August 22, 1872. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



15S 



made at this season, and I would press on those who are 

 starting in the fancy at once to place themselves in the hands 

 of some respectable grower, stating the amount required, and 

 leaving it to his honour to supply the best strains, &c. 

 Beds of splendid flowers may be thus obtained at a much 

 cheaper rate than if purchased singly. Offsets should most 

 certainly be got into the ground in the early part of" next 

 month ; therefore, if the bed for their reception is not pre- 

 pared, let it be done forthwith. Attention must be paid to the 

 layers of Carnations and Picotees. It sometimes happens that 

 the wireworms (young ones almost as thin as hairs) , have in- 

 sidiously introduced themselves into the pith of the layers to 

 their certain destruction. When one is destroyed it is advis- 

 able to lift the pegs which hold down the others and closely 

 examine them ; if at the section of the stem a branlike appear- 

 ance is visible the enemy is not far off, and it must be care- 

 fully sought for and destroyed, otherwise the loss of the whole 

 ■of the layers in the pot will be the consequence. New varieties 

 of Pinks had better be purchased now, and old ones planted 

 out. The heavy storms which have occurred of late have 

 made sad devastation where Dahlias have not been properly 

 staked. Attend to tying the side branches out. This is 

 requisite. Remove all malformed flowers. The beauty of 

 bedding plants is of but comparatively short duration in most 

 localities even in the best of seasons, and now that they are 

 in full flower every care should be taken to render them as 

 attractive as possible. Go over the beds frequently and 

 remedy any defects that may be perceptible, such as pegging- 

 clown plants that have an inclination to grow too high for the 

 others, and keep the edges of the masses well filled-up without 

 allowing them to become too bulky. Where the plants are 

 still pushing freely some considerable trouble will be involved 

 in stopping the shoots, but this is an operation which must 

 be attended to sufficiently often to keep the plants within due 

 limits, for nothing looks worse than to see them running over 

 the edging or encroaching upon the grass. Attend to plants 

 in vases, taking care that they do not suffer from want of 

 water at the root, and some plants- grown in this way may 

 even be benefited by an' occasional supply of manure water, 

 provided it is given often and weak. 



GREENHOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



It will now be advisable to house the more tender green- 

 house plants ; those allowed to remain should be carefully ex- 

 amined, and the assurance obtained that they are receiving no 

 injury from defects of drainage or the presence of worms. 

 The appearance of mildew on any of the plants out of doors 

 should be immediately followed by an application of sulphur. 

 •Camellias may be grafted. The operation may be performed 

 with the greatest success by pursuing the method called 

 greffe en placage, which is merely inserting that portion of 

 wood that includes a bud and leaf longitudinally into a corre- 

 sponding cleft in the stock. The grafted subjects should 

 be plunged in bottom heat and kept covered for at least a 

 month. The tender Rhododendrons may be increased in the 

 •Game manner. Pelargoniums which have been cut down and 

 have commenced to grow may be shaken out of their pots and 

 repotted into others of smaDer size. Give attention to Chinese 

 Primulas, and sow Mignonette for blooming late in the season. 

 Those plants which have been retained within the house have 

 very probably been rendered somewhat delicate by such pro- 

 tection, and should be secured from any considerable de- 

 pression of temperature, at the same time they should be 

 allowed to enjoy the full advantage of favourable weather. 

 The time has now arrived when plants intended to supply a 

 floral display under glass during autumn and winter must have 

 attention. Let Begonias have another shift if not already in 

 pots large enough. Keep the plants thin, that their foliage may 

 be preserved from injury. Crowea saligna and Plumbago 

 capensis are both valuable autumn-blooming plants, and the 

 latter furnishes a large supply of cut flowers. Attend to Chry- 

 santhemums. Water freely with liquid manure. Good speci- 

 mens should be aimed at rather than a few fine blooms. The 

 earliest winter-flowering Heaths and Epacrises must soon be 

 placed under glass, as doing so will forward their blooming. 

