March 12, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
223 
dents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should never 
send more than two or three questions at once. All articles in¬ 
tended for insertion should be written on one side of the paper 
only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, and we 
do not undertake to return rejected communications. 
The Leeds Gardeners’ Benefit Society (A Lincolnshire Gardener ).— 
Any gardener of the proper age and in good health is eligible for member¬ 
ship in this useful Society. You had better write to Mr. W. Sunley, 
gardener, Bacchus Hill, Moor Allerton, Leeds, who will supply you with all 
requisite information on the subject. 
Adding to Vine Border (D. G. M.). —The Vine border is too deep by 
half, but that does not appear to be your fault, and you must do the best 
you can under the circumstances. Take particular care that the drainage is 
in good order, and that there is provision for the free outflow of superfluous 
water. You may add another section to the border now, but before doing so 
take down the face of the existing border until you come to roots plentifully, 
and if you cut off the ends of some of them smoothly you will do no harm, 
but good, as there will be ample left for well supporting the Vines till new 
roots form, and the pruning will result in a multiplicity of fibres. In all 
probability you will act wisely to take from 1 to 2 feet from the existing 
border, so that the new soil is placed in direct contact with the roots. This 
must be in good condition—not too wet, so that it can be made firm with 
safety—to avoid settling and falling from the old border, dragging the roots 
with it. Remove at the same time a little of the soil from the surface of 
the border, adding fresh, and if the roots are inside give a good watering 
with tepid water unless the soil is sufficiently—that is, decidedly moist. 
Gardenia Buds Falling (D. J. F.). —We cannot publish your letter; 
which would have to be re-written to render the matter suitable for insertion- 
Will you take a hint, kindly given and for your own benefit, as to the 
desirability of your improving yourself at least in spelling ? It is generally 
a great mistake to repot plants directly they arrive from a nursery. The 
check they receive in transit, with a change of temperature and atmospheric 
conditions to which they are often subjected, is quite sufficient at once 
without any further disturbance. Had the plants been kept in the pots in 
which they arrived, in a stove, and sufficiently yet judiciously watered, the 
buds would have been much less liable to fall than after repotting in the 
autumn. Defective root-action is a common cause of the collapse of the 
buds, and after repotting one mistake in watering would prevent the roots 
taking freely to the new soil, and the buds would then fall. With great 
care in watering the buds now forming will in all probability develope into 
satisfactory flowers—that is, if the plants are clean and healthy. 
Dividing Dahlias—Disbudding Vines ( F. J.). — You will do right by 
dividing the roots when the young shoots are an inch or two long, securing 
one shoot with each division, and reducing the tubers for convenience of 
potting in 5-inch pots. With the aid of a brisk hotbed or propagating pit 
each shoot is taken as a cutting and rooted ; but presumably you have not 
such convenience, and therefore dividing the roots would be the safer plan. 
In potting you may remove the veiy large tubers, as the smaller will support 
the growths till new roots are produced, while some of the former if potted 
might push growth from the apex and form plants. Let the eyes on the 
Vine rods push, and gradually remove the weaker at intervals of a day or 
two until only the best and best placed remain for extension into laterals. 
The disbudding should be completed when you are certain the growths rel ied 
on are safe from accidental breakage by tying them to the laterals, and not 
before. 
Seedling Polyanthuses (.4. A. E .).— Provided your seedlings are superior 
and distinct from existing named varieties you will be quite justified in 
attaching to them such names as you consider appropriate ; but before 
doing so it would be advisable to submit flowers to a good florist and ask 
for his advice on the question. In reply to your other inquiry, Mr. William 
Dean of Walsall is “ a florist who makes Pansies and Violas a speciality ” 
in your district, and if you were to send him some Polyanthus flowers with 
stamps for a reply he would perhaps forward you his opinion on their 
merits, and if this is favourable you might then exhibit them at the Bir¬ 
mingham Spring Show, and also at the National Auricula Show in London 
where Primulas are staged and examined by competent judges. 
