June 16, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . 
481 
my Vines ; one Black Alicante, two Madresfield Courts. I had a 
stage in the cool house to put plants on during winter. The ashes 
on the stage touched the Vine stems an inch thick. After start¬ 
ing and showing fruit they languished, and on examination we 
found they were growing strongly below the platform. It was 
at once removed. The young shoots are now growing well. The 
old rods are dead above the part where the ashes touched them. 
This is a severe lesson. The roots are outside; the rods within 
the house, just under the surface of the border. Other Vines in the 
same house are doing well, but there was no platform or ashes 
near them. The platform is 18 inches above the floor.—H. T. H. 
POTATOES AND FROST IN JUNE. 
As an illustration of our capricious climate the following notes 
may interest some of the readers of the Journal :—The tempera¬ 
ture on several days for the week ending June 4th exceeded 70° 
in the shade. On one occasion, at 10.30 in the morning, I put a 
thermometer outside full in the sun, and in half an hour 120° Fahr. 
was indicated, 72° in the shade, while the week just ended (11th 
inst.) reminded us of dark days in October. It commenced with 
hail showers, and a minimum temperature within a few degrees 
of the freezing point was registered on the 7th, 8th, and 9th. On 
looking through some experimental varieties of Potatoes yesterday 
I noted the following—Myatt’s Ashleaf, planted in October last, 
had all the young leaves blackened. Early Rose was not quite so 
much injured. Snowflake seems more tender than those named 
both in top and tuber, for some of them planted in October as an 
experiment, though covered with fine hay during winter, rotted. 
Flounder bore this low temperature better than any named. Forty¬ 
fold and Magnum Bonum perceptibly affected only ; while Cham¬ 
pion, planted last and making vigorous growth, is quite un¬ 
affected. As showing the advantage of a western aspect, on 
which the sun does not shine until eleven o’clock in the morning, 
Beauty of Hebron and Bresee’s Peerless, though notably not so 
hardy, were quite unscathed.—W. J. M., Clonmel. 
POINSETTIAS, THEIR PROPAGATION AND CULTURE. 
Amongst plants which bloom in November, December, and 
January, few are of easier culture and none more showy than 
Poinsettias. They are attractive at a time when flowers are highly 
prized, and their cheerful colour is highly pleasing. Now is the 
time to attend to their culture, and the best plants are secured 
when a fresh stock is rooted annually. 
Assuming that the plants which flowered last year have been 
preserved, if placed in a heat of 60° they soon produce young 
growths all up the stems. It is these shoots when from 2 inches 
to 4 inches in length which make the best cuttings and the best 
plants. As they are very succulent it is a bad plan to use the 
knife to cut them, it being much better to break them off with a 
heel— i.o., a small piece of old wood attached to the base of each 
shoot. 
Sand and leaf soil are the only two ingredients which need be 
used in the compost, and the pots should be of the smallest size, 
or what are known as thumbs. Into each of these two cuttings 
may be placed, but not in the centre, as they root much better 
near the edge. They strike quickly in a bottom heat of 80° to 
90°, but should be withdrawn from this as soon as the roots are 
well formed, and after a week or more they may be transferred 
to 4-inch or 5-inch pots. These must be very carefully drained, 
and soil of a more substantial kind must be used now. This 
should be composed of loam, half-decayed manure, and a good 
quantity of sand in suitable proportions. 
In potting the young roots must not be broken, but the soil 
may be pressed firmly round them, and care must be taken that a 
check is not given immediately afterwards. To avoid this the 
plants should be placed in a close warm frame or house, and it 
may be necessary to shade them from bright sunshine for a few 
days ; but this should not be continued longer than is wanted, as 
they bear exposure to sun well when growing. A Cucumber pit 
is very suitable for Poinsettias in summer, and we have seen good 
plants grown in cold frames, where they become dwarf. For some 
purposes tall plants may be required, but as a rule dwarf plants 
are in the greatest request. Useful plants may be had in 4-inch 
and 5-inch pots, and larger pots may not be needed, but if they 
are the plants should be shifted before becoming rootbound. As 
it is the point of the shoot which produces the head of bracts, 
care must be taken to keep this part uninjured. From a plant 
with one shoot only one head of bloom can be had, but if this can 
be obtained a foot or more in diameter it will be more ornamental 
than another plant with two or three puny heads. 
