470 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
r June 7,188& 
year when light was most wanted for the house have made but little 
growth, and consequently are not so much in the way. Then the 
Camellias required a great deal of looking after, the leaves were apt to 
get dirty, and had to be kept clean by frequent washings, so at last I 
gave them up. I have now some nice plants of Tea Koses, including 
such kinds as Niphetos, Anna Olliver, Innocente Pirola, Jean Ducher, 
Miss Ethel Brownlow, The Bride, and Catherine Mermet. The plants of 
Niphetos have already become too large, and I must exchange them for 
smaller ones. I had much pleasure in these last year. Unlike the 
Camellia one can always cut them, and they give a succession of blooms, 
giving, too, a foretaste of the harvest which we hope to reap out of doors 
by-and-by. The Bride has fairly established itself as a most decided 
acquisition. 
I was rather fearful last year that I should have but little bloom 
from my Lapagerias, which are trained up at the east end of the house. 
I had taken them down in the previous autumn and repotted them, 
if the term is applicable when the plants are grown in a box. This ap¬ 
parently checked the growth, which it would not probably have done 
had there been more heat in the house, but as mine is essentially a cold 
house they had not so much chance. However, be that as it may, 
rosea made no growths from the bottom, while two made by alha were 
cruelly eaten o3 by slugs, so that there were no root growths, while 
none of the buds on the branches pushed at all. To my surprise, how¬ 
ever, both plants were covered with bloom, which came out from the old 
wood. These blooms were very fine both in size and colour, and so I 
was agreeably disappointed, and this notwithstanding the hot summer, 
which must have been bad for the Lapageria which likes shade and 
moisture. 
Disa grandiflora, which I have grown so successfully for many years, 
was not a success in 1887. I had read that it liked being pulled about 
and divided, and so as some friends were anxious to have bulbs I did this 
with the result that where in 1886 I had had some twenty spikes of blooms, 
I had only one last year. The plants did not seem to recover the shock ; 
but although I was thus disappointed, I am glad to say that as I this 
year did not shake them out they have quite recovered, and look as if 
they were preparing for a good bloom. I fancy that not only in this, 
but in many other cases, we are too fond of repotting. There is, how¬ 
ever, a more robust variety of Disa, with inferior flowers, to which this 
process is applicable, but I shall certainly not subject my plants to a 
similar course again, giving them, however, fresh peat, and when 
running removing them bodily into a larger pan, for I find that pans 
suit them better than pots. 
My Cyclamens were not a success in 1887, although I have always 
before done them well, but they made poor growth, and on examining 
the pots I found that they had made but few roots ; I, therefore, con¬ 
cluded that we had put something into the soil that they did not like, 
and I am sure now that this was the case, for this year the same corms 
have flowered to perfection. They were completely shaken out and 
repotted in thoroughly sweet soil in which there was a good portion 
of charcoal. Thus failure has led one to be more careful for the future. 
I may say that I tried two different methods with them after flowering; 
some were laid on their sides and thus dried ofi, while others were kept 
in a cold frame and never thoroughly dried, and I did not see any differ¬ 
ence in the corms or in the flowering. 
Bulbs form mther an important feature in my little greenhouse. 
They come in early in the year when flowers are so much valued, and 
they are easily put on one side after flowering. Leaving them out of the 
question, Koman Hyacinths, Eoman and Paper White Narcissi, and 
Hyacinths, which are really to be regarded as annuals, I may mention 
some that I have found particularly useful, ornamental, and easily 
managed. Everyone knows the Neapolitan Allium, which has been 
largely used of late years, but there is a much better variety, which I 
received from Ant. Eoozen & Son, called Hermetti grandiflorum. The 
former has a curious way of hanging down its flower stems, which 
gradually twist back and assume the upright position, but they are 
always somewhat slight in the flowering stem, and so either hang about 
or require stakes; but the variety of which I write throws up its stems 
straight at once, is much more stout, and thus the umbels of flowers are 
held boldly up. The flowers are a little larger than those of the 
Neapolitan sort, and altogether it is a very desirable variety. Tro- 
paeolum tricolor is another very great favourite. I have three pots of it, 
and nothing can be more attractive than these plants were. They are 
trained on a wire trellis, which they cover from top to bottom with their 
little bird-like beautifully coloured blossoms. I wonder that these 
bulbs are so little grown. I go into many gr-eenhouses at this time of 
the year, but rarely do I find them, and yet all who come to see mine 
are especially delighted with them. They are very easy of cultivation, 
and reejuire but little looking after in the matter of training them on 
the trellis. The shoots at first require a little regulating, but afterwards 
they may be left to themselves. 
With Freesias I was very successful. One often hears complaints as 
to persons not being able to grow these most charming bulbs successfully. 
