September 8, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



17-9 



growing as a contrast to other colours. It stands sun and rain 

 better than almost any variety I know. 



I have only tried two orange-coloured Geraniums this year — 

 viz., Orange Nosegay and Grace Holmes. The latter is, in my 

 opinion, a great acquisition, very dwarf and free-blooming, and 

 will, like Violet Hill, stand good treatment, when it will flower 

 freely without growing coarse. Orange Nosegay is of a good 

 colour, but too small in the truss, and does not bloom freely 

 enough. 



We next come to the pink and rose section. 



Of these Rose Rendatler is facile princeps with me, and has 

 proved itself the best for four years. On some soils it is coarse ; 

 here both old plants and young bloom freely, and stand the 

 weather well. Its fault, which it has in common with all 

 pinks, is its tendency to run to 6eed. 



Ne Plus Ultra is a very fine shade of pink with a good truss 

 of flowers. I do not think, however, it blooms freely enough. 



Blue Bell is too coarse with me, but it is a different shade 

 of colour — a lilac pink — has a handsome truss of bloom, and I 

 shall certainly try it again, as I think for the sake of variety, 

 and to prevent monotony, one cannot have too many different 

 shades of colour. 



Pink Perfection is a fairly good sort. Pink Stella does not 

 bloom enough, and after three years' trial I shall discard it. 



Countess of Rosslyn, which I had not enough of for a separate 

 bed, and which I planted in a mixed bed, is a promising sort, 

 with a dwarf habit, but more lilac than rose. 



Christine NjSegay has also a nice dwarf habit with a soft 

 light shade of pink, bat hardly blooms freely enough, and is 

 too stiff in the growth. 



Gloire de Corbenay was the only salmon-coloured Geranium 

 I bedded this year, and it has done better than any salmon I 

 ever tried before, having had to discard Eugenie Mezard, 

 Francois Desbois, Madame Rudersdorff, and others. I shall 

 certainly try it again, and I think it will Bucceed. 



AU the whites I have ever tried have turned to a dirty pink 

 in the sua, but they have all been so like their prototype, 

 Madame Vaueher, as for all practical purposes to be identical ; 

 but one which was sent me on trial by Mr. C. Turner has kept 

 its colour well, is of quite a different habit, and seems to me 

 most promising, and I intend to give it a good trial next year. 

 Another good dwarf white which has kept its colour was kindly 

 sent me as a present by Mr. Aldred, and will, I think, bed well. 



I will de'er my notes on the Bicolors, Tricolors, and Varie- 

 gated sorts till another time. I would only conclude now by 

 saying, if I had to choose twelve (not counting newer sorts), 

 one of each colour, I should take the following : — Waltham 

 Seedling, Bayard, Cybister, Grand Duke, Violet Hill, Duchess 

 of Sutherland, Dr. Hogg, Indian Yellow, Grace Holmes, Gloire 

 de Corbenay, Rose Rendatler, and The Bride. I have included 

 the latter though a new one, as I do not know any white of 

 the Madame Vaueher type worth growing. I can also un- 

 hesitatingly recommend Vesta, Lady C. Grosvenor, Douglas 

 Pearson, Thomas Speed, William Thomson, Lady Hawley, Lady 

 Kirkland, and Stanstead Rival. 



Since writing the above notes we have had heavy rain, 0.92 

 inch in one night, and the sorts which have stood it best are 

 Waltham Seedling, Bayard, Violet Hill, and Indian Yellow. — 

 C. P. Peach. 



BUSH VINES IN POTS. 



Mk. Peabson's account of the pot Vines at Chatsworth has 

 much interested me ; perhaps Borne of your readers may like 

 to know what may be done with pot Vines grown as bushes 

 about 5 feet high, including the pot. I have ten pot Vines 

 fruiting in 13-inch pots on a raised border in a cold vinery, 

 the roof being covered with border Vines ; they are two years 

 old, and no fruit was taken from them last year, which may 

 account for their fruitfulness this year. 



In November last they were pruned according to Mr. Rivers's 

 directions. The earth 4 inches down the pots was taken out, 

 all roots springing from the stem cnt off to an inch in length, 

 and the vacant space filled with fresh earth (clayey loam), and 

 plenty of half-inch bones, well rammed down. Nothing was 

 done in the way of painting the stems. The pots were then 

 laid on their sides on a south-east border, a little earth was 

 thrown up round them, and the Vines bore 13° of frost without 

 injury. In the middle of February they were set in their 

 places ; all buds were allowed to break, and stopped at one 

 joint beyond the bunch of bloom. As soon as the berries were 

 set they had a plentiful top-dressing of malt screenings and 



horse droppings in equal quantities, a second edition of the 

 same when the berries began the second swelling, plentiful 

 supplies of tepid water throughout, and liquid manure of 

 sheep droppings, a la Pearson, twice a-week until colour ap- 

 peared. A good crop has been the reward of the trouble which' 