 The appearance of bulb catalogues shows that Hyacinths and 

 Narcissus for forcing must soon occupy attention. About equal 

 portions of good soft loam and decayed leaf mould, with silver 

 sand, will be the best soil for them, if for forcing; but well-de- 

 composed cow dung must be substituted for the leaf soil when 

 the bulbs are intended for late flowering. After potting place 

 them on a dry bottom, and cover the pots 2 or 3 inches with 

 old tan or ashes, preserving them at the same time as much as 



possible from heavy rains. Under this treatment they will fill 

 their pots with roots, and will be in readiness for forcing when 

 wanted. Van Thol Tulips for forcing may be potted early 

 next month. Place them on coal ashes, and cover them as 

 recommended for Hyacinths, and early in November remove 

 them into heat. The principal bulk need not be potted until 

 late in October, and a last batch of Tournesol or Rex Rubrorum 

 towards the end of November. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



After the thunderstorms and rains there has been a highly 

 favourable week for the harvest, and for gardening productions 

 as well. The sun at times was bright, and yet the great heat 

 has left us, and we can go about in comfort. Vegetables look 

 quite differently, and even fruit trees are green where, during 

 the early part of the season, the leaves looked half scathed and 

 withered. 



Cool Workrooms in Summer. — Looking over the roofs of a 

 manufacturing town, and where much of the work is done in 

 the upper storeys, which are not always ceiled and plastered, 

 and consequently where the heat from the slates must have 

 been terrible in the late tropical weather, we could count only 

 seven roofs that had obtained the advantage of a good lime- 

 washing. Putting fresh limewash on slates and tiles when dry 

 with a whitewashing brush is no doubt the best plan, and so 

 done it will often stand a long time, and will thus secure cool- 

 ness in summer and warmth in winter ; but where there is a 

 man-hole or a trap-door to the roof, merely taking a pail of 

 limewash and scattering it over the roof with an old syringe 

 would be a great advantage. We found a potting-shed, roofed 

 with slate and without any ceiling, quite unbearable in the hot 

 days, until the slates outside were freely spattered all over 

 with limewash from a syringe. Whiting itself will do, but it 

 does not stand so long as fresh limewash. Many of our readers 

 who keep a horse, a cow, pigs, &c, under a slated roof without 

 any packing inside beneath the slates or tiles, would greatly 

 promote the comfort of the animals thus housed. Hundreds 

 of men and women might have worked in a temperate atmo- 

 sphere instead of being baked as in the torrid zone, and worse, 

 because deprived of the free air without draughts, if merely the 

 roofs had been well whitened. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



Celery. — We regulated and cleaned Celery plants. This 

 season, from unavoidable causes, we are much later than usual. 

 The little trouble given in clearing out suckers neatly and 

 tying each plant, is anything but labour thrown away. 



Potatoes. — Much time has been occupied with hoeing among 

 all advancing crops and taking up, as after the thunder and 

 such deluges the disease presented itself. This is as yet chiefly 

 confined to close heavily-cropped gardens, and we fear, there- 

 fore, that cottagers will be apt to suffer. We have as yet 

 noticed little or nothing of its presence in the open fields, and 

 by-and-by people will find out that the opener and larger the 

 fields, in moderation, and the less they are divided by hedge- 

 rows and timber the better will the crops be, and the more 

 safe will such crops be from disease and other enemies. We 

 saw no trace of disease on Potatoes helped forward early, or 

 grown on steep banks out of doors. It is only those on the 

 flat that have been troubled, and thus there is an indirect 

 advantage in earthing-up in such a season of flooding rains. 

 When once the haulm is attacked it is useless preserving 

 it, and cutting it off close to the surface of the ground will 

 often — not always — prevent the tubers being affected, and it 

 is better to have tubers not full grown than have them unfit 

 for use. We felt almost sure that late Potatoes after such heat 

 and rains would be affected, especially in confined places. 

 Taken up at once the ground could be cropped with Winter 

 Greens, or with early kinds of Turnips and Horn Carrots, 

 which would produce a great amount of food before the winter. 

 Even with such occasional failures, felt to be a heavy misfor- 

 tune by our cottage gardeners, it is strange, but true, that the 

 most of such gardens are still filled with the Potato, to the 

 exclusion of such rich nourishing vegetables as Parsnips, Dwarf 

 Kidney Beans, and Scarlet Runners. Even a short row of the 

 last-named, topped and made into a compact mass without 

 stakes at all, will yield gatherings for four months, and when 

 gathered young, and kept closely gathered and well cooked, 

 hardly anything can be more delicious. 



Cabbages. — We find now and then a man starts out of the 

 beaten track. For instance, the other, year a man sowed 

 Atkins' Matchless Cabbage in the middle of July, planted it 



