September 27, 1864. ] JOTJENAL OF HORTICULTURE ATCD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



261 



Cuee of a Hidebound Pfar Tree. — You advised ire this spring 'with 

 Tespect to a Louise Bonne of Jersey Pear that was hidebound, either to 

 throw it away, which you seemed to recommend as the best course to 

 pursue, or to keep it moist at the juaction of the stock and graft with moss. 

 I preferred trying the latter plan, as I have plenty of time on hand, and 

 immediately set to work ; and in addition to the moss heaped it well up 

 with horsedung, and occasionally watered it, so that it has been kept quite 

 damp all summer. The effect has been almost magical, for the blistered 

 places are fa c t disappearing ; and although the blossom at the time I wrote 

 for your advice had a very weakly look, the tree has borne an excellent 

 crop of fine fruit, quite as large or larger than the largest of Jargonelles, 

 so that I really have just cause to thank you heartily for your advice. The 

 tree is a bush on the quince. — A. Q. 



Removing Dwarf Peak Trees (Working Amateur).— You may trans- 

 plant them now. Disturb the roots as little as possible ; move them with 

 a good ball of earth ; wash-in earth about the roots in their new locations ; 

 and stake them very securely to prevent their being wind-waved. 



Albert Edward Seedling Dahlia (B. W. it.).— Your seedling Dahlia 

 is inclined to be coarse, the petals confused, and the colour dull. It may 

 do well for the border, but requires delicacy, form, and colour to render it 

 serviceable as an exhibition flower. 



Preserving Walnuts (A. G. L.). — The nuts becoming mouldy is of no con- 

 sequence. Take them out of the green outer coat ; wash them thoroughly ; 

 drain them, and put them into earthenware jars, and store as recommended 

 to our other correscondent. 



Eyes and no Eyes {Many Correspondents).— V?e have received so many 

 letteisupon this subject that we must decline inserting any more. It is 

 enough that the hint has been given that employers *' with an eye " like 

 eyesores removed as soon as they occur; and those gardeners who have not 

 pursued such a prompt course will do well to take the hint. "We know of 

 no first-rate gardeners who required the suggestion. 



Fruit Trees for Low Wall (An Inquirer},— Your wall is very low — 

 4 to 5 feet is too much so for trees to be trained permanently against them. On 

 the north aspect Morello Cherries would do well; they are of weak growth, 

 and may be trained laterally. On the east you might put Pears and Plums, 

 selecting the less vigorous growers, such as Winter Nelis for the former, 

 and Green Gage for the latter. On the south you might have Peaches. 



French Bergamot Pear, &c. (C. J. 31.). — It is impossible to tay what 

 variety you have under this name. There is no variety so named specially, 

 and many have a French name attached. It certainly ought to succeed as 

 a dwarf tree without a south wall. Gypsum is a good application to eoiI 

 containing an excess of iron. Oak and Beech, we should think, would grow 

 on your clayey land, but you do not say where it is situated. What would 

 succeed inland will often fail on the coast 



Melons Shrivelling (S. E.}.— We are at a loss to tell what is meant by 

 a Melon changing colour. Melons in houses require rather more moisture 

 than those in hotbed frames. When the fruit begins to ripen, which it will 

 not take more than a week or ten days to complete, the atmosphere should 

 be kept rather drier, but not so dry as to affect the foliage. We think your 

 plants have been too dry both at the roots and top, and that the fruit not 

 fully swelled has shrivelled for want of moisture. After the fruit is fully 

 swelled and netted completely over no amount of dryness will cause shrivel- 

 ling, and it will ripen if detached from the plant and placed in a suitable 

 temperature. The soil in which the plants are grown should be kept* moist 

 at all times ; but not so much so when the fruit is ripening as when it is 

 swelling. The flavour is likewise improved by the atmosphere being kept 

 drier during the ripening. 



Caladium in a Greenhouse (Ruby).— All the variegated -leaved kinds 

 require a stove temperature, and cannot be grown well in a warm green- 

 house, much less in one where fire is only employed to exclude frost. 



Vines for a Cool Vinery (Idem).— You could not have a worse than 

 Barbarossa, and we recommend you to plant Buckland Sweetwater instead. 

 Esperione will do, and Muscat Hamburgh is also good if alittleheat be given ; 

 if not, Black Hamburgh as a Black Grape, or White Frontignan as a White 

 one, would bebetter. Black Prince will answer. Your inside border should 

 be 3 feet deep— 9 inches of brickbats and other rubble, and 2 feet 3 inches of 

 compost. You may cover theborder after.the first three years with an inch 

 of short manure every season, in February. The refractory Fuchsia we 

 would not' throw away, but take cuttings of it, and grow these on. Our 

 correspondent says, " He has been in the habit of filling beds which may be 

 vacant late in summer, with tops of Scarlet Geraniums in b!oom, bordering 

 them with Nasturtium shoots, watered once and then left to themselves. " 

 He adds, " They make a great show in autumn." We are obliged to you 

 for the seed3. 



