Octoto 10, 1872. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



293 



A great quantity of plants may be packed under the stages, and 

 there scarlet Pelargoniums and "Calceolarias from the flower 

 garden establish themselves between this and the new year. 



FORCING PLANTS. 



All plants for this purpose must be got under cover, if possible, 

 placing them either in cold pits or making some temporary pro- 

 vision for them. Roses may be pruned and regulated, like- 

 wise Lilacs and Rhododendrons. Azaleas and other American 

 plants must be potted without delay. Plunge all the pots in old 

 tan or some other light material, and that before the frost has 

 destroyed the outer roots. 



COLD PITS. 



Cold pits will now be in request. Sawdust forms a good 

 plunging material if new and dry ; coal ashes are also very good. 

 Whatever material is employed, keep the plants within a foot or 

 so of the glass, and endeavour to have the soil in a somewhat dry 

 state. Some of the hybrid scarlet Rhododendrons, as Noble- 

 anum and others, require but little forcing, and are the best to 

 start first. Put them in as small pots as their roots can be 

 placed in without injury, and set them out of the reach of 

 frost till wanted. 



STOVE. 



A few of the stove climbers may yet be in bloom. Remove 

 dead flowers from them occasionally, and stop all straggling 

 shoots. Let the atmosphere in the stove be moderately dry, in 

 order that a lower night temperature may be permitted. — 

 W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



Cauliflower. — We trenched-down a piece of Strawberries after 

 putting at the bottom a dressing from the summer rubbish- 

 lieap. The Cauliflower plants do not require rich surface-rna- 

 nuring, nor even this, which will be eventually a good compost, 

 until they become large and the heads begin to swell ; then this 

 storehouse of nutriment will tell much on the closeness and 

 size of the heads. Rich surface-manuring would not be bene- 

 ficial to young plants under hand-lights in winter. Although 

 we put in plants of different sizes, we depend chiefly on small 

 young plants, as they stand the winter better and are less liable 

 to button or show their heads prematurely. Small moveable 

 wooden boxes with a glass top would be more useful in every 

 way. During the winter plenty of light will enter from the top, 

 and the plants are kept warmer in cold weather in consequence 

 of the sides being of wood. 



Before placing the lights down the ground was rolled over, 

 and then inside each light some light sandy soil mixed with a 

 little sweet leaf mould was patted down so as to start the plants 

 in it. Half an inch, of rough drift sand placed over the sur- 

 face soil in each light will serve to keep off slugs and snails. In 

 each light, say averaging 22 inches square, we put nine of these 

 little plants, and as they grow in spring we thin-out to four 

 or five, those thinned-out forming a succession crop. On the 

 whole we generally get the best and earliest returns from the 

 make-shift lights, and especially when we protect the most 

 forward a little in spring. We have had them even earlier by 

 . potting, placing little plants in small pots, changing to larger 

 and larger as they grew, keeping them from severe frost, as in 

 an orchard house, and turning them out strong plants with balls 

 in fine prepared soil in the end of March. 



Cauliflower plants, however, may be kept over the winter in 

 an earth-pit or frame, where they can be protected from severe 

 frosts and deluging showers, and, perhaps, there is no better 

 protection than by light wooden shut ers. In many places 

 hundreds of young plants stand over the winter at the foot of a 

 wall, but in all such cases if the roots penetrate into mellow 

 rather hungry soil, the plants will be safer from having the 

 above rough sand-surfacing kept rough. 



Planted ridges with Lettuces and late Endive, and gave some 

 earthmg-up to Cauliflowers coming-in on a bank, that the winds 

 threatened to throw- up by the roots. 



FRUIT GARDEN 



We housed most of our Apples and Pears, examined fruit in 

 the fruit-room, and kept a fire on during the day in the late 

 vinery to prevent damping, and a little air is left on all night, 

 unless the weather is very severe. We try to leave as few 

 plants as possible in pots in a house where we wish the Grapes 

 to hang a good deal longer. Our Peaches in the orchard house 

 will soon be over. Plums will last a little longer. We should 

 like to have a Plum house for late Plums. With a glass rooi 

 and means of using air for the Plums alone, we have no doubt 

 that _ by these means the Golden Drop and others might be 

 obtained in fine condition many weeks after they are dead ripe 

 against a wall. Orchard-house trees in pots should not be al- 

 lowed to become dry yet, as a want of moisture will often 

 prevent the thorough swelling and ripening of the buds. In 

 November, and from that time to February, little watering will 

 be required. 



ORNAMENTAL DEPARTMENT. 



The heavy rains and slight frosts alternately may be expected 

 to bleach the flowers, even if the plants should suffer but little. 

