March 18, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
211 
upper branches ; Berberis Darwinii is hanging in golden clusters, ready 
to burst into flower ; Mahonia aquifolia in full bloom ; Laurustinus also 
in full flower and very clean ; Red Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum) 
bursting out in full flower and foliage, the first flowers open ; Forsythia 
viridissima in full flower in shrubberies ; Ceanothus rigidus and Berberis 
tenuifolia, on a conservatory wall, just showing colour ; Almond trees at 
their best and in full beauty ; double Thorns are bursting into growth ; 
the old orange-flowering Kerria japonica just going out of flower ; the 
brushwood of the large Elm trees pushing out their green shoots half an 
inch ; the Poplars and Elm trees in fl >wer ; Crocuses in full bloom in 
borders ; red and white Daisies are flowering in beds ; Wallflowers are in 
bloom, and some spikes of the old double yellow Wallflower cut to-day ; 
bedding Pansies in beds just pushing up flower buds ; Violets in beds at 
their best; Hyacinths in borders in beautiful bloom ; Mignonette is in 
flower, and have been the whole winter ; two standard Plum trees in full 
bloom : Apricots and Peaches in full bloom on walls ; Pears and Apples 
bursting ; Gooseberries are in leaf; Currants coming out fast. Kitchen 
garden crops.—Turnip tops are a foot high ; early Radishes, Lettuces, 
Turnips, and Spinach are up ; early Peas about 1|- inch high ; Veitch’s 
Selected Early is the forwardest, and William 1. next. —C. Orchard, 
Coombe Warren Gardens, Kingston-on-Tliames. 
The weather in Devon has been and still is very severe, and although 
there have been several days of sunshine, Dartmoor and the surrounding 
hills are still covered with snow ; and the frost during the month has been 
very sharp, with cold easterly winds. On the 3rd inst. the thermometer 
registered 16° of frost; and on the 6th, 15° ; and the 10th and 11th 13°. 
The coldest night that we have had during the winter was on the 10th 
of December, when the thermometer registered 17°, Notwithstanding 
the hard frost, we have been able to get in our crops of Parsnips, Onions, 
and early Carrots on bright days. In some places the Spring Cabbage are 
almost a failure, and nearly half of the Broccolis have been killed, and 
those that have been saved will be very late. Apricot blossom, which I 
have known fully open by the middle of February, is just beginning to 
expand. The farmers have great difficulty in obtaining sufficient food for 
their cattle, the root crops being in many places a failure, and instead of 
grass growing it is diminishing.—L. G. 
The winter has been peculiar on account of its short alternating 
periods of comparative mildness and low temperatures. Generally, we 
find a difficulty in getting ice in sufficient quantity for storing, but this 
season a plentiful supply was secured before Christmas, and several times 
since quite as large a supply could have been had. We have not experi¬ 
enced such low temperatures as in some years, 20° of frost being our 
lowest register ; but the rapid changes from heat to cold, and again from 
eold to heat, have been most hurtful to vegetation ; Schizostylis has been 
killed, Lettuces succumbed very early in the winter, so did Globe Arti¬ 
chokes ; Violets braved it for a while, but gave up in January and are now 
quite bare. Old Laurels look very bad, and old Roses will have a large 
amount of dead or half-dead growths to remove. Hardly any spring 
flowers have as yet bloomed ; we have Snowdrops, Winter Aconites, and 
some Hellebores, but no Primroses, Polyanthuses, Anemones, Sisyrin- 
chiums, early Daffodils, nor Pansies, as we have often had at this time. 
On the whole the winter has been very suitable for forwarding work. 
We never had better nailing weather than was experienced in the early 
part of February ; but for the past four weeks it has been almost too bad 
for anything. We cannot get on to the ground. Frosty east winds make 
nailing impossible ; potting bedding plants, cleaning hothouses, and reno¬ 
vating old implements, stake and label making cannot go on indefinitely, 
and we find it becoming a pressing question what to do next. Still we are 
comparatively favoured here. Not so very far away neighbouring gardens 
were isolated by snow blocks for days. We hear of one case where the 
workmen had a week’s holiday. Our March register has been low, most 
nights 6° to 9° of frost, on the 6th 13° of frost, but we hear of from 20° to 
29° of frost in a neighbouring county, and in the north of England of 6® 
below zero on the same night. 
As to cropping, we have only Peas and Spinach sown. Two sowings 
of various vegetables have been made in heated frames, but these never 
do so well as plants raised in the open. The immediate prospect is that 
no garden grouud work, no seed-sowing or planting can take place with 
the best of weather for another ten days, and of course that may he 
indefinitely lengthened should no change occur. 
As a matter of course, coals have been going with great rapidity and 
there is very little to show for it. What a great magician is the sun ! and 
how little can we do to make up for the lack of his favour. Such times 
teach us how very little indeed. With regard to fruit prospects, Straw¬ 
berries have been quite blackened; but genial after weather will put that 
all right. Other hardy fruits, though not yet on the move, we expect to 
do well if favoured with a fair season. The autumn of 1885 was a 
lengthened and good one, and it only needs a summer of a like favourable 
nature to make this a good fruit year like the last. In a season like this 
we shall take the precaution of erring on the late side with regard to 
seeding, sowing, and planting.—B., Hast Lothian. 
SNOWDROP POTATO. 
