82 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 25, 1877. 



Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet ques- 

 tions relating to Gardening and thoBe on Poultry and Bee 

 subjects, and should never send more than two or three 

 questions at once. All articles intended for insertion should 

 he written on one side of the paper only. We cannot 

 reply to questions through the post. 



Bating Horticultural Structures (J. W. W.). — They are not exempt 

 from the supervision of the Local Board. If the buildings are rated your 

 appeal is to the Quarter Sessions. 



White Mart^gon (Mrs. J. N.). — A similar flower was exhibited by Mr. 

 G. F. WiUon at the Royal Horticultural Society on the 17th iust. He called 

 it Martagon album. 



Brughansia Leaves Insect-eaten (Mrs, L.). — Loot for the marauder 

 with the aid of a candle at night. The injury is probably caused by a night- 

 feeding weevil. 



Laurel Leaves (M. W., Cork).— They are perforated by some weevil, not 

 by the Acari you enclosed. We can only suggest placing a sheet beneath the 

 bushes, shaking these and destroying the insects which fall upon it. The 

 Gloxinias require more heat, and the Capsicum better culture. The deficiency 

 we cannot surmise. 



Briar Stocks (Paddle). — Plant young shoots as early as possible, and 

 leave the old Briars where they are. They would be grand stocks in two 

 years' time, and quite fit for budding Teas on in one year. October is the 

 best month for inserting them, and a single wild Briar will furnish often five 

 or six shoots.— Wyld Savage. 



Stocks, Wallflowers, and Carnations (Amateur). — Ton have manured 

 them too liberally whilst they were young, so that they have produced leaves 

 only. They are over- luxuriant. 



Primula Seedlings (E. R.).— Pull off the seed skin which remains on 

 the cotyledon leaves. 



Air-tight Vinerv (A. Boyle). — " Observer " informs us that the Grapes 

 grown in the air-tight vinery "are not thick-skinned, neither defieient in 

 flavour or poor in colour. He also states that the building is cheaply con- 

 structed by having all the woodwork prepared at saw mills, as it is chiefly 

 composed of grooved rafters. A pattern rafter is sent to the mills, where any 

 quantity like it can be obtained at one-third less than if cut-out by hand. 



Black Hamburgh Grapes not Colouring (J. D.).— The defect is pro- 

 bably caused by the crop being too large and the roots not biing supplied 

 with sufficient water and a little liquid manure. 



Cucumbers Withering (J. H.).— It probably arises from defective root- 

 action. Apply a little weak liquid manure and thin the fruit severely. You 

 have allowed too many to remain on the plants. 



Savoys and Broccolis Bolting (Dan). — This and the clubbing was 

 occasioned probably by the supply of water to the roots being deficient. 



Early Beatrice and Early Louise Peaches (E. D. L.). — They are 

 medium-sized fruits about 2£ inches in diameter. They are not liable to 

 crack if grown in a favourable temperature and moisture. 



Banksian Rose not Flowering (H. J.). — Throw away your pruning 

 knife and jou will have a profusion of bloom in a year or two. At any rate 

 avoid any attempt at scientific pruning in your treatment of this Rose, for 

 it is upon that rough twiggy growth that the flowers appear in full abundance, 

 and as this when left on has an unkempt untidy air, you have probably 

 diligently removed it in the thinning out process which you describe. In 

 the f outh of France, where this Rose is left to ramble over arbours, old trees, 

 or any rough surfaces, it is never pruned, and soon forms dense thickets, 

 whieh are a perfect cloud of bloom in the flowering season. 



Seedling Pelargoniums (C. Neilson). — You incur a fruitless expense in 

 sending the flowers. The petals are shed, and we can only Bay they seem 

 handsome, but not superior to many of the legions of varieties to be pur- 

 chased at the florists. 



Rose (W. Wallace).— We believe it to be Niphetos. Yoa must write to 

 Mr. Pearson for the cutting you name. 



Double Ten-week Stock (A Constant Reader). — The specimen is very 

 good, and we have no doubt the robustness is due to the use of manure water. 

 No one can identify a Rose from a single bloom, the varieties are a legion. 

 Where properly supplied with manure and water Chrysanthemums are looking 

 very well. 



Tulip Tree (A. Lighton). — It is the Liriodendron Tnlipifera, a hardy tree, 

 native uf North America. It is not uncommon. There is a fine specimen in 

 Kensington Gardens. 



