May 26, 1863. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND OOTIAGE GARDENER. 



381 



fast, I obtained a Celery, and by a little Cabbaging I Rose to be 

 master, though something like a Creeper, of the whole garden. 



I have now the full command of the Stocks and the Mint ; I 

 can raise Ano-mone, from a Penny Royal to a Plum, and what 

 my expenditure leaves I put in a Box for Yew. If I May, as 

 a Cockscomb, speak of myself, I should say that I am in the 

 flower of manhood— that I am neither a Staudaid nor a Dwarf, 

 a Mushroom, nor a May-pole. My nose is of the Turnip Radish 

 kind, and my locks hang in clusters about my Ears. I am often 

 in the companv of Rakes, and rather fond of Yine and Shrub, 

 which my Eiders reprove me for ; so I had better Berry all this, 

 and say "that I have at Windsor Bean, and have some London 

 Pride; and as I am a branch of a good Stock with a portly 

 bearing, I well know when and where to make my Bough. 



So Lett-uce act for ourselves, and fix an early day for grafting 

 your fate with mine, which might be made a Poplar measure, 

 but I think it had better be Privet ; for Jon-quil, the lawyer, 

 says that your old Crab of a father, who did never a Li-lack when 

 he wanted to part us, means to take the Elm in his own hands 

 in this matter; but if he does, and Bullace me at all, I will not 

 be Sloe in settling his Ash, and I will be such a Thorn in his 

 side that the day he does it shall be one of the worst Days-he 

 ever saw. 



But I must sow no seeds of discord, for I am certain that we 

 should make a very nice Pear, and never repent. Even when we 

 become Sage bv Thvme you would be the Balm of my life, and I 

 should be the Balsam of yours; so that people who might call 

 us green, now would call us Evergreen hereafter. And now 

 Sweet Peas be with yon, and if he who tries at it Tares me from 

 Yew I shall beoome a Melon- Cauliflower, and wither away. My 

 tongue will always be a Scarlet Runner in your praise; fori 

 have planted my Hops in Yew, and now I only live for the 

 Thyme when I may hear from your own Tu-lips that I am your 

 Sweet William and not your— Weeping Wu.l-o. 



NEW YORK FLOKISTS AND FLOWERS. 



Geeat progress has been made both in the science and prac- 

 tice of plant growing and selling by the florists of New Tort 

 since the days when quaint, but withal shrewd, Lawrie Todd 

 adopted the system of painting his flower-pots to attract cus- 

 tomers' attention, and his inaugurating a taste which now re- 

 quires a great deal both of energy and capital to supply ; but 

 the plants being now of themselves sufficiently attractive, the 

 painted pots can very well be dispensed with. Although many 

 of the florists, thorough-going business meu though they be, are 

 not gardeners bv profession as defined by Loudon in his "Ency- 

 clopedia of Gardening," still we have such men as Mr. Robert 

 Reid, who has often officiated as ajudge of plants at Chiswick m 

 its palmiest days : Mr. Buchanan, a skilful and successful kybrid- 

 iser ; and Mr. Peter Henderson, of Jersey City, whose practice 

 of growing fine saleable plants in the smallest possible pots I 

 have never seen excelled ; and all these are professional gardeners 

 who would do honour to horticulture in any country. Glenny's 

 " Properties of Plants and Elowers " is a work almost ignored 

 here, the property most in request being abundance of bloom, a 

 large and fast-increasing business being done with cut flowers ; 

 and this winter the supply has never been equal to the demand. 



Bouquets are arranged most artistically, and with great diver- 

 sity of taste ; indeed 1 have never seen them excelled even in 

 Covent Garden. Rustic hanging-baskets and stands for parlour 

 or drawing-room are now in great request, Eerns, Lycopods, 

 creepers in variety, and many adaptable variegated and fine- 

 foliaged plants being used with great advantage. 



The Camellia is deservedly a general favourite, and is both 

 extensively and well grown, "the retentive yellow loam which 

 abounds here being well adapted to its culture ; but I have not 

 yet seen anything to be compared to the handsome plant of 

 reticulata that Mr. Blair (now of Shrubland Park) had at Bank 

 Grove with its 2000 expanded blooms. The flowers are not cut, 

 but very adroitly twisted off without any damage to the plants, 

 then neatly " fixed up" for either bouquets or baskets. 



