September 19, 1872. ] 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



237 



Prepared ground, by lifting Onions, for the main Cabbage 

 crops, planted-out more Coleworts and Borecoles for succes- 

 sions, and gathered lots of Dwarf Kidney Beans and Scarlet 

 "Runners to keep up a plentiful succession of young produce. 

 We ran the hoe through young crops of Onions, Spinach, &c, 

 and tried by a similar mode to beat the weeds, which is no easy 

 matter this dripping season. Pruned Cucumbers a little freely, 

 and top-dressed them with rich compost, in order that the 

 plants turned-out early in spring may give a yet plentiful pro- 

 duce. Potted young Cucumber plants, and gave them just a 

 little bottom heat. The weather as yet has required little to 

 help it in the way of artificial heating. 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



Gathered most of the early Pears, including Williams' Bon 

 Chretien, which has been the most forward for some time. 

 Gathering at different times and helping the earliest, is the 

 only way to prolong the period of this fine Pear. With Apples 

 we have done the same, with all the most forward at least, 

 for as soon as they approached maturity, birds, rats, and wasps 

 found them out and holed some of the best of them, which is 

 all the more trying, as we have not our usual quantity this 

 season. We went over some of the bush trees a second time, 

 and but for other matters pressing would have paid them even 

 more attention, as it is the summer and not the winter prun- 

 ing and nipping that tells on the future fruitfulness. 



Strawberries in pots required considerable attention, as 

 though they dislike being flooded, and especially before the 

 soil in the pots is like a cheesecake so hard and full of roots, 

 they must never become dry. These sudden showers are 

 often deceptive, damping the surface and yet leaving the bulk 

 of the ball far too dry for healthy growth. We are later this 

 season than usual, and, therefore, more care will be necessary. 

 To perfect the later Peaches in the orchard-house we find, also, 

 a frequent good watering is required. 



Damping floors of fruit houses is still useful in hot sunny 

 days, but is less required in dull days and shady afternoons, 

 except when there is a considerable amount of artificial heat 

 given. A little firing with ventilation is very useful for late 

 Grapes, both for thoroughly ripening them and insuring then- 

 long keeping. Late Melons in houses should also have a little 

 heat in cool nights, and those in frames should have a little 

 lining. A cover over the glass will also be useful in cool nights, 

 as the heat enclosed will soon be cooled by radiation from the 

 glass. A very thin covering, even, laid on the glass will do 

 much to arrest the radiation of the heat, and will be still more 

 effectual if raised 2 inches or so above the glass. In that 

 case, to render it most effectual, the glass should, as it were, 

 be shut in, as a draught from front to back would soon do 

 away with the advantages of a clear space between the glass 

 and the protecting covering. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 



Lawns and walks are what one likes to see, but the first 

 have entailed a vast amount of labour this season, partly 

 owing to the rains, and partly owing to our relaying a portion 

 last season and using some soil richer than we liked for 

 thorough levelling; but for the extra cutting, it has well paid 

 for the labour. 



Flower-beds and borders are still standing well with one 

 exception, and that is the pearly Cerastium tomentosum, which, 

 unlike all our experience hitherto, is becoming studded with 

 dried buff patches in many places, which greatly mars its 

 beauty. Da a straight row this browning is confined to the 

 outside next the grass margin. In one row, planted afresh in 

 March, there is hardly a brown mark, and, perhaps, the older 

 edgings are the worst ; but to show that it is not all owing to 

 the time the plants have been in the ground, we have one 

 large artistic bed of leaf colours, and the outside is this Ceras- 

 tium planted carefully this spring and looking beautifully, with 

 a low purple behind, and now it, too, is becoming dotted with 

 brown patches half as large- as one's open hand. We think 

 it may be partly owing to fungus and red spider, as of the 

 latter we discover traces on close examination. 



In one long line this patching is chiefly — almost entirely — 

 confined to some 2 or 3 inches in width next the grass, whilst 

 for 5 inches or so in width above that, next a scarlet row, it is 

 pearly white and uniform throughout. In this prominent 

 position, if we could obtain a load of small coal dust, we should 

 not doubt what to do. We would place the line along, cut off 

 this patchy part, wash the coal dust, and lay down a row of 

 the bright, small, black, shining coal in front of the pearly 

 white. Years ago we did this with good effect, but before the 

 end of the season the Cerastium intruded too much on the 



thin black line. Black ashes or coal dust will be a poor sub- 

 stitute for the little sparkling bits of coal from which the dust 

 has been washed. Be this as it may, the fact of the Cerastium 

 becoming patchy by losing its white colour, and loo king as if 

 next to dead, though most of the patches show a fresh growth, 

 is worthy of attention, as thus we may obtain some hints as to 

 cause and remedy. For a pearly-looking white-leaved plant 

 that will stand any amount of cutting and training, we could 

 hardly find anything to equal it. 