Rose Leaves (M.P.). — The brown blotches on the leaves indicate that the 

 roots have not had a sufficient supply of either manure or water, or both. 



Begonias (Inquirer). — The flowers are good but not superior to many 

 others well known. The Bilver variegation of the leaves we do not think can 

 be an improvement. 



Strawberries (W.J. M.).—T)r. Hogg is superior to British Queen on 

 some soils; three other excellent kinds are Sir C.Napier, La Grosse 8u- 

 cree, and Frogmore Late Pine. Waste neither time nor space upon barren 

 Strawberry plants, but destroy those which were planted in 1875 and are still 

 unfruitful, and replace them with runners taken from plants that are actually 

 fruiting well now. Strawberries should be watered freely in dry weather, 

 during the season of growth and fruiting. 



Heating and Planting a Vinery (A. 8.). — You deserve success, and we 

 congratulate you on your industry in having made with your own hands 

 duriog morning and evening hours a span-roofed vinery 20 feet long, 11 feet 

 wide, and 11 feet high, finished so well as is shown in the sketch you have 

 forwarded to us. We doubt, however, if you will have sufficient top ventila- 

 tion during a hot summer; bat you can easily supply the deficiency, if it is a 

 deficiency, by removing, if required, a square of gltss from each end of the 

 house next the apex. We think ycur mode of making the house portable is 

 good. Such a stove as the one to which you refer would not be sufficient to 

 exclude frost from your house. With two of the stoves yon would be safe, 

 and you would not have any difficulty with the down draught. We do not 

 approve of the earihenware flus. We have seen one formed 100 feet in 

 length which had to be removed on account of the pipes cracking. If yoa 

 can incur the expense of a boiler and hot-water pipes adopt that mode of 

 heating; if not, try the stoves. Your " practical hot-water friend" will pro- 

 bably give you good advice. You can fix the pipes yourself with indiarubber 



rings, and so render them portable. It is not imperative that you heat the 

 house this year, or until you obtain plants as well as Vines. If your inside 

 border is good, and you support the Vines well by giving sufficient water, 

 your mode of planting five Vines on each side of the house would give you 

 the quickest return of fruit ; or, as the roof is not lengthy, three Vines on 

 each Bide, taking up two canes from each, would probably answer as well. 

 But as amateurs sometimes fail with Vines wholly in inside borders, we 

 should also plant two Vines at the end where you say " the roots could grow 

 outside as well as inside." If these Vines are found to thrive the better 

 — which is probable if the natural soil of the garden is good— we should 

 grow them on the extension system, removing the others as the space is 

 required for the permanent canes. The supernumeraries— the inside Vines, 

 would more than pay for their cost and keep if fairly well managed. Plant 

 the permanent Vines at the corners of the house, and let them grow in a 

 free upright position during the first season. In the winter cut them down 

 to the base of the rafter— the corners of the bouse, or if very strong they 

 may extend 2 feet from the ends, from whence the first upright cane must 

 be taken, the terminal eye being also encouraged for extension, the cane 

 which it forms being pruned in the winter near the point where you deBire 

 the next rod to isaue. Continue that practice until your house is rilled, 

 training the rods of your permanent Vines between the supernumeraries, 

 which Bhould be at 3£ feet apart. The terminal shoots of your permanent 

 VineB should be permitted to grow in an obliqua direction during the sum- 

 mer, depressing the canes at the winter pruning. The subsidiary Vines 

 need not be pruned so closely, your object with them being to obtain fruit as 

 quickly as possible, but do not permit their foliage to shade the leaves of the 

 extension Vines. Do not have the wires nearer to the glass than 16 inches. 

 The best Grape for your purpose is the Black Hamburgh, but if you dasire 

 white Grapes ycu might plant a Vine each of Foster's Seedling and Backland 

 Sweetwater. 



Heating Vinery and Greenhouse ( ).— Unless your vinery is very 



wide and lofty you will not require pipes all round the house just to keep 

 frost out. A -1-inch flow pipe from the north-west corner to the south-east 

 corner, and a return pipe underneath the fi >w, conducting back to the boiler, 

 will aff jrd you security from frost. We do not see how you can arrange the 

 pipes except by having a trench in the floor and a cast-iron grating for cover- 

 ing it. If the pipes were not considerei objectionable if placed on the floor 

 at the front of the west-end border and rockery, there is still the difficulty of 

 the outer doorway at the west end of the house. Yon must either cut the 

 cement floor and place the pipe3 in a trench as suggested, or submit to the 

 inconvenience of their crossing the doorway and conducting them above 

 ground as far as the dining-room door (not across it) and back to the boiler. 



