JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 11, 1886 
101 
and autumn, a little attention in sticking and tying, and needful 
supplies of water. They are of easy culture, requiring no more 
skill than is needful to grow softwooded plants. To insure 
good plants the chief thing is to propagate early, from the 
beginning of February to early March, affording plants from 
cuttings by November that will bloom until those in the open 
ground come in. The short stubby side shoots are the best for 
cuttings, slipping them off and merely making any raggedness 
at the base smooth with a sharp knife, or if slipped off carefully 
thi3 is not necessary. They should be dibbed round the sides of 
pots id side, varying with the number of cuttings, or most con¬ 
veniently into 5-inch pots, leaving them about an inch apart. 
Employ fine soil—loam three parts, one part leaf soil, and a similar 
proportion of sand, with a half-inch layer of silver sand on the 
top of the soil. Drainage may occupy one-third the depth of 
the pots. Water after to settle the sand about the cuttings, and 
plunge in a gentle bottom heat of 70° to 75°, and top heat of 
between 55° and 65°, but the lower one is best, as it is rooting not 
top growth that is sought, for the sturdier the plants are kept 
the better. . Place a bellglass over the pots with the edges 
resting on inverted 3-inch pots, so that evaporation will be to 
some extent lessened, and they will get sufficient air to prevent 
damping. 
When the cuttings are rooted remove the cover and stand the 
plants on shelves near the glass, but in the same temperature 
until the pots are fairly filled with roots, and then pot singly, 
riv 8 ^ Uer ones small 60’s, and the strongest in the larger 
s. The compost should consist of good turfy yellow loam three 
parts, a part in equal proportions of well decayed manure, and 
about a sixth of sharp or river sand. Pot firmly, but use the 
fingers only. The plants after potting may be returned to the 
forcing or warm house and placed near the glass, the most suitable 
temperature being 50° to 55° by artificial means. In this they will 
make steady growth, and there they may remain until they are 
moved to cold frames about the middle of April, having protection 
at night by mats in frosty weather, and gradually harden them off 
so as to have them fit for standing outdoors by the middle of May. 
tvepot the plants as the roots advance, not allowing them to become 
rootbound before doing so, at the same time the pots should be 
filed with roots. Give the final potting early in July at the 
latest, and preferably early in June. Use 5 or 6-inch pots for 
the smaller p'ants and weaker-growing varieties, and 7 or 8-inch 
pots for the largest and most robust sorts. A neat stick with the 
maun shoot tied to it and the side shoots looped toward it so as 
to form a sort of pyramidal specimen is all that is needed in the 
way of training. Afford a sunny position outdoors, open, but 
sheltered from winds, and a bed of ashes, in which the pots may 
be partially plunged. After the pots are filled with roots liquid 
manure may be given at every alternate watering. By October 
there will be plenty of flower buds in an advanced state, and the 
plants should be transferred to a low, light, well ventilated 
sti ucture with a temperature of 50° by artificial means, when they 
will give an abundance of blooms successionally through the 
W1 vu r do not like damp, and gentle heat is necessary to 
enable them to open their buds in winter. It is deficiency of heat 
that causes the Tree Carnation to be considered non-winter- 
flowering by some growers. 
Those wanting plenty of blooms in spring should insert 
cuttings early in March. Most people have a hotbed then, and 
Y 1 ' answer, only it must not be too warm or the cuttings 
will be drawn before they are well rooted. When sufficiently 
rooted remove them to a greenhouse, and being hardened to that 
emperature pot them and grow them on in cold frames until 
. e 8um mer treatment is the same, only the plants may 
ave their largest pots as late as early August, and in autumn or 
exoie November they should be placed in a light airy green¬ 
house Supply water carefully being cautious not to give too 
much. Fieely ventilate on all favourable occasions, as this will 
harden the growths, and on that the flowering in a great measure, 
depends. From the middle of February onwards weak liquid 
manure once a week will help the plants greatly. 
Another plan is to turn the plants outdoors as soon as the 
Owering is over, and layer the strong growths in 4-inch pots. 
1 hese layers will be well rooted in about six weeks, when they 
are detached from the parent and stood in the shade or under a 
north wall for a few days, in which position they feel no check 
roots rapidly. The pots being well filled with roots, 
s ntt the plants into pots a couple of inches larger in diameter, 
but any plants layered in 3-inch pots should only have the 5 inch 
mze. Stand them in an open situation, and house by or before 
November. Plants raised in this way are very dwarf, and give a 
number of useful flowers in spring and early summer, but I do 
not find them so Horiferous as plants raised by the two previously 
named methods. 
