March 2, 1882. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
173 
consisting of good turfy loam and leaf soil, and adding thereto a 
little well-decomposed manure. When large enough they are 
stopped, and tied, and watered with liquid manure twice a week 
when the pots are full of roots. It seems almost unnecessary to 
say that when in flower they must have abundant ventilation. 
Having briefly alluded to Peas in April I will now take the 
month of May. For a supply in this month we shall have to 
depend on the dwarf-growing kinds mentioned previously ; as 
they are to be grown in frames they now become indispensable. 
For gathering the first fortnight in May the frames should be 
placed on beds about 2 feet high of warm dung and leaves ; fill 
in the frames with 9 inches or a foot of soil such as is used for 
those grown in pots ; sow about the middle of January two rows 
in each light. The after management consists of ventilating and 
supplying water when needful. The succeeding crops may be 
grown in frames without the aid of warm dung, and the seed sown 
a few days later. We next take June, and in this month Peas 
become, comparatively speaking, plentiful. To have them fit to 
gather by the first week in June in the southern and midland 
counties is not by any means a difficult matter, but in the north 
it is otherwise. By far the best method of obtaining the earliest 
supply outside is unquestionably that of sowing the seed on strips 
of turf the first week in February and planting out on south 
borders about the middle of March, after having been duly 
hardened off, and protecting with Spruce branches in cold 
weather and frosty nights.—E t Cetera. 
ZONAL PELARGONIUMS AND CARNATIONS FOR 
WINTER FLOWERING. 
PELARGONIUMS. 
Now is the time for those who desire a good display of these 
two beautiful flowers during the ensuing winter to make prepar¬ 
ations. Select or buy small plants of suitable varieties of Pelar¬ 
goniums, and grow them liberally so as to have strong plants 
ready to shift into 6-inch pots by the end of May or early in June, 
employing good turfy loam with a little leaf soil, a sprinkling of 
coarse sand and bonedust mixed together and used rough. Pot 
firmly and stand them out in a sunny position, and attend care¬ 
fully to watering and repotting as growth advances if large plants 
are desired, removing the trusses as they appear, and stopping any 
excessively strong shoots. Discontinue removing the blooms after 
the last week in August or early in September, and at the end of 
the month or early in October house them where a little fire heat 
can be given, if necessary, to exclude damp. A top-dressing of 
good artificial manure will be beneficial, or weak guano water may 
be supplied ; and if the plants can be assigned a light position 
and a temperature of 50° to 55°, suitable varieties being selected, 
they will give a more beautiful and varied display of flowers at 
a time when such are most valuable than any other plant that 
I know. I have found the following varieties succeed well in 
winter—Rev. A. Atkinson, Colonel Seely, Lizzie Brookes, Hettie, 
Henry Jacoby, Dr. Orton, Beatrix, Aida, Louis, S. Plimsoll, Lu¬ 
men, Niobe, 'White Vesuvius, Correggio, Commander-in-Chief, 
Lizard, Laura Strachan, Mrs. Strutt, Lady Sheffield, Remus, Mrs. 
Leavers, Eva, and Atala. 
CARNATIONS. 
Cuttings of Carnations should be taken as they can be ob¬ 
tained, or the side shoots may be slipped off with a heel, inserted 
in pots of sandy soil, covered with a bellglass, and plunged in a 
gentle heat. Roots are soon formed ; then pot the plants singly 
in 60-sized pots, keeping them in moderate heat and close to the 
glass, shifting them into 4-inch pots before they become root- 
bound. Pinch out the point of the shoot as soon as they are well 
established in the 4-inch pots, which will cause them to break 
freely, then place them in a cold frame and gradually expose them 
to more air till the lights can be withdrawn. Transfer them to 
their large pols early in June, employing soil similar to that 
described for the Zonal Pelargoniums, having it rather dry and 
potting firmly, draining well. Stand them out in an open but 
rather sheltered position, or the winds are likely to snap off the 
shoots, unless staked securely. For the weaker growers, such as 
La Belle, place some stakes round the outside of the pots, training 
the growths round them ; for the bushy growers some small spray 
of Birch or Hornbeam round the pots is preferable to stakes. 
