

498 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. C December 20, 1864. 



VEGETABLES, 

 d 



Artichokes each 



Asparagus bundle 



BeansBroad. \ sieve 



Kidney 100 2 



Beet, Red.... « doz. 1 



Broccoli bundle 1 



Brussels Sprouts £ sieve 2 



Cabbage doz. 1 



Capsicums 100 



Carrots bunch 



Cauliflower doz. 4 



Celery bundle 1 



Cucumbers each 1 



pickling doz. 



Endive score 2 



Fennel bunch 



Garlic and Shallots, lb. 



Herbs bunch 



d. s. 



toO 

 



Horseradish ... bundle 



Leeks bunch 



Lettuce score 



Mushrooms pottle 



Mu3td. & Cress, punnet 



Onions .....bushel 



pickling quart 



Parsley ...doz. bunches 



Parsnips doz. 



Peas quart 



Potatoes bushel 



Radishes doz. bunches 



Savoys doz. 



Sea-kale basket 



Spinach sieve 



Tomatoes £ sieve 



Turnips bunc'n 



Vegetable!! arrows doz. 



.. 



d. 



s. 



d 



2 



8 to 5 



s 



n 



2 







3 



2 







4 







1 



6 



2 



i; 







2 











4 







5 







n 



6 







i 



4 







6 



a 







9 



1 























2 



fi 



4 



ii 



n 



fl 



1 







l 







2 



6 



3 















3 







5 



























3 







6 







.0 











TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



Sea-eale-eorcing (Dorset), — The plants suitable for placing in frames 

 ore those with crowns fully au inch in diameter, and such are usually three 

 or four years old from the seed. Plants once taken up and forced are not 

 "worth keeping for the same purpose again, tbough they will gain strength 

 in a year or so, and may then he used, but they are not equal to younger 

 plants, end nothing is gained by keeping them. 



Size of Melon-pit (A. T. S.).— The height of the Melon-pit (fig. 12 in 

 our No. 184) is 7 feet from the floor to the apex, and how you make it only 

 5 feet we are at a loss to know. You may readily ascertain the dimensions 

 of the pit by measuring the engraving, and reading it off on the scale. 



Plants foil a Dry Boeder (A Lady Subscriber) .—There are no plants 

 that will flourish in a Clematis-shaded dry south border except the different 

 kinds of Ivies, and these we think will be the most suitable for your pur- 

 pose. Periwinkles might also grow, but there are no flowering plants that 

 will flourish in such a situation for any length of time. Lobelia likes a wet 

 soil, Cerastium might succeed, and it, with Geraniums, would do the best in 

 summer. Stachys lanata will grow well in many places where few other 

 bedding plants will succeed. Thompson's "Gardeners Assistant" is the 

 best of the works named by you. 



Arranging Fruit Trees (2f. L. T.).—lf we understand you aright you 

 have a hedge S4 feet long on the south, and a wall of the same length on 

 the north, and on this you may have Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, and 

 Fig trees, or one Grosse Mignonne Peach 8 feet from one end, then an 

 Elruge Nectarine 25 feet from it, then a Brown Turkey Fig 15 feet di-tant, 

 a Royal George Peach 15 feet from the Fig, and a Moorpark Apricot 15 feet 

 more ; and there will then be room for another Apricot 12 feet from the last. 

 You may plant the east and west borders with Pears at 15 or 20 feet apart — 

 say the west with Pears, reserving the east for Plums, Cherries, and Black 

 Currants. The Plums should be planted the same distance apart as the 

 Pears, and the Cherries at 12 feet distance, whilst the Currants may be 

 planted a yard apart, especially if the boarded fence is a high one. We do 

 not think Medlars would please you. We do not know whether we have 

 read your letter aright or not, nor can we make out what is meant by the 

 fence 84 feet long by 18 feet wide. If the wall is covered with trees, and 

 you only wish to plant trees against the boards, then you will nob plant the 

 Peaches and Figs, nor any of the fruits named for the south wall, for they 

 will do little good in such a situation, even in Devonshire. The other trees 

 named by you will do well on the ea«t and west aspects. Not knowing the 

 length of the east and west borders we are not able to tell how many trees 

 it; would take to plant them. 



