould 

 should preponderate in the 

 first shifting, until formiddle- 

 sized plants there should be 

 equal portions of each. Eor 

 large well-established plants 

 fibry loam should take the 

 preponderance ; and aB soon 

 as the plants are intended 

 to bloom, not only should 

 the drainage be ample, but 

 the potting should be done 

 tight. 



3. Time of Potting.— Eor 

 great success this is a matter 

 of importance. Good-sized 

 established plants will do 

 well several years without 

 repotting; but still when 

 convenient it is as well to 

 give the plants fresh soil, if 

 no larger pots are used. The best time to do this is after fresh 

 growth is taking place after pruning. Then pick or shake away 

 a good portion of the old Boil, use fresh soil well aired, plunge 

 the plant if possible in a mild hotbed, water with water at 80°, 

 and keep rather close and shaded until roots and tops are growing 

 freely. 



4. Pruning. — This should be done as soon as the plants are 

 done flowering. The radicans will generally need but little prun- 

 ing. Frequently young shoots will be growing before the flowers 

 quite fade, and then the cutting-out of old pieces to give these 

 room will be the chief pruning. Florida will need more of the 

 knife to keep it in shape. The object in pruning is to obtain 

 as many shoots all over the plant, as equal in strength as pos- 

 sible, as there is room for, and which will not only be strong 

 enough, but ripe enough before the end of autumn to produce 

 flowers at their pointB next season. 



5. General Treatment and Position. — I will suppose that 

 the plants have done flowering in June, and that they are stand- 

 ing in a warm greenhouse. After dressing or pruning, and 

 syringing overhead, the plants may stand a few days, and are then 

 taken to a hotbed. Here they remain on the surface for a few 

 days, and are then, if possible, plunged in a bottom heat of 80°, 

 the place kept rather close, and the plants syringed evening and 



morning, and a little shade given in the middle of the day. After 

 pruning some plants may have enough of young shoots, and in 

 their case top-dressing or repotting may shortly be done. In 

 the others, as soon as fresh growth is proceeding repot and 

 encourage this growth, giving more air by degrees as the shoots 

 become pretty equal in strength. The next object is to harden 

 them so as to cause the flower-buds to Bet. About September 

 air should be given liberally and plenty of sun, and by the 

 middle of the month the pots should be kept free of the plunging 

 materials — in fact, a cold pit would then do as well as a hotbed, 

 and in such a bed with a hot-water pipe, or in a greenhouse, they 

 may stand pretty close all the winter in a temperature averaging 

 45° at night ; and during that time the soil should just be 

 moist not wet. When it is desired to start them into bloom 

 in spring select those first with the plumpest buds, and set them 

 in a hotbed on the surfaee, where the temperature will range 

 from 50° to 55°. In a fortnight the pots may be plunged in a 

 temperature of 80° ; and the top heat may average 60°, with a rise 

 from sunshine. As soon as the flower-buds are nearly expanded 

 raise the pot out of the bed. In a few days move to a drier 

 atmosphere, and then in a few days more the plants may be moved 

 to the greenhouse, in a rather close place, and where the tem- 

 perature will be from 45° to 50°. Here the bloom will continue 



much longer than in a hot 

 pit or stove. After flowering 

 the pruning, potting, &c, 

 must be proceeded with as 

 already detailed. These 

 plants, provided they obtain 

 a growing, a ripening, and a 

 resting period, will do pretty 

 well without a hotbed ; but 

 the hotbed treatment is not 

 only the most successful, but 

 does much to keep the plants 

 in a clean and healthy state. 



6. Watering. — When in 

 bloom the colder the place 

 the less water will be re- 

 quired, and that should be 

 warmer than the house. 

 When resting little water 

 will be required, but the 

 soil must not be dry. When 

 growing freely water will he 

 needed rather plentifully, 

 and manure water then will 

 help much. After sunny days 

 the syringing of the foliage 

 will be relished. In autumn 

 no more water should be 

 given than will do to keep 

 the leaves from suffering. 



7. Insects. — Green fly is 

 apt to appear on the flower- 

 buds when swelling, and also on the very young shoots, and a 

 little tobacco smoke is the best remedy. Thrips and scale are 

 also apt to assail them, but the hot vapour from fermenting 

 material is the greatest enemy to such depredators as these. 



Such a fine variety as Fortuni may have exactly the same treat- 

 ment, but the temperature in winter should not be below 50° ; and 

 for such tropical kinds as Devoniana and the long-tubed Stanley- 

 ana it should not be lower in winter than from 55° to 60°. These 

 latter could not be managed well without a stove ; the former, to 

 which I have chiefly referred, can be grown in fine order with the 

 assistance of a greenhouse and a hotbed. 



PtWlCA (Pomegranate). 

 We are glad you have succeeded so well with this in a pot, 

 though you failed with it against a wall, especially as respects 

 its blooming. Perhaps the plant when against the wall was 

 scarcely old enough to bloom freely. From all I have seen of 

 it, single and double, I consider the Pomegranate to be rather 

 hardier than the Myrtle, and when once established the treat- 

 ment of both is very much alike. When against a wall the Pome- 

 granate delights in Boil light rather than stiff. When in a pot, 

 and especially the double-flowering variety, it delights in soil more 

 stiff and rich. To secure free-flowering, the training and prun- 



Specimen Gardenia Stanleyana. 



