January 27, 1863.] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



81 



Jargonelle Pkar Thee 2 on 3 feet prom the Walt, (A. B. C.).— 

 If your tree is healthy and vigorous, it might.be very safely cut- down, so 

 as to leave all the principal branches a foot long, or even less than that if 

 you can find a smooth place, where we would advise the branch to be grafted. 

 Even if you thought of continuing the same kind, it would be as well to 

 put-in some grafts in the ordinary way of crown-grafting, as the shoots 

 from them could be made to point more in the direction they are wanted 

 to grow, than if produced from the trunk of the tree. Other lands might 

 also be introduced at pleasure, April is soon enough for grafting in this 

 way, but your scions ought to be in readiness before. Although few Pears 

 excel the Jargonelle, we would, nevertheless, try some later kind, as Glou 

 Morceau, BeurrG d'Aremberg, Marie Louise, Vicar of Winkfleld, and 

 others. If the tree is very vigorous, it would be as well to root-prune it 

 a little at the time it is cut-down ; otherwise the superabundance of sap 

 may srek for itself some other outlet than the limited one loft for it. 

 Your former letters, which you say were addressed to ns on other subjects, 

 have either rot come to hand, or have been answered in a way in which 

 you may have overlooked them. 



Young Branches of Peach Trees Dying (L. O.).— The roots of the 

 trees against the back wall of your orchard-house have either been kept 

 too dry, or they have descended into an ungehial subsoil. If the latter 

 supposition is the truth, you must cut away those roots, and by surface- 

 manuring slightly, and mulching, induce the roots to keep more upwards. 

 The tree which bore no fru ; t had sufficient sap to perfect its young wood; 

 the trees well laden with fruit had not such sufficiency. 



Glass Labels ( W. F. S, A.). — Our correspondent wishes to know where 

 glass labels for Rose tree3 are to be hud. We make them for ourselves by 

 making a glazier scratch witli his diamond the names on strips of glass. 

 In notches filed on the ccges, wire may be fastened for attaching them to 

 the trees. 



Phycella Herbert: and Cypella Heiiberti Culture (T.).— All the 

 Phycellas, and all other bulbs from the same country, Chili, are very pre- 

 carious when grown in pots. They do much better iu raised borders 

 under a south wall. Your dry bulb of Phycella Herberti ought now to be 

 just pushing the points of the roots from the black bulb after having 

 been at rest since last August. None of the Phycellas should ever have peat 

 in pots, nor be watered after the end of August until February; and 

 as they cast the old roots like Hyacinths, they are more safe out of the 

 pots packed in sand in a box or drawer, and should be repotted early in 

 February in good loam made light with sand, and the bulbs covered up to 

 the neck with the soil. The greenhouse is too hot for them at the time of 

 ■flowering, or after the leaves have finished thtir growth early in June, 

 and it is in the excitement of overheat that causes them to go wrong, fail 

 of flowering, and keep green out of season. A cold-pit treatment is best for 

 "them. Cypella Herberti ought to grow and bloom freely enough in a 

 greenhouse in June and July if it had a winter's rest, and was in half peat 

 and half loam the previous season; but many greenhouses are more for 

 roasting plants in summer than helping them on. All such summer- 

 growing bulbs do better in damp cold pits tban in most greenhouses from 

 April to October. 



^ Gladioluses in Pots (A Cottage Gardener).— All that you and your 

 friends have to do with your new purchases of Gladioluses, is to put them 

 in No.48-pots, one root in each, during the middle of February. Place 

 the bulbs just within the soil, which should be as for Fuchsias, rather 

 damp but not wet or dry, and do not water them, but put them out of 

 sight somewhere, a cool cellar being the best place till the leaf is half an 

 inch out of the ground; then a cold frame to the second week in May. 

 Plant them then, where Cauliflowers would be likely to succeed well, in 

 the gardon, or if they are to be kept in pots repot them, and keep to the 

 same first-class Fuchsia compost. 



Amaryllis {Idem).— There are several kinds, and every kind requires a 

 different treatment ; but if we knew your sort we would aid you t 



Climber for a Shaded Moss-hou^e ( W. H. £.).— As you did not men- 

 tion the part of the country or of the three kingdoms where the moss- 

 house is, all we can do is to answer as if it were on the shore of the Pent- 

 land Firth, to make sure of our selection being fit for the moss-house. 

 And the best climber we know for a moss-house on the Pent-land Firth is the 

 Ruga Rose ; it will cover it all over very soon, but not so thickly as to spoil 

 the thatch. Gourds of all kinds are grown in the open air. 



