JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 27, 1883. 
560 
obtaining thick leathery foliage is of great consequence. In cold weather 
proceed cautiously, giving no more fire heat than is absolutely essential to 
steady progress. Continue to turn and add to the fermenting materials 
within the house, and if there be any need of water a good soaking should 
be given the inside border, affording it in a tepid state. If fermenting 
materials are employed on the outside borders turn and add fresh as may 
be found necessary. 
Vines to Afford Ripe Grapes in June. —Houses of Hamburghs that 
are to afford ripe Grapes with certainty at the beginning of June, or of 
Muscats at the close of that month, should have anything yet remaining 
to be done in tbe way of cleansing the house, repairs, or dressing the 
Vines, completed at once, and the surface soil removed down to the roots, 
and good loam to which has been added some crushed bones and charred 
refuse supplied. Forcing should commence the 1st of January, the house 
being closed, and a good watering given to the inside border. The outside 
border should be protected with a good thickness of leaves with litter or 
shutters over all to keep them from blowing about, and, if available, 
shutters, tarpaulin, or spare lights will be advisable to throw off 
cold rains or snow. A bed of sweetened leaves and litter made up in 
the house on the floor or border will give a moist ammonia-charged 
atmosphere, and do much to lessen the necessity for fire heat. If the 
Vines are young they should be depressed to, or even below, the horizontal 
line, especially canes of last year’s growth. Syringe the Vines and 
house two or three times a day, but do not keep them in a constantly 
dripping state, allowing them to become dry at least once in twenty-four 
hours. Keep the day temperature at 55° and the night at 50°, advancing 
with sun heat to 65°. 
Strajrlerries in Rots. —The condition of the weather has not been 
favourable of late to forcing operations. Although it has not been severe it 
has been cold, and high winds have prevailed ; hence forcing must be con¬ 
ducted rather slowly, especially in the absence of sun and light. A night 
temperature of 50° with a rise of 5° by day from fire heat, or 10° to 15° 
with sun heat, will be a safe maximum for the present. Now the trusses 
are showing from the crowns of the earliest batch see that there is not any 
trace of aphides, or, if there be, fumigate on two or three consecutive 
evenings, and keep a sharp look-out afterwards, as it is important there be 
no need to fumigate after the plants come into flower, which is highly 
injurious to the anthers and pistils. Examine the plants daily, and when 
any plant needs water give a liberal supply. On fine days a light syringing 
may be given in the morning and early afternoon. 
Another batch should be started—shelves in a vinery or Peach house 
about to be started being suitable where proper structures do not exist. 
See that the drainage is in good order, remove tbe loose surface soil, and 
tpo-dress with a rich material, or a pinch of some fertiliser sprinkled on the 
surface and pointed in or added to the top-dressing will be of great benefit. 
Remove any dead leaves, and have any green or dirt on the pots 
washed off. 
Plants out of doors plunged in ashes on a hard bottom will not need 
any fur:her protection than a covering of mats or straw hurdles in severe 
weather, which, as long as the frost prevails through the day, should 
remain on until a general thaw commences. When the frosts are but 
slight no protection is needed, the coddling system of exposing daily and 
covering at night being needless and injurious. Plants in pits or frames 
cannot have too much exposure in mild weather, and in severe weather 
should be covered with mats. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Anthurium Andreanum. —This will never supersede in popular esti¬ 
mation the old and useful A. Schertzerianum, although it is curious and 
striking when well grown, and should have a position in every stove. It 
is of great value, because its spathes of scarlet flowers are freely produced 
in succession through the autumn and winter months. Few plants are of 
easier culture, provided the requisite heat and moisture can be supplied to 
it. The smallest specimen with one or two leaves may in a solitary 
season be grown into strong robust plants that will flower freely. In a 
young state it requires plenty of root room, and should always be trans¬ 
ferred from small into larger pots as soon as its roots have reached the 
sides of the pot. It should not in its early stages be allowed t > crowd its 
roots into a mass in small pots, or else the progress of the plant will be 
much impeded. The compost that appears to suit it best consists of equal 
parts fibry peat and living sphagnum moss, with lumps of charcoal freely 
intermixed. The pot in which it is grown should be filled one-third of its 
depth with drainage. This is important, for abundance of water is 
required at the root during the whole season. In potting the plant should 
be well elevated above the rim of the pot, and the old compost removed 
from amongst its roots annually and fresh supplied. When potting a good- 
sized specimen we fill the pot only level to the rim, and after the plant 
has commenced growth and is forming roots from the stem a good top¬ 
dressing is added of the material advised above, and then covered with a 
layer of living sphagnum, which is encouraged to grow. Potting may be 
done now with safety, or at any time during the year when deemed 
necessary. 
Achimenes. —Remove the tubers of these from amongst the old com¬ 
post, and place them in pans or boxes, according to the quantity required, 
amongst any light soil, and stand them in a temperature of 60° to 65° 
until they commence growing. Water may be required occasionally before 
the tubers commence growth if the boxes and pans containing them are 
only stood in the temperature indicated ; but if plunged or covered with 
cocoa-nut fibre refuse no water will be needed until they commence growth, 
providing the soil was moderately moist. Few plants are more accommo¬ 
dating than these, either for the stove, conservatory, or intermediate 
structures, and will do well in either pots, pans, or in baskets suspended, 
and for the latter purpose no plants surpass them. - U~. 