Damp Conservatory (M. C. B.). —Imperfect ventilation, a low tern 
perature, and overwatering are the causes of the mildew and damping off 
among the plants of your conservatory. A temperature of 50° by fire heat, 
or higher by sun heat, opening the roof sashes early and regularly on fine 
days, and careful attention to watering, will soon set matters right at this 
season of the year. On wet or windy days do not open the ventilators, 
but insure circulation of the air by gentle fire heat. Your proposal to 
apply liquid manure to young climbers to induce them to bear flowers is 
wrong. It is probably owing to excessive vigour that they have been 
flowerless hitherto ; as the growth spreads it will become less rampant, and 
then you will have flowers. It is the want of light and a low temperature 
which causes the young growth of the Latania to be discoloured, spotted, 
and withered. Remove it and the Raphis flabelliformis, which is also suffer¬ 
ing from lowness of temperature, to a warm house where the temperature 
ranges from 50° upwards, till the season’s growth is fully developed, and 
then use them again for the decoration of rooms or cool houses. 
Pruning Young Gooseberry and Currant Bushes (J. W., Pershore). — 
Any of the Gooseberry shoots resting upon or within an inch or two of the 
soil must be cut off ; the end of shoots turning downwards should also be 
pruned where the downward curve begins at a bud pointing upwards or 
outwards. If the growths are crowded thin them out to G or more inches 
apart. The length of wood left upon vigorous young bushes is about a foot. 
The sorts mentioned have the merit of producing large fruit, but not of 
superior flavour. Here are a few which have small but highly flavoured 
fruit—Ironmonger, Red Warrington, Pitmaston Green Gage, Yellow Cham¬ 
pagne, Jenny Jones, Mayor of Oldham. Currant shoots must be shortened 
to the same length as the Gooseberries. The name of your plant is 
Jasminum nudiflorum. 
Peaches Falling {Stirling). — We have very little doubt that the 
falling of the fruits, such as you have sent, is the result of defective 
fertilisation. Either the weather was so dull at the time the trees 
flowered that the pollen was not liberated and diffused, or there was a 
natural deficiency of pollen, which is not unusual with some varieties. 
In the case of early forced trees it is highly desirable to assist the fertilisa¬ 
tion of the flowers, first by maintaining a rather dry and buoyant atmo¬ 
sphere, then brushing them lightly over with a very soft brush. A bunch 
of soft feathers secured to a stick will do very well, or a soft plume of 
Pampas Grass. This should be used towards the middle of the forenoon, 
or when the pollen is dry, drawing the brushes first over those blossoms where 
the farina is plentiful, following with the others immediately With 
healthy treeshaving the wood well ripened, and even moderately favourable 
weather, that practice rarely fails with us, the trees being brushed over 
every day for a week, as sometimes the earliest, and at other times the 
latest, flowers are in the best condition for effective fertilisation. 
Manures for Plants in Pots {A. G.). —You appear to be one of those 
individuals who think that manures can do everything, but the fact should 
never be forgotten that more depends on the attentive care and skill of the 
cultivator than on the manures themselves. We could name a dozen men 
who can and do “ grow Primulas, Calceolarias, Cinerarias, and keep the 
foliage on Chrysanthemums ” far better without any artificial manure what¬ 
ever than another dozen we could also name do with a full supply o fevery 
kind of manure they desire at their disposal. When a person requests us to 
state “ how much manure each plant requires at a time and how often ” he 
simply indicates that he has much to learn in even the rudiments of plant 
culture. A person may just as well ask how much food he should give to 
his family without indicating whether they are infants or adults. Such 
questions are unanswerable. We published an article on page 106, the issue 
of February oth of the present year, in which three kinds of manures are 
recommended, their proportions given, and the quantity for use generally 
indicated. We know that the mixture is good, but only when applied with 
judgment, otherwise it may be of no use at all ; and it most certainly cannot 
counterbalance the evils that result from defective watering, soil, ventila¬ 
tion, and faulty management generally. We may further add if a person 
cannot grow plants well with good soil at his disposal and a supply of 
bonemeal and soot for those that need such assistance, he is not likely to 
excel with anything ; but when he has learned to grow them well with the 
aid of simple materials he may grow them better with the assistance of other 
ingredients, as he will then have a pretty good idea how to apply them 
effectively. As to hardwooded plants, there are numbers to which manure 
would be decidedly injurious, while others much root-bound might be bene¬ 
fited by light top-dressings of bonemeal and perfectly clear pale soot water. 
