AprU 20, 1871. ] 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



293 



anoh a warm rain aa we have had will not injiiie them. Pears 

 are not yet in bloom, though generally much more forward 

 than Apples. Here it ia worth remarking that the Apple will 

 flonrish in the smoke of London and other towns, where the 

 Pear and the Cherry would fail. When gardening in London we 

 used to be annoyed that nice bush Pear trees which bloomed well 

 gave but paltry results in the way of frait, whilst Apples fruited 

 very fairly, and that wo learned to attiibute to their blooms 

 opening lattr when the atmosphere was clearer and more free 

 from soot and smoke. In dull foggy days the pollen boxes of 

 the Pear hecame clogged with soot, and couW not act. We 

 have been told that there are still many fertile Apple trees in 

 the most confined parts of London. 



Deficiency of Strmcberry Bloom Hiids out of doors. — We 

 lately alluded to thote in pots, and on the whole, notwithstand- 

 ing the dry summer and shortness of water, we have never had 

 them showing better, there being very few mitset-. All those 

 in pots had, however, received more or less protection from the 

 severity of the frost in winter. We fear, however, that our 

 out-door crop of Strawberries will not be an average one. Our 

 stiffish loam just suits Strawberries, acd the crops heretofore 

 have been uniformly good, going off sometimes Eooner than we 

 liked, as they did last year from want of moisture. Many of 

 our plants, especially those turned out of pois titer ftuitiug 

 under glass and giving us Eome gatherings in the autumn, are 

 now coming strong and looking very iairly, but on cloeely 

 examining them, there is a great deficiency of flower trusses, 

 which ought now to be seen peeping. Those turned out later 

 are rather better. Plants which have been a second i^ear in 

 the ground are likewise deficient in this respect. In ihe 

 autumn we had more stocky plants in small 60-sized pots 

 than we felt disposed to put iu fruiting pots, and these we 

 planted out in good soil at about 9 inches apart, intending to 

 take them up with balls, and force them late if wanted, as a 

 few lights in a frame or pit when thus filled are useful btfore 

 the out-of-door plants bear. These joubr plants to treated 

 generally show very stroag bloom buds for the size ot the 

 plants. Many now look as if they would show well, but a 

 goodly number are likely to produce nothing but leaves. Of 

 similar-sized plants of different kinds potted, watered as well 

 as we could in summer and autumn, and partly protected iu 

 winter, very few — scarcely two in a hundred — have failed in 

 shos^ing bold strong flower trusees, ihe most forward ripening 

 well, those iu bloom showing fine strong frtrii stalks, and those 

 not started showing broad truase?. We are thus particular 

 because we would wish those similarly eir(.umst!.iiced io state 

 the results of their experience, and to examine the appear- 

 ance of their Strawberry plants. We hope wo shall have a 

 fair supply out of doors, but already we can ste that it will not 

 eome up, so far as bloom and fruit are concerned, to our usual 

 free-blooming and our heavy crops. 



We had some forebodings last autumn that this might be the 

 case, and it would be of little use mentioning all thete details 

 if we did not hope that our brother observers would help us 

 to find a solution of the cause of the comparative sbcrlnsss of 

 bloom buds. Now, first, such comparative scarcity of bloom 

 buds, when contrasted with previous years, is not at all owing 

 to continuing a succession of barren plants, as we believed to 

 be unfortunately the case with some of our readers last year, 

 who had beautiful plants, but not * bloom, as the best and 

 strongest ot our plants were turned cut of pots last season 

 after they had produced fruit. The few plants putted, and 

 which do not show flower trnsses, are at once sent to enrich the 

 rubbish heap. These fine plants, which do not show just as 

 ■we would like them to do, are, therefore, the plants that fruited 

 last year, and similar to those which, in all previoas years, 

 afterwards produced fine crops in the first season out of doors. 

 Plants taken from those inclined to be barren of fruit and 

 flowers are not, therefore, the cause of the diminished number 

 of flower trusses. 



Last aulumn, when we had some foreboding that we might 

 have a small crop of Strawberries out of doors this season, we 

 based that foreboding on the dryness to which the plants had 

 been subjected, and our inability to wa/ter them, which holiced 

 to starve instead of mature the incipient fruit buds. This 

 idea, however, would have been more conclusive but for the 

 simple fact that though (he Strawberry plants iu 1870 in the 

 open ground did sufier from drought, they did not suffer nearly 

 so much as in 1869, when whole quarters and beds seemed like 

 so much dry tinder before the autumn rains came, and still 

 from these mummies ot 1869 there was a fair show of bloom, 

 though not extra strong in 1870. 



This fact, taken in connection with that already alluded tc. 

