March 10, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



193 



-A Cata- 



Robert Kennedy, Conservatories, Covent Garden, 

 logue of Ferns, Exotic and Indigenous. 



Peter Lawson & Son, 28, King Street, Cheapside, London. — 

 Catalogue of Agricultural Seeds. 1863. 



John Norse, Dursley Nurseries, Gloucestershire. — Spring 

 Catalogue of Cuttings of Dahlias, Verbenas, Geraniums, and 

 other Bedding Plants, Sec. 



Edward Taylor, Malton. — Catalogue of Agricultural, Garden, 

 and Flower Seeds. 1863. 



Toole & Company, "Westmoreland Street, Dublin. — Spring 

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

 Moots, and Implements. 1863. 



J. C. Wheeler & Son, Gloucester. — Wheeler's Little Boole, or 

 Select Seed List. 1863. 



D. Dauvesse, Rue Dauphine h, Orleans. — Catalogue general 

 des Vegetaux disponibles dans les Pepinieres. 1863. 



Jamin et Durand, Bourg-la-Reine, Paris. — Catalogue des 

 Arbres Fruiliers, Hosiers, Arbres et Arbustes d'Ornement. 

 1863. 



Adrien Seneclauze, Bourg-Argental, (Loire). — Catalogue 

 general d' Arbres Fruitiers. 1863. 



Pontaine & Dufiot, 6, Quai de la Megisserie a Paris. — Cata- 

 logue de Graines des Fleurs. 



Paul Tollard, 4, Place des Troismaries a, Paris. — Catalogue 

 General de Graines de Plantes Potageres, Fourrageres, Econo- 

 miques, d' Arbres, et de Fleurs. 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 Horticulture, Src," 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. 



Roses Manured with Fowls' dung" (A Young Gardener, Dubtin). — 

 So far from doing the trees any injury it will benefit them, and you may 

 water them with a weak liquid manure made of it — a peck to thirty gallons 

 of water as soon as the flower-buds appear. 



Making Sods into Manure (J. Z.).— Do not pour sulphuric acid over 

 them, for it would take a vast quantity to kill the weeds in them. You had 

 better have them raised with lime and salt, turning the mixture two or 

 three times before using it as a manure. A bushel of salt and a bushel of 

 lime to twenty bUBhels of sods would not be too much. 



Insects in Asparagus-beds (A. 5.).— They are Millipedes (Julus), and 

 one Centipede. We believe that they cause no injury to plants, but feed 

 upon decayed vegetable substances. 



Whitewash over Wall-tree Bloom-buds (R. JV.). — If the whitewash 

 was put ou before the buds were much swelled, it would do good instead of 

 harm. Do not meddle with it, it will fall off during the summer. 



Grafting Young Orange Stocks (W. B.). — Your best plan is to form a 

 mild hotbed, with a bottom heat of about 75° to 80°. Nip the point off 

 your plants, set them for a week in the bed, then take them out a few at a 

 time, and, as near the soil as possible take off a slice of 2 inches long or so 

 from the side of the stock. Do the same with a scion, tie them neatly 

 together, cover with a little clay, or grafting-wax, and syringe every day 

 to keep a close moist atmosphere. They will soon take. 



Bottom Heat (N.). — Bottom heat is the heat given to beds or pots from 

 beneath, either by hot water, or by dung, or by flues. We think there 

 must be something wrong in your chamber. Is it close all round 1 If so, 

 the heat at the slate may at times be too great. We would advise you to 

 put 6 inches of open rubble over the slate, and you might have two or three 

 round small drain tiles in every light, set upright over the rubble, and the 

 upper end plugged. This would help to diffuse the heat equally through 

 the soil, and yo*u can pour water into these tiles so as to have a moist 

 heat at bottom when desirable. If the soil gets caked against the slate the 

 heat will not rise freely, and if it becomes sodden like a morass the plants 

 will not thrive. 



Transplanting Crocuses after Flowering (Felixstow). — By taking 

 them up with as large a ball of earth as possible they may be removed to 

 some other place, and there left to ripen ; >fter which they may be taken 

 up and kept until September, and then planted where wanted next year. 

 They suffer a little by this treatment, but if carefully managed they flower 

 pretty well the folio wing year. Sanders on the Vine will suit your purpose, 

 and give you all the information you require. 



Gooseberry Caterpillars [J. F.) . — There are two caterpillars that attack 

 the leaves of the Gooseberry. The most usual depredator is green, spotted 

 black, and is the progeny of the Gooseberry Saw-fly, Nematus trimaculatus. 

 The other caterpillar is yellowish-white, with an orange stripe and black 

 spots. This ia the progeny of the Magpie Moth, Abraxas grossulariata. 



Propagating Clematis ( Wyeside).— Cuttings off the young shoots when 

 about 3 inches long do best ; or, what hi almost aB good, laying a few 

 shoots down on the ground, pegging them there, and half covering them, 

 will insure a number ef plants, each joint generally rooting, and also send- 

 ing up a leader. 



Passion-Flowers in a Glazed Porch [Idem).— These are planted on a 

 bed with pots of plants standing on them. There is no difficulty whatever in 

 making strong-growing PaBsion-Flowers grow in your bed, which is 5 feet long 

 by 1 foot wide, provided, in the flrBt instance, that well-rooted plants, which 

 have been in pots, be first planted there. In planting do not break the ball 

 too much. It would be advisable to plant only the hardy robust varieties, 

 as Passiflora racemosa and coerulea, &c, omitting P. princeps, quadrangu- 

 laris, &c, as likely to suffer from the water they may receive from the 

 potted plants standing over them. Let the border be well drained, and we 

 have no doubt but you will be successful in presenting a good show with 

 the aid of Geraniums, &c, standing over it in summer, and evergreens in 

 winter. 



