May 11, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF SORTICULTUEE AND COTTA.GE GARDENER. 



3i3 



visits them. We think in your case the cause is chiefly defect of tap, as 

 the leaves are vigorous and the roots outside. More warmlh in the soil 

 would in such case have been a preventive. 



Vines Breaking Irregularly (.-i.S.).— Tie hack the canes, bringing 

 the upper part below the base, and keep them in that position until the 

 lower part is well broken, and then tie them up to the rafters. 



Heating Vine Border (C. P.). — It would not be of any great benefit to 

 pat heating material on the border now, for it would afford no greater 

 warmth than the sun's rays, and to cover the border now will only be to 

 shut them out. Had such a covering been put on three months sooner 

 it would have been of great advantage, heating the border at a time when 

 it was cold, and causing more root actioo in couscquence. The removal 

 of stones from gardens and shrubberies is not beneficial, only it gives the 

 soil a neater appearance. The soil being light and porous with a gravelly 

 bottom the removal of the stones will do harm, inasmuch as it diminishes 

 the staple. For neatness and facility of working, their removal, however, 

 becomes necessary, adding their equivalent in manure or compost. 



Spots on Vine Leaves (G. S.). — We have never seen a case precisely 

 similar. There is no funflus on the spots, which evidently arose when 

 the leaves were quite young. Either the roots must be in a very bad con- 

 dition, or tbere must liave beeo some defect_in overheating at night, and 

 consequent withering by radiation. 



Vine Leaves Warted {A Constant Reader).— Ihele&i sent shows warts, 

 the consequence of a close, confined atmosphere, The holts we attribute 

 to weevils, and for these your best remedy is to search at night with a 

 candle or lantern, shake the Vine bri&kly on a while cloth, and catch 

 what falls. About 9 pm. would be a good time. 



Vines and Vine Borders [E. S.).— We are glad that the borders made 

 inside the greenhouse have answered so well, chiefly, we believe, owing 

 to the good drainage and the free admixture of lime rubbish with the 

 common garden soil. We would have preferred a lot of bruised and 

 broken bones to so much rotten dung, as they are more lasting, and there 

 is no danger of their running into an unctuous mass. Your esperience is 

 valuable as showing that good old garden soil will ^rowgood Grapes. We 

 have often seen fine Grapes grown iu the same; as that which suits 



Cabbages and Turnips, though in making a nert border we would prefer 

 friable mellow lunm from sods if we could obtain it Having done so well 

 inside, we should have been tempted to adopt a similar plan outside. We 

 think that, where the position will admit of it, it is an error to make a 

 huge deep hole of some 5 feet in depth for a Vine border. We would 

 rather have a good position above the surrounding ground level. Where 

 the ground cannot be raised, a moderate depth must be obtained by 

 going down, guarding against stagnant water by free drainage The brick- 

 bats and lime rubbish to the depth of 2 feet were quite proper; less 

 would have done if placed open, but instead of placing 5 cwt. of bones 

 on the top of this rubbish, we would have mixed them with the bulk of 

 the soil ; and instead of mixing so much rotten dung with the soil, we 

 Tvould have used less, and then given a surface mulching. The tendrilling 

 of the bunches leads to one of two conclusions— either the roots are 

 getting too deep, or the wood has been imperfectly ripened, the latter 

 being often a result of the former. Still, as the Vines are so healthy, we 

 "Would not lift them before giving them a trial of a year or two more; but 

 to encourage the roots nearer the surface we would mulch in summer, 

 ■water if necessary, and cover the border with dry titter early in autumn, 

 say in the middle of October. We would also keep the border drier in 

 autumn, and give more air and a little more fire heat before the leaves 

 "turned yellow. 



Vine Leaves Scorched (£?. M ). — If you can find out how the leaves 

 and shoots are all scorched and burned up in your house, and not a leaf 

 or shoot in a house 53 yards distant affected, then you will know all about 

 St better than we can tell you. The leaves sent were withered. If they 

 belong to Lady Downe's, or s me similar woolly variety, then there is 

 nothing but ihe scorching, otherwise we should fear you had mildew. If 

 so it would be a consequence of a confined moist atmosphere, otherwise 

 \we have not a doubt that your foliage and young shoots are scorched and 

 burned. The Vines would be safer at 16 rather than 10 inches from the 

 glass ; but the chief cause of the bui-ning we consider is found in your 

 own statement, " the house was closed except a few hours in the d'ay." 