A fourth plan, and one that with the raising of plants from 
layers, commends itself to those not having only a handlight or 
cold frame and a greenhouse. This is to insert cuttings under 
handlights as soon as the flowering is over, or about the middle 
of July; placing in about 3 inches depth of fine soil and a 
surfacing of silver sand. The cuttings should be cut immediately 
below a joint and have leaves removed from it with a sharp knife, 
and if the cuttings have one joint and the centre leaves it is 
sufficient. Insert them up to the centres, but not so as to bury 
the centres, and press the soil firmly, giving a gentle watering, 
and the handlight being put on keep them close and shaded from 
sun. They will root slowly but surely, and in autumn can be 
lifted and placed singly in 3-inch pots, in which they may be 
wintered in cold frames. In spring they should be repotted and 
have their largest pots by July. Six, seven, or eight-inch pots 
will not be too large. Any disposition to flower must be at once 
checked prior and up to the Beginning of August, afier which 
allow all to advance that shows. Although we get large plants 
by this method they are not proportionately as tioriferous as the 
smaller and early-raised plants; indeed, it is the starting of 
young plants or raising them early which gives them their 
tendency for early or winter flowering, for if treated as border 
plants they do not flower until the ordinary time in summer, but 
unlike the show varieties they continue flowering outdoors until a 
late period, and on that account are valuable, especially if grown 
in a sheltered situation. 
I have tried, but do not recommend keeping the plants after 
the first year, hence young plants should be raised annually, as 
affording the finest flowers in greater profusion. Insects are not 
much trouble; indeed, the only ones attacking these plants 
severely are aphides, which soon succumb to fumigation or when 
outdoors to syringing or dipping in tobacco water or some 
approved insecticide. 
The varieties are becoming very numerous, but I consider the 
following some of the best:— Scarlet —Field Marshal, M. Baldwin, 
Duke of Albany, and Worthington Smith. Ned—Lucifer, Leon 
Lambertye, and Zouave. Crimson —Mrs. Keen, Sir Evelyn Wood, 
and The Moor. Purple —Gladiateur, Duke of Wellington, and 
Ruby. Maroon —Rubens, Phoenix, and Brunette. Bose— Rose 
Perfection, Madame Alegatiere, and Seraph. Pink —Miss Jolliffe, 
Laura, and Le Favori. Yellow —Mrs. George Hawtry, Andalusia, 
and Pride of Penshurst. White —Snowball, Princess Stephanie, 
and The Queen. Fancy Varieties —Thomas Wallis, scarlet, striped 
dark red; Whipper-in, scarlet, dark stripes; Enchantress, pink, 
flaked purple; Iona, rose, flaked and spotted carmine ; Memnon, 
buff, striped rose and orange; Volunteer, scarlet, striped maroon; 
Hamlet, buff, striped rose; Cassandra, buff, edged scarlet 
(Picotee), and Sunbeam, creamy white, edged pink (Picotee). 
I wish to close with an especial note on Souvenir de la Mal- 
maison, blush white, and the pink form (syn. Lady Middleton) of 
that grand variety—viz., those wishing to have a quantity of 
flowers to send to town in May and early June should have a 
house full of these, they coming in most acceptable, and are a 
relief from the stereotyped Gardenia.—G. Abbey. 
LIME FOR VINE BORDERS—ANALYSIS OF SOIL. 
The communication by “A. L. G.,” on page 62, may be 
attributed to one of two causes—either that he is anxious to air 
his knowledge of elementary chemistry, or for gaining informa¬ 
tion. If the former, I wonder that he did not tender us more 
of his knowledge on the subject of liming, or state definitely his 
reasons for differing from “A Thinker” on the Gros Colman 
question. If the latter, his method of eliciting information may 
not be one of the best. 
I should be very sorry to infer that ‘ A. L. G.” tried to mis¬ 
represent what I wrote on pages 37 and 38, but the least that 
can be said is that his remarks on the subject, and quotations 
from “ Warington’s Chemistry of the Farm,” will serve to con¬ 
fuse those for whom my article was penned. Your correspon¬ 
dent might not allow his Vines to fail to colour through deficiency 
of lime in the borders, neither have I advised such a course, but 
there are thousands who grow a house or more of Vines who do 
not possess either a knowledge of elementary or analytical 
chemistry. The chief soil, of which many Vine borders are 
composed naturally contained no lime, and the quantity in¬ 
corporated when the border was first made would sooner or later 
fail to prove beneficial to the Vines ; on the contrary, in a few 
years this substance would become deficient, and the crops prove 
unsatisfactory. My object was to help those, if possible, who 
have not, through no fault of theirs perhaps, the same amount 
of knowledge that “A. L. G.” appears to possess. Many, and I 
believe there are many, may be labouring to colour their Grapes 