Lifting and Cdtting-down Rhododendrons [An Old Subscriber). — If 

 your plants were only recently planted, they cannot want either pruning or 

 moving yet. Generally speaking, Rhododendrons, however vigorous, 

 flower well in favourable seasons, and rarely require cutting or pruning 

 until they become very old and leggy. In that case they may be cut 

 down in March or before, and in doing so it is advisable to leave a little 

 foliage somewhere if possible ; but they will grow without. Every season 

 is not favourable to an abundant production of this and other kinds of 

 bloom, and some of the hybrid varieties are more shy than others in flower- 

 ing. Unless other reasons, as thinning or altering the position, render it 

 necessary, merely transplanting them cannot do much good. 



Old Centaurea candidissima Dying off [An Old Subscriber).— Like) 

 old Geraniums, Cineraria maritimas, &c, some of the old plants taken 

 up out of the flower-beds in autumn do occasionally die, but we never 

 knew them to be more likely to do so than other plants. Some plants we 

 had sent us in December, and which had come 200 miles, or more, about 

 six weeks before that time, and were then shaken out of the pot and sube 

 jected to another journey, have grown away tolerably well. Cuttings 

 taken from these, as well as some other old plants that have been in heat 

 all winter, promise to give us a good supply. Ordinary garden soil seems 

 to suit it very well. In too rich soil we expect it will be liable to become 

 more coarse and green-looking. The ensuing season will doubtless find it 

 very much used everywhere. 



Fumigating with Tobacco (Anna, Norfolk).— The simplest and cheapest 

 way we know of is to place a little sand or mould in the bottom of a 

 flower-pot, to put about 1 inch of common candle into the sand, and then to 

 crumple a few yards of small wire into a lump open enough for the flame of 

 the candle to burn the tobacco that lies over it, and yet not so open as to 

 allow the tobacco to fall between and put out the light. Sometimes we 

 have split up a few bits of deal into pieces like matches and laid this on the 

 wire, putting the tobacco at top. We use this homely contrivance in 

 frames as well as in houses, as it is capable of enlargement or diminution 

 at pleasure. The only thing the amateur has to guard against is not to let 

 anything have the smoke too strong until he sees the effect. Better repeat 

 the dose than overdo it. 



Cape Bulb not Flowering (A Subscriber).— We have known more 

 than one party disappointed in large imported bulbs not flowering, which is 

 only to be attributed to the usual period of rest which all bulbs have being 

 much protracted, and the lack of that bright unclouded sunshine they receive 

 on their native hills. Cape bulbs are subjected to heavy and frequent rains 

 at one period, when they grow profusely, and flower when dry sunny 

 weather sets in, the bulb afterwards ripening and preparmg the future 

 flower-spike in embryo. In your case it is most likely the ripening and 

 perfesting process was not completed when the bulb was taken up, and it 

 will require a good growth here to accomplish this. Give it the advantage 

 of a sunny stove until it ripens, after which let it rest the proper time, and 

 it will flower. If it has not been subjected to frost, the mere fact of 

 covering it or not with ashes or moss has little effect on it, the condition 

 above ruling its welfare. 



Cineraria Leaves Injured (Amateur, Curragh Camp).— The leaf sent 

 had more the appearance of having suffered from frost than from insects, 

 a broad fringe all around being brown and withered. Cinerarias are easily 

 injured by frost. If, however, insects do attack them, which may be the 

 cause as well as frost, fumigate as directed in the case of another correspon- 

 dent. The flower stem and buds, as well as the leaves, are liable to fall a 

 prey to insects which are best destroyed by gentle and timely fumigations. 

 We may also say that an overdose of tobacco will injure the foliage much 

 in the same manner as that now sent, and it is quite possible your plants 

 may have suffered from that cause. 



Fruit-teee Buds Deformed (Mrs. W.). — There must be some local 

 cause for the fruit-tree buds becoming so shrivelled and deformed as the 

 one sent to us. Has any pemicious factory smoke found its way to your 

 trees, or is there an escape of gas at the roots, or has poisonous matter of 

 any kind come in contact with the ground ? Without knowing more of the 

 condition of the tree, we can have no idea what is the matter with the buds. 

 There does not seem any insect, as American blight or scaly coccus, to 

 account for the disease, and mildew rarely attacks trees of the kind sent. 

 We advise you to iook to the condition of neighbouring trees, and n tne 

 same as your own, explain to us the features of the locality, and we shall 

 then probably be able to state the cause. The remedy may, perhaps, De 

 out of our power. 



Rhododendrons Diseased (Mrs. D., Westmeath). — We think they 

 are suffering from a superabundance of moiBture either at the root or in the 

 climate, or from both united. A thorough draining will remedy the evil 

 of too much stagnsnt water at the root, and possibly dner seasons may be 

 in store for you than the last two or three years have proved. We had a 

 similar case of disease to yonrs. Some Rhododendrons were planted round 

 the edges of a pond which was low of water in 1857, 1858, and 1859, and 

 they did pretty well ; but the rains of 1860 subsequently raised the water 

 level a foot or more, and thereby soddened the ground the Rhododendrons 

 were growing in, and they have gone off the same way as yours, many ot 

 them being quite dead. Are your plants by the side of standing water! 

 If so, we fear the evil is incurable, unless they are sumciently above it to 

 be moderately dry. Many other shrubs suffer more than Rhododendrons 

 from a superfluity of water. If, therefore, draining be practicable, adopt 

 it as soon as possible. 