From the time the plants become thoroughly established in the 
pots until well into the autumn they must have liberal supplies 
of water, and liquid manure may be given once a week. Strong 
healthy plants are not very liable to insect attacks, but should 
such occur careful spongings must be at once resorted to. No 
shading must be employed after the plants are established, as 
plenty of sun heat matures the wood and conduces to early and 
fine heads. 
As soon as the nights become long and chilly the plants should 
be removed to warmer quarters, and to produce bloom they must 
be placed in a temperature of about 60°. At this time they should 
have abundance of liquid manure and a light position. Although 
a temperature of 60° may be required to cause the bracts to 
develope freely, they do not need so much heat as this when fully 
expanded, as then they stand well for a long time in a warm 
conservatory. By placing them in heat as required a long suc¬ 
cession of heads will be the result ; and the plants must not be 
suddenly starved into rest, or stock may be scarce when wanted 
in the propagating season again. 
Of varieties hardly anything need be said. The old variety 
now so well known is still the most useful for general culture.— 
M. M. 
JOTTINGS BY THE WAY. 
On my usual visit to the great Whitsuntide Show at Manchester 
I determined to go somewhat out of the beaten track. I had a 
desire to visit St. Albans to see what was being done with the 
grand old abbey, or Cathedral as it will now be called, and to 
have a look at an establishment which has come into prominence 
during the past few years—that of Messrs. F. Sander & Co. In 
common with many others I must deplore what is being done at 
the abbey. Sir Edmund Beckett has given largely to it, but at 
what a cost ! He has taken away the old western end, and is 
putting up one of his own design. I do not pretend to be an 
architect, but I am conservative, and have a notion that they knew 
better how to build in those days than we do now. At any rate 
I am not alone, for I met one who evidently was an architect, and 
he was in a white heat, threatening to bring the matter before 
the Houses of Parliament. 
The establishment of Messrs. Sander is, I should think, perfectly 
unique. I have seen, of course, the grand establishments of 
Messrs. Yeitch and Bull with their beautifully arranged houses, 
where everything is in the perfection of order and neatness ; and 
as Messrs. Sander devote themselves almost exclusively to the 
same work I looked for something of the same sort, but nothing 
of the kind, as Mr. Sander said, “ We do not grow Orchids ; we 
simply import. Our collectors send home plants to us from all 
parts of the world, and we sell as soon as we can.” You enter 
from the street through one of those country seedshops with which 
we all are familiar, and you find yourself at once in the midst of 
a conglomeration of glazed sheds, low, dark, and untidy. You 
step probably into a hole which sends the mud over your ankles, 
or you knock your hat against some low patched roof which 
obstructs your way, and yet amidst all this there is a wealth of 
Orchids there which is something remarkable. What a sensation 
when the first plant of Anthurium Andreanum was exhibited at 
South Kensington 1 and how fiercely waged the battle as to who 
had the real one ! A controversy, however, soon set at rest that 
there was but one variety ; and here lying on the shelf of alow- 
pitched house were hundreds of its curious fleshy-looking roots, 
reminding one more of a parcel of newly born ferrets than any¬ 
thing else I could think of, and besides quantities of seedling 
plants, so that ere long it must be within everybody’s reach. 
Then here were houses full of Cattleyas, others of Odontoglossums, 
and again of Masdevallias—all imported plants, many of them in 
the daintiest little pans all ready for being sent off. Houses 
were being added to, and everything indicated a very prosperous 
business ; yet it has only existed for twelve years and is carried 
out with Teutonic energy, for Mr. Sander is one of those citizens 
of the Fatherland for whom Prince Bismarck has been so pathe¬ 
tically pleading of late that they are elbowed out in the southern 
seas by Englishmen ; whereas the reverse of this seems to be the 
case. They are the Scotch of the Continent; and as it was once 
said, If you get to the North Pole it would be ten to one that you 
would find a store there and Sandy McAlister trying to do a stroke 
of business with the Esquimaux and polar bears ; so everywhere 
Germans are to be met with keen, frugal, and quick-witted to 
seize an opening and to keep it to themselves when once they 
have it. 
'When I reached Warrington I paid a visit to another small 
establishment, quite as remarkable in its way, although in this 
case belonging to an amateur. Mr. W. Bolton is an Auricula and 
Polyanthus grower .and his Auriculas are grown at the back of 
his house in the town surrounded on all sides by factories and 
