September 20, 1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
259 
manure and leaves for bottom heat. When this was ready the 
plants were taken there and for a time placed on the bed, and 
-afterwards half plunged in it. They were carefully watered and 
given liquid manure twice a week, also syringed daily. After a few 
days it was surprising to see how the plants revived, and it was not 
long before I had the satisfaction of seeing flower spikes appear. 
Altogether there were twenty-one spikes of four flowers each, and 
nine of three flowers, or thirty altogether. This summer the 
plants have been treated in a similar way, but ■with two weeks less 
time outdoors owing to the cool and damp weather, and they have 
even flowered better, for they have produced thirty-seven spikes of 
bloom, all large and perfect flowers. 
I attribute the cause of failure, in the first place, to the plants 
being overpotted in their young state, the size of pots being what 
are called sixes ; and secondly, from their not having a perfect and 
lengthened period of rest, a condition much more difficult to secure 
with plants in large pots than in smaller sizes, and I think it has 
been well proved that the Eucharis will flower more freely and at 
regular periods when the pots are both full of bulbs and roots, even 
if the latter are almost in a cramped condition, provided the plants 
are well supported by a suitable amount of heat, moisture, and 
stimulants ; but in this case I concluded that nothing loss mild than 
an enforced cessation of growth, brought about by the treatment 
described above, having due regard for the health of the plants, 
would attain the object aimed at, which proved to be successful. 
I should like my readers to bear in mind that I do not put this 
before them as a mode for general adoption, because the Eucharis 
can be successfully grown and flowered without it, but it is well to 
know that this plant, though a heat-loving one, will bear something 
different than the orthodox treatment, and, as in this instance, with 
esatisfactory results. —Thomas Record. 
SMALL BORDERS FOR VINES. 
Ox page 218 “ W. 8.” records interesting experience on growing 
Tines successfully in small borders. That large borders formed 
•of “ elaborate mixtures ” have proved satisfactory to the makers of 
them, healthy Vines and fine Grapes resulting, goes without 
saying; yet it is questionable if there are not as many failures 
as successes if we take a broad glance of the subject. There can 
be little doubt that a great deal of money and labour have been 
■expended in making Vine borders that might have been saved with 
advantage to the owner, gardener, and Vines. No one can travel 
far or inspect many gardens without being conscious of that fact, 
though he may and will come across excellently grown Vines and 
-splendid Grapes now and then, the outcome of care in border 
preparation and good general management, especially the latter, 
because it is certainly true that one gardener will grow far better 
Grapes on Vines in what is regarded as an inferior border than 
another will when the most costly and elaborate provision is made 
dor their roots. 
Some soils are naturally unsuitable for Vine culture. They 
may be too dry and poor on tbe one hand, or heavy and wet on 
dhe other. But the poor can be made rich and the heavy porous 
by suitable additions, without clearing the entire mass away to a 
depth of 3 or 4 feet, and a width of 5 or 6 yards, filling the whole 
huge chasm at once with turfy loam carted a distance of perhaps 
two or three miles or more, with other mixtures considered essential 
dor the purpose in view. The latter plan may answer, has 
answered, and it certainly ought t'o answer, but it has nevertheless 
often failed. It can scarcely be doubted that tons of soil have 
been carted out of gardens and tons more brought in. while that 
introduced has not been so good for the purpose as that turned 
out. The new may answer for a few years or it may not, for it is 
■quite a mistake to imagine that all kinds of turfy loam remains so, 
for the turf decays, leaving often a close bed of silt. A narrow 
border of good sound wearing soil is, as a rule, much better for 
Vines than is a needlessly deep and wide bulk of “turfy loam,” so 
much of which is essentially and quickly perishable. 
It must be known to many that large new borders made at 
■great labour and cost have not been satisfactory. I have assisted 
in making some and in dealing them out again, the experience 
teaching a lesson that was not entirely lost. In one instance a 
■“ splendid ” border was made 4 feet deep, 7 yards wide, and 
•60 long, all the old soil wheeled out and new brought in. It 
would have been better if the old had not been touched, or at 
least if a barrowful of it had not been removed. This was proved 
to demonstration, for a Vine was “stuck in”at the end of the 
house in the natural soil, a narrow strip 2 feet wide between the 
wall and the walk, and that Vine produced more than thrice the 
weight of Grapes than any other Vine in the house did over a 
series of years, and it was notorious that those on Vines m the 
regular border shanked seriously while the other did not. Soil 
that will grow a heavy crop of Potatoes of the first quality will 
grow good Vines and Grapes, provided it is kept fertile and the Vines 
properly watered and tended ; and the narrower the borders are in 
reason the more are the roots under control and the better they 
they can be supplied with the right kind of nutriment fer 
absorption. 