Variegated Mint as Edging [Idem). — It will certainly make edgings 

 not more than 4 inches high in one season in the strongest and richest 

 land if it is treated properly, as we last season reported from the prac- 

 tice of Mr. Eyles at South Kensington, and also as we have often stated 

 in these pages. 



Mosses (Moss).— C is Hypnum proliferum of Linnseus, and Hypnum 

 recognitum of " English Botany." G is Hypnum cupressifor in e of Linneous, 

 and nigroviride of " English Botany." The " class of Mosses to which these 

 belong," is that in which the theca is lateral — that is, the flower and 

 fruitstalk come from the sides of the Moss plants, not irom the top, or 

 terminal, as in the Bog Moss or sphagnum. 



Chrysanthemums not Blooming ( Idem). — The reason why your Chry- 

 santhemums do not, or did not, open their flower-buds in the greenhouse 

 is, that they were too late in forming the flower-buds. If you could intro- 

 duce the plants to stove heat, and give them as much as 60° at night, and 

 plenty of water, every one of them would open. We have seen such a 

 thing forty years ago. 



Yellow-berried Holly (Idem),— It is not very common, although 

 there is no reason why it should be scarce. There is only one way of 

 propagating it ; bud or graft it on stocks of the common Holly. 



Glass Efergnes {Patslin). — We have had no experience of these, and 

 •cannot advise. 



Puttying Laps in a Greenhouse (Idem).- 

 and give air otherwise. 



■Wo would putty all laps, 



Melon-house (.4 Heal Greenhorn),— Viz approve of the whole of the 

 arrangements. We would only make one suggestion. In the bed, make a 

 layer of. concrete, smooth on the surface, below the pipes ; and then, by a 

 drain-tile, you can pass water among and through the rubble, and thus 

 have moist bottom hsat whenever you lilie. The same would be effected 

 by having 6 inches of rubble above the pipes, 2 or 3 inches of concrete, 

 then 3 or 4 inches of rubble drainage, and then the soiL The firBt mode 

 would be the more simple. 



Foliage Plants for a Bed (A Young Sub., Herts).— You say that your 

 " lady employer ia desirous of having a bed entirely of foliage plants in 

 the flower garden next summer ;" and instead of, for your own improve- 

 ment, making out a list of the best foliage-plants for beds which you have 

 read about for the last three years, or have peen or heard of otherwise, 

 you ask us to do so for you. You must also have read in this Journal 

 that wg do not supply lists to plant any particular bed ; all that is proper 

 for us is to criticise the lists for planting which our subscribers send up 

 to us for that purpose. All young gardeners ought to have known that 

 long ago. Make use of your own judgment, and we will criticise your 

 selection and plan if you send them to us. 



Camellia Leaves Spotted (J. S.). — The spots are occasioned by the 

 roots being kept too wet or too dry. There is deficient root-action from 

 some cause which we can only guess at. Probably the centre of the ball 

 of earth is hard and dry. The Fern you enclosed is Cyrtomium falcatum. 

 Use of a Vacant Pit (A. F. F.).— We cannot afford cither time or 

 space to answer all your queries. Fine- foil aged Begonias may now be 

 moved to the forcing-pit, and kept rather dry even there until the fresh leaves 

 begin to come, when they should have most of the old soil shaken from 

 them, be repotted, and kept close and warm until growth commences. 

 You may place there cuttings of any Fuchsias. The young plants iu the 

 greenhouse, if wanted large, would stand more than greenhouse heat. 

 The large plants, now dry and leafless, should have a little water. The 

 same may be said of cuttings of all kinds of Geraniums, Petunias, Cobcoas, 

 Plumbagos. They will stand from 55° to 65° at night, but must have more 

 air as soon as struck. The Stephanotis we presume is in the forcing-pit, 

 as unless your greenhouse is kept warm it would not be healthy there; 

 and the cuttings of that will stand from 5° to 15° more heat after it is 

 struck than the Geraniums and Fuchsias. The coolest part of such a pit 

 would do to strike cuttings of Phloxes ; but the cuttings will be best 

 obtained a couple of months or so after this, when the young Bhoots are 

 some 2 or 3 inches in length. You may sow any perennial greenhouse 

 seeds, whether herbaceous plants or shrubs, and by potting them off early, 

 they will make nice little plants before winter. Of seeds of annual plants 

 for the greenhouse we should scarcely sow any now, except the different 

 sorts of Cockscombs. All other annuals would be tender and drawn. For 

 planting out of doors, we would confine annual-sowing now chiefly to 

 Intermediate and Ten- week Stocks; and these, as soon as fairly up, would 

 need to be moved to a cooler place. The same may be said of all sorts of 

 Pansies, and the new Chinese Pinks. 