 Though the flowers are seemingly fresh, we find since the 

 frosty nights that they will stand only a short time in heated 

 rooms when cut for vases, &c; in fact, under any circumstances 

 now, they stand but a short time after they are cut. When frost 

 or heavy rains were anticipated we have several times cut some 

 trayfuls the evening before they were wanted ; but though the 

 ends of the flower-stalks stood in a damp medium, they gene- 

 rally suffered less or more before the morning they were wanted. 

 Treated in the same way before frosts came, however slight, the 

 flowers would have remained fresh for several days in a cool 

 shady place. Now, too, the water in glasses, &c, supplied with 

 cut flowers becomes very soon extremely impure. It is hard to 

 believe that the water in a vessel filled with cut flowers may be 

 as pestiferous as if an open drain communicated with the room, 

 but su6h might be the case. Charcoal and other things will 

 lessen but not remove the evil. 



Bulbs of all sorts may now be potted or planted ; the modes 

 have often been referred to. When grown in pots or glasses the 

 bulbs should be kept dark until roots are freely formed and the 

 bud of the plant is coming on. Any house could furnish a dark 

 place for the purpose. Out of doors, darkness and comparative 

 warmth are secured by covering the pots over with 4 inches or 

 less of clean ashes. In potting, drainage is of importance, and 

 is secured by placing the convex side of a fair-sized crock over 

 the hole in the pot, with some smaller pieces over it, and then 

 a little moss or chopped straw to keep the soil from getting too 

 much amongst the drainage. 



Drainage is one of those simple things which are apt to be 

 carelessly and slovenly done, such as merely placing a single 

 crock over the hole in the pot, and a little rough stuff over it, a 

 plan which will do very well for plants that will need turning 

 out again in a few weeks, but ruinous to all plants that have to 

 remain the greater part of a season in the same pot. We have 

 had an endless amount of work to go over again at times from 

 this simple neglect, as the soil, however good at first, became 

 waterlogged and sour. Even such plants as Chinese Primulas 

 often go off, rot, and fade away at the collars, because there has 

 been a deficiency in the drainage. A plant with huge heads in 

 a 5 or 6-inch pot is no despicable object, but it will never be 

 seen where the soil is sour and waterlogged. A little charcoal 

 in bits, not dust, helps to keep the soil open, but after all, drain- 

 age, and not so much the quantity as how it is placed, is the chief 

 thing. It is not well to inundate the stems of Primulas or other 

 plants in watering, but rather to sail the water round without 

 touching the stems or collars too much ; but even that would be 

 less injurious if the drainage were efficient. Many noble plants 

 of Camellias, Azaleas, and other more costly subjects are ruined 

 or rendered unhealthy owing to defective drainage. 



When pots stand on any porous material, as sand, ashes, cocoa- 

 nut fibre, &c, the hole at the bottom should be frequently 

 examined, as such material will often work itself so firmly in 

 the hole as to render the best drainage useless. Of course, such 

 care would not be required if the pots stood on wood, stone, 

 slate, &c, but the former has the advantage of retaining the 

 moisture about the pots longer when that moisture has no at- 

 tendant inconveniences. Getting every plant at all tender 

 under some kind of protection is now a matter of importance, as 

 all pots with plants in them are more easily injured in their 

 roots than in their branches. 



Late Cuttings. — We are still taking off some that we value 

 most of variegated Geraniums, as we can keep them in so much 

 less room than plants, if we took them up. We cleared off some 

 beds under frames of early Cucumbers, &c, because we thought 

 we could do without them, and having planted them early in the 

 year, we felt sure we could not give them enough of heat easily 

 without making fresh and warm linings. We took out the soil 

 and a little of the half-rotten dung and leaves, put in a foot 

 or 15 inches of warm dung, covered over with what was taken 

 out to keep down all steam, and covered with some inches of dry 

 ashes. There we placed freshly-taken cuttings partly plunged, 

 and the latest and most tender last taken, watering them before 

 they were moved, and letting them drain before half-plunging 

 them in the dry ashes. To prevent damping, the ashes should 

 be dry. The chief safety-valve in this respect is tilting the 

 sashes at back from a quarter to half an inch in depth at night, 

 so that no vapours can accumulate there. — R. E. 



TEADE CATALOGUES EECEIVED. 



George Poulton, Fountain Nursery, Angel Road, Edmonton, 

 London, N. — Catalogue of Bulbs. — List of Plants and Cuttings. 



Duncan & Son, Christchurch, New Zealand. — General De- 

 scriptive Catalogue of Garden, Farm., and Flower Seeds, &c. 



Barr & Sugden, 12,'King Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. 

 — Autumnal Descriptive Catalogue of Bulbs, <tc. 



Little & BaUantyne, Carlisle.— Catalogue of Trees, Shrubs, 

 Fruit Trees, &a. 



