August 18, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
145 
a house after the crop is cut I think is most desirable. It raises the 
temperature of the house without fire heat on warm days, so necessary 
for the ripening of the wood ; and if there are healthy foliage and sub- 
laterals at the base of the shoots there need be no anxiety about cutting 
away the green tips of the laterals to attain that end. By doing so the 
buds to be left at pruning time have a better chance of swelling, and 
will break freely in spring. 
With what Mr. Iggulden says about laying in unnecessary lateral and 
leading growths I quite agree. It is now, I daresay, nearly twenty 
years since I condemned the useless extension of leading growths in the 
Journal, and I have never since had occasion to change the opinion then 
expressed.— R. Inglis. 
UNTRANSPLANTED CELERY. 
A few gardeners advocate the transplanting of Celery direct from 
the seed pan to the trenches, but so far as I know none has advocated 
the plan of sowing the seed where it is to remain. There seems to be 
no reason why that practice should not be followed. I grow 450 plants, 
all sown indoors and pricked out in boxes before being transferred to 
the trenches, and amongst them I have not a dozen better plants than 
one which has sprung from seed accidentally sown with the Onions on 
March 24th. The soil is very heavy, nearly approaching clay, and at 
the winter digging it received a moderate dressing of stable manure. 
When dry in spring it was thoroughly pulverised, and afterwards rolled 
say half a dozen times with a heavy iron roller. The drills were then 
drawn rather deep and partly filled with a mixture of old potting soil, 
soot, and wood ashes. On this the seed was sown and the drills filled 
up with the same material; the roller was again passed over the ground 
twice or three times. Since then beyond hoeing to keep down weeds 
nothing has been done to help on the Celery plant ; it is now 24 inches 
high and proportionately strong. 
In some gardens, I believe, it is now the custom to plant late Celery 
on the level ground, and there appears to be only one objection to sowing 
the seed at suitable distances and thinning out much in the same way 
as Turnips and Lettuces are treated, and that is the liability to destruc¬ 
tion by slugs when the plants are small. It ought, however, to be no 
more difficult to keep these marauders from Celery than from other 
things of which they are equally fond. The advantages of the plan are 
many, not the least being a saving of valuable space under glass in 
spring when every available house and frame is generally overcrowded. 
So treated, too, the plants will be less liable to checks, and consequently 
the risks of bolting will be considerably reduced, and much time spent 
in watering may be saved. I may say that the plant has not had any 
advantages in the way of a warm situation, as the garden is situated on 
a hill in a district notoriously cold, and at the north side has no pro¬ 
tection, not even a hedge, being separated from the grass fields only by 
an iron fence. 
While on the subject of Celery I should like to say a few words in 
praise of Incomparable Dwarf White. For early use it is invaluable, being 
more easily blanched than any other variety that I know, and if thickly 
planted will partly blanch itself. In a trench or sunken bed 20 feet by 
2 feet 6 inches I have 120 plants, and on earthing up yesterday we 
found that the heart of each plant was already blanched, and in a 
fortnight will be quite ready for use. Last year we had it well blanched 
fourteen days after earthing.— North Yorks. 
WHICH ARE THE BEST STRAWBERRIES? 
Circumstances must guide the cultivator in a selection of kinds. 
What suit some soils will not succeed in others. Then, again, there is 
the question of palate ; this varies also. The soil here is not good for 
Strawberries, too much chalk being mixed with it. Strawberries do not 
like chalk ; the roots do not last so long in it, the foliage generally 
assumes a pale colour, and the finest fruit, as a rule, does not come fiom 
such plants. The most useful of all is Vicomtesse HCricart de Thury ; 
it is an enormous cropper. The fruit is, perhaps, rather small, but the 
flavour is excellent, and that is of more consequence than mere size. 
This variety, taking one year with another, is not very much behind 
Noble in earliness. The foliage protects the early blossoms from late 
frosts, owing to its somewhat dense character. Again, I find the roots 
of this sort less injured by severe frost than any other ; while perhaps 
a dozen roots were killed in one row of other sorts, not a gap was to be 
seen in rows of the Vicomtesse growing alongside. 
Sir J. Paxton is the great sheet anchor of the market people in this 
neighbourhood. Although not of a very high flavour, it is a good 
grower, a free bearer, and the fruit travels well, which is a decided point 
in its favour, the flesh being firm. I have tried Dr. Hogg and British 
Queen, and in our soil must give the preference to the former, it being 
hardier and more free in its cropping. The flavour is of the best. 
President is the next sure kind I recommend, not having had experience 
enough with Waterloo to speak with confidence. President is free in 
fruit production, the berries reach to a good size, and are of fair flavour, 
there being just a taste of acidity in them from this soil. 
Sir J. Paxton has such a habit of continuance that it is really the 
latest sort as well as sometimes being the earliest. This question of 
earliest is largely dependent on the weather. The four sorts mentioned 
will be found quite first-rate where quantity is required consistent with 
quality.—E. M., Swanmore. 
A PHOTOGRAPH and bloom of a very promising new early 
Chrysanthemum named Gustave Grunerwald have been sent to us 
by Mr, W. Piercy, 89, Beadnell Road, Forest Hill, London, S.E., 
and fig. 21, which was prepared from the photograph, represents it. 
It is a Japanese variety, with tubular florets, the central ones 
curled inwards. The plant shown was grown in a 32-size pot 
from five cuttings, put in the 5th of April, 1892, and was photo¬ 
graphed on August 5th. It was then 19 inches high from the 
soil in the pot. The open flowers were 4 inches across, of a 
pale magenta or rosy lilac to white colour. It was grown and 
flowered entirely in the open air, had only two small pegs to 
support it, and had no buds taken off. As an early bloomer it is 
one of the most remarkable yet introduced. It was raised by 
Mons. Delaux of Toulouse, France. 
Dwarf Chrysanthemums. 
At Ivineton House, the residence of Lord Willoughby De 
Broke, Mr. Hall has this year grown a capital batch of Chrys¬ 
anthemums, which are much dwarfer than those generally met 
with. Plants of Etoile de Lyon in 7 and 8-inch pots were in some 
cases not more than 1 foot or 15 inches above the rim of the pots, 
and as far as I could judge no plant in the collection was more 
than 3 feet in height, although such tall varieties as Carew 
Underwood were grown. There may be two opinions as to 
whether it is desirable to grow Chrysanthemums with only three 
shoots quite so dwarf as this. Assuming that it is, there would be 
no difficulty in doing it either by striking the cuttings late, by 
topping, or cutting down the plants. Mr. Hall, however, assured 
me the cuttings were put in during November, and had neither 
been topped nor cut down. 
The yellow Marguerite, Etoile d’Or, was also in capital condition 
at Kineton House, being quite free from maggot, and growing 
much more freely than this variety generally does. Mr. Hall finds 
that to keep it in good health it must be well fed, there is then no 
fear of the maggot.—II. Dunk in. 
