166 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ AngU3t 31, 1871. 



Edmonson, Brothers, 10, Dame Street, Dablin. — C.dologue of Hya- 

 cinths, Tidips, and other Bidhs. 



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

 Chester. — Catalogue of Dutch Flower Moots, d-c. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



*^* "We request that no one will write privately to any of the 

 correspondents of the " Journal of Horticulture, Cottage 

 Gardener, and Country Gentleman." By doing so they 

 are subjected to unjustifiable trouble and expense. All 

 communications should therefore be addressed solely to 

 The Editors of the Jourtial of Horticulture, d'C, 171, Fleet 

 Street, London, E.G. 



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 ^et them answered 

 promptly and conveniently, but write them on separate 

 communications. Also never to send more than two or 

 three questions at once. 



N.B. — Many questions must remain ujianswered untU next 

 week. 



Books [A. Holden).—" Johnston's Lectares on Agricultural Chemistry." 

 <H. J. R. L.). — The book was advertised in our last number. 



Weigela {Amaieur^ Cirencester).— The correct pronunciation we believe 

 tj be Wi-ge-la. Your Rose seed may produce seedlings yet. It often 

 remains dormant for a year. 



Raspeeuries not Succeeding— Preserving Everlasting Flowers 

 (Probo).—YonT garden is probably too dry for the Raspberry. In its 

 ■wild state it is found in woods in low moist situations. It succeeds best 

 in deep, light, rich loam in a shady position. The best plantation of 

 Raspberries we ever saw was in tbe south of Scotland, on the north side 

 of a wall 1-i feet high. Trench your ground 2 feet deep and manure it 

 well. Cut the Everlasting flowers before they are over-blown, strip off 

 all the leaves, tie the flowers up in bundles, and hang them up in a dry 

 place. 



Blotched Peaches (A Suhscriber). — The blotches probably arise from 

 a, deficient supply of sap. Keep the roots well mulched during the sum- 

 mer, and water freely if the season be dry. 



Slow-combustion Stove (P. F. i.).— The address is J. T. Mayell, 

 £5, Litchfield Street, Soho, W.C. 



Roses Among Ivy (E. M. Batligan). — We can give you no encourage- 

 -ment in the attempt to grow Roses among Ivj*. The roots of Ivy are such 

 gross feeders they would deprive the Hose of every particle of food and 

 jnoisture. The only Rose we ever saw hold a brief struggle for existence 

 ^•.■gainst Ivy was a Safrano. If a large and deep hole could be dag, and 

 the sides slated, so as to prevent the Ivy roots getting into it, then, 

 perhaps, Roses might do a little good for the time, and Gloire de Dijon, 

 Jaune Desprez, General Jacqueminot, aad Marecbal Niel, all on the 

 llanetti stock, would have as good a chance of succeeding as any other. 



SwAiNSONiA GALEGIFOLIA {Fair Play).— It is a greenhouse evergreen. 



Seedling Clematis (J.Nelson). — Tha Clematis is not snperior to some 

 •of Messrs. Jackman's and Mr. C. Noble's flowers already in commerce. 



Black Hamburgh Grapes not Setting (J. 2".).— Tne probable reason 

 of your Grapes not setting was a low temperature when they were in 

 ■flower. Had you maintained a night temperature of 70', with a pro- 

 portionate rise by day, every berry would have set. A.t the date you 

 mention, in many places the thermometer fell below the freezing point ; 

 ■we registered 35-. During the time the Vines are in flower do not allow 

 ti:)0 much moisture in the house ; sprinkliog the paths and surface of 

 the border twice a-day is sufficient. After the Grapes are set, the night 

 liemperature of your house shoald be from 60^ to 65^. 



Vine Leaves Diseased (C. Cro/'^s).— Unfortunately you have either 

 (red spider or tbrips on your Cucumbers, we think both, though we do not 

 see any, but we know the marks they leave. If you have only a few leaves 

 affected, clear them off, and syringe strongly with clear soft-soap water 

 oi about 1 oz. to the gallon, follow next day with clear water at lOO", and 

 then again, and again, with the soap water, varied by weak clear soot 

 water. But if most of the leaves are affected, it might be better to clear 

 ■out at once. On young strong plants the above remedy will generally 

 be effectual. 



Centaurea (G. B.).— You cinnot do better than employ Centaurea 

 cagusina candidissima. 



