JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 28, 1883. ] 
535 
We expect to see hundreds of worse blooms in prize stands before 
the season is over.] 
THE GREENHOUSE AND ITS INMATES. 
THE CITRUS OR ORANGE FAMILY. 
An Orange plant in fruit is as interesting and handsome a plant 
as any amateur could wish to possess. Neither is there any particular 
care necessary in their cultivation. Plants require to be bought, 
for only those that are grafted produce fruit on small plants. 
Many amateurs have found this out after sowing seeds taken from 
ordinary Oranges. Plants thus raised grow freely enough, but they 
very seldom produce anything except leaves and thorns. Grafting 
an Orange tree is very different from grafting a Pear, and requires 
appliances which ordinary amateur gardeners do not possess. 
Propagating houses furnished with close cases are necessary for 
their propagation. 
They thrive in good fibry loam mixed with a little bone dust and 
leaf mould. Careful drainage is necessary, for good supplies of 
water must be given when the plants are growing, and a steady 
moisture maintained even when they are at rest. If only one or 
two plants are wanted the temperature of an ordinary greenhouse 
will suit them, but when a good number are grown for the sake of 
the fruit a separate house with a high temperature should be given. 
However, we suppose few of our readers will grow Orange plants 
except for ornament. A warm sunny place should be given them 
when they are in flower and also in winter, but during the hot 
days of summer the shade afforded to ordinary greenhouse plants 
will be beneficial to them. 
Scale and red spider are apt to infest these plants. To keep 
these plants the use of the sponge and syringe is necessary. Indeed, 
a dewing overhead in the evening after hot days will do them good, 
even should no red spider be visible, and, when it is, forcible 
syringings are absolutely necessary. 
There are a great many kinds of Citrus, but perhaps the best one 
for adorning the greenhouse and fruiting in a small state is C. 
nobilis, the Mandarin Orange. 
CLIANTHUS OR GLORY PEA 
All the species of Clianthus grow better as climbers, planted 
out in a well-drained border composed of fibry loam and peat, with 
pieces of sandstone and charcoal to keep it open, than in pots. At 
the same time they may also be grown in pots and pinched into 
bush form. 
Water in good quantity is necessary while the plants are growing, 
and, to keep down red spider, smart syringings, especially during 
hot weather, are necessary. C. Dampieri is the best, but C. mag- 
nificus and C. puniceus are both well worth growing. 
CYCLAMENS. 
Cyclamens are very neat, beautiful, winter-flowering plants that 
should be grown by everybody who can maintain a temperature of 
50° or so. The main reason why so many people fail to grow 
Cyclamens successfully is that they keep them too cold and damp 
or them to make satisfactory progress. Loam, leaf soil, decayed 
cow dung, and sharp sand sum up the ingredients necessary to 
compound a soil of, which will suit them to perfection. Those who 
can command some heat in spring may raise a Btock from seeds, but 
as most small growers require only half a dozen or a dozen at most, 
the best plan is to purchase plants. The best time to pot them is in 
autumn just as they start into fresh growth. After potting they 
should be put into a frame and the most made of the sun’s rays to 
maintain a suitable temperature. This will cause a vigorous start. 
As the nights lengthen and the air becomes cooler, say by the 
middle of September, they should be removed to the house and kept 
at such a temperature as we have indicated. 
In supplying water care should be taken to pour it on the soil and 
not on the crown, or the result will be damping-off. Watering should 
be done just as seldom as possible, but it must be thoroughly done, 
so that a properly humid state of the soil may be secured without 
incessant dribbling of water on the surface. After the flowering is 
past watering should be gradually withheld until the leaves ripen 
off, but care must be taken not to starve them off prematurely by 
giving them too little. After the plants go to rest they should be 
placed under a handglass or in a frame—not for the sake of heat, 
but to protect them from soaking rain. On the other hand, dust- 
dryness should be guarded against. The varieties of C. persicum 
are best for greenhouse decoration. 
COMMON SENSE ABOUT VINE BORDERS. 
