January 20, 1SG3. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



55 



PBTJIT OAItDEN. 



Much the same aa last week. Put Strawberries on an empty 

 shelf in the Peach-house and back of narrow Vine-pit. Syringed 

 Vines in a sunny day as the 14th. 



Looked over fruit-room in wet afternoons, and put some 

 Vine-pots into a leaf-bed to bring them on gradually ; watered 

 the Vine cuttings in pots. Put a few warm leaves close to the 

 wall of Peach-house to keep the roots there comfortable ; and 

 laid a layer of straw neatly along the back of a narrow pit, used 

 for Vines and other early things. This wall is from 4 to 5 feet 

 ill height at back above the ground. The straw is placed on 

 neatly about an inch thick, and three strings along fasten it 

 securely. In cold weather the straw covering makes a great 

 difference in the heat. When the outside of the straw was all 

 covered with hoar frost the wall inside of it was as comfortable 

 as a warming-pan. The wall is 9 inches thick, and rather old 

 and worn out. In a hollow wall or near a coalpit sucli keeping- 

 in of heat need not be resorted to. The last straw covering of 

 the walls lasted three years, and half a load of straw would 

 do more than 200 feet in length of such a wall. For cold pits 

 made of brick it is the neatest and best mode for making them 

 secure in winter. We recollect a pit of nice plants being securely 

 protected as respects the glass, but the froBt went through the 

 brick walls and did all the mischief. 



Talking of heat brings me in mind of a chance expression we 

 used some time ago as to a return being made in large places to 

 [he saddleback boilers, which I see has brought out two corre- 

 spondents in praise of Mr. Clarke's tubular boiler. Though we 

 have done little with the working of such boilers, yet in de- 

 scribing Mr. Weeks' system of heating we then professed so far 

 Dur adherence to it. The whole of the rest, of these tubular 

 boilers are borrowed or adapted from Mr. Weeks' plan ; but if 

 )ther boilers are well set they will also do their work well, and 

 if not oonvinced they would do so, they would not adopt them 

 it Trentham, and in such splendid new gardens as those at 

 Welbeck. Give only a dash of zeal and enthusiasm, and a 

 'ardener will make a common boiler do wonders. For ourselves, 

 However, on various accounts, we have a hankering after the 

 upright tubular boilers, though we have heard of considerable 

 ;racking and flying among them. 



OKNAMENTAl DEPARTMENT. 

 Looked over the plants in conservatory, and gave more water 

 ;o Camellias swelling their buds, to Cinerarias, &c. All forced 

 jlants should go at first to the closest and warmest end. 

 Dhinese Azaleas, after the middle of January, need but little 

 leat to start them into bloom. All plants from bottom heat, as 

 ETyaeinths, Lily of the Valley, Musk, &c, should be raised out 

 )f the plunging material a few days before being moved. All 

 mch plants should be as carefully guarded against sudden 

 ihanges as any pet in the animal world on which we set a high 

 ralue. Give plenty of air to Heaths and Epacris, and other 

 lardwooded plants ; but when the temperature outside is near 

 Veezing, give little or no front air to beat on the plants. A 

 ew Gardenias may be put in a sweet hotbed, and air given 

 it first. Succession bulbs may also be started. Little is gained 

 iy forcing Violets ; but a little bottom heat, and plenty of air 

 n suitable weather, will cause them to come finer and stronger. 

 Ill runners should be removed from the Neapolitans, which are 

 is sweet as any still. For cool houses and entrance halls, the 

 rasminum nudiilorum would be very showy at this season, 

 ■specially if grown with a stout stem and a drooping head. 

 Che wet and the frost injure the flowers outside, but kept from 

 vet, the plant might look like an umbrella of green and gold. 

 [t has no scent, however. 



PITS AND FRAMES. 

 Found that the mice had penetrated into a frame of bedding 

 calceolarias, and nipped-off the tops of one kind entirely — 

 Victory, a small dark sort. Poison and traps must be laid for 

 hem. These cuttings were put-in in November after the first 

 rost, and have just rooted too well; not one, we believe, has 

 nissed, and oil are quite healthy. We shall not know where to 

 ind room for them. But for the frost coming, it would be 

 [uite time enough to put-in these cuttings in December, as the 

 ooner they are put-in and the sooner they root, when planted so 

 hickly the sooner do they demand thinning and moving in spring. 

 1 few plants were covered all day on the 12th, as they were not 

 irotected the previous night. Having made a little room, we 

 lave commenced taking-off some hundreds of cuttings of varie- 

 ;ated Alyssuin, variegated Geraniums, Crystal Palace Nastur- 



tiums, &c, as at this season, with a little bottom heat, they 

 strike quickly and need no shading. Whilst the sun is bo low, 

 we prefer, in a sunny forenoon, giving a slight syringe overhead 

 in preference to shading or watering. Who is to let out the 

 pretty new Lobelia ? — R. F. 