Watering Beds of Flowers. — As a general rule this has not 

 been required, but we found a few beds shaded a little by 

 large trees that needed watering if we wished to preserve the 

 free growth and free blooming for six weeks longer. No doubt 

 the trees acted to a certain extent as umbrellas in preventing 

 the rain falling equally on these beds ; and again, though the 

 beds are a long way from the trees, still we have no doubt 

 that the roots of the trees did find their way to the good soil 

 of the beds, and thus robbed that soil of its richness and its 

 moisture. A good soaking with sewage made the plants hold 

 up their heads as briskly as ever. 



From the above cause, where a small flower garden is sur- 

 rounded with free-rooting trees, it is next to impossible to 

 secure alike fine trees and fine beds, unless either by an open 

 invisible deep trench where that need not be seen, or a wall of 

 brick and the best cement, the roots are prevented entering 

 the beds. We once examined a circular bed some 12 feet in 

 diameter, raised 15 inches above the ground level, and found 

 the soil one dense mass of Ash roots. The very moderate- 

 sized Ash tree was 80 feet from the bed, but the roots found 

 their way to the fresh soil. 



Propagating Calceolarias. — All the shrubby Calceolarias w© 

 generally propagate by cuttings, and spring and autumn are 

 the best times for that. We put in most of ours at the end 

 of October in a cool place merely kept from frost ; they take 

 some months, however, to strike. In the spring, with a little- 

 heat, they will strike in as many weeks. Unless well hardened 

 off they do not succeed quite so well as those struck in the 

 autumn without any artificial heat ; in fact, the less artificial 

 heat of any kind such plants have the better they will thrive. 



Nerium Oleander. — It gladdens us to see the handwriting of 

 an old friend on this subject. At one time we grew the pink 

 and the white varieties largely. They suited our purpose 

 then, and we may return to them" once more. We have had 

 them as small plants in 6-inch pots, and as high shrubs in 

 tubs. Our friend says his blooms are poor and flimsy, not 

 such as he used to see. We think that the best account oi 

 the Oleander ever given appeared in the pages of the Journal 

 from Mr. Beaton, where he described it as growing on the 

 banks of the Jordan, pretty well roasted at one period, and 

 then made something like a marsh plant when the Jordan 

 overflowed its banks. When ws used to grow it well we 

 adhered to these conditions, giving comparative dryness in 

 winter and plenty of moisture in the growing season. There is 

 just one other little secret for securing not small but huge 

 umbels of bloom. When the flower-truss appears at the end 

 of a shoot, three or four young shoots will appear at its base. 

 Allow these to grow, and in many cases they will injure and 

 sometimes spoil the flower-truss ; pick these shoots out with the 

 point of a knife, and the flower-truss will be improved — P.. F. 



TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



Alfred Legerton, 5, Aldgate, London, E. — Wholesale Cata 

 logue of Dutch and other Flower Roots. 



B. E. Davis, Middle Street, Yeovil, Somerset. — Flower Garden 

 Pocket Companion — a Catalogue of Bulbs, £c. 



John Scott, Yeovil, and Merriott Nurseries, Crewkerne, 

 Somerset. — Catalogue of Flower Hoots. 



H. Curtis & Co., Devon Boseiy, Torquay. — Descriptive Gata- 

 loge of Selected Roses, &c. 



Hooper & Co., CoventGarden Market, London,W.C. — Garden- 

 ing Guide and General Catalogue for 1872. 



Robertson & Galloway, 157, Ingram Street, Glasgow, and 

 Helensburgh. — Catalogue of Hyacinths, Tulips, d-c. 



Butler, McCulloch, & Co., Covent Garden Market, London, 

 W.C. — Catalogue of Dutch and Cape Bulbs, &c. 



T. Bunyard & Sons, Maidstone. — Select List of Dutch Flower 

 Boots. 



W. Hooper, New Wandsworth, London, S.W. — Catalogue of 

 Dutch Bulbs and other Flower Boots. 



R. H. Vertegans, Chad Valley Nurseries, Edgbaston, Birming- 

 ham, andPromenade Gardens, Malvern. — Catalogue of Coniferce, 

 Evergreens, and Deciduous Shrubs, Trees, &c. — Catalogue of 

 Boses. — List of Dutch Bulbs. 



