12 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEK. 



[ January 5, 1871. 



larias, &a. Arrange the plants in groups, so that air can bs 

 admitted to the Heaths at times when it would be injudicious 

 to admit it to softwooded plants. Admit air at all favourable 

 opportunities, but be careful of north-east winds. 



STOTE. 



Now that the shortest day is past, some of the plants which 

 it is intended to make the most of during the growing season 

 may be started gentiy, preparatory to beiog potted, towards the 

 oud of this or the beginning of nest month. Among these, 

 such plants as Ixoras, AUamandas, and Dipladenias may be 

 started. Do not increase the temperature much this month, 

 except by taking advantage of sunny clays, and then a syringe- 

 ful of water may be drawn over the plants without any risk 

 of doing injury. All the plants wanted for late blooming must 

 be kept back for the present. If not done before, the whole of 

 the Clerodendrons must be shaken out, their roots reduced, and 

 repotted in small pots in light sandy-loam compost. Place 

 them in heat until they have made shoots about an inch long, 

 and then, unless required to bloom very early, they may be 

 preserved for a time in a lower temperature. Luculia gratis- 

 Gima, as soon as it has done blooming, must have the side 

 branches shortened-in a little, and be placed in heat to pro- 

 duce cuttings for propagation. As soon as the shoots are 

 2 inches long tie a tight ligature below the lowest joint, and 

 when the bark has swelled a little, say in about a fortnight, 

 the cuttings may be taken off, potted singly in very small pots, 

 plunged in a gentle bottom heat, covered with a hand-glass, and 

 they will strike very readily. 



FOIiCING PIT. 



Kemove the plants to the conservatory as fast as the flowers 

 ■3xpand, and introduce others from the reserve for succession, 

 placing them first at the cool end of the house or pit, so as to 

 «scite them gradually. A few Pinks and Sweet Williams may 

 be started, and plenty of Lily of the Valley, Sweet Briar, and 

 other sweet-smelling plants. Gardenias must also be started, 

 and as the Stephanotis is a great favourite with the ladies, a 

 plant or two ishonld be placed in the warmest end of the pit. 

 Maintain a growing moist temperature of from 60" to 65° or 

 70° with sun heat.— W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



On New Tear's-eve we have similar weather after a week of 

 keen frost, as we had at Christmas-eve. Very fortunately the 

 frost has been greatly counteracted as respects vegetables and 

 Wheat fields by the frequent fall of snow, which will be of 

 great protecting benefit to everything beneath it. 



Our chief work out of doors (for ground work or moving 

 earth was impossible) was wheeling the rubbish-heap and soil, 

 and, on cutting a spinney, collecting flower stakes and Pea 

 stakes, stakes for Hollyhocks, Dahlias, &c., in a rough state, 

 so that we could finish them at home in unsettled weather. 

 We prefer for flowers clean straight stakes with the bark on, 

 to deal and lath sticks, however nicely whittled. The object of 

 a stake is merely to support a plant, but the less the support 

 is seen the better. 



In most gardens the number of sticks required from one- 

 eighth of an inch in diameter to 2 inches across is astonishing. 

 Preferring those with bark on them as less conspicuous, it is 

 always advisable to have a quantity laid up in store, and not 

 be forced to try and find some at seasons of the year when 

 going into a coppice for them might give ofience, from dis- 

 turbing young game, &c. A gardener now-a-days, to obtain 

 what he wants, must keep his eyes about him. When such 

 small sticks are pruned and straightened, it is well to put them 

 into bundles, tied firmly, which keeps them in the desired 

 position. Pea stakes can also be an-anged in sizes, and 

 pointed on bad days, when men could scarcely stand out. 

 Collecting and bringing them home was good work for the 

 "frosty weather, as most of the snow has come on at night. 

 Some time ago we made remarks on pointing sticks. For 

 good-sized ones, three strokes of the bill are sufficient. For 

 small flower sticks, two strokes of the knife are sulficient — the 

 first slips olt the half of the diameter at the base, the oth? r 

 takes away the half of what remains, leaving a neat point. We 

 have seen more whittling over the point of a little stick than 

 would have done for more than half a dozen of a similar size — 

 a matter of importance where myriads of these are used. 



In-doors, besides the general attention as alluded to last 

 week, the chief work has been cleaning and picking over plants 



where they had any leaves not quite healthy, and attending to 

 their various wants, giving as little water as could be to keep 

 things right in such severe weather. 



