JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 30, 1882. ] 
259 
insolvent. Mr. Justice Chitty granted the application, and 
authorised the provisional liquidators to carry on the business in 
the ordinary way as a going concern, and to spend a sum not 
exceeding £350 a week. 
- To admirers of Double Cinerarias the blooms recently 
shown at Kensington by Mr. R. H. Yertegans of Edgbaston, 
Birmingham, were very interesting. Much attention has been 
paid to these double varieties at the above nursery, and the 
collection now includes most of the best forms obtainable. The 
flowers are neat, compact, and globular in form, the colours being 
very diversified, ranging from rich crimson through purplish blue 
to rose and white. The blooms are well adapted for cutting and 
arranging with other flowers for bouquets or in other floral deco¬ 
rations, as they are more durable than the ordinary single forms. 
Mr. Yertegans grows a large number of the double varieties ; 
indeed, he has a long house almost filled with them. 
- The usefulness and beauty of Fobsythia viridissima 
when forced in pots for conservatory and greenhouse decoration 
is too little known, though it is practised in a few establishments 
with such pleasing results that it well deserves the attention of 
gardeners generally wherever a good display of early flowers has 
to be maintained. Some of the best examples we have seen were 
in the beautiful conservatory at Furzedown, Tooting Common, 
where in combination with the ordinary forced plants, and even 
with such choice Orchids as Phalaenopsis and Dendrobiums, their 
numerous yellow flowers have a pleasing effect. This Forsythia 
is also similarly grown at Kew, where it has attracted much 
attention. Specimens of moderate size and compact habit should 
be taken in autumn from the shrubbery and potted in good turfy 
loam, transferring them to the forcing house in succession. They 
can thus be hadj in flower from Christmas until they bloom out¬ 
side. After flowering cut in any straggling branches, and encou¬ 
rage the plants to make growth freely, placing them out of doors, 
either in the border, or, if they are retained in pots, a little liquid 
manure will assist them. 
- During the past week the Orchids at The Firs, 
Laurie Park, Sydenham, the residence of C. Dorman, Esq., 
have been especially attractive, large numbers being in flower, 
and many which are approaching that condition will prolong 
the display for a considerable time. Several houses have been 
recently erected, all well adapted for the growth of Orchids, and 
the collection has been considerably increased by the purchase 
of established and imported plants in large numbers. All the 
more popular forms are represented by numerous specimens, 
including some of the best varieties in cultivation. Several 
extremely rare Orchids are also included, together with the best 
of the recently introduced forms. The condition of the plants 
is highly satisfactory in all departments, and there is scarcely 
another private collection within the same distance of London 
containing so large a proportion of healthy vigorous plants. 
Their culture evidently receives the careful attention of the 
gardener, Mr. C. Coningsby, and with very creditable results. 
Especially noteworthy at the present time are some plants of 
Odontoglossum cirrhosum, which are flowering abundantly and 
form a pretty group. Some of the varieties have large and 
richly coloured spots upon the sepals and petals, and in others 
the latter are very broad, giving the flowers an appearance of 
great substance. O. Rossi and its variety majus are represented 
by numerous plants flowering profusely, one on a block 4 inches 
wide by G inches long bearing thirteen fine flowers. On different 
plants the flowers vary considerably, but one of them is by far 
the finest we have seen in any collection. The flowers are very 
large, the petals broad, and the sepals marked with rich brown 
spots ; the lip is also large pure white, and the column is purplish. 
The delicately pretty 0. Cervantesii, O. crispum, and O. gloriosum 
are abundant and well grown. 0. nebulosum majus has flowers 
about 3 inches in diameter—a very fine variety. A handsome 
variety of 0. maculatum is also flowering well, the blooms being 
large, the sepals and petals broad and marked with rich brown. 
Some of the other genera will be referred to in a future issue. 
PRUNING ROSES. 
The question of Rose-pruning is really a most difficult one 
this year, and is one well worth discussing. I quite, as a general 
rule, would agree with “D., Beal," but as it has been an ex¬ 
ceptional winter, and hitherto a most unusually warm spring, I 
am inclined to think we must alter our usual treatment. Last 
year I cut back most severely, but not till the second week in 
April, and in any case where I left the shoots too long, except in 
very few cases of the hardier sorts, I found the buds were likely 
to fail after starting. I have not pruned as yet, but I find buds 
forming in nearly every Rose, and as I grow all on the Manetti 
stock, and the shoots were made generally from the base of the 
plants and rather later than usual, they have really never lost 
their leaves, or ever ceased to grow all the winter through. 
June and July to the 5th of August was unusually hot and dry. 
Then came dull showery weather with intervals of warmer and 
finer days, but with heavy rains during August, September, till 
the middle of October. We had snow on the 1st of November, 
and it was the only day it laid on the ground, and the only day, 
but one frosty day, the 23rd of December, that men were stopped 
from hunting. We have never had more than 10° of frost, and it 
has been unusually dry as well as warm, so much so that some 
of the heavy clay lands in some parts are too hard to plough. 
We had no rain from January 29th till February 25th, when we had 
some slight showers—0-10. 26th the same, and rather more than 
2 inches of rain fell before the 5th. It then cleared with warm 
winds, and we have had no rain since, and our minimum tempe¬ 
rature on the ground only 29°, and the maximum since the 6th has 
averaged 56°, the last three days being 62°, 57°, 60°. We have had 
westerly instead of easterly winds in March. The ground is quite 
warm comparatively, the Hawthorn hedges looking green, and the 
grass quite as forward as it was in the middle of May last year. 
I cannot help thinking we shall have an unusually forward spring, 
and that we had better thin out all weak shoots of Roses, and 
prune back the stronger shoots now to well-developed eyes.— 
C. P. P. 
NOTES FROM MY GARDEN IN 1881.—No. 3. 
AURICULAS. 
I HAVE written so despairingly of the state of my collection of 
this much-loved flower, that it is a real pleasure to me to have to 
change my tone, and to say that I look hopefully to its future. 
Much has been said and written about the pest from which I 
believed my collection to have suffered—the woolly aphis, a pest 
which has more or less within the last few years attacked nearly 
every collection of Auriculas in the kingdom, and about which 
conflicting opinions still exist. Even as late as this week the very 
highest authority we have on thi3 subject, the Rev. F. D. Horner, 
combats the idea that it is injurious, or whether, as he puts it, the 
woolly aphis has his board as well as his lodging provided by the 
plant. I can hardly think that a creature provided with means 
for sucking the juices of plants does not use his tools, or, if he 
uses them, that he does not do so to the injury of the plants. I 
have my own strong convictions on the point, nor can I account 
for the losses I suffered for some four or five years in my collection 
in any other way. I used good compost; I grew them as I had 
done for many years so well, and yet die they did ; and wherever 
they did so I found at any rate the woolly aphis assisting at the 
funeral. 
Last year my collection was at its lowest ebb I sincerely hope, 
and I determined on an heroic measure. The inventor of the Fir 
tree oil insecticide had seen my complaints in the Journal, and 
wrote to me saying that he believed I should find it to be an 
effective remedy. So I determined to try it. I shook the plants 
out in the month of May, and having got rid of all the soil I 
plunged the plants in a solution of the insecticide made according 
to the directions given. After giving them a good dose of the 
solution I then plunged them in clean water. I then planted 
them out in a frame filled up to within 3 inches of the top with 
coarse drainage and put 3 inches of good pasture loam on the top. 
This frame was placed under a hedge with a north aspect and left 
there exposed during the summer months to all weathers. This 
is an entirely different thing to leaving them thus exposed in pots, 
as there is no fear of their being too wet or too dry, and I was 