TEADE CATALOGUES KECEIVED. 



Sutton & Sons, Reading. — Spring Catalogue and Amateur's 

 Guide for 1863, Containing Selections of Kitchen- Garden Seeds 

 and Moots, Flower Seeds and Plants, and Agricultural Seeds, 

 together icith Cultural Instructions. 



W. Steward & Co., 18, Drake Street, Plymouth. — Price 

 Current of Garden, Farm, and Flower Seeds. 1863. 



James Lothian, Campbeltown. — List of Butch Flower Roots. 

 Autumn, 1862. 



B. S. Williams, Paradise Nursery, Holloway, London.; — 

 Catalogue of Flower, Vegetable, and Agricultural Seeds, Bulbs, 

 and Roots. 1863. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



# * # We request that no one will write privately to the depart- 

 mental writers of the " Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 Gardener, and Country Gentleman." By so doing they 

 are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. All 

 communications should therefore be addressed solely to The 

 Editors of the "Journal of Mortieulture, Sfc," 162, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.C. 



We also request that correspondents will not mix up on the 

 same sheet questions relating to Gardening and those on 

 Poultry and Bee subjects, if they expect to get them answered 

 promptly and conveniently, but write them on separate 

 communications. Also never to send more than two or 

 three questions at once. 



We cannot reply privately to any communication unless under 

 very special circumstances. 



Celery {County of Durham). — We do not think that the variety grown 

 had any connection with the " bolting: " last autumn. The same occurred 

 very generally, and to every variety. The cause we believe to have been 

 a check to the growth of the young plants, caused by uugenial weather at 

 pricking-out time. 



Size op Flower-pot (Country Secretary). — We know of uo rule requir- 

 ing the diameter of a pot to be measured an inch below the rim. We 

 think it ought to be measured close to the rim. All such measurements, 

 are taken inside. An eight-inch pot ought to be S inches diameter next 

 to and within the rim, and 8 inches deep perpendicularly from a slick laid 

 across the rim to the bottom of the pot inside. A small fraction of an 

 inch, provided not exceeding an eighth of an inch more, in any such 

 measurements ought not to disqualify. 



Gardener's Residence (W. A. B.).— There is no doubt that it would 

 be more fitting for the gardener, if married, rather than the married, 

 groom, to live in the garden-cottage ; but we are quite sure that public 

 journalists have no right to interfere with such arrangements. The gar- 

 dener must plead his own cause with his mistresses. 



White Bramble (Rubus Bifiorus). — Any of the large London nursery- 

 men who advertise in our columns could supply you with it. 



Scarlet Geraniums in Pots (L. C.).— There is no particular treatment 

 required now, nor until next May, for Scarlet Geraniums, nothing more 

 than to keep the frost from them and to see they do not want for water, 

 and that they have no more water than will just keep them alive. The 

 pots ought to be more or less dry all the spring, but not so dry as to cause- 

 a leaf to flag. 



Ferns in Crinoline Pots (H. B.).—Ab tut as we can judge, In the 

 absence of actual experience, we should say decidedly that the cocoa-nut 

 refuse dust would be more suitable for Ferns grown in crino'ine pots than 

 for those in common pots. Let us say a crinoline pot is another na.r.e for 

 a sieve-like pot, or pot-basket of wirework, with meshes of greater or less- 

 diameter all over it. Then say, use such pots of double or three times the 

 size of clay pots for Ferns ; line them with thin flakes of the surface- 

 of peat soil, and cram them as tightly as you can press it with the dust 

 from the cocoa-nut fibre mills, and if the Ferns do not flourish in crinoline 

 pots in that way much better, and at half the expense of attendance, than 

 they ever (lid before, we should he very much surprised. We have only 

 ju6t learned that the Ferns at the great International Exhibition, which 

 Ferns were only bought for the purpose at the Kingston Nursery the week 

 before the opening of the Exhibition, were then shaken out of the peat 

 and planted in the pure cocoa-nut fibre dust ; and the plants were only 

 watered four times the whole time they were on exhibition, and then only 

 by men who never before watered Ferns and only a very few common, 

 plants. 



Gold and Silver Ferns (A Subscriber).— The chances are against your 

 Gold and Silver Ferns doing any good after having lost their fronds, from, 

 bad packing and too much cold, no doubt. 50° is the lowest temperature 

 for them in winter, and 55° to 60° should now be the warmth for your 

 leafless ones, and keep them a little moist at the roots ; do not give them up. 

 before the middle of May. Gymnogramraa is their botanical first name, 

 and the different kinds have various second names. This is the worst time 

 to give lists of Fuchsias and Pelargoniums, as better sorts will be ou6 

 immediately in the spring catalogues. 