Amaryllises. —These are most useful plants for decoration when in 
flower, and their large blooms have a noble and conspicuous appearance in 
the conservatory when elevated above plants of a dwarf nature. Those 
that made their growth early have received a good period of rest, and a 
few may now be introduced into moderate heat to bring them forward 
into flower. By judicious treatment and the introduction of a few into 
heat at intervals of a few weeks a succession can be produced over a long 
space of time. The treatment we find most satisfactory is to repot them 
annually as they are selected for placing in heat. The whole of the old 
soil is shaken away, good loam and sand with a seventh of manure being 
employed in its place. Very large bulbs can be grown in 5, 6, and 7-inch 
pots, and in these sizes they are the most useful. If the soil at potting 
time is in a satisfactory state for moisture no water will be needed until 
their roots commence action and their flower spikes are visible; a light dew 
over with the syringe daily will be ample. Those still at rest should be 
kept diy and cool. 
Spircea japonica. —This is one of tbe most useful plants we have for 
forcing, and can be home-grown for that purpose equally as well as those 
that are annually imported. Lift the whole stock if not already done, and 
select from amongst them those plants that possess the largest and most 
prominent crowns for potting. The remainder may be cut into two or 
three, according to their size, to be replanted for another year. Do not 
leave the pieces to be planted too large, or after a season’s growth they 
cannot be placed in 5 and G-inch pots. The larger the pieces the smaller 
the crowns generally, because they are more crowded, and have not room 
for proper development. We generally cut out some of the smallest with 
a knife before planting. In planting select an open position, but do not 
crowd the plants. Give them ample room for development—say 1 foot 
apart from root to root, and if planted in rows side by side 18 inches is a 
good distance. Give the plants plenty of decayed manure, and bury their 
crowns about 1 inch below the surface. By this simple process forced 
clumps that will flower well can be produced annually. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN AND PLEASURE GROUND. 
Leaves and Leaf Soil. —Every opportunity should be taken to 
collect the fallen leaves, as until this is done it is almost impossible to 
maintain the requisite neat appearance of the grounds. If the leaves are 
required for hotbeds they should be collected as dry as possible and carried 
where they can be thrown into a large heap, and covered with litter to 
prevent their being blown about. If leaf soil is wanted the leaves maybe 
stored in small heaps in any spot about the shrubberies where they will 
not prove unsightly and yet be accessible. Large heaps will encourage 
heating, and this, unless they are frequently turned, invariably engenders 
fungus, which quite spoils the soil. The heaps ought to lay nearly or 
quite two years before being used for potting purposes. All the exposed 
margins of fully furnished shrubberies should be lightly dug as well as 
the open spaces of those thinly planted, a considerable number of leaves 
being turned in during the process. Any leaves which cannot thus be dug 
in, and are not worth preserving ought to be raked together and buried, 
or otherwise they will be constantly blown about by the winds or be 
scratched over the edges by birds. 
Treatment of Bedding Plants. —A considerable number of stock 
plants are invariably lost through the winter months, and that, too, under 
various circumstances. Damp is the greatest enemy of those who are 
obliged to rely principally upon frames, and perhaps a much-crowded 
house or two, while a free use of fire heat ruins many semi-hardy plants, 
such as Verbenas, Lobelias, and Calceolarias. The choicest varieties of 
Pelargoniums are most liable to damp off, and in frames especially should 
still be kept perfectly dry at the roots, have all decaying leaves removed, 
and the atmosphere of the frames kept as dry as circumstances permit. 
Give air at the back of the frames containing these, Verbenas, Lobelias, 
Ageratums, Gazanias, Alyssum, Polemonium, Heliotropes, Tropaeolums, 
freely both night and day whenever the weather is mild, and on clear 
sunny days throw the lights off them for a few hours. It is not advisable 
to keep any but the Pelargoniums dry at the roots, but no water should 
touch the foliage and be spilt among the pots more than can be helped. 
Keep all closely picked over, as one decaying leaf quickly affects others, 
and then the points go. In anticipation of frosts, it is advisable to bank 
up the whole of the woodwork of frames, and even the brickwork of pits, 
with either leaves or rough litter, the former being enclosed with hurdles 
strongly supported with stakes. Do not give much air during frosty 
weather, and, if very severe frosts are imminent, in addition to the mats, 
old pieces of carpet, hop bags, or other available protec! ing material, a 
considerable quantity of rough dry litter should also be thrown over. 
Nothing will thus be seen of the pits or frames, nor should they be 
uncovered while these severe frosts continue. They will suffer more from 
want of light than air; therefore uncover when practicable, but be not in 
a hurry to give air. If frost is found to have penetrated, damp the frosted 
plants overhead with cold water at once, and keep them quite dark 
and close till they have gradually recovered. Rapid thaws are most 
injurious. 
Where the plants are wintered in vineries and other houses the 
greatest difficulty will be experienced in keeping them clean and from 
becoming “ hard and wiry.” The driest shelves may be given up to the 
Pelargoniums, and these require but little water. Verbenas, Ageratums, 
and Lobelias should be the farthest away from the hot-water pipes, as 
unless they are kept succulent and growing very steadily the cuttings of 
tbe two former and divisions of the latter may prove of no use. 
Heliotropes are less difficult to manage in this respect, but are very tender, 
