260 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEI 



[ AprU 6, 1871. 



owing to the beda not heating kindly, partly owing to a lot of 

 leaves merely beginning to heat being placed at the bottom 

 instead of the top, there will be no contest nor comparison, as 

 those in the small pit heated by hot water, and planted in pots 

 plunged overhead in a small bed, have yielded profusely, and 

 if we be not careful will hurt themselves with excessive fertility. 

 After many years' experience we have never found any plan 

 to excel that lately described for obtaining a great number of 

 Cucumbers in little room. 



FEDIT GAKDEN. 



For large establishments there has nothing appeared of late 

 so interesting and instructive as the articles by Mr. Eobson on 

 table decoration. Still, we consider that there is muck force in 

 what is stated by Mr. Giddings in page 238 as to making the 

 most of limited means. This can hardly be taught by precept, 

 but the managers of large places have but a faint idea of the 

 work, the changing and shitting, and the constant care required 

 to make the most of every foot of glass at all seasons of the 

 year, and where even forcing and fruit houses must turn out 

 over so many borrowed crops, as it were, of different things. 

 Many a man may wish and sigh in vain for a place for every- 

 thing, and everything in its place, when he finds ha must have 

 so many temporary crops in one place, and still the main 

 jpoint be kept in view. We believe with more resources as to 

 room, much labour and time would be saved. Few employers 

 have any idea of the labour involved in succession crops of 

 Beans, Strawberries, &c., in Peacli houses and vineries, not to 

 apeak of myriads of bedding plants before much heat is applied. 



Now even as respects Straicierries, we have often wished for 

 a house to grow them only for early crops. In other houses 

 they succeed as borrowed crops, chiefly in proportion to the 

 light and air given to them. In such houses the borrowed 

 crops of Strawberries have often in value paid all the expenses 

 of fuel and management for Peaches and Grapes. Where many 

 plants besides the Strawberries are grown in such houses, there 

 is apt to be too much humidity for the swelling and ripening 

 of the fruit. When once a roof is nearly covered with foliage. 

 Strawberries will do little good under it. There is also a draw- 

 back where there is rather too much moisture. Our Peach 

 house is the best place we have for a free setting of ^arly Straw- 

 berries, and hence when swelling freely we remove them to 

 other places. We took a lot to the front shelf of a vinery, 

 where they swelled fast, though we would rather avoid the 

 moving if we could. But here, owing to the stage and floor 

 being filled with plants that rather liked subdued light, the 

 necessary moisture to them was too much for the swelling and 

 ripening fruit. Morning after morning as we passed along we 

 had to pick ofJ several fine fruit beginning to show signs of 

 ripening because of damping off ; and as we could not afford 

 this we had the plants removed to a temporary stage in a brick 

 pit, where they could have drier heat as well as a freer current 

 of air. In such a pit, before some Vines required the space, 

 a lot of our old favourite Black Prince Strawberry did excellent 

 service, producing good-sized fruit freely and in succession. 

 This early kind is impatient of much heat. It does best when 

 the artificial heat is little above 53° until the fruit begins to 

 colour. 



In all places heated by hot water where Strawberries are 

 grown, it is well to smear the pipes with flowers of sulphur. 



mixed with a little soft-soap water it will adhere all the better. 

 If there is a shelf near the back wall, the wall may also be well 

 sulphured to keep red spider away. 



OP.NAMESTAL DEPAKTJIENT. 



Proceeded with work out of doors as previously detailed, and 

 with cleaning, potting, pricking off, and cutting-making. Many 

 tender plants, as Coleus and Iresine, mny still be struck in 

 time for having fine plants by the end of May. 



Those who intend doing much with hardy annuals should 

 sow now without delay. In general they will come up at 

 once, and do better than those sown earlier, and, except in the 

 case of the very hardiest, will bloom as soon. For regular beds 

 it is best to sow in rows or rings, not too deeply, and thin when 

 up. When the seeds are sown in patches, it is a good plan to 

 cover with pots until the seedlings are fairly up, and then to 

 expose them by degrees. For symmetrioil beds that cannot 

 well be sown now, seeds may be sown in rows in a little bed in 

 rich compost, and then be lifted in patches, and transplanted 

 at once at the requisite distances. Now is a good time to sow 

 Stocks, Asters, Zinnias, and half-hardy annuals in general 

 in a mild hotbed. They generally do better than if sown a 

 month earlier, unless there be plenty of room and convenience 

 £or pricking them out and keeping them in a growing tempe- 



rature, 

 wards. - 



Cheeks are great drawbacks to their doing well after- 

 -R. F. 



TRADE CATALOGUE RECEIVED. 



Downie, Laird, & Laing, Stanstead Park, Forest Hill, London, S.E., 

 and 17, South Frederick Street, Edinburgh. — Descnptive Catalogue of 

 Florists' Floicers, £c. 



TO CORF5ESPONDENTS. 



X.B. — Many questions must remain unanswered until next week. 

 Making Asphalt V?alE9 (E. S.). — It is best done in dry weather, bnt 

 you may asphalt them at this time of year during dry days. It is well to 

 have a good bottom of rubble, and then cover with 3 inches of asphalt, 

 formed by pouring boiling coal tar over cinders, bringing the whole to the 

 consistency of nortar, and when this is spread on the walks and stiffens 

 a little, sprinkle with gravel — spar is best — and when it will bear the 

 roller, roll it firmly. Coal tar answers quite as well as pitch, and may be 

 had at a cheap rate from gasworks. At some it is given away. 



