February 9, 1671. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



103 



very men for several years have not been able to keep their 

 Cocamber plants from the disease, though the plants seem 

 to be healthy and vigorous enough at first. Some of these men 

 have been distinguished growers of Cucumbers for thirty or 

 more years, and now they are obliged to confess themselves 

 completely beaten. Another man adopting the same practice, 

 and only a short distance off, has never yet seen a symptom of 

 the disease. In the case of the Verbenas to which we referred, 

 something might be owing to the dry summer and the inability 

 to water ; but the cuttings struck well enough, and it was after 

 they seemed well established, though the plants were small, 

 that they began to give way, first at the point, and then down- 

 wards, unto there was no life left. Though there might be 

 something tending to disease in the cuttings, we do not think 

 that, or anything in the management, wholly accounts for the 

 result. It is not pleasant to acknowledge ignorance, but it 

 is often the best and surest step towards gaining valuable 

 knowledge.— E. !F.] 



DOUBLE-FLOWEEED PELAEGONIUMS AS 

 BEDDERS. 



I HAVE great pleasure in replying to Mi*. McCrow's inquiries (see 

 fpage 63), but fear my answer will not be so agreeable to him as he 

 -^onld like, my experience of double-Howered Pelargoniums on the whole 

 Jiot being satisfactory ; nevertheless, it may be quite as imiiortant to 

 make it known as if it had been more successful. 



In 1869 I planted two circular beds, each 10 feet in diameter, with 

 ■the only two kinds I had then in sufficient quantity — viz.,Gloire de 

 ^ancy and Madame Lemoine, and judging from what I had seen of 

 them the year before, I calculated they would turn out rank growers ; 

 but as the bed had that spring been heavily cropped with Forget-me- 

 Eot, I thought the partially exhausted state in which it was would 

 check the gi-owth of the Geraniums — indeed, it was a mass of roots 

 and quite di'y when turned up — and as they had to be planted out of 

 cutting-pots or boxes without any ball, I feared they would die if 

 placed unassisted in soil in such a condition, I therefore, at planting, 

 put a little good soil around the roots of each, and after giving some 

 water left them to theii- fate. They all grew on quite strongly enough, 

 but the flowers were never so numerous as to make the beds conspicuous, 

 as Geranium beds ought to be, and the season being moister than 

 last year, vei*y few perfect heads were produced. The wet settling 

 in the centre of the truss, decay set in long before it ought to have 

 done, and a bad appearance was the result. Nevertheless, as I had 

 several other kinds last year, and as a good bloom of a doable Geranium 

 is of much service for bouquet -making and similar purposes, I planted 

 out some more, and the season being dry they succeeded much better, 

 producing more flowers, and these up to September were less liable to 

 decay, but after some showery days in the early part of that month, 

 coupled with the longer dewy nights that followed, perfect blooms soon 

 disappeared, otherwise they were much better last year (1S70), than 

 the year before. Still the liability of the central portions of each 

 "flower to decay is a defect in double flowers not easily surmounted. 

 'Yarieties not so close-headed might be better, and I still hope they will 

 prove useful. Perhaps the best position for double Geraniums is a 

 vase ; then- tendency to gross growth is there effectually checked, and 

 thtir elevated position enables them to shake oft' sooner than if they 

 'were on the gi'onnd the moisture which causes the decay of the flowers ; 

 some we had in that position last year were much admired. 



Mr. McCrow is quite right in saying plunging Geraniums in their 

 pots ia the beds is not a new plan, for I have seen it practised quite 

 thirty years ago, only the purpose then was different from that which 

 Mr. McCrow mentions. At tbat time they were plunged in their 

 pots in June, so as to be readily taken up again in the same way in 

 October, but I have seen single ones often enough planted out in their 

 pots, but theii' roots have a perverse tendency to find their way through 

 the bottom of the pot, thus defeating the object, for they grow ram- 

 pantly enough then. When a number of plants in pots are plunged 

 "together, the roots of some getting through, and those of others not, 

 there results an irregularity of growth more unsatisfactory than when 

 all the plants are strong, so that on the whole planting in poor soil is 

 preferable. 



In reference to the decay of the central pips or portions of Geranium 

 flowers, I may further remark^that the Nosegay class of single Gera- 

 niums are also more liable to this failing than those with broad petals. 

 Xast summer this was conspicuous here, for while such kinds as 

 Cybister, Waltham Seedling, Stella, and Duchess of Sutherland might 

 a.t one time be called the pride of the garden ; Punch, Crystal Palace 

 Scarlet, and some others far outshone them at the end of the season. 



— J. ROBSOX. 



AMATEUPtS BEWARE. 