Lat/rbl Cuttings (A Constant Reader).— They will mostly root if you 

 take off the present year's shoots with a little of the old wood at the base, 

 or a short heel, and insert them three-quarters of their length in ordinary 

 garden soil, trimming the leaves off to that extent. They will nearly all 

 root. The best time for this is the beginning of October, and they may 

 then be put in close together, but not so aa to touch each other. Portugal 

 Laurels may be treated in the same way with a likelihood of success. 



Seedling Pelargoniums Wintering— Destroying Worms (O. I. Q.) t — 

 The Pelargoniums will not do in the frame after this month, quite as much 

 on account of cold as damp. In the absence of a better place you may 

 possibly keep them over the winter in a window with a northern aspect, 

 only do not water much, and prevent frost reaching them. Annuals for 

 spring blooming should be sown rather thicker, and it is not necessary to 

 thin them unless they are very close together. Lime water made by pouring 

 thirty gallons of soft water on 12 lbs. of lime, well stirred, and altowed to 

 stand for forty-eight hours, will leave a clear liquid which may be applied 

 to Calceolaria seedlings if you wish to expel worms ; but are you sure that 

 the mischief is not done by slugs, ?.s you spe.ik of their being eaten up? 

 Examine the plants a short time after dark, with a lantern, and you will, per- 

 haps, find the enemy at work. 



Muscat of Alexandria not Ripening — Achihenes not Flowering 

 {Eatifax) .— If the Barbarossa Grape ripens well, we think that the Muscat 

 should be doing so likewise. Give the Muscat less air, more heat, and 

 less water than the other varieties if the fruit is still so green. Being so 

 healthy, we have no fear of its not ripening. We think the reason that your 

 healthy Achimenes and Gloxinias did not bloom might be too much shade 

 and too little heat, and that the rusty appearance is owing to the shade and 

 dryness. 



Books (Jane). — We shall very shortly publish a work on Vine culture- 

 it is now printing. Mr. Abbey's papers on Melon culture, recently pub- 

 lished in this journal, give all needful directions. In the "Garden Manual," 

 which you can have free by post from our office for twenty postage stamps, 

 you will find directions not only for Rose culture, but Melon culture. 



Heating a Small Greenhouse (Calcaria).— For a house 16 by 9 feet we 

 have no doubt that an Arnott's brick stove would be quite sufficient. To insure 

 a propaga'ing place in spring, it would be easy to have small bent pipes, say 

 10 inches in diameter, placed over or in the fireplace, with their ends com- 

 municating with a small wooden tank, covered with slate or plate iron, We 

 do not think, however, we could give details more simple as to tbe building 

 of them than we have frequently done. Since your tradesman sees so much 

 difficulty, perhaps it would be as well to have a flue as you propose, passing 

 along one end and front, and returning to the place from whence it started. 

 It i3 of little importance whether the chimney is at d, above the furnace, 

 or at e, a little distance from it. With a high chimney the flue maybe on a 

 level throughout. If the chimney is not high, 2 or 3 inches of a rise from near 

 the furnace, after it takes the level in the house, on to the chimney, will 

 cause it to draw better. As you want to use it also for propagating, we 

 think that a common nino-inch flue win suit you be&t. If you wish to be 

 economical, instead of having a space between the flues, one central wall 

 would do for both flues— that i?, three side walls instead of four. At the 

 three turns it would ba advisable to have soot doors, and then, when clean- 

 ing, you would not need to disturb the flue, and the brush could be run 

 along it all the oftener. What you style your flow and return flue would 

 thus present a surface of 18 inches wheu placed together. Above that you 

 could have a latticed or other shelf for plants in summer ; and that removed, 

 you could use the whole of the top of the flue, and especially the end next 

 the furnace, for a propagating-box or pit in the spring. The best way to do 

 this would be to have small shallow boxes of the necessary width made of 

 zinc, and so that a hand-light would go over them ; or you could have wooden, 

 boxes, say 17 inches wide, bottomed with zino, and 5 inches deep in front, 

 and 8 behind, with a moveable glass lid, and in these you could regulate the 

 heat to a nicety, move away when more coolness was required, and bring 

 others when more heat was necessary for them Even with the end of the 

 flue next the furnace much might be done with a few of these little boxes, 

 Bay 20 inches long, and the cuttings could be inserted in suitable soil in the 

 boxes, or in small pots, to be rilled and put in, and taken out when neces- 

 sary. Such boxes would answer well for hardening off many things when, 

 they required no bottom heat from the flue. You would see lately how to 

 have a hot tank from such a flue. The above would be simplest. 