One or two instances of superior Grapes being produced by 
Vines in narrow borders occurs to me. Some fifteen years ago 
Mr. James Douglas grew excellent Grapes at Loxford Hill. I 
remember inspecting them with much pleasure, and have a clear 
recollection that the best crop of the best Muscat Grapes was pro¬ 
duced by a Vine that had been planted in a walled-in space, perha] s 
a disused tank. I forget its exact nature, but remember the dimen¬ 
sions of the enclosure were 5 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3 fe t 
deep. The Vine was trained horizontally along the base of tl e 
rafters, and three rods taken up the roof. There was not a 
great bulk of soil it will be conceded, yet the crop of Grapes 
on the three rods excelled that produced by any other Vine with 
ten times more space for the roots. How long the confined Vine 
remained bearing so well I have no means of knowing, but it could 
doubtless have been kept in a satisfactory condition for many years. 
H Mr. Douglas sees these lines he will not dispute their accuracy, 
and he may perhaps tell us how long the Vine was profitable. 
When Mr. Denning was in charge of Lord Londesborough’s 
garden at Norbiton he grew as good Black Hamburgh and Muscat 
Grapes as were to be found in most gardens, and much better than 
in many. I remember being impressed with the narrowness of the 
borders, those in two of the houses, if not more, not exceeding 
3 feet in width, yet the Vines reached the top of an 18 feet or 
20 feet roof, producing first-class Grapes for I do not know how 
many years. Rich strong soil it may be supposed was provided in 
the nai-row borders. What it may have been below I am not able 
to say, but this I know, I never before nor since observed so much 
sand on and near the surface of a Vine border. When it was 
moved it was found to be quite full of white roots, not fat and 
thick like the underground stems of couch, but small and multi¬ 
tudinous. It was evident that the sand, possibly by the force of 
resistance, caused unusual subdivision of the roots. “ Vines life 
sand,” observed the cultivator, “ and do not often have enough of 
it.” Whether they like it or not, there is this to be said about it, 
that something they undoubtedly do like, in the form of liquid or 
solid manure, can be given freely where sand abounds without 
souring the soil ; and there is very little doubt that a liberal 
addition of sharp sand to Muscat Vine borders that are composed 
of close heavy soil would improve them considerably. In the case 
in question three things we r e so apparent that they could not l e 
ignored—small borders, much sand, and fine Grapes. 
In the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens at Chiswick the 
best Grapes are grown in a border that was not made with new soil 
after clearing the old out. That method would have been costly, 
and it is practically certain if it had been carried out the Vines 
would not have worn so well as they have and be in the satisfac¬ 
tory condition they now are. The natural soil was not removed, 
but some fresh, a thickness of 5 or 6 inches perhaps, spread on it 
and worked in in trenching, as if in preparation for a fine crop of 
vegetables. That, with surface dressings of rich manure in summer 
for keeping the roots in the right place, and affording support when 
they were the most active, and it was most needed, have enabled 
increasingly valuable crops of Gros Colman Grapes to be grown— 
not huge exhibition bunches—but just the samples that realise 
good prices in the market. The border is perhaps 6 or 7 feet 
wide. The Vines have been bearing for some years, and are this 
year in as good condition as they have ever been, if not better, and 
they would soon be much better still if they had more room for ex¬ 
tension. They are crippled, as the garden is generally, and it must 
be still further starved if the managers of the Society, whoever 
they may be, are content to go on losing money over that precious 
drill hall at Westminster.— Spectator. 
NOTES ON GLADIOLI. 
AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 
It has been asserted by some writers that the present season is, as 
far as the Gladiolus is concerned, no later than ordinary ones, but the 
Show at the Palace sufficiently proved how erroneous this was. 
Neither Messrs. Harkness & Sons of Bedale or Mr. Campbell of 
Gourock, both of whom generally exhibit so well there, were able to 
be present ; indeed the latter grower wrote to me to say that he could 
not possibly exhibit before the Manchester Show on the 21st, while 
as far as my own flowers are concerned, I know that while I had the 
greatest difficulty in getting my eighteen, from the fact that my flowers 
were not one-tenth of them in bloom, my difficulty last year was to 