Apple Trees under Glass Protectors (Amateur). — In addition to 

 "White Calville and Ribston Pippin, we would have Kerry Pippin and 

 Cox's Orange Pippin, the Melon, American Mother, Newtown Pippin, 

 Reinette du Canada, and Lord Earleigh. We have discontinued the cul- 

 ture of Apples under glass, as they were subject to mildew, and except 

 the White Calville, and some of the American kinds, we thought they 

 did quite as well out of doors. 



Separating Strawberry Runners— Peach Trees Gumming [Idem).— 

 As soon as the young Strawberry runners have firmly rooted into the soil 

 they may be cut from the parent plant. If the shoots of your Peach and 

 Kectarine trees have not been injured by tying too tightly to the wires, 

 or by some other cause, we would look for the evil at the roots. Lift a 

 portion of your trees this autumn, replanting them in turfy loam, and if 

 this is successful you can remove one or more portions in tbe following 

 year. Periodically lifting the trees if the subsoil is dry, at the same time 

 keeping them free from aphis, red spider, and mildew, will prevent gum- 

 ming, and the shoots from dying off suddenly. 



Heating a Small Greenhouse (CounfrymaTi).— The neatest thing we 

 flaw for a small conservatory opening out of the drawing-room, was a tin 

 kettle hollowed like a saddle-back boiler, the kettle holding three quarts 

 of water, a tin flow-pipe from it, and a tin return-pipe into it of lA inch 

 diameter, and two of these going round the floor of the house. The boiler 

 was heated by a burner with sis jets, and a frame like a lid of a saucepan 



fitted on the bottom of the boiler, with an opening for air, so as to confine 

 the heat to the boiler. You would want more for your place. Could you 

 not manage to hiive hot water easily from the kitchen boiler by making it 

 with a fixed top and feeding it from the conservatory ? One-inch pipes 

 would do admirably for connecting the two places, and two 3-inch pipes 

 would heat the place comfortably. 



Erecting a Small Greenhouse {A Header, Leek).~-Yon will want a 

 good consumption of gas for a place 12 feet by 10. The fumes from the 

 gas must be carried outside. The tin boiler would do, but half the size 

 you mention. Read an answer to another correspondent. The fumes of 

 the oil lamp must be carried off as you say, and then we think you would 

 be deficient in heat. Why not put up a small Rivers's brick stove with a 

 flat top to it for a water-basin, and take the smoke-pipe into the wash- 

 house chimney? and thus save all trouble about gas-burners and oil- 

 lamps, for they will give trouble, and then you may defy frost and old 

 Boreas besides. 



Camellias Infested with Scale (A. A.).~'The beat mode of destroy- 

 ing the scale will be to pick off those not brown and hard with the point 

 of a knife, and take those which are brown and hard between the finger 

 and thumb and squeeze them ; then wash the leaves and stems thoroughly 

 on all sides with a solution of 4 oz3. of soft soap and a tablespoonful of 

 spirits of turpentine in a gallon of water, and apply with a sponge at a 

 temperature as hot as the hand can bear, or 120-. 



Watering Peach Trees in an Inside Border {Idem).~lt will not be 

 necessary to water the border from the beginning of November up to 

 February, or from the fall of the leaf to the swelling of the buds. When 

 you want to force, the border should receive a copious watering, and 

 should be kept in that condition throughout the growing season. At the 

 commencement and close of this, not nearly so much water will be needed 

 as when the trees are in active growth. For instance, a good watering 

 being given when the buds begin to swell, another will not be required 

 until the blossoms expand; then water when the fruit is fairly set, and 

 about every three weeks up to the stoning, and every fortnight afterwards 

 up to the swelling for ripening, and then every week until ripe. After 

 the fruit is ripened-off water every fortnight or three weeks, and when the 

 leaves begin to fall discontinue watering. There is no good in dribblets ; 

 the supplies wanted are those which moisten the soil throughout. The 

 Vine requires to have the soil moist when it begins to swell its eyes. We 

 water inside Vine borders when we wish to start the Vines, when they 

 are breaking, when in full leaf, wheo flowering, when the fruit is set and 

 beginning to swell, and then every fortnight until the fruit change colour, 

 and give the last watering ten days after that. There is no necessity to 

 water Vines at rest. There is no book specially treating ef the watering 

 of Vines and Peach trees. 