Propagating Plants (A Young Begi?nier).— For twenty penny postage 

 stamps you can have, free by post from our office, " The Garden Manual." 

 It contains full directions for what you ask, and much more, which yon, as 

 a beginner, will be glad to learn. 



Flower-eed Planting (Stella).— We would alter your circle bed and plant 

 thus, beginning at the grass — 1, Variegated Alyesum ; 2, Lobelia speciosa : 

 3, Cloth of Gold; 4, Bijou; 5, Christine; and 6, Boule de Feu, instead of 

 Trentham Rose. We think the Cloth of Gold will be more telling against 

 the Lobelia than Bijou. If your plants of Bijou were strong, and the plants 

 of Christine small, we would also change them, and this would range your 

 variegated foliage better over the bed. If Christine is strong, plant as you 

 propose. Tremham Rose will too much overtop Christine, and, therefore, 

 Boule de Feu, or moderate-sized plants of Stella, would be better. To make 

 a nice circle of all these six colours your bed for single rows would require 

 to he II feet !n diameter, or 10 feet at the very least — say 11 feet; then pro- 

 ceed thus : — Fix on the centre and drawa circle, with a line a foot in length, 

 which will give a diameter of 2 feet. Plant that round with Boule de Feu, 

 9 inches apart, and then fill up the centre. This will give you a circle of 

 fully 2\ feet in diameter, as the plants grow, of scarlet. Then make another 

 circle a foot farther down, and plant with Christine 8 or 9 inches apart. 

 Then a third for Bijou, and plant about 7 inchea apart. Then 10 inches far- 

 ther down, another circle for Cloth of Gold, 7 inches apart ; a fifth circle, 

 9 inches farther down, for Lobelia, and plant them 4 inches apart; and a 

 sixth circle, 8 inches farther down, and plant with Arabia 3 inches apart. 

 For double rows allow double room. 



Ventilation (Julia). — It is very advisable to have ventilation at the 

 highest point of the roof of the conservatory. However, we have known 

 plants do very well when there was little or no air given there if shade was 

 afforded : otherwise the dry heat will be apt to call into existence shoals of 

 red spider. 



Destroying Red Spider and Thrips (Idem).— The means to be used 

 will much depend on the kind of plants to be operated upon. Repeated • 

 smokings with tobacco will destroy the thrips, and repeated lashings with 

 water and sulphur fumes (not from burning the sulphur) will keep down the 

 red spider. For particular plants, perhaps nothing is better than dipping the 

 plants all over into a tub of size water, just sufficiently strong to be slightly 

 sticky when placed between the fingers ; setting the plants in a shady place 

 for a couple of days, and then drawing the fingers through them. Afterwards 

 dip tbe heads repeatedly in soft water at about 90°, and lay the plants down, 

 on a cloth or a mat, and syringe them well all over. Both insects, when 

 they get ahead, are difficult to master. 



Diseased Vine-shoots (Pampirms).— We discovered no red spiders, but 

 where they had been, and on both specimens we found about half a dozen, 

 small white thrips looking as if they had not been hatched long Thrips and red 

 spider are, therefore, no doubt your principal enemies, encouraged no doubt 

 by dryness at the root of the Vines, and a dry bright sunny atmosphere. 

 See answers to other correspondents. Watering at the roots if the border 

 is dry, a moister atmosphere, and smoking where the Grapes are not too 

 ripe, will bo the Quickest way of extirpating the thrips, and washing every 

 open part of the wall with sulphur and soft soap, and coating the hot-water 

 pipes or flue with sulphur, if not above 170°, will he the best thing for van- 

 quishing the red spider, unless you can also wash the leaves of the Vines. 

 • Vbnttlating (Ignoramus) . — We perceive nothing unsuitable in the mode of 

 ventilating ; but unless we knew more, we do not see the propriety of using 

 Vines in pots in a house well filled with Vines, except for obtaining them a 

 little earlier. We do not object to the Vines in pots being grown on a 

 platform close to the front glass. Unless in extreme cases you will not need 

 to whitewash the front glass, as the leaves will in general so overlap the 

 front as to give shade enough. In the narrow upright houses at Trentham, 

 the fruit was as near the front glass as yours will be, but no drawback, was 

 experienced on that account. The Vines in pots will do better if the pots 

 are plunged. Muscat Grapes are dearer than other Grape3 because they 

 require more heat and more time to ripen them thoroughly. 



