July 26, 1877. ] 



JOUB.NAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



81 



White and the Brown Cog are useful aorta of the Cob varieties, 

 and the All the Year Bound of the Cabbage varieties. The 

 ground between the Celery trenches ia an admirable place to 

 perfeot their growth.— J. W. Moorman. 



DOINGS OP THE LAST AND WORK FOR 

 THE PRESENT WEEK. 



HARDY FBUIT GARDEN. 



This is the best time to propagate by budding those trees 

 that are best increased in that way, the most prominent being 

 Peaches, Nectarines, Plums, Cherries, Apricots, and Pears on 

 the Quince. The buds inserted on the Qaince stock should be 

 near the surface of.the ground, in order that when the trees are 

 planted or potted to form orchard-honse trees the union may 

 just be covered with soil. In respect of the others named this 

 is immaterial, as the trees can either be treated to produce 

 dwarfs or BtandardB of any height. It ia beat to chooae atrong 

 fairly-matured young wood from which to take the buda ; of the 

 Peach and Nectarine, which bear only on the young wood of 

 the previous year, there is considerable difficulty in procuring 

 buds, aa those only can be used that are in triplets. The 

 middle bud will produce a Bhoot and the side buds blossoms. 

 All Bingle buds are blossom buds. As detailed and illustrated 

 articles have so recently appeared in this Journal on budding 

 Boses, and aa the method of budding fruit trees is similar, there 

 ia no need to say any more about it here. In three weeks after 

 the operation has been performed it is well to look over the 

 work and loosen the bandage. Those buds of which the bark is 

 freBh and green have taken ; the shrivelled and black buds are 

 dead, and a fresh one may be inaerted in another part of the 

 stock. If the etocka are very dry at the roots it will be neces- 

 sary to give them a considerable supply of water, elae the bark 

 will not aeparate freely from the wood, and if it will not do this 

 saceeBBful budding is impossible. 



VineB on walls now require to be carefully looked over and to 

 have all lateral and unnecessary growths removed. If the Vines 

 are crowded with young wood Buccesa can no more be looked 

 for on walls than in vineries mismanaged on the same principle. 

 The Vines which sucoeed best cultivated on walls — viz., the 

 Eoyal Muscadine and White Sweetwater, produce the finest 

 flavoured fruit when it ia exposed to light and the influence of 

 the Bun's rays. Black Hamburgh succeeds well on walls in 

 favourable positions in the south of England, but the fruit must 

 not be bo freely exposed as that of the white varietiea. The 

 shoots should be laid-in aecurely and regularly over the walls, 

 and when this is the oase a very pleasing effect is produced. 

 To be aucceasful with the Sweetwater and Muscadine a supply 

 of strong young growths must be produced annually from the 

 base. The spurs do not produce well after the third year. We 

 would not have them more than two years old, especially if the 

 walls are under 9 feet in height. We need not say anything 

 about thinning-out the fruit this year, at leaBt no one in this 

 district requires information about it. 



Cherriea have been a moat abundant crop, and indeed all 

 small fruits. Our wall trees have been looked over some time 

 ago, but those who have not yet stopped the laterals and laid-iu 

 the young wood should lose no time in doing so. The trees will 

 grow the more freely the less fruit they produce. See that all 

 inBect peats are destroyed if poasible as Boon aa they appear. 



PINE HOUSES. 



The plants have been examined in all the houses, beginning 

 with the fruiting house, where a large proportion of the fruit 

 had been cleared off. The plants were furnished with some 

 strong suckers; theBe were taken off close to the old atem, and 

 have been potted in 7-inch pota, using good sound loam five 

 parts, one part of decayed manure, and a little charcoal broken 

 into pieces the size of a walnut. The pota are well drained, 

 and a little fibre placed over the potaherda prevents the com- 

 post from mixing with them. When potted we plunge the pots 

 to within an inch of the rim in a bed of tan fresh out of the tan- 

 pita ; this will raise the bottom heat to about 90° or 100°. The 

 old plants were thrown out, and all those on which the fruit 

 had not yet ripened were placed together at one end of the 

 bed. The plants intended to fruit next summer have been re- 

 moved to the fruiting house, and the pots also plunged in a bed 

 of fresh tan. They are not nearly so atrong as we have had 

 them, but the leaves are broad, short, and well browned. We 

 have seen immensely strong plants that had been grown in a 

 close moist atmosphere, and although they gave promise to pro- 

 dace great results they did not come up to expectation. The 

 Pine houses ought to be well supplied with fresh air and the 

 plants be freely exposed to the sun, maintaining at the same 

 time a eufficiently high temperature. Pine plants if kept in 

 conditions conducive to vigorous health are seldom attacked 

 either by scale or mealy bug ; but a careful look-out must be 

 kept for these pests. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



Where there is a large collection of hard wooded plants some- 



thing will always be required to be done. Tying-out the young 

 growths, watching the plants for red spider, green fly, and Bcale, 

 and during hot dry weather attending to watering them, will 

 give ample pleasant employment to the ardent cultivator. Nor 

 will he allow any plants to suffer for want of repotting at the 

 proper time. One of the most useful planta ia the Statice pro- 

 faaa. Ours were attacked by mildew, red spider, and green fly 

 at one time. We did not try any patent waahea for them, but 

 made a aolution of aoapy water as strong as the leaves would 

 bear, and added a good proportion of flowers of Bulphur. The 

 planta were held over a water-carrier in order to save the water, 

 which was applied again and again with the syringe until every 

 part of the leaves was well wetted ; the effect of this being to 

 thoroughly cleanse the plants from all their enemies. 