I Hi.\^ before me the " Garden Oracle " for 1871, which is to me a 

 new publication. It contains a great many useful tables, if they can 

 be relied on. In looking over these tables I was particularly attracted 

 by one headed, " Seed required for a garden of one acre." This list 

 is begun with Peas 36 quarts ! '\^''Uat gardener in his right mind 

 would ever think of ordering 36 quarts of Peas for a garden of one 



acre ? or if he did, where would he find room to sow them if he had 

 anything else in his garden at ail ? And what amateur could afford, 

 or would like to afford, such an expensive seed biU for one acre of 

 garden ? I consider that nearly all the quantities named are greatly 

 in excess, but the most flagrant error in the list is " Sweet and Pot 

 herbs Gibs." Does the editor of the "Garden Oracle" mean that 

 the whole acre is to be sown with sweet and pot herbs ? if so, I hope 

 whoever tries it will be weU-flavoured. To satisfy my curiosity I 

 summed up the amount such an order would come to from the prices 

 of Messrs. Veitch & Sons. I did not select any particular sorts, but 

 took an average of prices, where there was enough variation to allow 

 me to do so. Peas I priced at Is. 6d. per quart, which gives £2 14s. 

 for tbat one article ; sweet and pot herbs 3f?. per packet, or Is. per 

 oz., then Gibs, at 1-9. per oz. would be £4 IGs. Herbs for ever! 

 The sum total of the list I make out to be £14 16s. 



How long will writers of books and calendars be allowed to issue 

 such lists as these to deceive the inexperienced amateur whom they 

 profess to aid and assist ? Practical gardeners know better, and are 

 not so apt to be misled, but no doubt it is very difficult for amateurs, 

 especially those who are for the first time about to try their hand at 

 gardening, to make a suitable selection, either in quality or quantity. 

 They will sit for a whole evening in the midst of catalogues and seed 

 lists, studying the name of this and the price of that, till their brains 

 get in a whii-1, and they fly back as a last resource on some list of 

 " Seed requii'ed for one acre of garden," only to find out the error 

 they have committed when the day of reckoning arrives. I experienced 

 the same difficulty in selecting seeds when I first commenced garden- 

 ing on my own account, and had I then sent to my employer a bill of 

 £29 12s. for seeds for a kitchen garden of two acres, I should not be 

 sitting here to-night to tell the tale. — G. S. 



DINNER- TABLE DECORATION.— No. 1. 



No small degree of interest was manifested some years ago 

 when prizes were offered at the Eoyal Horticultural Society's 

 Shows for the best arrangement of flowers for the dinner-table, 

 and the interest evinced was increased when other societies took 

 the matter up, and manufacturers furnished designs for stands 

 suitable for the flowers or fruits employed. As a consequence, 

 great importance became attached to that part of the show 

 where the dinner-table stands were eshibited, and comments 

 in accordance with the ideas of the inspectors were varied, but 

 in general the class of stands called March's stands received 

 the most attention, and became for a time the standard by 

 which others were judged. I ought, perhaps, to have observed, 

 that prior to this prizes had been offered for collections of 

 plants either in flower or not, that conformed to a certain size 

 and could be made available for table decoration ; but those 

 exhibited certainly fell short of meeting the requirements of 

 the time, hence the necessity for floiver stands. At succeeding 

 exhibitions the competition in dinner-table decorations was con- 

 tinned, and with increasing interest, ladies of the highest rank 

 being amongst the competitors, and by degrees greater diversity 

 was introduced into the stands prepared for the purpose, in- 

 cluding some scarcely elevated from the table, the latter class 

 taking many fanciful forms and many different names, while 

 in conjunction with them might occasionally be noticed a stand 

 of greater height. 



As the viands are, as a rule, no longer placed in bulk on the 

 tables of the great, the space at command for ornament has 

 been much increased. Happily for the gardener or whoever 

 has to carry out the decoration, the fashion still remains of 

 covering the table with a white cloth, and nothing can possibly 

 showofi to greater advantage the masses of foliage, or it may 

 be high-coloured flowers, and at shows where designs for dinner- 

 table decorations are exbibited, the white-cloth base is in- 

 variably present. Were it not also always so on the dinner- 

 table, there would often be a difficulty in supplying in mid- 

 winter a sufficient quantity of flowers that would look well 

 upon a background ef another colour, for the white affords 

 scope for the display of almost everything that grows, but 

 more especially of foliage of compound growth, to which it 

 imparts an embroidered appearance. I must not, however, 

 dwell longer on this point, but will proceed with some of the 

 modes of furnishing flowers and foliage so as to produce the 

 best effect as a whole. 



Many years ago, when dinner-table decorations first attracted 

 public attention, I ventured to suggest that every description 

 of ornament that intervened between the countenance of one 

 person amd another at table was bad ; in other words that 

 nothing should be elevated more than 14 inches from the table- 

 cloth, nor, if suspended, should it hang lower than 24 inches 

 from the table, thus leaving a clear space of 10 inches for one 

 person to see another. I find there are many converts to my 

 views ; even some of the stands assume to secure this, especially 