FnoTrNDEK Potato (A. D. C). — We have known the Fluke sold nnder 

 that name, evidently because of its flat form. For a damp climate wo 

 should prefer the earliest-ripening varieties. 



Who is an Amateur? (J. Poole).— It is as impossible for ns to say 

 ^hat " the Horticultural Society's definition of an amateur " would be as 

 it was for a former Chief Justice to extract from .witnesses a conf ordint 

 answer to "Who is a gentleman ? " Our definition of an amateur gardener 

 is — one who cultivates, or has culivated for him, a garden for his own use 

 and pleasure. He may sell that garden's surplus produce, and yet be an 

 amateur, for gardening is neither his profession nor livelihood. 



Seedling Fuchsia {J. Garncit). — The flower of the Fuchsia enclosed to 

 us having petaloid anthers, is not very uncommon, 1 aving noticed the same 

 in casual blossoms many vears ago, and occasionally since; but even if 

 constant in its feature throughout the year, eminent florists thinkit would 

 not become popular. 



Conifer Seeds. — In reply to " VicAP.," " A, B. C." has procured seeds 

 of various Conifera? from Haage and Schmidt, of Erfurt, in Prussia. 

 Macintosh, seedsman at Hammersmith, advertised himself this year as 

 the agent of another Erfurt firm, which also supplies tree seeds. Seeds 

 of the Deodar may be had direct from Simla. "A. B. C." forgets thename 

 of the commission agents there who supply them; but any Indian in the 

 habit of spending the hot season there, willknowthe name of one. Deodar 

 seeds are only ripened once in two years as a rule. They can therefore 

 be the better relied on when obtained direct from Simla. They are only 

 supplied there fresh after the harvest. 



Chpsese Aeboe-Vit,e Hedge Cutting (H. B. If.).— The best time for 

 cutting it is before growth commences, but it will be well to defer it 

 until milder weather than we have lately experienced, or say about the 

 middle of .4pril You may cut it back to any extent, both at the top and 

 sides, an! it will push freely. It makes a capital screen, but is not strong 

 enough for a fence. 



Vines for a Coon Vinert (C. li.). — You cannot without fire heat in a 

 vinerv grow successfully Lady Downe's, Alicante. Grizzly Frontignan, 

 and Mill Hill Hamburgh i except in an unusually warm season. They all 

 require fire heat, and are good kinds. We have no experience of applying 

 sulphate of iron to Peach trees, and have no faith in its application. 



Vines on Haedy Stocks (E. S. S.). — Some kinds may be had grafted 

 on hardy stocks, but, as a rule, it is little practised by nurserymen, and 

 we do not know of any nurseryman carrying on the practice. They ought 

 to advertise. Water ifrom barrels coated inside with t.ar will not be suit- 

 able for watering plants either in pots or borders. It is injurious. The 

 barrels should be emptied, dried, and fired in?ide with a bundle of straw, 

 by which means the tar will be burnt off, and the wood charred, rendering 

 it more durable. 



PicoTEE Seed Sowing (G.). — You may now sow the seed in pans of 

 light rich soil, and place them in a gentle hotbed, and when the young 

 plants are well above gi'ound remove them to a cold frame ; when largo 

 enough to handle prick them out in abed in the open ground, pnd in 

 autumn you may take them up and pot, wintering them in a cold frame. 

 They will not flower until the fol]o^ving summer, and wc question their 

 value for flowering at Christmas, or, indeed, being of any use for forcing. 

 They and Carnations, to be of value for winter, require to be of the Per- 

 petual class, and require to be grown specially for the pui^pose, being 

 kept pinched back early in summer— in fact, kept from flowering. and tho 

 growth should bo made early in summer so as to induce autumn and 

 winter flowering. Eirly-layered Carnations are of no use for forcing 

 bnt Pinks answer well. 



Cydonia japonica Pruning (An Old Subscriber). — We should bo un- 

 willing to interfere in any way with the plant's future flowering, and wo 

 fear such will bo the case if you cut-in the spurs 9 inches in length, as 

 we should, to within an inch or two of their base. "The young shoots you 

 may shorten back to \vitbin an inch of their base, and they will form 

 spurs, or yon may cause them to do so by pinching-out the points of tho 

 shoots from them at the th'rd leaf. The pruning should be performed as 

 soon as the flowering is past. Keep the shoots well stopped during the 

 summer— in fact, treat it as yon would a close-pinched pyramid Pear tree 

 on the Quince. 



G-ARDENiA Culture (C. M.). — G. florida will do tolerably well in a 

 warm greenhouse, but to succeed weU requires to be grown in the coolest 

 and most airy position in a stove. G. radicnns requires a stove. We can 

 only account for the plants' not flowering from the circumstance of their 

 being grown in a cool house, and, therefore, not perfecting their growths. 

 The plants are very free-flowering ; we have them in full bud now, though 

 only a few inches high. They will flower this month, and they may be 

 had in bloom in May by placing them in a greenhouse. Tho plants 

 require to be potted after flowering in a compost of two parts fibrous 

 loam, one pait sandy peat, and a free admixture of sharp sand. En- 

 courage growth by a free use of the syringe, and maintaining a moist at- 

 mosphere, and, if it can be given, a mild bottom heat. Water freely, 

 especially when growing and (lowering, and at no time should tbo soil 

 become dry. Wo have grown llicra very successfully by placing tbem in 

 a hotbed in March for a short time to start them into growth and flower, 