Tagetes signata pumila as a Bedding Plant — Passton-Flower 

 Pruning — Bignonia radjcans and capreolata (J3. G. IT.).— There is 

 more than one yellow bedding plant named Tagetes, of which the yellow 

 varieties of French Marigolds are no mean objects; but Tagetes tenuifolia 

 has yellow flowers, much smaller, but in greater profusion than those of 

 the French Marigolds. It is, however, a tall plant from 2 to 2£ feet high, 

 and is only suited for large groups. Tagetes signata is a fine bedder, but, 

 like the last, is somewhat tall; but its variety T. signata pumila is only a 

 foot or so high, and makes a fine golden mass. It Is a half-hardy annual, 

 requiring to be sown in the first week in March in a compost of light loara 

 and leaf mould, and placed in a hotbed. When up guard against drawing 

 the plants up weak by admitting air daily, and otherwise endeavouring to 

 insure sturdy growths. When large enough to handle pot off in threes 

 round the sides of small pots, again place in the frame, and keep rather 

 close for a few days, then gradually harden off. and plant out in the last 

 week in May or first of June. They are a little more tender than French 

 Marigolds. You will not gain anything by cutting the Passion-Flower down, 

 and you may lose the plant if you cut to the old wood without any pyes 

 upon it. Cut it in to within three or four eyes of the main item, or shorren 

 the yeung shoots to that length in January, which will answer your purpose 

 much better than cutting it down to the roots. If it has a long naked stem 

 it may be cut down to within a foot or so of the soil, and if there be young 

 wood there by all means leave a few eyes on it, for it will shoot again with 

 much greater certainty from the young than from old wood, which may or 

 may not have some dormant eyes. It ought to flower before another 

 Christmas. Bignonia radicans is distinct from Bignonia capreolata; the 

 latter is a more tender plant, requiring the protection of a greenhouse, 

 whilst the former is all but, if not quite, hardy. They are, however, some- 

 what similar, and though distinct enough for large collections, are, perhaps, 

 not so for small gardens. You can grow it well trained to the roif of a 

 greenhouse at a few inches from the glass, either planted out in a border or 

 potted in a good-sized pot, using a compost of turfy loam and leaf mould, 

 with a free admixture of sharp sand. It requires abundance of light and 

 air, and plenty of room. 



Variot/s f T. S.). — The half-calf binding of our annual volume would be 

 about 5s. The insect is a scale (Coccus), and is destroyed by painting over 

 it with soft soap, &c, as often detailed in these pages. The price of Hogg's 

 "'Gardeners' Year Book '' is one shilling. 



Taking up Gladioli Bclbs (A. S. A.).— The bulbs should he taken up 

 when the foliage turns yellow, drying them, keeping them in a cool dry 

 place, and replanting in" spring. Payne's cottage hive, sold hy Messrs. 

 Neighbour & Son, Regent Street, London, will suit you. 



Vines Mildewed (Z>. M. S.).— The Vines may he mildewed from being 

 grown in a close moist house, and their roots being in a rich undrained 

 border. They may not be mildewed for these reasons, nor can any one 

 assign a cause for every attack of disease, though there may be some pecu- 

 liar state of the juices of the plant which makes it liable to th<? attacks of 

 insects and parasites. The cure rests in dusting the parts affected with 

 flo.ver3 of salphur whenever the disease presents itself, and this, with atten- 

 tion to the minutiae of Vine-growing, which may be learned from the "Vine 

 Manual," which von can have free by post from our office for thirty-two 

 stamps, will prevent the "Vines suffering from mildew. The oil cloth placed 

 over the border in winter will be of great benefit to the roots in keeping 

 them dry, but this will not prevent attacks of mildew. Dust the leaves 

 with flowers of sulphur whenever the mildew shows itself, and this will 

 keep it down, and if persisted in will effectually rid you of it; but do not 

 wet the sulphur and rub the leaves with it, for by so doing you can never 

 reach the parts affected, and at the same time you will injure the leaves. 

 The mildew may or may not re-appear another season. 



Staining Oak-paling (A Subscriber).— The light colour may he perma- 

 nently removed by brushing it over thoroughly with linseed oil. 



North of Scotland (A Subscriber, Aberdeen).— The best mode of intro- 

 ducing common Primroses would be to procure some plants in very early 

 spring, and place them in sheltered shady places near you. Our correspon- 

 dent add>— "Contributions such as that from your friend from fort Augustus 

 in the issue of November 29th, greatly enhance the value of your Journal 

 in this part of the world ; but he omits to tell your readers two things ot 

 importaace -first, how he grows his Roses, whether as dwarfs, half-stan- 

 dards, or standards ; and second, what description of stock he has found so 

 successful. He tells us in two rather lengthy paragraphs it is not the i Dog 

 Rose, but he evident! r, by accident, omits to say what it is. It would be 

 very interesting also to Rose growers in this quarter, where the cultivation 

 of the Rose as standards has been but partially successful, to know your 

 corre-Dondent's general mode of treatment throughout the year, especially 

 his manner of preserving them during winter." 