Training Pear Trees (J. E.).— We do not consider your plan a good one, 

 for the simple reason that eventually when the tree reaches its limits of 

 space an excess of vigour will soon be developed in the uppar portion at the 

 expense of the lower part. The very beat method of training the Pear on 

 walls and as espaliers is that form which was originated by the French, and 

 by them termed Palmatte verrier, and which is simply an improvement of 

 the old horizontal espalier, each branch being trained horizontally for a 

 certain distance, and then turned upwards and continued to the top, so that 

 the end of every branch is upon a common level at the top instead of at the 

 sides of the tree as used to be the case, thus securing that important object, 

 an equal distribution of vigour in every part of the tree. 



Strawberries and Slugs (S. E. IF - .).— Quicklime spread between the 

 rows when the Strawberries are ripening is an effectual protection. It re- 

 quires repeating if rain occurs. Strawberries, we may add, are seldom in- 

 jured by slugs if cut straw — that is, straw cut into lengths of about an inch, 

 1b spread over the surface of the ground to keep the fruit clean. For the 

 aphi^ mixture try the different strengths and use that you find most effectual. 

 We find a quarter of a pound of quassia chips to four gallons of water 

 sufficient. Bo not omit the soft soap ; it will not inj ure the Rose buds, and 

 may be syringed off or removed by the first rainfall. 



Vegetable Marrows not Swelling (A. M.).— The most general cause 

 is want of moisture ; but in your case we think over- rich soil, induoing undue 

 luxuriance, is the most likely cause. Instead of cutting off any leaves we 

 should thin out the shoots and allow the plants to grow at will, not limiting 

 them as to space, and we think you will have fruit abundantly. Apply water 

 only during dry hot weather. 



Mildew on Roses (Alfred). — Mildew, and aphides, and red fungus, and 

 all other ills which Rosea are liable to arise from check, and this may he 

 caused either by severe weather, drought, or an exposed situation. Where 

 Roses are in a good state of health and growing freely it is quite exceptional 

 to see any of these drawbacks. In Mr. Baker's rosery at Heavitree are about 

 four thousand Manetti Roses growing 3 feet high with the greatest luxuriance, 

 and no signs of mildew or blight of any kind. The remedies for mildew are 

 bo numerous that it is a difficult matter to recommend any one. Try dusting 

 the leaves with soot, leaving it there for a day and then washing it off. Soft 

 soap can he applied with a brush, and will also answer your purpose. 



Budding Manetti Stocks (Idem). — The stocks being in rows eartbed-up 

 like Potatoes, take a hoe or spud and remove the earth from the stock, so as 

 to insert the bud as low as possible. When this is done prooeed to cut the 

 bud just the same as you do for the Briars, aud make an incision as low down 

 as you possibly can; the lower down the better, as the fewer will be the 

 Buckers. Iadeed you should almost bud on the roots if possible, at any rate 

 strive to insert the buds as low as you can. Only insert one bud in each 

 stock. Choose the same side of the stock all down the line, and also select 

 a place as free from knobs or irregularities as you can find. Make the 

 incision in the form of a T, and when the bud is safely in tie up well beyond 

 eaoh end of the bud with rough cotton or worsted. Ladies often use wool, 

 and nurserymen bass or roffia or cotton. You must not replace the earth, 

 but leave the bud showing, or rather the cotton, so that in the course of a 

 week you can see whether the bud has tak*n or not. If it has not, bud the 

 other side of the scock. Do not touch the Manetti shoots, but leave them to 

 grow as luxuriantly as they will till the following spring, then remove the 

 cotton and cut back the Manetti to the bud. The best time for budding the 

 Manetti is after rain, and if you have no rain give the Btocks a copious water- 

 ing and you will find the bark run. AuguBt is the best time for budding 

 Manettis. All the kinds you have named do well on the Manetti ; in fact all 

 Hybrid Perpetuals except La Franoe, which, having some Tea blood, never 

 does so well on this stock as on the Briar. 



Clipping Evergreens (S.I.— The evergreens being in good form, the best 

 time to clip them is early in August, but tho shears must only be applied to 

 such subjeots as Yew. Common and Portugal Laurel Bhould only have irre- 

 gularities of growth removed with a knife or scissors, the Beoateur being the 

 most handy implement ; and in cutting-in oare muBt be taken to leave some 