Supply water carefully, and fully expose them to the sun all the 
summer to ripen the wood, or they will not flower freely. House 
them at the same time as the Pelargoniums, giving them a light 
position and free ventilation, and they will amply repay at Christ¬ 
mas and onwards for the trouble taken. I find they are benefited 
by a little weak liquid manure. The following are the best varie¬ 
ties I know—Miss Joliffe, Guelder Rose, La Belle, A. Alegati&re 
Rose Perfection, and Grenadier.—W. Wallace, Yarclley. 
PLANT LABELS. 
Being an amateur gardener who often plants two or three 
hundred plants or bulbs in a day, and does it in a great hurry, 
and as most of them require marking, I am much interested in 
the plant-label question. I was glad to see Mr. Wilson’s explan¬ 
ation of the object of his prizes, which I understand to be, not 
the production of an elaborate label suitable for public gardens, 
but something which will help the poorest amateurs by its cheap¬ 
ness, and will take the shortest time to prepare and inscribe, and 
the longest to perish or become illegible. Few per¬ 
sons have made more experiments in search of such 
a label during the last two years than I have. An 
imperishable smooth paint to which no dirt will 
adhere, but upon which a common lead pencil will 
make an imperishable mark, is now the only desi¬ 
deratum which prevents the attainment of my ob¬ 
ject ; but I fear that this will be difficult to find. 
The common wooden labels in damp soils hardly 
- v\ last six months. I have tried to make them durable 
\ by soaking alternately in solution of copperas and 
kV in lime water, but after this no pencil mark will 
last upon them. I have tried dipping in creosote, 
but they will then take neither paint nor pencil 
mark. Besides, these wooden tallies must either 
be of objectionable size or be so fragile as to be 
easily broken. The two-legged labels, made of a 
small block of wood fixed horizontally on upright 
strong wires, are good labels, but not convenient 
for using in large quantities, and rather trouble¬ 
some to prepare. I prefer a single piece of strong 
wire with a perforated label attached to it per¬ 
pendicularly by finer wire, as shown in the enclosed 
specimen (fig. 35). So far I have little difficulty ; 
but the kind of wood, and still more the kind 
of paint, is an important question. 
I am of opinion that no label can be considered 
satisfactory until it has been tried for at least a 
year both in the open air in a damp soil, and in the 
confined air of a greenhouse or frame. The first 
will prove its power of resisting the combined 
attacks of dirt and weather, the latter will test its 
capability for resisting mildew. I am sorry to find 
that boxwood, even when painted, is so liable to 
mildew a3 to become in a close frame quite dis¬ 
coloured and illegible in two or three weeks. I 
am trying different distemperings for it, one being 
a solution of chloride of zinc, in which I soak the 
labels for a week, and I shall certainly try also 
Mr. Wilson’s plan of soaking in paraffin, if I can 
get the paraffin ; but I think that deal, or some 
wood less liable to mildew, would be preferable. 
The paint I have lately been trying is a thick mixture of yellow 
chrome and spirits of turpentine. This is durable, and shows 
pencil marks well, though an army of two or three thousand 
bright yellow labels before the windows in winter has rather a 
flaring effect, however lively it may look, and I should prefer 
something like a neutral tint. Then this yellow paint is not 
proof against soot, and we poor gardeners in whose gardens slugs 
swarm, must protect our plants with soot, and unless we have a 
paint from which the rain will wash soot the labels are made 
illegible. I am willing to adopt any suggestion, and to do my 
best to test any composition which is likely to answer the desired 
purpose ; but I must add that any material such as zinc, which 
requires the use of ink, and does not admit of the labels being 
hastily inscribed on the spot in which they are used, would be of 
no service to gardeners of my habits, of whom I know several.— 
C. Wolley Dod. 
[We figure Mr. Wolley Dod’s label because we think it good in 
principle, and in the hope that improvements may follow, so that 
a simple, cheap and durable method of preserving the names of 
plants in the open air may be devised.] 
Fig. 35. 
SAWDUST FOR PROPAGATING. 
The season for rapid production of plants has again arrived, 
and I wish to draw attention to sawdust as the best material to 
insert cuttings in that I have yet tried. Mr. Thomson of Drum- 
lanrig has more than once recommended this material as very 