Cucumber-pit {A. H.).— The simplest plan against your south wall 

 would he a pit above the ground level— say G feet wide, front wall 2 feet 

 in height, plate for rafters on wa:l 4 feet in height ; flue, single or return, 

 in centre; platform across, with means for letting the heat up; sashes 

 made to slide, and entrance obtained by moving sashes. The following 

 would be a little more expense but much superior, making a house instead 

 of a pit :— Front wall 2 feet high, with ventilators in it ; width, 8 feet ; back 

 wall, 8 or 9 feet ; roof fixed ; sash-bars 3} inches, to receive glass 18 inches 

 wide by 12 ; trellis, 15 inches from glass; wood ventilator hinged at top, 

 9 inches wide ; flue, 2 feet from front, and pots placed over flue. 



White and Brown Scale on Ferns (Ignoramus).— Try dipping the 

 Ferns in size or gum water, just strong enough to be a little sticky between 

 the thumb and finger. Keep the plants in a shaded place for a day or 

 two, and then dip them and gently move them about through clear water 

 at about 120°. If very bad, it will be best to let the fronds ripen by cur- 

 tailing water, and theu cut-down freely and start afresh — that is, if the 

 kinds will admit of that treatment. Such plants could then be washed at 

 the base of the stems, and a fresh potting given them, so as to remove a 

 portion of the old soil, and fresh growth encouraged. 



Cucumbers and Melons in a Heated Greenhouse (A Constant Sub- 

 scriber, Briton ferry). — We would advise training the plants up the front 

 and top of the wall, and then 18 inches horn the glass roof, putting the 

 pots of Melons in front and the Cucumbers at the back. We would have 

 entered more fully into your case, but cannot give you more definite 

 directions than you will find at page 24; only, when you have good strong 

 stems of Cucilmbers, you must stop them often, as you want a continuous 

 supply, whilst the Melons will only ripen one crop. 



German Ivv {J. £.).— You will find all we know about it at page 795 

 of our last volume. Any of the large nurserymen who advertise in our 

 columns could procure it, if thev do not happen to have it. Tin cocoa- 

 nut-fibre dust was advertised in our last Number by Messrs. Barsham, 

 Kingston-on-Thames. 



Marie Louise Pear Unfruitful (7)/ro).— If you cut it down as you 

 propose, you will only have, as its successor, a wild Pear or whatever 

 kind it was grafted on. You had better shorten the branches and graft on 

 the stumps, as recommended in the present Number to the owner of 

 another barren Pear tree. 



Geapes Ripe by August {Y. Z.).— To have Grapes ready for the 1st of 

 August, vou will not be too soon if you begin to break, the Vines very 

 quietly at once, and t)e Grapes will be none the worse if ripe a few days 

 earlier, though a fortnight or even three weeks later would do. 



Plunging Material for a Pit {An Irish Subscriber).— The best ma- 

 terial is just according to circumstances. If your pots stand near the bricks 

 and tiles, cocoa-nut fibre will do well to pack among your pots, because it 

 will keep the heat about them, from its nonconducting property. If you 

 placed your cocoa-nut fibre a foot thick over your rubble, and then set or 

 plunged small pots on it, you would obtain little bottom heat from the same 

 cause, so long as the fibre next the rubble was dry. If damp all through, 

 and water placed in contact with the pipes, your fibre would then absorb 

 and conduct heat. Where nice growth is desired, we should prefer sweet 

 tan to any fibre, though we have not tried the latter (or the purpose. For 

 neatness, we would as soon have sand as anything. It is easily moistened. 

 We recommend the "Fruit Manual " for descriptions, and the "Florist 

 and Pomologist" for coloured representations of the best fruit- There is 

 no modern work on fruits with coloured drawings of them exclusively. 



A Belt of Trees on Clay Soil (An Old Subscriber).— On a strip of 

 cold, heavy, damp land that hr.s been in fallow for the last five years, after 

 a crop of scotch Fir, Yew, and Elm, we would not plant any of the Fir 

 tribe now, but Elm would do quite as well as before. For country 

 work the wood of the Black Italian Poplar and that of the Huntingdon 

 Poplar come soonest to hand, and pay best; and they and the Elms are 

 just the right kind of timber for such a strip of land. 



