Febrnnry 2, 1871. 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



81 



pot Yine at rest in winter. My oldest plants are but two years 

 old ; all these I throw away, keeping only those struck last 

 year for growing on another season, and to propagate from, 

 because I consider the snmmer-strnok plants by far the most 

 effective. 



When the plants begin to move, which will not be before the 

 beginning of April if kept as mentioned before, they should 

 be cut back to three eyes ; and those who have not a sufficient 

 stock can easily increase it by inserting the eyes in shallow 

 pans or small pots, and growing them in a genial heat through- 

 out the summer ; but they do not make such good plants as 

 cuttings. After being cut down, the plants should be syringed 

 once or twice a-day according to the weather, kept close, and in 

 the course of a week or ten days should have a thorough water- 

 ing with tepid water. When they have fairly started into 

 growth turn them out of their pots, shake the old soil entirely 

 out, and with a sharp knife cut their roots well back. Eepot, 

 not too firmly, in clean pots, and as small as yon conveniently 

 can, using a compost of two parts turfy loam, one of peat, and 

 one of rotten cow dung, with a liberal admixture of silver sand. 

 After potting return the plants to the same pit ; or a more 

 shady situation would euit them better for about a fortnight, or 

 until they have again started into growth, because if they are 

 allowed to flag for any length of time at this stage, through 

 negligence or any other cause, it will be very injurious to them. 

 When they have overcome the effect of their potting, put them 

 back in a light pit, and keep them close to the glass. Give 

 air freely in the morning, plenty of water, and as much room 

 as you can afford them. Close the pit early in the afternoon, 

 having previously syringed walls, pipes, and all other available 

 spaces. When the plants have filled their pots with roots shift 

 into a larger size, and treat as before recommended. 



At the beginning of August (not later), after the plants have 

 again filled their pots with roots, have in readiness, if possible, 

 a dung frame with a genial sweet heat. Take off the cut- 

 tings with four or five large leaves attached, insert each cutting 

 singly in a 3-inch pot without removing a leaf from the shoot, 

 and keep them close for about ten days or a fortnight (take care 

 tiiete is no rank heat in the frame), and they will be struck. 

 When they have filled their small pots with roots, which will 

 be very soon, pot and treat as recommended for the others, 

 until the bracts appear, when they will do better in an ordinary 

 stove, watering them two or three times a-week with weak 

 guano water. 



Anyone who will faithfully follow the practice I have en- 

 deavoured to describe, cannot, I am sure, fail of success. — 

 C. Thomas, Drayton Mamr Gardens. 



CALCEOLAEMS, THEIR CULTURE AND 

 FAILURES. 

 Me. Eeooed having at page 44 directed attention to the be- 

 haviour of the Calceolaria during the past summer, I am 

 inclined to endorse much that he has said on the matter, and 

 to give my reasons for differing from him as regards some of 

 the details. J'irst of all I have not had so much experience as 

 many with what is very properly called " disease " in these 

 plants ; although in certain seasons they have done badly, but 

 seldom have any died off in that sudden manner of which 

 others complain, after the plant has attained a good size and 

 shown every indication of good health. On more than one 

 occasion, however, there has been so destructive an attack of 

 aphia just before the plants were turned out, that they never 

 recovered it. At another time circumstances have prevented 

 our attending to them in time, and they have stood too long in 

 the cutting bed and become drawn up and been otherwise in- 

 jured ; both these evils I admit are capable of amendment, but 

 at a very busy time it is not always possible to prevent some- 

 thing being neglected, and on more than one occasion the two 

 evils alluded to have marred our Calceolaria bloom considerably. 

 The dif&culty of ensuring them the attention they require has 

 induced me on more than one occcasion to treat them with 

 what I may justly call undue harshness, rather than allow them 

 to spoil each other by the stifling indulgence of remaining in 

 the cutting bed ; in other words, I have tried planting them 

 out long before the period generally thought proper, and with 

 a result that will be described. As the mode in which they are 

 wintered, and other circumstances, have considerable influence 

 on their condition at planting-out time, I will commence with 

 their propagation. 