A “mystified correspondent” asks for some “common sense 
remarks about Vine borders, as he has read up the subject until he 
feels as if he knew little about it.” Perhaps the following article 
may in some degree meet his wants. It is the production of a 
gardener than whom few have proved more successful as a cultivator 
of fruit:— 
When we consider what vineyards are in Vine-growing countries, 
and observe how little manurial matters, comparatively speaking, 
the Vines are allowed, we may naturally feel astonished at the 
singular discrepancy in practice between the culture of the Vine 
under natural conditions, and as a matter of art in Britain. Many 
a Vine border in these kingdoms, appertaining to a house some 
30 or 40 feet in length, has consumed as much of valuable 
manures and composts in half a dozen years as would serve, on the 
average, a B,henish vineyard of an acre or more. 
This I believe to be within the mark; and if so, we are naturally 
led to consider why such should be the case. That Vines out of 
doors, under the hot suns of Vine-growing countries, are more 
severely taxed in regard of their perspiring, as compared with their 
absorbing, conditions, I should think might be fairly assumed, 
especially when we take into consideration the generally drier con¬ 
ditions of atmosphere as compared with that of Britain. If so, why, 
then, with a heavier demand on their foliage, should they succeed 
with so much less food ? 
To be fair, however, in the statement, it is proper to observe that 
a Vine up a hothouse rafter in Britain, bearing annually, if all be 
well, from 20 to 30 lbs. of Grapes, has more work of that kind to 
perform than one like a large Raspberry bush up a stake, with 
perhaps a dozen pounds’ weight of Grapes, and not by any means 
so much surface of foliage exposed to the light. I his statement, I 
think, opens the case fairly ; and let us look a little further into it. 
One feature of a most salient character appears to me to present 
itself in the van of this argument. It is this : Will the Vine suc¬ 
ceed well in such a material as a good mellow or free loam, other¬ 
wise called “maiden soil,” from the circumstance of its having 
escaped tillage for some time, and thereby being rich in organic 
materials, but not in exciting manures ? 
I believe that a jury of really good British gardeners would affirm 
such to be the case. On the heels of this, however, arises yet 
another question of importance to all those who do not possess 
broad acres. Will the Vine succeed in common garden soils 1 We 
all know that Vines do succeed very well in various parts of the 
kingdom, out of doors, at least, in very ordinary soil, such as gar¬ 
deners long accustomed to the term “loam” would despise. 
Again, I have known an instance or two of Vines thriving toler¬ 
ably well in the debris of an old wall; in fact, growing out of the 
very bricks; and a similar liberty they take, we are told, in wine¬ 
making countries, fastening on the debris of rocks and other dis¬ 
integrations. I have also known the Black Hamburgh thrive to 
admiration entirely in old tan, in what had been a Pine house, the 
pit still retaining the original plunging material of tan, which had, 
of course, become almost black mould. 
It must be admitted that with all these facts before us the most 
experienced in gardening affairs cannot but feel a slight degree of 
wonderment, and naturally approaches the subject with measured 
steps. However, a little reflection, and a desire to place the subject 
in as simple a light as possible, and not to be misled by collateral 
considerations of a trivial character, will soon show that it is not 
alone in this soil or that, neither on the amount of manurial matters 
alone, that the question hinges. Whatever the compost or soil be, 
there can be no question that its mode of receiving moisture and of 
parting with it, more determine the fate of the Vines than the 
previous considerations. 
The free admission of the air to the borders has ever been deemed 
a matter of the highest import; but I must confess I have been 
exceedingly astounded at the reported success of our concrete men ; 
and, had it not been for the well-earned reputation of some, I should 
have had doubts of an insuperable character. I cannot give up 
my ideas that the atmosphere ought by no means to be excluded. 
I much fear that in such cases the Vines, like some retired little. 
gentlemen, are living on their former gotten wealth; perhaps on 
the very capital itself. 
To sum up the evidence, then, the case may possibly stand 
thus:—Have you got what is called a good medium loam, rather 
sandy, and containing much organic matters ? Rest assured, then, 
that you need not invest much capital in the purchase of gross 
manures ; certainly not in the dead carcases of animals. Have you 
nothing but a good garden soil, which smells strong of the spade, 
and which possesses no amount of coherence ? Let me advise you, 
in the absence of more powerful materials, to add what may supply 
the deficiency, by trying to represent the organic matters the afore¬ 
said loam possesses, such as old linings of hotbeds, half-decayed 
leaves, or vegetable matter, possessed of strong fibre. Other 
materials might be named, but I fear to tamper with the question, 
as I merely write for the inexperienced. 
I do not wish here to affect to repudiate the idea of a compost 