 the watering and general treatment entail. Two Black Ham- 

 burghs have five bunches each, Black Frontignan three, Sweet- 

 water nine, Black Bordeaux ten, Frankenthal four, Muscat of 

 Alexandria seven, Muscat St. Laurent six, Royal Muscadine 

 seven, and a Black Hamburgh, grown through a 6-inch pot, 

 bears six bunches. The last-named Vine has now two sets of 

 roots, the lower in a 13-inch pot, the upper in a C-inch pot, 

 and when the Grapes are ripe, by dividing the stem between 

 the two pots I hope to have a handsome ornament for the 

 sideboard. 



I may add, that the Muscat St. Laurent, which Mr. Pearson- 

 describes, or abuses, as a " worthless little early Grape, with an 

 objectionable Muscat flavour," has with me large bunches and 

 fine oval berries of a yellowiBh-green colour. I have not cut 

 any, so can say nothing about the flavour, but it is worth 

 something to look at. — V. W. Pofhah, Portreath, Cornwall. 



BEET FOE A FLOWER GARDEN. 

 At page 143 I saw an article on Beet for decorative purposes, 

 and I fully agree with your correspondent that Beet is certainly 

 out of place anywhere but in the kitchen garden. This year I- 

 purchased seed of a well-known firm, and when ready I planted 

 out in the flower border in places where I should otherwise 

 have put Colons had I not heard the Beet so highly spoken of. 

 I have been thoroughly disappointed with the result of my 

 experiment, for, instead of separating the lines of colour as I 

 had intended, the Beet has simply overgrown everything, not- 

 withstanding the bushels of leaves that have been cut off. 

 Some of the leaves are now 30 inches high instead of about 

 12 inches, the height those in my kitchen garden usually attain. 

 Now I want cuttings of Tom Thumb Geraniums and Calceo- 

 larias, which plants the Beet divides, but positively have none. 

 My only apparent resource is to cut down the wretched Beet 

 (which I intend doing next week), that my legitimate bedding 

 plants may grow more freely. — H. Gaisfobd Gotto. 



NOTES ON POTATOES, CUCUMBERS, AND' 

 ROSES. 



I mentioned in my last that I had here (Somerset), planted 

 several varieties of Potatoes in rows on the same piece of ground^ 

 using to each row 1 lb. of seed cut in sets. The following were 

 the kinds — Early Rose, Climax, Bresee's Prolific, Bresee's Eing 

 of the Earlies, Carter's Queen of Potatoes, Carter's Ashtop 

 Fluke, Rivers's Royal, Sutton's Racehorse, and Eelway's Non- 

 pareil. Rivers's Royal, Climax, Nonpareil, and Early Rose 

 were up a little before the rest. They all met with that severe 

 frost which was so general, and I looked out one morning to 

 find them all as black as a coal. I thought to myself, Here is 

 an end to my trial and my prize seed ; but they came round, 

 and I give the result. The first I dug was Climax, and well' 

 pleased was I to find that my 1 lb. had produced 17 lbs. of 

 fine, large, good-looking tubers. I must add that at least one- 

 third of the sets of this variety were quite killed by the frost; 

 it seems to be the most delicate of all. Of Bresee's Prolific I 

 had 29 lbs. ; Eing of the Earlies, 25 lbs. ; Eelway's Nonpareil, 

 27 lbs. ; Carter's Queen of Potatoes, 10 lbs. ; Ashtop Fluke, 

 9 lbs. ; Rivers's Royal, 11 lbs. ; and Sutton's Racehorse, 7 lbs. ; 

 but when I came to Early Rose I could scarcely believe my 

 eyes when I found that I had 52 lbs. of enormous tubers with 

 scarcely a small one amongst them. I was prepared to receive 

 the Yankee character of this Potato with one or two large 

 " grains of salt," but the result has surprised me beyond mea- 

 sure. In my whole stock of twenty-four varieties I give the 

 palm, taking all qualities into consideration, to Early Rose 

 and Nonpareil. 



My Roses this year, as a whole, have been good. I have had 

 splendid blooms on Alfred Colomb, Xavier Olibo, Baroness de 

 Rothschild, Princess Mary of Cambridge, Marguerite de St. 

 Amand, La France, Christine Nilsson, and Pierre Notting. 

 Duke of Edinburgh, Edward Morren, Clemence Raoux, and 

 Lord Macaulay, with some of the other dark Perpetuals, have 

 been so infested with mildew that as yet my blooms have been 

 indifferent. I have grown very fond of Archimede, Monsieur 

 Furtado, Moiret, and Fortune's New Yellow, among Teas. 1 