Mr. Iggulden says (p. 157) that the above Potato is not distinguish¬ 
able from Snowflake, but I think he makes a mistake. Half a dozen 
years or more ago Snowflake was grown here for several seasons, and 
although we found it a heavy cropper it was one of the first and worst 
affected by disease. Its quality when cooked was not by any means first- 
rate, and, like many more varieties which have been tried here, it was 
given up. Many cottagers and farmers in the neighbourhood also tried it, 
and all have given it up for the reasons above named. Three or four 
years ago, and when Snowdrop was little known, a reader of the Journal 
in Northamptonshire sent me a few tubers in exchange for some Tomato 
seed, and he gave it such a good character that I felt sure that I had 
secured a first-rate Potato, and it has really proved to he so. We have 
planted more of it every year, and find it free from disease, a very heavy 
cropper, and first-rate quality. It is also one of the most handsome white 
kidney Potatoes with which I am acquainted, being of oblong form, and 
so shallow in the eyes that these are hardly observable. In this respect it 
differs widely from Snowflake, as this, like the majority of the American 
sorts, shows a great many eyes rather deeply set in the flesh. In habit 
of growth, form and quality of tubers, and in general character the true 
Snowdrop bears no resemblance to any Snowflake I have grown or seen, 
and I am positive in my opinion that Snowdrop has no right to be regarded 
as synonymous with Snowflake.—J. Muir, Margam. 
MIGNONETTE. 
The flowers of Mignonette are always welcome, and where aeon* 
tinuous supply of flowers is required seed should be sown at once in a 
cold frame. Place the frame in a warm sunny position on a border, and 
render the soil fertile by the addition of manure. The soil if moderately 
dry must be rendered firm, which will prevent the plants making a long 
straggling growth ; if not, it is best left alone, for it is unwise to press 
the soil closely together when wet. Sow the seed on the surface and 
then lightly cover it with fine soil, or rake it in. Keep the frame close 
until the seed has germinated, when a little air may be admitted daily 
if the weather is favourable, closing it early in the afternoon to push 
the young plants into growth as rapidly as possible. When the plants 
are large enough thin them liberally, for nothing is gained by allowing 
them to crowd one another. Under these conditions the plants will grow 
rapidly and come into flower long before those sown outside, and the 
plants grown in pots can be dispensed with to save labour in watering. 
—D. 
VINES-BORDERS—SPRING PLANTING. 
Though the winter has been severe Vines, both early and late, have 
started well. Some will attribute this satisfactory state of things to the 
discontinuance of artificial heat for outside borders, but few question the 
utility of the moist, genial, ammonia-charged heat of a bed of fermenting 
materials within the house. I do not advocate covering outside Vine 
borders with hot fermenting material, at least until the Vines have 
pushed growth and have active feeders, and roots in outside borders are 
less injuriously affected in a cold dry winter than in a mild wet one, but 
some frost resisting material over the border keeps the temperature 
several degrees higher than when saturated by heavy rains or snow. 
Good breaks almost invariably result from thoroughly ripened wood, and 
a condition of the border favourable during rest. 
It is doubtful if our Vine borders are not deeper and wider than is 
essential. In limited borders renovation is more expeditiously effected, 
and Vines like porous soil full of fresh decomposing food-affording 
matter. Whenever the Vines in a house begin to fail the roots are deep 
or the border has become an inert mass. The remedy is to be sought in 
the removal of outside or inside border soil in alternate years, so as to 
prevent loss of crop, shortening the roots, and relaying them in new 
compost, consisting of rough turfy loam and old lime rubbish, using 
manure only as a mulch. In this the Vines make stout short-jointed 
wood, ripening well, and giving compact handsome bunches of fine 
berries colouring and finishing well. 
Where spring planting is contemplated the situation and surroundings 
should be considered. If the border is high and dry it may be 2 feet 
6 inches deep, but in low situations 2 feet is sufficient, the former resting 
on a foot of drainage, but in the wet site 18 inches depth of drainage is 
advisable. It is generally considered that anything of an open nature 
will answer for drainage. That may be if nothing is sought but the 
passing away of the surplus moisture to the drains. I consider, however, 
that the drainage has a considerable effect on the result. If we use gravel 
or stone of a close hard texture it will absorb but little moisture, whereas 
in broken bricks, old lime rubble, or even chalk, we secure a moisture¬ 
holding substance, which is being changed, whereby food otherwise 
inorganic is made available. Besides, the food retained by the drainage 
is sufficient to attract and induce a mass of hungry roots to enter it, 
much in the same way as we find with plants in pots the greatest luxuri¬ 
ance of roots amongst the drainage at the bottom of the pots. The 
drainage should be of such a kind as will not only allow the water 
to pass freely through the soil, but be of a moisture-holding calcareous 
character, though silica is not unimportant, as is evidenced in the 
employment of brickbats and stone of the sandstone formations. A 
sprinkling of crushed bones over the drainage is advisable, through 
affording phosphate, and a sprinkling of charred refuse is serviceable 
through its potash. Between the drainage and surface I do not think 
anything necessary but lime, with the silica inseparable from the employ¬ 
ment of old moisture rubbish. I have tried stratified borders, but I do 
not think there is any advantage proportionate to the increased labour 
entailed in securing thorough and uniform moisture. Loam containing 
enough grit to keep it open is important. Bones are, no doubt, useful, 
as also is charcoal, but the chief points are good drainage, a porous soil, 
