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JOURNAL OF HaaTICULTUBB AND COTTAGE OABDENEH. [ February 10, 1863. 



Downie, Laird & Laing, 17, South Frederick Street, Edinburgh, 

 and StanBtead Park, Forest Hill. — Descriptive Catalogue of 

 Florists' Flowers, and List of Vegetable and Flower Seeds, Sec 

 1863. ' y 



Hooper & Co., Central Avenue, Covent Garden Market, 

 London, W. C— Spring Catalogue of Flower, Shrub, Tree, and 

 Kitchen Garden Seeds. 



A. Stansfield & Sons, Todtnorden. — Catalogue of Stove, Green- 

 house, Hardy Fxotic, and British Ferns. 



Charles Turner's Catalogue of Seeds for the Kitchen Garden, 

 the Flower Garden, and the Farm. Slough, 1863. 



W. Thompson, Tavern Street, Ipswich.— Descriptive Catalogue 

 of Flower Seeds, 1863. 



F. & A. Dickson & Sons, Upton Nurseries, and 106, Eastgate 

 Street, Chester.— Catalogue of Vegetable, and Flower Seeds, cfc. 

 18G3. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Blioht IS. 67. Jf.).— It is no fungus which has attacked your Orange 

 trees, &c, but the common aphides or green fly. Fumigation and syringin" 

 ■mil destroy them, and they will be kept away by more moisture and a 

 ireer admission of air. Some injury to the roots of your cyclamens 

 causes the abortive flowers. 



Soapsuds (P. C. A)-— filtering the suds through earth may be effected 

 either by ascent or descent, as is fully explained in the pamphlet published 

 at our office, entitled " Muck for the Many." Some of the fertilising parts 

 of the suds would be detained by the earth. We use soapsuds unaltered 

 as a manure. You can have the Journal direct from our office, free by 

 post, by prepaying 17&, id. for one year, or 8s. Sd. for six months. 



Rose Cuttings (67. P., St. Ives).— The only practical direction that can 

 be given about cuttings "of the old wood of the previous season " is, that 

 u will not come from cuttings " now in the open air in spring out of doors." 

 But there is an easy way of rooting now all the young wood of all the 

 prumngs of all kinds of Hoses, and that is to graft on six-inch lengths 

 of Rose-shoots ; and the roots of any sort of Rose are just as good for this 

 mode of propagation as the roots of Dog or Manetti Stocks, as the graft 

 must be planted so deep as to bury the grafted parts just 2 inches below the 

 surface, so as to have the top buu of the graft just within the soil and no 

 more. Then roots come from the grafts themselves before the summer is 

 over, and the rootBtocks may then be cut off for fear of making suckers. 

 All this grafting can be done at home by the fireside, and such grafts if 

 put into a box or basket in damp sand, will keep three weeks without 

 being planted out, if the weather be bad. Every three-inch bit of Eose 

 growth of last summer will thus graft if ripe and having an eye at the very 

 bottom of the graft, an eye within half an inch of the top of the graft, 

 and one or more eyes between the two. So there is no reason to wa6te 

 an inch of the pruning of a good Eose, if it is pruned from the middle of 

 February to the middle of April. 



Which Wood is Most Valuable? (/. P. P.).— This is a question which 

 cannot be answered without knowing the locality where it is to be grown, 

 Mid the purposes for which it is required. In some places the wood of the 

 Poplar would be as valuable as that of the Oak. Tour question reminds us 

 of the following extract from an American volume published at New York 

 in 1775, and entitled "Legend of the Tree of Life :"—" Trees and woods 

 nave twice saved the world— first by the ark, then by the cross ; makiDg 

 full amends for the evil fruit of the tree of Paradise, by that which was 

 borne on the tree in Golgotha." 



Spring Cuttings of Variegated Geraniums {Country Curate).— Ton 

 are wrong on two very essential points. You water the spring cuttings of 

 the whitest and more soft kinds of Variegated Geraniums " every three or 

 four days according to the weather; " but one watering in three weeks in 

 February and March is often all they can bear in a moist propagating-bed. 

