512 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 8, 1892. 
and bo he was by exhibiting Grapes at South Shields on the 9th and 10th 
of November last, and getting the first prize, also winning the silver 
medal in recognition of superior cultural skill. But the exhibitor of 
these Grapes only entered his present situation about the 15th 
August, 1892. Mr. Portsmouth says he saw the Grapes about a fort¬ 
night before the late gardener (Mr. Shuttleworth) left his situation, and 
the Grapes then were nearly finished. A few days before the gardener 
left I saw them, and they were then I considered finished. A finer 
house of Grapes at that time I never saw. I may also mention that in 
1891 Mr. Shuttleworth took nine first prizes and ten seconds at various 
leading shows in the neighbourhood for Grapes alone. It is clear the 
late gardener grew the Grapes for which the present one received 
the honours. I also notice the latter had the first prize for white Grapes 
at Gateshead on the 29th of November, cut out of the same house. As 
Mr. Portsmouth fairly says, “Let honour be given where honour is due.” 
—F AIRPLAY. 
[It is not easy to deal satisfactorily with such cases as this. The 
owner of the Grapes may have desired their exhibition. The judges 
were bound to give the awards to the best produce, by whomsoever 
staged, and if the schedule announced that their awards were “ final,” 
the Committee would be equally bound by their decision. Mr. Shuttle- 
worth missed the prizes for the Grapes that he evidently did so much 
towards perfecting because he left his situation, and consequently could 
not show them. His successor may be equally capable, and may have 
grown Grapes elsewhere with which someone else might have won 
prizes. He appears to have been fortunate in following such a good 
Grape grower as he did, and it would be a graceful act, if practicable, 
to grant Mr. Shuttleworth a medal for his admitted cultural skill.] 
"VINE LEAYES AND LATERALS. 
However much “Warwick” may pretend to ignore the fact, he 
must know that his method of attack under a pseudonym is somewhat 
the reverse of courageous. Your correspondent evidently thinks he has 
a good opportunity of taking me at a disadvantage I can, however, 
assure him that I provided for such a contingency. I therefore now 
take the course suggested in the editorial footnote (on page 488), with 
which I thoroughly agree. The Vine leaves I forwarded to 171, Fleet 
Street, were grown by Mr. J. Kitley, who, as many know well, rents the 
vineries here, the treatment of the Vines having been identical to that 
which I have long practised. They formed a splendid illustration of 
good culture ready to hand, and the specimens were sent with the full 
consent of the grower and knowledge of the Editor that full credit 
would be given indue time to the improver of the Vines for his excellent 
work. The public will probably have the penetration to notice how 
wonderfully interested “ Warwick ” must be in these now notorious 
Vines. I have considerable pleasure in being in accord with him on 
one point. Without doubt Mr. Ward grew good Grapes before he saw 
me, and I have no doubt will continue to do so as long as he attempts 
to grow them. If a few years in charge of the fine vineries at Longford 
is not calculated to make both a good Grape grower and a Grape enthu¬ 
siast, I hardly know what is. Perhaps my critic will be so good as to 
inform me if he thinks the vineries at Warwick have always been a better 
school?— H. Dunkin. 
MIGNONETTE. 
How beautiful and useful is this very popular and sweetly perfumed 
plant, yet it is seldom grown to perfection in private establishments. 
It is most useful when employed in a cut state, lasting a considerable 
time in water. When so employed the ends of the stalks should be cut 
off every morning, and the receptacle Replenished with a fresh supply 
of water. 
Having been very successful in the cultivation of Mignonette this 
season, I think, perhaps, a few words respecting my method of cultiva¬ 
tion may be of interest to some readers. I think by far the best 
varieties to grow for autumn and winter use (and that is what I pur¬ 
pose more particularly to refer to at the present time) is Machet and 
Miles’ Spiral, the latter being of much greater length in the flower 
spikes, but lacking in girth and colour. Machet has the brightest colour, 
and is of a more dense and sturdy habit. I think if confined to growing 
one variety only, I should certainly give preference to Machet. 
Seeds of the above varieties may be sown about the middle of July, 
using the pots in which they are intended to flower. I think the plants 
succeed much better when so treated than when the seed is sown in 
smaller pots and potting-on is resorted to, as they are very impatient of 
root disturbance. Mignonette prefers a rich soil; two parts loam, one 
of dried cow manure, and a little lime rubbish will form an excellent 
compost for them. The pots should be clean and properly drained, this 
being very essential to the successful culture of Mignonette. The soil 
should also be made firm, but not rammed in in layers. The seeds 
ought then be sown evenly over the surface and covered with a little 
sifted soil similar to that before mentioned. Afterwards place in a cold 
frame on a bed of coal ashes, and water through a fine rose. The frame 
may be kept close till the seedlings appear, when plenty of air must be 
admitted, and the young plants thinned out to about five or six in an 
8-inch pot. 1 make two thinnings, the first as soon as the plants appear, 
and the second when they are large enough to determine|which are the 
best. 