The following matters have also received, or should now 

 demand attention : — 



The orchard houses, on cutting the last Grapes, the roofs 

 being covered with snow, were again well smoked by burning 

 partly broken and bruised laurel leaves. This was done gene- 

 rally by way of precaution, as it could do no harm, and few 

 insects can stand the pungent smoke, quite as obnoxious to 

 some insects as the smoke of tobacco, whilst it costs nothing 

 but getting the laurel leaves and young shoots. The roofs 

 being rather open, it would of little use smoking the houses 

 unless they were covered with snow. 



Some Pear trees that had a little scale on the branches 

 we meant to have syringed with water during this keen 

 weather, so as to surround the branches with a layer of ice, but 

 on examining those we meant thus to serve, we find that the 

 heat of the day had sufficiently melted the snow to enclose the 

 wood in a film of ice. As it would be impossible for air to 

 pass through a good ice covering, we found frequently that 

 when such ice scaled off in a change of temperature, the scale, 

 &c., peeled away with the ice ; the more firmly the ice surrounds 

 the branches, the more effectually will it act as an insect-de- 

 stroyer. Sheeting fruit trees on walls with ice is, therefore, 

 often a benefit ; we have consequently found it 'useful in severe 

 frost to syringe a tree all over, and for convenience and greater 

 benefit to use heated water, as the transition from heat to cold 

 was all the gre^.ter. We never knew hardy trees injured by 

 this treatment, whilst the water filled all the crannies in the 

 wall, and made that too a sheet of ice, shutting-up from free 

 access to air what living things might be in holes and crannies. 

 There is, however, one drawback against such a water appli- 

 cation to wall trees in severe frost in winter. If the wall 

 should be of stone, soft and porous, or of bricks rather soft 

 and not thoroughly hard burned, if the frost should be severe 

 and continuous, there is a risk that the ice will bring pieces of 

 the wall along with it, and thus accelerate its decay. It is 

 anything but economy to use soft inferior bricks for garden 

 walls. They absorb moisture like a sponge, and when once the 

 outside peels off, they become little better for all practical pur- 

 poses than so much dried hard-pressed mud. We should not 

 like, therefore, to resort to such a plan where the walls were 

 soft. On wood fences there could be no such objection, and 

 we have known of several cases where, from using such inferior 

 bricks, walls would not hold a nail at length, and then it became 

 necessary to front them with wood. 



Fruit rooms and late Grapes needed looking over, as lately 

 stated. Pears still being behind Apples as respects keeping. 

 Dahlia tubers. Potatoes, &c., needed more protection from the 

 severe weather. More litter was also placed over Mushroom 

 beds in an open shed. 



Protection. — Where a high temperature is required, a little 

 protection over the front glass does much to render less firing 

 necessary, and thus there is less drying the air inside, and less 

 necessity for moistening that air artificially, and in ordinary 

 cases getting the moisture condensed so as to fall over the 

 plants in the house. Common iron roofs not kept thoroughly 

 painted soon show themselves in this way, as every rusty water- 

 drop leaves a stain behind it. When a high temperature is 

 used moisture must be given in proportion ; but in such weather 

 it is often better to let the temperature fall 5° or 10°, so as still 

 to be safe, instead of using more fire heat and consequently more 

 vapour in dull cloudy weather. 



All things in cold pits and frames covered np on Christmas- 

 eve have remained covered up ever since. When the thermo- 

 meter fell more than 20° below freezing point more litter was 

 added, and in one or two cases even above a layer of snow. In 

 such weather, however, we are loth to disturb a surf ace- cover- 

 ing of snow, as from its open character and white colour it 

 forms one of our best protectors. We just peeped in at times 

 to find all was cool and yet safe. With continuous covering there 

 must be no incitement to growth. 



Such a week clearly demonstrates the importance of a small 

 house in which you can walk and work, over a pit or frame in 

 which one can do nothing without opening the sashes. We 

 should have liked to have done work in frames or pits, but 

 the opening of the sashes, except for a very short time, would 

 have been dangerous in such weather, when even plants at all 

 tender could only be moved by placing them in covered boxes 

 or baskets, to prevent their feeling the extremes of temperature. 

 We would have done more potting and proceeded with more 