Adjoining one of the walks in the kitchen garden, running 

 east and west, are two brick pits, each 120 feet long, and rather 



less than 6 feet wide inside, the brickwork 4i inches thick, and 

 with a timber wall plate back and front, and the height aboye 

 ground is a little less than 18 inches in front, and something 

 more than that at back; but the inequality of the ground 

 makes the actual difference between the back and front about 

 18 inches. There are no rafters proper, but the back and front 

 walls are tied together by cross pieces of timber set flush with 

 them, and 10 or 12 feet apart, and there are a few brick par- 

 titions dividing the pit into compartment3. The whole is as 

 simple and inexpensive a pit as could well be imagined. The 

 absence of rafters allows of our digging, and of putting in cuttings, 

 more conveniently than if they were there, while any width of 

 light or shutters will fit if long enough to take a bearing on 

 each side. In one of these pits adjoining the vegetable quarter 

 of the kitchen garden I have for many years been in the habit 

 of wintering Calceolarias, and none of our bedding kinds, ex- 

 cepting, perhaps, a new or choice one, has had a place in a pot, 

 pan, or box for at least eighteen years, and their treatment has 

 been the reverse of coddling, yet I am constrained to say that 

 in general they do not flower so well out of doors as they did 

 at the commencement of that period ; but as this, in my case 

 at least, is owing to causes in no way connected with their 

 treatment in winter, I may as well, when stating the character 

 of the cold pit, describe the mode in which they are treated 

 there. 



As allusion has been frequently made to the time of putting 

 in the cuttings, I may remark that I do not think the mere 

 tact of their being put in, say at the beginning of October or 

 end of November, is always the cause of their doing well or 

 badly, for I have put them in as late as Christmas and as early 

 as the end of September. In general, however, the condition 

 of the weather and the character of the cuttings point out the 

 time for propagating ; as a rule, before doing so, it is better to 

 let the dry weather, which sometimes continues for a week or 

 more into October, be fairly over and moist weather fairly set 

 in. Do not wait until severe frosts have injured the plants, 

 not but that they will bear a little frost ; still it is better not 

 to be too late. In general the most of our cuttings are put itt 

 during October ; but as we rarely put the lights on for a long 

 time afterwards, there is no inducement to hasten their root- 

 ing, and sometimes their appearance, if a dry, withering wind 

 occur, is not inviting ; on the approach of frost, however, they 

 are covered up with such odd lights as there are to spare, and, 

 if these be not sufficient, with wooden shutters made of half- 

 inch boards. At the commencement of the late severe weather, 

 happening to have as many old lights as covered all the Cal- 

 ceolarias, and some shutters to spare, the latter were laid over 

 a portion of the glass on December 20th, and remained there 

 till January 21st, the Calceolarias being thirty-two days in 

 darkness, and by their appearance I do not expect to lose any, 

 except some plants of C. amplexicaulis ; even where there was 

 glass only, the Calceolarias seem to have survived. A coveting 

 of snow during the most severe period was of much service, 

 and a little snow was also thrown against the brick walls form- 

 ing the sides, and as they were not uncovered until nearly ters 

 days after a thaw had set in, the evils of a sudden change of 

 temperature were avoided. 



Calceolarias will endure moisture and confinement to & 

 degree which few other plants of similar growth will resist ; 

 nevertheless, for some years I have been in the habit of put- 

 ting in the same pit Gazanias, Cupheas, Cineraria maritima, 

 and other plants, and with a fair share of success ; rows of 

 these between different kinds of Calceolarias look very well at the 

 present time, January 23rd. I have never been able to do much 

 with Verbenas, and Centaurea eandidissima has not always suc- 

 ceeded well, although 0. gymnocarpa usually does. As the 

 character of the Calceolaria cuttings has been alluded to by Mr. 

 Becord, I may say that if I had the choice I would prefer short- 

 jointed, rather stubby cuttings slipped, not cut off, with the 

 ragged heel, which I would leave on, taking off only one, or at 

 most two leaves ; but as the character of the season determines 

 the kind of cutting, it is not always that a choice canbe made. 

 Usually when Calceolarias have been arrested in their growth, 

 say in the middle of July, by the dry weather, they flower out 

 whatever shoots they have, and grow no more, or very little, 

 until the moist weather of September or later again starts them 

 into growth, when a rapid long-jointed growth often takes 

 place, so that as a matter of necessity the cuttings must be 

 shortened, as was the case with the bulk of those here the past 

 season. Of course a less robust growth is met with when 

 plants have been occupying some indifferent position ; but the 

 propensity of the plant to furnish roots in winter is BO great. 