 "We have struck those you name by the hundred without ever giving the 

 soil in the pots a drop of water, but only a little damping with the syringe 

 in the afternoons of very sunny days in March. The next error is setting 

 the cutting-pans " for a week or ten days on a shelf in a propagating- 

 honse," where, by the way, they would root without watering later in 

 the spring. Try ihem thus;— Cut very close below the joint after break- 

 fast time, and put the cuttings in a dry place till the aiternoon for the cut 

 ends to dry a little ; then put them in, and plunge them in bottom heat of 

 from 70° to 80° the same evening, and do not give a drop of water the first 

 week, and only to the leaves afterwards ; but the outside of the pots must 

 be moist all the time from the dampness of the bed. 



Best Plants for Exhibition {A Young JExhiMtor). — You are six 

 months too late now, and you will not win a prize this season. All the 

 " best kinds " are now three-parts grown and settled for next summer. 

 Look to the liBts of prize-taking plants at the last year's exhibitions. 



Destroying Weeds on Walks {Jardinier).— We certainly think there 

 are many things more likely to be destructive to weeds than a mixture of 

 lime and sulphur boiled together. This might, perhaps, be recommendable 

 in giving colour to the paved walk you speak of; but a sprinkling of salt 

 or s strong solution of it would be more destructive, and there are many 

 other substances as well as salt for this purpose. We have known a cheap 

 preparation of arsenic very effectual, and one in which copperas was 

 UBed also good, but we believe the last-named article left a stain behind it. 

 For safety, simplicity, and cheapness salt is the best of all. The only fault 

 it has 1b that it cau6es the walk to ha*e a damp appearance at times. 

 Small quantities often repeated after the first dose generally keep all vege- 

 tation down ; and never put as much on as is likely to penetrate to the rootE 

 of trees below the walk's surface. 



Riddell's Boiler (67.).— Unless great care is exercised, all fires and 

 stoves inside of houses are apt to produce dust and a little smoke at times. 

 In jour circumstances, if it could be done easily, we would keep the boiler 

 inside, but so placed as to have the feedir g-door outside. Whatever may 

 be stated in advertisements, we have no faith in any boiler or furnace 

 heated by fuel or gas that has not a pipe to carry off the smoke and other 

 products of combustion. 



Genittllis tolipipera {Ignoramus).— This is the Hedaroma tulipiferum. 

 The culture of it is very easy, being the same in every respect as that of 

 Epacrises all the year round. 



Centabrea oandidissima [C. IP.).— Centaurea candidissima is the 1 est 

 ribbon-border white-leaved plant yet known, and it has no other name in 

 the plant l:sts. No seeds of it have been offered yet for sale as far as we 

 can learn. 



Conifers (P. B.).— You mistake the question. All the hardy Conifers 

 would feather down to the ground with their branches if they were tre„ted 

 ior that way of growth from the seedling state.— D. B. 

 f D ?? A - CE F0K GilI;ENH<re sEs.— I have built a furnace as recommended by 

 J. S. in your issue of November 1 1 th, but find that the flue does not draw 

 well m thick muggy weather. "J. S." will, therefore, oblige if he will 

 s^ate what sized flue should be used, as it is just possible mine may be too 

 large, being 12 inches by 8. My house is 17 feet by 12, and the flue is 

 covered with two-inch flags and plastered inside. Furnace 16 inches deep 

 and 12 inches square. Should the fire always be lighted at the top 2— 



Melon Seels {J. Dunn).— Thanks for the Melon seeds. We shall have 

 them tried. 



Propagating Pimelea spectaeilis (P. P.).— If there are a few short 

 stubby shoots on your plant, from 2 to 3 inches long, you may slip them 

 on as cuttings now ; if not, wait until the plant has done flowering. Prune 

 it back, and when started afresh, from being kept a few degrees higher 

 and m a closer atmosphere, you may then cut the younir shoots. When 

 about 2J inches long take off close to the older wood, trim "the bottom half, 

 and insert in silver sand over sandy peat, and cover with a bell-glass. The 

 cuttings may be placed where they will have an advance of 5° or so for a 

 fortnight, and then be plunged in a mild bottom heat of from 70° to 80". 

 Pot off first m sandy peat, and as the plants grow larger and shifts are 

 required, add a little fibry loam. 