I have of late years had no difficulty with them, have raised a number 
of seedlings, and greatly increased my stock, so as to be able to give 
quantities away to friends, and I am inclined to think that the secret of 
success was in the thoroughly maturing the bulbs. After mine have 
flowered I place them on a shelf near the glass where the pots are fully 
exposed to the sun’s rays, and there they are left until the foliage is 
completely dried up. They are then, but not until then, taken down 
and laid under the stage, there to remain until potting time comes round 
again. As I have already said, a good deal of fine charcoal is used in 
the compost, as I am sure bulbs rejoice in this. Another class of bulbs 
were very good with me—the early-flowering Gladioli of the nanus and 
ramosus section. These I planted in a 6-inch pot in the usual bulb 
compost, and they came in very well about the same time as the Pelar¬ 
goniums. Of course The Bride or Colvilli alba is well known, but there 
are others in both sections well worthy of a place in any greenhouse j 
they are, moreover, delightful for cutting. Of the ramosus section, 
besides the type, La Ville de Versailles, lilac, red, and purple; Ne Plus 
Ultra, deep red flaked with white ; and Eosa Mundi, deep rose with large 
white flakes are well worth growing ; while in the nanus section there 
are Fire King or Ardens, fiery scarlet; Blushing Bride, rose with deep 
markings ; Delicatum, rose flaked white ; and Eosy Gem, rose flaked 
pink. These all did well, and were very effective. 
Ixias I have had to treat as annuals, for I have never been able tO’ 
flower them a second year, and yet with the allied genera of Sparaxis 
and Babiana I have had no difficulty. There are no more beautiful 
flowers for the greenhouse than the Ixias, and the colour of viridiflora 
is unique amongst flowers. I, however, last year subjected them 
to the same baking process that I have done the Freesias, and am curious 
to see what the result will be. Azaleas were a great success, for 
although 1 have no heated structure in which to place them after they 
have flowered to enable them to complete their growth, they made 
excellent growth and formed nice bushy plants with plenty of buds for 
the following year. I never place them completely out of doors, but 
after they have completed their growth put them under a glass shed 
fully exposed to the air. J do not pretend to say that this is the best 
plan, only that it suits me best, and that the plants are good and 
covered with flowers. 
I have already said in a former paper something on the subject of 
Lilies, and a correspondent to whom I owe many apologies asked in 
reference thereto a question with regard to L. punctatum and the colour 
of its anthers. I could not have given him any information, for I had 
not noticed, but will promise him carefully to note this year. I had a 
fine lot of Lilies, the only fault I found with them being that they were 
rather tall for my house. However, they are so lovely that I must 
forgive them that, for they come in so usefully in the autumn that I 
cannot dispense with them. 
Ani what shall I say of the glories of my Mar^chal Niel, which I 
have in the small lean-to annexe attached to my greenhouse? It is still 
in the pot, and, I am happy to say, now in its seventh year shows nO' 
sign of decay. It has filled all the back of the annexe, and would fill 
the whole of it if I allowed it to do so. The foliage is most abundant 
and luxuriant, while I gathered from it last year upwards of 350 flowers. 
Where the roots have gone to I have no conception. They have, of 
course, worked through the hole at the bottom of the pot and travelled 
off somewhere, but people who sec only the pot, and know nothing of its 
history, are very much nonplussed when they see such luxuriant growth. 
The flowers were not large, but they were exquisitely formed, nor were 
they of that deep rich colour which we mostly associate with the Mar4chal, 
but they were very beautiful, and I shall be indeed sorry when the 
symptoms of decay set in. When they do I believe there is nothing for 
it but to take the plant away altogether and substitute another. 
These ai'e some of the things which did best with me in my small 
house in 1887. Other things I had, but I have simply written of those 
which I consider most worthy of note, and some of which are not 
.always, even in much larger places and houses, not so well grown as 
in my small house.—D., Deal. 
A DAY OUT. 
NEWTON’S DRY GLAZING. 
Though a day was spent agreeably in driving through a fertile 
district and resting in a beautiful garden, half an hour must suffice for 
describing something of what was seen during the spurt from town. 
Finding myself at Hitchin, a much more agreeable place than appears 
from the station, I called on Mr. Edgar Newton and inspected his system 
of dry glazing. When a gentleman so scientific and practical as 
Mr. A. H. Smeo, and so solicitous for his Orchids, finds the Newton 
system highly satisfactory, and when a gardener so experienced and, I 
may say, so jealous of innovations as Mr. Allis of Old Warden, was after 
a close inspection enabled to speak of the plan with approval, I thought 
there must be something in it. It has been advertised, but is not, 
perhaps, yet by any means well understood, yet it is simple enough. 
There is nothing whatever complex about it. Instead of the glass 
resting on wooden sashbars and unbedded in putty, the bars are of 
T-shaped galvanised iron, and no putty is used in glazing. The squares- 
of glass are held secure by small copper springs, while the yielding 
nature of these allows of expansion and contraction by heat and cold, 
so breakage cannot occur through rigidity. Grooves in the bars also 
collect moisture that forms on the glass by condensation, and thus there 
is no drip. The squares are “ lapped ” in the usual way of putty glazing, 
and the thin edge of the bars rising an inch or so above the glass not 
only forms a convenient rest for blind roilers, but a current of air can 
circulate under the blinds ; thus shade may be afforded without air 
being excluded, and a little filters through the roof—a great advantage 
in hot weather. 
A roof glazed on this system bears a resemblance to the old style* 
but is lighter and necessarily more durable, while periodical paintings 
are obviated. A square of glass can be slipped up and taken out in a 
moment from any part of the roof in case of accidental breakage. The 
