October 25, 1B77. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



321 



position, Ruch as a turf pit or cold frame. The best means of 

 averting this danger is deferring the cutting-down and boxing 

 to as late a period as possible. If the plants are cut down and 

 placed in the boxes during the first week in October fresh 

 growth will commence in November if the weather is mild, and 

 failure is then likely to result; but if the work is not done 

 until the last week in the month, then the eyes remain dor- 

 mant until January, which is a great advantage, for before 

 the shoots become drawn the boxes can be placed in a light 

 position. 



They are removed to pits and frames as early in the spring 

 as possible. Some are potted, some inserted in square turves, 

 and some replanted thinly in boxes in light fresh soil. They 

 then make fresh roots quickly and grow as freely as weather 

 will permit. The shoots are thinned out ; this is important, 

 and fine plants are produced by the end of May. When the 

 boxea of plants are brought from their winter quarters they are 

 placed under glass for a time, at least as many of them as can 

 be so accommodated, and the others are protected as best they 

 can be. Some of these die, but many live and flourish. 



I learned this plan of preserving Geraniums in a nobleman's 

 garden where thousands of plants were thus wintered and 

 managed annually, and I have 6een it successfully practised by 

 a cobbler who has no glass except the windows of his shop and 

 dwelling, and his garden is far brighter than those of his 

 neighbours. 



In cutting employ a very sharp knife, and cut the branches 

 off where they are quite hard and close to the main stem. 

 Trim the roots somewhat in the same proportion, removing 

 the soft fibres, and with a little attention the unsightly stumps 

 will in a few months become attractive plants. — A Geooh and 

 Gaedenee. 



THE POTATO DISEASE. 



Anyone using gas lime as recommended by your correspon- 

 dent " W. G." (page 287), believing it will prevent the Potato 

 disease, will, I fear, be disappointed with the result. We have 

 used it in the following manner without success. 



The end of last autumn we had a plot intended for Potatoes 

 dressed with gas lime, using, as near as we can judge, 1 cwt. 

 to a pole of ground. The lime was left exposed to the weather 

 during the winter. In spring the plot had a heavy dressing 

 of old decayed vegetable soil. The soil had been prepared in 

 winter by being turned and well mixed with a good dusting of 

 gas lime. In March this was dug in, and Potatoes planted 

 at the time of digging. I have never seen Potatoes so badly 

 diseased as they were this season from that plot treated as I 

 have described. We did not use lime thinking it would pre- 

 vent disease, but to check wireworm, which it did to a great 

 extent. — Thomas Coomeee. 



FLOWER GARDEN NOTES.— No. 2. 

 After the early part of August we had rain almost daily, 

 July being a wet month, telling disastrously upon Roses, yet 

 we had some fair flowers. Borne, indeed, fine. The best were 

 Alfred Colomb, Francois Michelon, La France, Baroness Roth- 

 schild, Marquise de Castellane, SenateurVaisse,Charles Lefebvre, 

 Madame Lacharme, Madame Victor Verdier, Dupuy-Jamain, 

 Claude Levet, Thomas Mills, John Hopper, Prince Camille de 

 Rohan, Boule de Neige, Etienne Levet, Comtesse d'Oxford, 

 Exposition de Brie, Queen Victoria, Francois Courtin, Jean 

 Dalmais, Edward Morren, LouIb Van Houtte, Margchal Vail- 

 lant, Charles Rouillard, Baronne Louise Uxkull, AnDie Laxton, 

 Felicien David, Miller Hayes, Thomas Methven, Marquise de 

 Chambon, Madame Chirard, Madame Boll, Madame Clert, La 

 Ville de St. Denis, Duehesse de Caylus, Dr. Andry, Capitaine 

 Christy, Baronne de Prailly, Bessie Johnson, May Turner, 

 Arthur Oger, La Souveraine, Antoine Moutin, Sir Garnet 

 Wolseley, Princess Antoinette Strozzio, Mariette Biolay, Miss 

 Hassard, and Olga Marix. Gloire de Dijon was, as usual, fine 

 as to flowering, but the summer blooms were all " quartered," 

 scarcely a flower passable, yet it fully redeemed its character 

 in September, and is now (October) giving some good blooms, 

 being the best of the few autumn bloomers we have this year, 

 followed by Alfred Colomb, La France, Charles Lefebvre, Olga 

 Marix, Senateur Vaisse, Baroness Rothschild, Boule de Neige, 

 Thomas Mills, Francois Michelon, Francois Courtin, John 

 Hopper, and Madame Lacharme. The Bourbons have plenty 

 of buds all " glued " up, or very imperfect flowers. They 

 seldom do any good in autumn in this part (North Riding of 



Yorkshire), it being usually too cold and wet. The best this 

 year have been Reine Victoria, Baron Gonella, Sir Joseph 

 Paxton, Armosa, Catherine Guillot, and Louis Margottin. 