 (hat young plants turned out of small pots into the open 

 ground last season do not show so uniformly and strongly for 

 bloom as similar plants potted and receiving less or more pro- 

 tection in winter, lead us to the conclusion that the dryness of 

 the summer and the keen frost ot the winter united, destroyed 

 in many eases the incipient fruit bud, though doing but little 

 injury to the mere leafy part of the plant. We might mention 

 some other corroborative cireumetances ; at present our opinion 

 is, that if we should have a crop of Strawberries at all short, 

 it vTill ba chiefly owing to the dryness of the summer and the 

 coldness of the winter, and that more moisture in the one case, 

 or more protection in the other, might have mitigated or ob- 

 viated the evil. Even the snow, which protected for a time, 

 made the plants, like the Cabbages and Broccoli, more sus- 

 ceptible to the keen frost when fully exposed afterwards. 



For general details as to thinning the shoots of Peaches, 

 thinning Grape.s, proportioning vapour to heat in houses, and 

 making the best use of sun hea4; when obtainable, see previous 

 numbers. 



OENAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 



We proceeded with groundwoik, and rolling lawns and the 

 sioes of walks preparatory to edging them. Edging with an 

 iron once a-year makes chpping afterwards more easy. About 

 1 inch, or from that to IJ inch, is quite high enough above the 

 walk for a verge. Nothing looks worse than a deep edge, and 

 all the more if the raw earth is at all seen. A walk conjuring 

 up the idea of a ditch, or of 3. mere watercourse, is an abomina- 

 tion. Walks much above the general level are equally an eye- 

 sore. We can bring to our mind's eye a broad walk iu a 

 public garden, so rounded and high in the centre, that everyone 

 who traversed it might -well keep saying to himself, " High leg, 

 low leg." 



Proceeded with potting, training, cutting-making, and hard- 

 ening off bedding plants, and putting out into earth pits and 

 trenches lots of Calceolarias, Pelar-goniums, Ageratums, &c., so 

 as to find room for Goleus, Lesines, &e,, which require more 

 heat to bring them on. It is no easy matter to find room for 

 such numbers ot plants now, when, from every place being 

 filled, it could not be easily found out where they all could 

 eome from a few months hence. 



Pricked oft' Lobelias, and we shall try and ^ve them a little 

 heat to render them strong for planting out. Wa also pricked 

 off lots of seedlings of the Golden Pyrethrum, and set them in 

 the orchard house, ere long to go out of doors. We have a lot 

 of old plants that etood the winter which wo may bo induced 

 to tear to pieces and plant if we are forced to do so; but 

 treat these old plants as you may, they will never have the 

 neatness and compactness of Email seedlings pricked off now.. 

 Shallow wooden boxes are excellent for all snch purposes. If 

 made rough and open they need no drainage, and a dash with 

 a quicklime brush prevents ail fnugus appearing. — B. E. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



SEEDLrKS CrsEEAEii (A. Jf.).— The coloOT, dark blue, is intense, the 

 truss good, and the pips "well-shaped. As you say the plant is o£ good 

 habit, it is altogether a superior variety. 



Parasite on Acacia {H. Baldcrray). — It is the common Dodder, Cus- 

 cuta europeea, and was prohably brought into your greenliouse with the 

 soil. 



CAjiiELLi-i .?Por.T {P. L.). — It is not unusuol for red flowers to be pro- 

 duced occasiontilly on a white Camellia. They are all crose-breds, and, 

 as in all cross-breds, will sometimes exhibit evidence of gome distant 

 ancestry. 



Plakts foe Wi!^dow Boxes {A. R ). — There are many ways of doing 

 this ; some like to few seed rather than purchase plants. We give a few 

 simple arrangements of both. From seseh : 1, Mignonette all round at 

 about an inch from the edge, and trained so as to hang down the sides, 

 Ten-wf ek Stacks in the centre. 2. Sweet Alyssum for an edging all 

 round, and Saponaria calabrica in the centre. 3, C'alandrinia umbellata 

 for the marf^in, and Leptosipbon androsaccus albus in the centre. Of 

 plants: 1, Cerastium tomentosum all round, Lobelia speciosa at each 

 corner and midway iu the aide lines of Cerastium, fiUing up the centre 

 wiih Scarlet Geraniums. 2, Variegated Alyssum all round, the end and 

 central plants of the internal Une being ij^eratum Imperial Dwarf, filled 

 in with Zonal Geranium Black Band. 3. Lobelia speciosa aU round, the 

 ends and central plants of the middle line being Centaurea ragusina, 

 filled up with Golden Tricolor Geranium Mrs. Pollock. These will suggest 

 other modes of arrangement. 



Garden for Profit {W. H. C). — Your garden, 80 feet by 44 feet, con- 

 taining as it does about 391 square yards, would not be more than one- 

 twelfth part of the work for a man, and could only be made to employ a 

 gardener by covering it with glass. It might pay if you were to construct 

 a vinery on the ground, and besides Grapes have in the house bedding 

 plants, which could be wintered without detriment to the Vines The 

 Grapes would no doubt meet with a ready sale from August, and the 

 plants in May. As to growing vegetables to sell wholesale, it would no 

 doubt pay as far as it went, but would not employ a man more than an 



