Jaauary 26, 1888. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
65 
keap long after being lifted from the ground, but soon shrivel, and 
the only way is to lift them as required for use. In France, where 
it has been grown for market, it has prove! quite hardy, and it has 
also been found hardy here in warm situations. Several methods 
of cooking have been tried, such as baking, frying, serving in soups, 
and as sauce, but these could, no doubt be considerably extended. 
FREESIA REFRACTA ALBA. 
This beautiful plant seems to be gaining popularity, and there 
is no occasion for wonder that such should be the case. It is easily 
grown, free-flowering, lasts well in a cut state, and can be had in 
bloom from November up to March and April, a period when white 
flowers are most acceptable, especially when possessing an agreeable 
perfume. My method is to pot the bulbs about June into 5 or 
6-inch pots, six to ten in a pot, and about an inch below the surface 
of the soil. The compost used is loam, leaf mould, a little dried 
cowdung, and a sprinkling of sand. After potting, they are watered 
and placed on the border of a vinery, or in any position affording 
an intermediate temperature, together with moisture and shade, 
until they have commenced growth. They are then brought out 
and placed in a cold frame, or even outside, where they remain 
until the end of September, by which time they have made sturdy 
growth. A few pots are then introduced into a little heat for early 
flowering, and the rest are kept in a cool greenhouse temperature, 
from whence a few can be removed into heat as occasion demands. 
For a late supply to come into bloom about March it is not advi¬ 
sable to pot until September, and with perfectly cool treatment, 
and keeping them close to the glass, they will come into bloom 
without any forcing about the time mentioned. 
A great point is to have the bulbs well ripened. To insure this, 
the plants after flowering are placed in a sunny position near the 
glass, duly attended to with water until the leaves have died, and 
then allowed to remain perfectly dry until the bulbs are shaken out 
for repotting. A single pot will frequently treble its produce of 
flowering bulbs in one year, so that a stock is quickly raised when 
required.—J. C. A. 
WINTEli AND SPRING CABBAGES. 
After Brussels Sprouts perhaps no green vegetable is in so 
much request at this season as good young Cabbages, and to obtain 
these in quantity is one of the difficulties many young gardeners 
have to contend with. Formerly London or Rosette Colewort was 
the sort mostly relied upon for this purpose, but in the neighbour¬ 
hood of towns and the majority of localities in the north this sort 
has the great drawback of having the edges of its leaves injured by 
early frosts, and thereby rendered comparatively useless. Thanks 
to those who are ever on the look-out for improvement, we have 
now several varieties of good hearting Cabbages that meet all the 
requirements of the important demand. For the past three or 
four years we have found Ellam’s Dwarf Early Spring a most 
serviceable sort. It is of a close compact habit of growth, with 
very few outside leaves surrounding a conical-shaped heart, which 
in the winter never become solid enough to be white, and is hardy 
enough to stand ordinary winters without having the edges of its 
leaves browned. When cooked it is tender as Spinach, and flavour 
excellent, tlie ideal of what an early Cabbage ought to be. 
Laing’s Early Matchless is another very fine winter Cabbage of 
the old Early York type, and when better known will doubtless 
find a place in many gardens. 
Veitch’s Earliest of All is also an excellent early, coming quickly 
nto use, and deserving further trial. We make our first sowing 
about the 20th June, and the young plants are ready for trans¬ 
planting about the second week in August in an open situation 
after a crop of Peas or Potatoes have been cleared away. Here 
they are planted in rows a foot apart and 9 inches from plant to 
plant. Two more sowings are made about the end of June and 
10th July, but on no account must the young plants be allowed to 
get spindly. From the three sowings we grow about 5000, and are 
never a day without young Cabbages from the end of November 
until far into spring. M iny people make a mistake in planting 
winter Cabbages too far apart, because when not close enough to 
steady each other the wind plays sad havoc amongst them.— 
James McIndoe. 
CHRISTMAS ROSES. 
Arrow me to say a few words in support of Mr. Hilton’s re¬ 
marks on Christmas Roses in the Journal of January 12tli. About 
the first week in November we took up three dozen clumps of 
H. niger and H. niger major, potted the n in 24’s, 16’s, and 12’s, 
and stood them in cold frames ; then about a fortnight afterwards 
we put half of them in a warm pit, and had them in bloom about 
December 10th, and have had them flowering until January 14th. 
They have proved very satisfactory, as they can be used for vases, 
table decoration, bouquets, or buttonholes. They look very pretty 
associated with Holly berries. I filled some soup dishes with wet' 
sand, covered the sand with moss, then made holes with a little 
stick, and inserted the blooms alternately with bunches of Holly 
berries, putting a fringe of Maidenhair round them. They look 
very pretty arranged like that, and the wet sand keeps them fresh 
for a week. We had some very fine flowers on H. niger major, but 
it does not bear half so many as H. niger. I counted three dozen 
blooms on a plant in a 16-size pot of the latter variety. We shall 
plant them out again as soon as they have hardened a little in cold 
frames. Kindly insert this my first article.—J. Ettle. 
THE MYTICUTTAH. 
This is a new pruning implement that has been recently perfected 
by the Standard Manufacturing Company, Derby. Some years ago the 
same company introduced the standard tree primer, which has proved of 
great service in lopping and pruning tall trees, the implement combin¬ 
ing lightness with strength. The myticuttah is on the same principle,, 
but of the length of hedge-shears, and though much lighter will sever 
branches ten times stronger than any ordinary shears can remove. It is 
a small implement of great power, easy in action, and will be found 
serviceable in thinning fruit and other trees and bushes, of which so 
many are in need of assistance in the manner indicated. We have tried 
the new implement and find it answers its purpose well. It is repre¬ 
sented partially open and closed in the engravings. 
PLANTS AND FLOWERS IN TilE HOUSE. 
There is no diminution in the quantity of these employed for 
house decoration, but, on the contrary, their use for lending a 
finish to the furnishing of apartments seems to be on the increase. 
It is perhaps hardly the gardener’s work to arrange plants and 
flowers so as to aid the general good effect of a room. In many 
cases, however, he has to do so, and the study of the subject 
becomes necessary. The one fact he must always bear in mind 
is to subordinate the plant arrangements to the permanent 
occupants. 
In large apartments a fe'w very large plants will be more in 
keeping than a number of small ones, and no plant should be 
placed where by any chance it will be jn the way. Exa^ctly the 
same remark applies to the employment of cut flowers. For large 
rooms use substantial vases and fill them with flowers and foliage 
of massive and striking appearance. At the same time it is quite 
admissible to adorn some particular table with a small plant, but it 