 None have stood the wet and cold better or so well aB the old 

 Blush or common China, which is really very pretty in the 

 bud, and forms a fine bed ; Cramoisie Superieure also forming 

 a fine mass. The continual downpour was too much for the 

 foliage, which was to a great extent mildewed ; the parasites 

 and the wet weather combined have stripped many plants of 

 their leaves, they being as bare of foliage now as we usually 

 find them here in December. 



Gladioli of the Ramosus section did not flower until the 

 early part of September, and are more irregular in flowering 

 than has been the case previously. I do not consider the 

 plants of the same kind not all flowering together any draw- 

 back, but rather advantageous, as the continuity of flowering 

 is considerably prolonged, there beiDg fully a month between 

 the first to flower and last — indeed more, some not having 

 flowered as yet (October 6th), being later than many kinds of 

 GandavenBis. The spikes of Ramosus are much more useful 

 for cutting than those of the more shapely Gandavensis vare., 

 some of them, as Ne Plus Ultra, having a fine branching habit, 

 which amounts to as many parts for cutting as there are 

 branches, and a spike or branchlet with two or three expanded 

 flowers is as useful for vases as a spike as many feet in length. 

 I usually cut the spikes when the lowest flowers on the spike 

 are fully expanded. The peeping flowers are an attraction, 

 they opening as certainly in a cut state as upon the plant ; in 

 fact, the spikes last a long time, as we have only each time the 

 vases are supplied to remove the faded flowers, cut off a corre- 

 sponding length from the stem, and the spike is as good as 

 the day it was first cut, and continues until every bud is blown. 

 No flower surpasses the Gladiolus as a cut flower. The Gladioli 

 season is opened early in June with Bjzantinus, Communis 

 albus, Communis roseue, Blandus, which has the advantage of 

 being sweet ; Cardinalis and its variety roseus, and Colvilli 

 with its variety alba, certainly one of the finest for cutting. 

 These are all hardy, succeeding in any well-drained soil, 

 planted about 4 inches deep. They increase rapidly, forming 

 fine clumps, which require to be taken up about every fourth 

 year and divided. September or early October at the latest is 

 the time for renewing the clumps. Fresh-planted bulbs are 

 not nearly so effective the first season as subsequently ; in- 

 deed, they annually increase in effect as the masses become 

 established. They do well in peaty soils and sandy loams well 

 drained. 



The Ramosus hybrids are almost equally hardy, and ought 

 not to be taken up annually, nor at all only for purposes 

 of increase, and then planted again as soon as possible. I 

 planted dry bulbs this year and have lost several from "yellows," 

 being unable to account for the irregularity of flowering in no 

 other way than that the roots had been taken up before they 

 were matured. When left in the ground I do not remember 

 to have seen a single plant collapse of " yellows." I shall 

 leave the Ramosus vars. in the ground, and have some hanker- 

 ing after trying the GandavenBis vare. in the same way, as our 

 soil appears to suit the bulbs well, being a vegetable one of a 

 sandy character overlying a cool bottom. A neighbour leaves 

 his bulbs in the ground, the soil being well drained; " All that 

 is wanted," he says, " is a free open 6oil and situation sheltered 

 from winds, mulch, and watering copiously during growth." 

 All I can say is, my friend has some grand spikes and laughs 

 at the mention of "yellows." Taking up, he insists, is only 

 necessary in heavy wet soils and for trade purposes. " It only 

 weakens the bulbs, late planting and early lifting ruining them." 

 Be that as it may, over-stimulation may have something to do 

 with it, and 60 it will ever be with plants cultivated upon the 

 high-feeding system essential to secure the spike and flowers 

 that can only satisfy exhibitors. There is one peculiarity of 

 Ramosus vars. that is not often recognised — namely, they last 

 longer in bloom than Gandavensis vars., the family giving 

 matchless spikes for cutting from June to December, the 

 cutting not impairing but adding to the vigour of the bulbs in 

 a future season. 



Phloxes, herbaceous, were kept from flowering by the rain 

 and cold, and it is a flower that will stand as much wet weather 

 as most ; but the end of September setting in fine, and October 

 promising to bo a real Michaelmas summer, the plants recovered 

 wonderfully and produced some immense heads of flowers, finer 

 indeed than at any earlier date. It is surprising how the roots 

 increase, what great clumps they become ; a mass a yard across 

 and as much or more high, with a hundred stems, each sup- 