 We agrte with you that frost has had no influence in the matter. We do 

 -jiot think that bad or spotted glass has much to do with it, as then the 

 scorching would have been more partial than general. We believe your 

 remedy will be found in early air-giving, and if that is inconvenient, 

 leave a little air on all night ; half an inch along the apex will prevent 

 confined vapour. Better give an inch, and use a little artificial heat to 

 ■counteract the air giving. 



Vine Leaves and Stems Burned Brown (Wyeside^ — From what cause 

 we cannot say, but some downy leaves, like those of Lady Downe's Vine, 

 are more apt to blister and turn brown than Black Hamburgh ; and Vines 

 coming into bearing late are more apt to suffer than earlier ones, chiefly, 

 in our opinion, because less care is bestowel on early and careful venti- 

 lation. Nothing is more certain than thip, that even from the thickness, 

 a leaf of Lady Downe's will burn when a leaf of Black Hamburgh and a 

 leaf of Muscat would suffer nothing. We are not surprised that your 

 Apiicots suffered from dryness. We are sorry to say that Apricota and 

 \Peache3, after thriving well in many places, are now suffering from what 

 the frosts left behind them j many shoots are shrivelling up that seemed 

 -fresh. 



Exudation on Grapes (An Old Subscriber), — We cannot be quite cer- 

 tain from your description, but we fear "the pimply, sticky, dew-like 

 matter" on your bunches of Grapes now colouring comes from the mealy 

 bog. You can soon satisfy yourself, for the bug itself, with its cottony 

 covering, will be easily seen. If that is the case you can hardlv have 

 anything worse. All you can do now is to mitigate the evil, and that by 

 "using a small brush, dry, to get rid of as much as possible of it, and 

 having several brushes, cleaning one as it becomes dirty, and drying it 

 previous to use. No kind of smoking, nor anything we have tried, will 

 injure the mealy bug. Any liquid you might use now, such as Pooley's 

 or Veitch's, would injure the appearance of the Grapes. If it is the 

 mealy bug it is iu no way attributable to anything vrrong in the cultiva- 

 tion or general management ; in fact, the condition of your Grapes and 

 Vines proves that. At present you can only mitigate the evil. When the 

 Gratjes are cut and the wood ripe we would advise washing everything 

 -with hot soft-soap water, and not a cranny of wood, wall, stage, or shelf 

 must be missed. The Vines should be painted with clay, soft soap, and 



Sulphur. As to how such an insect comss, that is often seemingly myste- 

 rious. A single plant brought with an insect upon it would he quite suflS,- 

 cient to fill a place. One or two on the coat of a visiting gardener might 

 make a beginning. 



Strawberries Bloomless ( ).— As your Strawberry pots in a Cu- 

 cumber house have not shown a blossom, we have little faith in the same 

 plants doing goad service for forcing nest year, or fruiting at any time ; 

 therefore we would throw them away and have fresh plants for next 

 fleason, taking runners from bearing plants. A Cacumbar house would 

 do in an emergency for swelling and ripening Strawberries, but the tem- 

 perature necessary is too high to start and grow them in. 



Moss ON Wood Path (C. J. £.).— It is not a Moss, but Sagina pro- 

 cumbens, Pearlwort. As the wood path is on a moist soil, the way to 

 encourage the plant as you desire will be to manage to keep it moist 

 throughout the summer. 



Tacsonias {A.m. G.).— The Tacsonias do very well in large pots or 

 tubs, and if well watered and mulched will bloom more freely than when 

 planted out. Of course they will drop their buds if the roots are dry. 

 You miy plant them outside, and bring the stems into the house like 

 Vines, and they will do very well if the stems be protected from frost, 

 and the roots as well, by a covering of litter or moss. 



Flowee-gaeden Plan (W. S.). — We very much admire your flower" 

 garden plan, owing to its simplicity and roominess. Your ko. 1 central 

 clump could not be improve.!, planted with Coleus, with curved ovals of 

 Polemonium cteraleum round it. 2, 3, 4, 5 will be very nice, and so will 

 6 and? be. As you hint, we would arrange S, 9 ; and as you have the plants, 

 we would centre the purple Verbena with Christine, and edge with dwarf 

 Calceolaria, yellow. 10 and 11, and 12 and 13, are cross beds. Keeping 

 that in view and the plants you have in stock, we would surround 10 and 

 11 with Golden Chain, and 12 and 13 with Iresine Lindenii. 



PaEPARED Calico for Strawberry and Melon Frames (H. R. J).). 