Colour of Greenhouse Inside— Wintering Caladiums (A.D.). — We 

 presume you allude to the painting of the woodwork and the washing of 

 the walls. Tbe w*oodwork of the roof and all the sashed portion of the 

 structure is best painted white, the stages &tone colour, and all ironwork 

 red. The walls are best limewashed, but they may be stone colour. 

 Caladiums and Oannas should be kept dry in winter; they should not 

 have any water, but it is well to stand the pots on a floor or other position 

 whence they can derive slight moisture without being perceptibly moist. 

 The tubers should be covered with soil, in which they may be 

 stored. They will do in any place free from frost. We think tbe Gala- 

 dium must be C. esculentum, for such as C. argyrltes, Belleymei, Chan- 

 tini, &c., require a stove, or not less than 6j^ in winter. A red Azalea is 

 Mars, and a white one Fielder's. 



Ivr against Painted Wall not Thriving (^. C). — The nature of the 

 Ivy is to cling. We do not see why it should not succeed against the 

 trellis ; but there can be no doubt that it would thrive much better if 

 you were to remove the paint from the wall, and nail up the shoots as 

 they advance, so as to cover the wall in every part. If the Ivy is on a 

 south wall syringing in the evenings of hot days would do good, and a 

 good watering in dry periods will do much to establish it. On a north, 

 east, and west aspect the syringings will not be necessary. 



Geranium Leaves Spotted (G. K. P.). — The leaves sent are badly 

 spotted, in a great measure owing to the roots being inert in a sodden 

 and too rich soil. Only water when the soil becomes dry, and then give 

 a good supply. Use a compost of loam from rotted turves, light rather 

 than heavy, and one-fourth of leaf soil, or old well-decomposed manure, 

 with a sixth part of sharp sand. Afforl good drainage, a position near 

 the glass, and abundance of air. It will disappear. 



Fruit of Cotoneaster microphtlla [Inquirer).— We cannot say if 

 it is either wholesome or poisonous. The smell of hydrocyanic acid is so 

 strongly emitted by the plant that it raises a suspicion. 



Roses for Growing near the Sea (Idem).— The Hybrid Perpetuals 

 are the most suitable, and dwarfs either on their own roots or the Manetti 

 are to be preferred. The following do well with us, and we are not 

 beyond the influence of the sea breeze from the east :— Achille Gonod, 

 Alfred Colomb, Baronne Prevost, Beauty of Waltham, Camille Bernardin, 

 Caroline de Sansal, Charles Lefebvre, Comte de Nanteuil, Due de Rohan, 

 Elie Morel, Eugene Appert, Gloire de Santenay, John Hopper, Lady Suf- 

 tield, Louise Peyronny, Baroness Rothschild, Marecbal Vaillant, Paul 

 Verdier, Pierre Notting, Princess Mary of Cambridge, Senateur Vaisse, 

 Thorin, Victor Verdier, Xav^er OUbo, and William Griffith. 



Climbers for a South Wall (Idem.).— Cloth of Gold, Lamarque, and 

 Solfaterre, Noisette Roses ; Climbing Devoniensis, and Gloire de Dijon, 

 Tea-scented Roses ; Clematis Jackmanni, C. Fortuni, Wistaria chinensis, 

 Jasminum officinale grandiflorum, Ceanothus azureus, C. Veitchianus, 

 Cydonia japonica, Escallonia macrantha, Garrya eliiptica, and Embo- 

 thrium coccineum. 



Cotoneaster microphtlla and C. buxifolia {Q. W. Briggs). — We 

 give you the description of both, which will enable you to determine each. 

 C. microphylla, leaves oblong, blunt-ended, downy beneath, flowers 

 usually solitary ; C. buxifolia, leaves egg-shaped, woolly beneath, flowers 

 two or three on each woolly stalk. 



LiLiUM auratum Treatment (Idem).— The plant should be kept duly 

 but not excessively supplied with water, and it may either have a warm 

 position out of doors, or a ligiit airy one in a cool house. When the 

 stem turns yellow repot in a larger size of pot, and without disturbing the 

 roots, merely removing all the soil that can be taken away without inter- 

 fering with them. Afford good drainage, and a compost, rather rough, of 

 light turfy loam two parts, well-rotted manure one part, and one part 