Names of Plants {Town Gardener). —Both the Crotons appear to be 
C. Disraeli, differing in the colouring, which varies considerably, as well as 
the lobing of the leaves. Large specimens often continue in the same 
character as the cuttings from which they were raised. Thus, if a cutting 
is very deficient in colour it often requires a long time to grow out of it, 
and sometimes it never does colour so well as others obtained from more 
highly coloured shoots. The Dracaena is too deficient in colour to be 
readily determined, but it resembles D. rubra. {G. A. M.). —1, We do not 
undertake to name varieties of Camellias ; 2, Anemone (Hepatica) triloba; 
3, Begonia Ingrami; 4 was too withered to be recognised. {R.J .).—We 
have many times stated that we cannot undertake to name flowering plants 
without flowers, yet you send us a scrap of one that you say is flowering now 
and still refrain from sending the essential part. Further, our rule is not 
to name more than six at one time and you have sent eleven, not one of 
them being numbered. We will name a few of them, but in future you 
must send flowering portions with numbers attached to them, and if these 
are written outside the paper ligatures so much the better, as the damp 
packing destroys the paper in transit and it melts away during the process 
of untying. The yellow flowering hardy plant is Eranthis hyemalis ; the 
fruiting plant, Fuchsia procumbens; the greenhouse twiner, Myrsiphyllum 
asparagoides ; the blue-flowered trailing plant, Convolvulus mauritanicus. 
It is useless attempting to name more without numbers for identification. 
COYENT GARDEN MARKET.— March 11 th 
BUSINESS comparatively stagnant. Prices unaltered. 
FRUIT. 
s. 
d. 
S. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
S. 
d. 
Apples. 
h sieve 
2 
6 
to 4 
6 
Oranges. 
.. 100 
4 
0 to 
7 
0 
Chestnuts 
bushel 16 
0 
0 
0 
Peaches . 
perdoz. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Cobs. Kent .. per 100 lbs. 
55 
0 
0 
0 
Pears, kitchen 
dozen 
1 
0 
3 
0 
Currants, Red 
A sieve 
0 
0 
0 
0 
,, dessert 
dozen 
2 
0 
6 
0 
„ Black .. 
| sieve 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Pine Apples English .. 
1 
6 
2 
0 
Figs . 
dozen 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Plums . 
£ sieve 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Grapes. 
.. lb. 
3 
0 
6 
0 
Strawberries.. 
.. it. 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Lemons .. .. 
.. case 
10 
0 
15 
0 
St. Michael Pines 
..each 
3 
0 
7 
0 
VEGETABLES. 
s. 
d. 
s. d. 
s. 
d. 
8 . 
d. 
Artichokes 
. dozen 
2 
0 to 4 
0 
Lettuce. 
. dozen 
1 
0 to 
l 
6 
Asparagus 
bundle 
7 
0 
8 
Mushrooms .. 
punnet 
0 
0 
i 
6 
Beans, Kidney 
100 
g 
0 
2 
6 
Mustard and Cress 
punnet 
0 
2 
0 
4 
Beet, Red 
dozen 
j 
0 
2 
0 
Onions. 
bunch 
0 
3 
0 
0 
Broccoli. 
. bundle 
0 
9 
1 
0 
Parsley .. dozen bunches 
2 
0 
3 
0 
Brussels Sprouts . 
. { sieve 
2 
6 
3 
0 
Parsnips. 
dozen 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Cabbage . 
. dozen 
0 
0 
1 
0 
Potatoes. 
cwt. 
4 
0 
5 
0 
Capsicums .. . 
100 
1 
6 
3 
0 
,, Kidney . 
cwt. 
4 
0 
5 
0 
Carrots. 
bunch 
0 
3 
0 
4 
Rhubarb. 
bundle 
0 
4 
0 
0 
Cauliflowers .. . 
. dozen 
2 
0 
3 
0 
Salsafy. 
bundle 
1 
0 
0 
0 
Celery . 
bundle 
1 
6 
2 
0 
Scorzonera .. .. 
bundle 
1 
6 
0 
6 
Cole worts dcz. 
bunches 
2 
0 
4 
0 
Seakale .. .. r er basket 
1 
0 
1 
0 
Cucumbers .. . 
. each 
0 
6 
1 
0 
Shallots. 
.. It . 
0 
3 
0 
0 
Endive. 
dozen 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Spinach. 
brshel 
2 
0 
4 
0 
Her os . 
. bunch 
0 
2 
0 
0 
Tomatoes .. . 
.. lb. 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Leeks . 
. bunch 
0 
S 
0 
4 
Turnips. 
bunch 
0 
4 
0 
6 