M «?- Pollock Geranium Become Green (P. P.). — The dull winter 

 and rich feeding « ould have a tendency to produce the result complained 

 about ; but we know so little of the means of bringing back the variegated 

 torm that we could advise you to do nothing but to cut the plants pretty 

 well down, and keep them rather dry until they break afresh. This we 



I have sometimes found effectual, but not always. There is a little hitch in 

 the management of these variegated Geraniums. When we plant them out 

 m poor soil we are more apt to keep the variegated form ; but then the leaves 

 come small, and therefore are wanting in massiveness. When treated 

 with rich feeding a shoot will come green at times, and that had better be 

 cut off. Besides these green shoots, they will sometimes throw shoots of a 

 transparent white ; but these we never succeeded in doing anything with, 

 the best of the variegated— Brilliant, came as a sport on Tom Thumb, and 

 it not unfrequently reverts to the original form. 

 Wooden Paling {A. P.).— For a wooden fence 6 feet 6 inches high in 



I the mountains of Lancashire, and to be covered with climbers, tarring the 

 fence would be better than painting ; or, if you paint it. the stone-coloured 

 anti-corrosion paint is what we w ould use ourselves in that region of clouds 

 and storms. Use no climber, for you can train up 6 feet only, but some 

 good common hardy shrubs, with here and there a running Eose, a JaBmine 

 and Honeysuckle, or a Clematis, but not nearer than 15 feet apart, Laurus- 

 tmus, BerberiB, Spiraeas, or what are known already to grow well and 

 answer in that part of the country. 



Flower-garden Plan {Subscriber, Aberdeen).— Were it not that you 

 had sent for our advice we should have thought Sir Joseph Paxton had 

 made your flower-garden plan. It is a perfect beauty. To plant Eoses or 

 any plant higher than 18 inches in the sunk oval, in the centre of the 

 garden, would defeat the aim of sunk panels. Eaise them up as it were to 

 the original level, or higher still by the height of tall plants placed m the 

 sunk parts. All yonr best and lowest of the bedders must be planted in 

 that sunk oval, and not Eoses. The two 7-beds, the two 16-beds, and the 

 two 10-beds are your beds for Roses; the two 5-beds and two 19-beds 

 lor pillar Eoses, and the two 18-beds ought to have some permanent ever- 

 green ; but this garden would look exceedingly well if only the two No. 7 

 beds were in Eoses. 



Planting Eoses {Anxious Inquirer).— The calendar says truly, the 

 sooner Eoses are planted, at the end of January, the better, although 



that does not exactly fit your case." The how much later Eoses can be 

 planted with " safety " is this : They can be planted to the verj middle of 

 May and be as safe trom dying outright as if they were planted at the end 

 of October; but then they will do you little credit for the first two or three 

 years. But the worst part of the story from a young gardener is the " you 

 intend ordering the Eose plants as soon as you can ascertain how many 

 will be wanted "—that is, perhaps you will be able to order the Roses at 

 the end ot February-just two months after the best plants, the second 

 best plants, and the third best of all the best Eoses, except the best old 

 kinds, have been picked over and over again by gardeners who do their 

 work at the proper time. When you are " all right," tell us the kinds and 

 the distances you mean to plant them, and we shall give our opinion on the 

 meritB of your plan. 



Gardener's Advertisement (P.).— Half-a-crown for each insertion.; 



Mowing Machine (Single-handed). —As you intend to impel it your- 

 Belt, buy the narrowest, for that will be certain to n quire the least power, 

 it kept oiled and free from rust 



Camellias (J. B. P.).— A basket has been received, the carriage of which 

 was not paid. 



Wild Flowerb of Great Britain (P. Bell).— The work will contain all 

 the flowering plants. We have not a prospectus left, but you will find it 

 printed on the cover of each monthly Numher. 



Brugmansias (Brugmausia).—'We have published the treatment of 

 these plants often. For summer and autumn flowering we would prefer 

 those plants now that have fewest leaves on them. If the shoots of the 

 head are large we would prune them back, and when the shoots were 

 1£ inch long we would shake the most of the Boil from the roots, and repot 

 in strong rich loam, packed as firmly as the hands would permit ; water, 

 and keep shaded for a week, and aB they grow give manure water. If 

 the wood was ripened last autumn, then every strong shoot thus made 

 will produce abundance of flowers. If the head of the plant is small, then 

 merely removing the points may be enough of pruning. If the plants are 

 kept in-doors use the syringe freely, or you will have red spider. 



