260 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Septenab r 16, 188®. 
beginning of May, and in cleansing the house and Vines so as lo have all 
in proper woiking order. Shorten the canes to about 8 feet, or lower 
according to the disposal of the plump buds, and prune the laterals close 
in to prevent bleeding ; dress the cuts with Thomson’s styptic or patent 
knotting. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Winter Flowering Plants. —Such plants as Poinsettias, Plumbago 
rosea, Justicias, and other similar plants in cold frames, must he watered 
with great care, for if the water used be cold the roots will die and the 
plants become unhealthy. If tepid water is carefully and judiciously 
applied, they may safely remain in these positions for another fortnight. 
The colder state of the air at night renders it necessary for the frames 
to be closed early in the afternoon while the sun is upon them. The 
syringe should be discontinued for these plants in the afternoon, for they 
will be covered with a deposit of dew in the morning from the natural 
lowering of the temperature. Unless the day following is bright the 
plants will hang wet through the whole day, and if in this condition for 
many days damping and other injurious results will follow. All shading 
for these plants must be discontinued, so that every opportunity will be 
afforded for thoroughly ripening their wood. If this is not accomplished 
the plants cannot be expected to flower satisfactorily. A light house, 
where a good circulation of air can be given and a little warmth when 
occasion requires, should be washed and cleaned ready for the reception 
of the plants directly it becomes too cold for them in cold frames. 
Begonias. —These plants will be safe in cold frames for a few weeks 
longer provided watering is done in the morning, and the atmosphere 
about the plants kept as dry as possible. If the frames are closed at 
night the plants will not suffer from cold for some weeks, but directly it 
is found impossible to keep the foliage dry they must be removed to a 
more suitable position. Damp is the greattst enemy to these plants in 
autumn, and prevents their being kept in cold frames in some localities 
as long as many other varieties of plants. Begonias are often spoiled by 
too high a temperature in autumn, although it may prove necessary to 
house them before long ; no heat will be needed in the drier house in which 
they may be placed. The foliage of the plants must be preserved lrom 
damp, or else half their beauty is destroyed. 
Celosias that are in a backward condition must not be kept in cold 
frames after this date, or their beautiful plumes will not be developed 
before the approach of short days. If they have to hurried out in heat 
towards the end of October or the beginning of the following month they 
will not last long for decorative purposes. When developed in a warm 
close atmosphere they damp off just above the soil in the lower tempera¬ 
ture of the conservatory. These plants should be placed at once in a light 
structure where a night temperature of 60° can be maintained with a 
circulation of air day and night, which will prevent their moning up tall 
and weakly. As the plumes advance the temperature should be gradu¬ 
ally reduced and less moisture sustained in the house until it is lowered 
to 60°. 
Panicum variegatum. —For a variety of forms of decoration small pots 
full of this variegated Grass are most useful for associating with small 
Ferns and Selaginellas. For this purpose cuttings should be placed 
thickly together in sandy soil in 2 and 3-inch pots. Cuttings strike 
quickly in the propagating frames at this season of the year. After they 
are root d the plants should be grown in brisk heat for a time, then 
gradually hardened and fully exposed to the light. 
Tradescantias. —The variegated forms of T. zebrina are useful for the 
same purpose as Panicum variegatum, in fact more useful, for they last in 
rooms in good condition fully twice the length of time. Cuttings will root 
and grow in almost any soil if a little sand is added and they are stood in 
a warm moist structure where they can be shaded from the sun. It is a 
good plan to place four or five cuttings in each 2 -inch pot, or they may 
be rooted in pans or boxes. When the latter is done they should be 
lifted directly they are rooted and about four of them placed together. 
The roots can be bound round with a little moss, and then stood in boxes, 
the spaces between them being filled with leaf mould. When treated 
after this manner they lift out of the box with good roots, and the plants 
last as long as if they had been grown in pots. When well rooted or 
established in boxes they should be grown fully exposed to the sun and 
moderately cool, or they grow too rapidly and soon become too straggling 
for many forms of decoration. It is a good plan to strike batches at 
intervals of about one month. 