 — The great inducement for using glazed and waterproofed calico, such 

 as you refer to, was owing to the dearness of the glass. When the duty 

 was removed calico was less in demand. Even now for many protecting 

 purposes nothing is better than calico, even iu its natural state. If firmly 

 stretched it excludes moisture like an umbrella. The forwarding of 

 Strawberry plants taken up with balls from the open ground, and covered 

 with calico i^repared a^ state!, so as to gain two or three weeks in gather- 

 ing, will depend entirely on what the sun does for you, and on yom-lifting 

 the plants. You say the first week in March, We have been very suc- 

 cessful from lifting in April and on the firit days of May, and covering 

 with glass, by giving a little extra heat below the soil ; but we should not 

 advise you to do this at the beginning of March, as we fear you would thus 

 give an impetus to growth instead of flowers and fruit. If you gave no 

 such help, why not leave your plants where they are, and keep them 

 covered except in bright days, when the sun could have all the power? 

 We presume, however, that you wish to move the plants to a better- 

 position. We see that your frames are sound and good, so we suppose 

 that your calico is fixed to frames that you can use much as glass sashes. 

 In answering inquiries we do not like to go beyond our experience or 

 direct observation. We have covered a sloping border with sashes in the 

 beginning of May, merely laying the sashes on pots and placing a board 

 back and front, and we have had fine gatherings fourteen and sixteen 

 days earlier than from those exposed. We have done the same, and in 

 dull weather we have gathered from five to seven days eax-lier. Twice or 

 thrice with the same convenience as to back and front, in the way of 

 boards, we have stretched a roll of clean unbleached calico along quite 

 tight ; the calico, however, rendered bright from previous use, and in one 

 case we gained eight days, and in several cases three or four days. The 

 forwarding in such cases depends aiuch on the weather. We should think 

 that in moderately sunny weather you would gain more than a fortnight, 

 but, then, we have not proved it. As for Me'ous we would advise planting 

 out in the middle of June instead of the middle of May, when they were 

 to be covered with such prepared calico. But here we have had no 

 personal experience, only we have proved over and over again that but 

 I little extra heat is needed for the hardiest Melons after the middle of 

 I June. 



I Peach Leaves Holed and Blistered (TF. B.).— As far as we recollect 

 I the leaves sent before had traces of scalding, some of these leaves have 

 i the same; S.30 a.m. is not soon enough to give air, if the house catches 

 I the morning sun. Under such circumstances we would give air fully 

 one hour and a half earlier, or most likely leave half an inch alocg the top 

 all night. There is much misconception as to air giving. We have no 

 faith in breezes and strong currents of air in houses. It is amazing how 

 little air will do if it is given early, and the temperature rises and faUs 

 gradually with sun heat, a diff rent thing from fire heat however applied. 

 It is hot, confined air loaded with vapour that causes the scalding or 

 blotching. There are different appearances in the Peach leaves. Those 

 thin and whitish in appearan ce have chiefly the marks of decrepitude from 

 a'^'e and want of nourishment. Those thin and small, from trees planted 

 last autumn, are nothing much out of the way. We think that next season 

 they will be all right, with early air-giving. &c Those leaves with holes 

 in them and blotches wp are rather doubtful of. The blotch we con- 

 sider a decided case of scalding. The holes in the leaf, if they had been 

 empty, we would at once have considered as a proof that there was 

 fimgus affecting the roots. The best remedy is placng fresh soil about 

 the roots, and using flowers of sulphur, moderately of course. We know 

 no one who has made such researches in this direction as Mr. McKay, 

 gardener at Woburn Abbey, and this is the remedy he applied. We in- 

 stanced the other week a most successful combination of a flower bed, 

 for which we are indebted to Mr. McKay, jun. So far as we understand 

 or know, we are indebted to Mr. McKav, sen , for tracing the connection 

 between the holes in Peach leaves, as if they had been riddled with small 

 shot, to an attack of mildew on the roots, one additional reason for not 

 using leaf mould or dung so fresh as to contain spawn of various fungi. 

 We might have at once come to the conclusion that these holed leaves 

 were the effects of fungi at the roots, but that many of the holes were 

 not open, but had burnt brown patches not fallen out, of from one-eighth, 

 to one-quarter, or one-half of an inch in diameter. That and the ap- 

 pearance round them led us to imagine a slight scalding from warm con- 

 fined vapour, and a burning from some nodes or scratch's in the glass, 

 actins as foci or burning glasses. Then the crowding of so many trees 

 in one house may be some disadvantage to you. The remedies we pro- 

 pose, thcD, are earlv air-giving as above, fresh soil if it can be given, and 