Stage Pelargoniums are still furnished with Borne fresh trust ea 

 of finely developed flowers. Those that are faded are removed 

 at frequent intervals, so that the house is kept tidy. The earliest 

 planta are removed out of doors and do not receive a very large 

 Bupply of water at the roots ; and aa Boon as the wood is ripened 

 the plants are cut down, but before doing this the soil in tbe 

 pots iB allowed to become almost duaty dry, so that bleeding 

 from the cuts may be prevented and the wounds may heal more 

 readily. 



Fuchsiaa are the most useful of plants for decorative purposes 

 to succeed stage Pelargoniums, and no garden ought to be with- 

 out a selection of them. Plants raised from cuttinga atruck 

 early in the spring ahow the most vigorous development if 

 potted in rich Boil — good turfy loam four parts, well-decayed 

 manure, and a little bone dust and leaf soil added will make an 

 excellent compost. The varieties now in cultivation can hardly 

 be overgrown if the compost ia not too Btrong for the rootB, 

 their character is so floriferous. As a rule young planta are the 

 beet for general purpoaea, but a few large Bpecimens have an 

 excellent effect arranged aa a background on large stages. An 

 excellent effect is also produced by training a single stem to the 

 rafters of the greenhonBe. At the nurseries of Mr. John Fraser, 

 Lea Bridge Boad, may be seen a number of plants trained in 

 thiB way annually. He strikeB the cuttinga in the autumn and 

 grows them on rapidly in such soil as haa been recommended. 

 The planta are grown in 10-inch pota, and oontinue producing 

 enormoua quantities of flowers all the summer and autumD. 

 The best varietiea adapted for thi8 work are Arabella, Constel- 

 lation, Delight, Josephine, Marginata, Puritani, Lustre, and 

 Snowdrop : these are aortB with single flowers. Of double 

 varieties there are Alpha, Champion of the World, Diadem, 

 Elegant, Empress, Harry Williams, La Neige, May Felton, 

 McMahon, Sir Colin Campbell, and Tower of London. The above 

 sorts are recommended by Mr. Fraser for this purpose, who says 

 that some sons are better suited for this purpose than others. 



FLORIST FLOWERS. 



The Tulip roots have been lifted and stored away in a dry 

 cool loft for the present. Each sort was lifted separately, and 

 the roots with all offsets attached placed in a small flower pot 

 with a label, to be attended to at a more convenient season. 

 Tulips and Hyacinths in pots have alao had the aoil ahaken from 

 the bulbs, but we are not very careful about the namea to theae. 

 The roota were thrown into baskets, and the best roots will be 

 potted, the Hyacinths three in a pot, and the Tulips about six. 



As the Carnations go out of bloom those plants that are in 

 pots are plaoed out of doors in a position well exposed to the 

 sun, and the grass will be layered when it is in good condition. 

 Auriculas behind a north wall are still enjoying a quiet rest. 

 They do not require much water at present, but they must not 

 be allowed to become too dry at the roots, and when the Bun 

 comes round to the frames in the afternoon it will be well to 

 throw a slight shade over the glass. As we expected, the pipings 

 of Pinks are not Btriking very freely, except those that were 

 very small and composed of the side growths. Grose succulent 

 Bhoots do not root freely under any circumstances. H any 

 varieties refuse to Btrike roots more suitable pipings may be 

 obtained in a week or two. 



Gladioli are very late in offering to throw up the spikes this 

 year, the reasons being a late seasoD, and there was no oppor- 

 tunity of planting any roots early owing to the continued wet 

 and cold ; but the appearance of the plants suggeBta that we 

 shall have a good bloom. The surface of the beds has been 

 mulched with manure, and they have received one good water- 

 ing. Dahlias and Hollyhocks will now engage much attention. 

 The surface of the ground must be mulched, and the planta 

 watered if they require it. Both are gross feeders, and can take 

 in dry weather a plentiful supply of manure water. — J. Douglas. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

 * * All correspondence should be directed either to " The 

 Editors," or to " The Publisher." Letters addressed to 

 Mr. Johnson or Dr. Hogg often remain unopened unavoid- 

 ably. We request that no one will write privately to any 

 of our correspondents, as doing so subjects them to un- 

 justifiable trouble and expense. 