Vine Leaves (An Old Subscriber).— -There are no scale insects upon them, 

 but symptoms of gangrene, intimating, we think, that the roots are not 

 sufficiently active to supplv s:ip for the growth of the leaves, &c. If the 

 roots are outside the house we should cover the border with fermenting 

 dung 2 feet thick, and plaae over that a tarpaulin, or something else that 

 will exclude excessive rain, or other chilling circumstances. 



Laving Out and Measuring Grounds (T. 2T.).~ There is no book 

 specially devoted to these subjects. There is much about them in the first 

 volume of Mcintosh's " Book of the Garden." 



Monochjstum ensiferum Leaves Shrivelling [Idem).— It is probably 

 losin°- its leaves, and the shoots dving hack through being grown in too 

 cool a hou=e. It requires the heat of a rather warm greenhouse, though it 

 will do fairly in a dry greenhouse with little water, providing the wood be 

 well ripened :n summer. 



Heating from a Kitchen Boiler (W. E. E).- W e should be more 

 certain did we know the exact height of the kitchen boiler and the floor ot 

 the conservatory. The lower the boiler beneath the pipes in the conserva- 

 tory the better-that is, at least for several feet, provided the top ot the 

 boiler is closed. As vour boiler is open, you can have no pipes in the con- 

 servatory higher than the general level at which the warer stands in the 

 boiler, in no case quite so high as the top of the boiler. You may use two 

 or three-inch pipes, one within 3 inches or more of the top, and one near 

 the bo'tom of the boMer, a* the cmnecfion between the boiler and those in 

 the conservatory. These pipes when in the kitchen may be enclosed in a 

 wood c**e. These mav be pliced on the same level in the kitchen, except 

 where thev enter the boiler. The pipes must not sink be.ow nor rise above 

 the level of the water in the boiler. If you wanted a heat ot from 45 to 

 50 3 in cold weather you would need three four-inch pipes in the front ot the 

 conservatory. These mav all he on the same level, with a shelf over them. 

 Thns the flow-pipe from the boiler could join a double pipe, and these could 

 ioin at the farther end to receive the one 'return-pipe. All things consi- 

 dered we believe the kitchen boiler to be your best mode ; but if the boiler 

 is much on the same level as the pipes in the conservatory these pipes must 

 neither rise nor fall. 



Vines itf Pots (D. D.).— If you wish to trust your Vines in 10-inch pots 

 we decidedly advise you to let them remain in the same pots, but use rich 

 top-dressing and manure-waterings, and you may even place some good 

 soil below the bottom of the pot in the bed, aud let the roots run in it it 

 they choose. A little bottom heat will be serviceable. Do not shift now by 

 any means if you wish good fruit and plenty of it. 



Sevweed as Manure for Carnations ( ).— It ;s a good minure 



for them, but should be thrown together and allowed to decoaioose, and 

 then be mixed with three or four par:s its bulk of light sandy loam. If 

 not experienced we would no: advise you to use it largely. 



Earlt Grapes [J. B. Charlestcorth). -To obtain early Grapes iu the way 

 you allude to requires considerable experience and care. Allowing the late 

 Grapes to hang till March will require much less caw and expense. 



Various (JU. H".). -If the Lilies and the Dielytra are very dry at the roots 

 they should be watered before plunging them iu the (orcing-bed. It fair 

 for moisture— that is, neither wet nor dry, they will absorb moisture from 

 the bed of leaves, and iu that case we would not water until the tops began 

 to °tow. We would not repot anv such plants, but top-dre^s with rich 

 material Your proposed house on the north side of the wall will do well 

 for foliage plants and Ferns. You do not say the height, but lor a mode- 

 rate heat you would need at least 120 feet of four-inch pipe to beep stove 

 fine-foliaged plants healthv. You could keep Camellias and Azaleas admir- 

 ably in such a house in winter, or at any time, except when making growth 

 and setting their buds; but then you could not keep Ferns, ac, that 

 required much heat at the same time, as the extra heat would be too much 

 for the Azaleas and Camellias. 



Book (R. S. A.).— The "Fruit-Gardening for the Many" will suit you. 

 It can be had free by post from our office for five penny postage stamps. 



Address (Stella).— Mr. West, when we last heard of him, was residing at 

 Bournemouth, Hants. 



I 