Coleus. —Where varied forms of decoration have to be carried out 
during autumn and winter too many small plants of these cannot well 
be provided. Bright little plan's of Coleus in thumb pots are amongst 
the most beautiful. They do not last long in rooms, but as 3 et we 
have not found any other plant that can be raised in sufficient quantity 
to replace them. They root freely on a shelf in a warm house, and 
when confined at the root in the pots named they Only grow slowly, 
therefore sufficient are rooted now to last until January. Some hundreds 
of neat plants in these small pots can be accommodate! on a shelf, where 
the temperature does not fall below 60°. Fittonias or any similar foliage 
plants may be propagated in quantity for the same purpose. 
Acalyphas. —Few foliage plants in a small state are more beautiful 
than these when grown fully exposed to the sun and not too warm from 
the present time. It is a good plan to strike well-coloured tops at this 
season of the year in 3-inch pots. This size is large enough for the 
accommodation of suitable specimens for decoration. They root freely 
and quickly without losing a leaf, and if grown fully exposed afterwards 
they will be most striking in colour with their foliage nearly hiding the 
pots. These plants have no beauty when drawn up tall in warm, moist, 
shaded stoves, but when grown as advised they cannot fail being 
admired. 
BEES AT THE MOORS. 
The last two weeks of August and a few days in the 
beginning of September constitute the warmest period of the 
season, the mean temperature being 65°. That, with the 
recent rainfall and electric state of the atmosphere will, it is 
feared, be conducive to the Potato disease, and cut short the 
honey season, which promised so well on the 3rd and 4th of 
the month. On the last date mentioned I paid a visit to the 
bees at the Heather. Hives have risen in weight from 12 to 
40 lbs., but very few supers have boen filled. As a rule the 
bees were only taking to them. On the day mentioned we 
saw some hives weighed at 10 am., and again weighed at 
4 p.m., when they were 8 lbs. heavier. Many bees were in 
the fields too, and would be for two hours longer—the best 
part of the day—so that I doubt not but if they had been 
weighed later they would have been some pounds heavier 
still. There is much reason to fear, unless in early localities. 
Heather comb will be scarce this season, and either no supers 
or partially filled ones will be the result. 
Filling partially filled supers with pure Heather honey 
when there is abundance of loose Heather honey in the body 
of the hive is an easy matter, and is the most judicious and 
profitable thing for bee-keepers to do. The hive best adapted 
for that purpose is the B.H.I.O., but any hive having move- 
able floors can be arranged to feed back surplus honey stored 
in combs of the stock. Hives with fixed floors should not be 
termed hives. It is impossible to give instructions how- 
hives should be prepared for this important work without 
seeing them, but your readers have had the principles of 
workings of B.H.I.C. explained, and will be enabled to make 
suitable arrangements. The simplest plan is to have a box 
without a lid, but with a floor placed beneath the hive. One 
end or side of this hive should open, but when shut should be 
perfectly close, so as not to attract robber bees. Into this 
box, which should be of sufficient depth to hold frames in¬ 
verted, should be placed those containing Heather honey to 
be cleaned out, and the honey therein carried aloft to the 
supers by the bees, which supers should be wrapt up and kept 
warm. The hives selected to fill supers in this way must be 
strong, and the body of their hive well filled to insure all the 
honey being stored in supers. By acting according to these 
instructions, supers will be as superior as if they had been 
filled and finished in the natural way. We have had them, 
but care must be taken that nothing but Heather honey is fed 
back. It has taken us upwards of thirty years to convince 
bee-keepers generally of the superiority of the Stewarton 
system, and there is no hive so well adapted for bee-keeping 
in general, and for feeding back in particular, as “ the best 
hive in creation.” 
USEFUL HINTS. 
At this season it is perhaps desirable to warn bee-keepers 
against introducing queens, or joining swarms having two 
queens, rashly. I admit that a en queens can be, and are, 
joined to a hive safely without c ging, and I could cite many 
cases where only a second or two expired between the depos¬ 
ing of the queen regnant and the introducing of an alien one 
which was well received ; but the mishaps by reckless intro¬ 
duction which I am cognisant of are by far too numerous te 
warrant me in advising the introduction of queens without 
the use of a cage. 
It is the health and unmaimedness of the queen that is 
the royal road to profitable bee keeping, and in the absence 
of these a breakdown in the hive is sure to occur sooner or 
later, and at a time when the loss is irreparable. Therefore 
use every precaution before introducing queens or joining 
swarms together. 