Roses are to be found in every collection, and fully maintain 

 their position as the queen of flowers; for though not blest 

 here with a Queen Yictoria, still we have our Queens of Beauty 

 and of Elowers, and well represented too. 



Yiolets are grown by the thousand, and do remarkably well. 

 The strongest runners are selected and planted out in May, by 

 September these make fine strong plants ; they are then lifted, 



and planted in cold frames prepared for their reception, and by 

 careful attention to protection and ventilation supply an abun- 

 dance of dark blue highly-scented flowers from November to 

 April, each flower as large as a penny-piece. As an instance of 

 their fertility, one florist picked 18,000 for last New Year s-day : 

 these would'sell readily at from 75 cents to 1 dollar per 100. On 

 the 3rd of April I picked 3700 from twelve hand-lights, and 

 could easily have picked 4000. 



Stevia and Eupatorium are indispensable for white flowers, 

 and are real boons to the florists. The quantity of flowers on 

 the Bignonia venusta, trained to the rafters of a greenhouse and 

 judiciously managed, almost exceeds belief. Tuberoses flower 

 very freely, and are most desirable fall flowers. Gladioli have 

 been found to be admirably suited to this climate, and several 

 of the florists have now very extensive collections. 



Many of the popular names for plants are rather perplexing. 

 Soon after coming here I was asked for my " Lady Washing- 

 tons," and had to confess my ignorance of what class of plants 

 were known under that most honourable name. From this 

 dilemma I was quickly relieved on coming to Pelargoniums ; 

 but finding on further investigation that Pansies were popularly 

 known as°" Johnny Jumpers," I had to commence and revise 

 my stock of synonymes— Daved Fotjlis, Astoria, Long Island, 

 New York. 



VINE-BORDER COVERED WTTH FERMENTING 

 DUNG. 



My Yine-border is covered with about 2 feet in depth of hot 

 dun" and wood shutters are placed on the top. I have been 

 advi'ed to remove it entirely, and place nothing on except a 

 little litter and the -wood shutters. My Muscats the last two 

 years have shanked very much. This year I have noticed a 

 small black speck on the side of the berry, which gradually 

 increases till the berry is decayed. I have no border inside and 

 that outside is 2 feet deep, and well made. I examined the 

 roots in the winter, and they were in a strong healthy condition. 

 — A Young Begmneb. 



[You may injure the roots if the manure was too hot B 

 not too hot'now we would allow it to remain until the middle 

 of June as in this weather the border will lose more heat than 

 it will »ain from the sun. Then it would be advisable to cover 

 with litter in cold weather— say at night, and remove the litter 

 in sunshine and fine weather until July. We cannot see the 

 philosophy of putting litter on now and the boards above it, as 

 the latter would intercept the sun's rays. Give plenty ot air 

 inside.] 



OLD YINES VIGOROUS BUT UNFRUITFUL. 



[The following refers to our notes on the subject at page 340.] 



" I will give you the particulars as nearly as I can remember- 

 In the month of February I began fires, and made a hotbed at 

 the same time with manure, just as it was brought from the 

 stables. The bed consequently was very hot, and the heat very 

 rank. If I remember right, the bed was too close to the Yines ; 

 at all events the Yines did not break, and they seemed quite 

 dead. I cut them down to the bottom ; they then broke and 

 made capital wood, which seemed quite ripe to the top. 



" The leaves I sent last week only belonged to the weak Vine, 

 since then a weak one close to the other has something of the 

 same coming. As soon as I received your paper, I cut the first 

 piece away, and only discovered the one alluded to this morning. 

 I have not given fire heat, and when the sun is out I give air.— 

 H. H. C." 



[Our surmises we find have been pretty correct. We would 

 not have given fire heat along with the rank manure. We would 

 have allowed that to act upon the Yines alone for the first fort- 

 night or three weeks, and by that time the heap would be getting 

 sweet. The rank manure would not injure Yines in a state of 

 rest ■ but if there was so much of it as would raise the house 

 from 45° to 50° without sun, then we would give a little air, 

 and even in the daytime we would not with sun heat let the 

 thermometer rise above 60° or 65° for the first month. We have 

 used manure direot from the stables as it could be got, so rank 

 that we do not think the mere rankness would do the mischief; 

 but excessive heat to unstarted Yines, or placing that steaming 

 heat nearer than 3 feet from their stems might do the mischief. 

 The great thing is to have all the manure sweet enough for Cu- 