The first bloom which appears should be promptly removed and the 
shootB from the next break thinned out, leaving three or four on a 
plant. Each shoot ought to be provided with a neat stake before it gets 
large enough to fall about. A little artificial manure should be applied 
after the racemes begin to show themselves, once or twice a week ; liquid 
farmyard manure is also an excellent stimulant if judiciously applied, 
greatly assisting in the development and lengthening of the racemes. 
The plants should be placed in a light airy house for their winter quarters 
about the end of September, a house where Carnations are grown with a 
temperature of from 45° to 55° suiting them admirably. Where this 
treatment is properly carried out the result will be fine specimens in full 
bloom four or five months after sowing, and they will continue to flower 
several months. I have Miles’ Spiral with racemes 13 inches in length, 
and Machet with some 9 inches in length.—G. P arrant. 
THE CULTIVATION OF THE FUCHSIA. 
[Mr. W. P. Roberts, Ovenden Hall Gardena, read the following paper at a meeting of 
the Preston and Fulwood Horticultural Society.] 
Mr. Roberts said it was frequently remarked, and with some truth, 
that the Fuchsia was not grown so well and so extensively as it used to 
be, and that the wretched specimens seen at shows were mere shadows 
of what were grown at one time. Personally he could vouch that the 
Fuchsia was as high in his estimation now as it was when he first took 
up its culture twenty or more years ago. As a window plant it was a 
universal favourite with cottagers, and he expected it would find space 
in their windows and greenhouses when many of its contemporaries had 
passed out of cultivation and were forgotten. It was rather singular 
that the first Fuchsia introduced into this country was grown for a time 
in a cottage window. It was brought by a sailor from Chili in 1746, 
and was growing in the window of his mother’s dwelling when it 
attracted the attention of Mr. Lee, nurseryman, of Hammersmith, 
amongst many others, who, after sundry offers, ultimately procured it 
for 80 guineas, on condition that he could return a plant or two after 
a stock had been secured. This plant was named Fuchsia coccinea. 
Some eighty years later hybrids were raised, and since then scores of 
varieties had been grown which were not now in cultivation ; they 
have been superseded by better sorts. 
All the sorts were beautiful, and many formed natural drooping 
pyramids, and two—Wave of Life and Sunray—had pleasing variegated 
leaves. The doubles had not such good habit as a rule as the singles, 
but with a little manipulating they could be trained to any form. He 
proceeded to the mode of propagation, and said that cuttings might be 
rooted at any time from January to September, but they rooted sooner 
and with greater certainty in the spring than during the autumn, 
providing there was accommodation in the way of a house or pit with a 
temperature of 60° to 70°. In the latter he had them ready for potting 
into 3-inch pots in ten days. The usual method of rootiDg them was to 
put several in small pots filled with sandy soil and a layer of sand on 
the surface, a portion of which trickled down and followed the cutting. 
The sand did not hold so much water between the particles as soil, 
consequently the cuttings were not so liable to decay. The pots were 
either plunged in bottom heat or covered with handlights according to 
accommodation. It was notorious that the Fuchsia would root in sand 
and water with the greatest freedom, scarcely a cutting missing. He 
filled a few garden saucers with sand and made it fairly sloppy with 
water. Then the cuttings were thrust in without the aid of the dibber. 
In the early months of the year the cuttings required no shade, neither 
would they flag if the sand were kept moist. In order to have cuttings 
ready in January it was necessary to start some plants in heat in 
December. He would follow the rooted cutting into its 3-inch pot, with 
its roots surrounded with sweet sandy loam, leaf mould, and a sixth of 
burnt earth, or a smaller portion of charcoal dust. For a few days the 
young plants should remain in the house they were rooted in, but as 
soon as they had good hold of the soil and were on the move a tempera¬ 
ture of 55° to 60° would suit them better than 60° to 70° from then 
until they were in flower and their growth completed. The structure 
must not be an airy one. The plants must be kept constantly on the 
move by maintaining a moist growing atmosphere, produced by 
syringing and sprinkling the floor and other surfaces. 
Probably the present day greenhouses, which were nearly all glass 
and very little wood, were not so suitable for the Fuchsia as those of less 
modern build. Many of those ancient structures, with their small 
squares of glass, sunk paths, and other internal structural arrangements, 
had naturally a moist genial atmosphere, which enabled our forefathers 
to grow plants with greater ease than we can, and this would in a 
measure account for any decline there may be in its culture. The best 
plants he ever grew were located in a deep-sunk brick pit, the bottom of 
which was always moist and cool. The plants in their early stage were 
on a temporary stage, and as they grew were lowered until they ulti¬ 
mately reached the floor. He was convinced that from the end of May 
the Fuchsia would do better out of doors, in a shady sheltered corner, 
plunged in some material to prevent the wind blowing it over, than it did 
in many houses. 
To keep the plants steadily growing they must not be allowed to get 
the least root-bound, and though it was not safe to give dates as to when 
they should be potted, it might be fairly assumed that those rooted in 
January and potted into 3-inch pots would in March or April be ready 
for 5 or 6-inch pots. The next pot must be 3 inches larger, and the 
potting must take place ten or twelve weeks before the plants are 
wanted to flower. If they have been properly attended to they should 
by July be quite 3 feet in diameter and 6 inches more in height, bushy, 
