342 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 29, 18£6. 
with single forms. It is hardly ever the Rise-double, bat when trans¬ 
ferred to gardens the Rise-double is the commoner form for it to assume. 
In spite of their taking that form, their tendency, in my garden, is to be¬ 
come constantly less double, until the divided corona closes together again, 
and the flower becomes entirely siDgle and perfect in all its organs. These 
same bulbs, if sent to their native soil, produce double flowers again in a 
year. On the other hand, 1 have never, by any soil or cultivation, suc¬ 
ceeded in persuading any single Daffodil to double in my garden. As 
regards the frequent assertions made that in some gardens the typical 
single wild Pseudo-Narcissus will change in a few years into the large 
double Daffodil called Telamonius, these assertions are too consistent, 
and made, I am certain, in too good faith to be at once rejected ; but they 
require very careful investigation, which I have long been making, and 
still continuing to make. Botanists assure me that no metamorphosis of 
any part or organ is necessary to effect this change. That single Daffodils 
in some soils and under some conditions will produce double flowers is 
nearly certain. Mr. Tait of Oporto sent me last summer a bag of double- 
flowered Daffodils, which he assured me were dug up in the neighbourhood 
single, and when planted in his garden became double. There is no mistake 
about identity of variety in these ; the single kind is unlike anything I have 
ever before seen in cultivation in England, and the double flower, although 
a hideous monstrosity, evidently belongs to the same variety ; but, as I 
said before, assertions of this kind require careful Bifting. 
To conclude, lovers of the Daffodil may be congratulated on having a 
favourite which is easy of cultivation, presents endless variety, and gives 
less cause for anxiety through accidents than most flowers. Few destroyers, 
whether mice, or birds, or wireworms, attack the bulb of Daffodil. The 
Narcissus fly is a pest of a warmer climate than ours. Dwarf forms like 
N. minor and N. minimus, as I said before, invite slugp, which, however, 
attack the flower only. High winds, too, are serious enemies to Daffodil 
flowers. A westerly gale on March 31st snapped off at the ground line 
some of my best opening fl owers ; so that Daffodils should either be planted 
in a sheltered place, or, if in windy quarters, be tied up; but upon the 
whole there is no class of flowers which give a more satisfactory result 
with a less amount of labour than N. Pseudo-Narcissus. 
CULTURE OF DIPLADENIAS. 
Whether grown into large trained specimens for exhibition or for 
the decoration of the stove, these lovely climbers must always hold a 
foremost position amongst our choicest stove plants. If not wanted for 
exhibition the best plan is to fasten a trellis of wires underneath the roof 
of the house and at 8 or 10 inches from it. Over this the plants should 
be allowed to ramble freely, taking care to keep the shoots evenly and 
thinly disposed, so as to allow plenty of room for the proper development 
of the leaves and perfect ripening of the wood, which is highly essential 
to the free production of their flowers. Grown in this way, with some of 
the dark highly coloured flowers produced by Brearleyana and hybrida 
side by side, or intermingled with the delicate rosy pink ones of D. amcena, 
they present one of the most charming sights imaginable. The flowers 
when gathered are very attractive arranged in shallow dishes with a few 
fronds of Adiantum gracillimum forming a sort of screen over them, and 
if gathered in the morning when the house is coolest they remain in good 
condition for several days. 
Dipladenias are easily propagated by means of cuttings. These will 
root at any time of the year, but the best time is in the spring, and the 
cuttings to be preferred are the young growths from the preceding year’s 
wood, taken off with a heel when about 3 inches long. Inserted singly 
in 2£-inch pots, in a mixture of half peat and half sand, and placed under 
abellglass in the hottest part of the stove, these will form roots in about 
a fortnight, and must then be gradually exposed to the ordinary tempera¬ 
ture of the house. Next to these I prefer cuttings made from strong 
half-ripened shoots, such as may be obtained in May or June, but by 
striking them in the early part of the year they get fairly started before 
the hottest weather comes, and perfect their growth before winter. 
To grow them well—and if not well grown they are best left alone— 
they require a rather high temperature when in active growth, and even 
in winter when at rest they must never be subjected to a lower temperature 
than 50° to 55°. If wanted to flower in May they must be started early 
in January, but generally speaking the beginning or middle of February 
is soon enough. At first starting they should be given a temperature of 
60° to 65° at night, with a rise of 5° by day, gradually increasing it as the 
days lengthen, until by the end of April it ranges from 70° to 75° at night, 
and from 75° to 80 3 by day, allowing it to rise to 85° or even to 90° with 
sun. They delight in a moist atmosphere, and must at all times he shaded 
from bright sunshine, admitting at the same time as much light as possible. 
For this purpose the house should be provided with blinds, so that they 
may be rolled up and the plants exposed to the full influence of the light 
on every occasion when there is no sun. 
The soil for Dipladenias should consist of three parts brown fibrous peat 
to two parts loam, which must be as turfy as possible, and all fine soil 
removed from it by sifting ; to this add one-quarter part each of sand and 
charcoal, the latter broken to the size of acorns. A small quantity of 
Standen’s manure may be added. If really good turfy loam is not available 
they may be potted in all peat; on no account should poor loam, destitute 
of fibre, be used. The pots must be well drained, and great care exercised 
in watering at all seasons, few plants being more liable to injury through 
neglect in this respect than Dipladenias. During winter especially, and 
before they have fairly taken to the new soil after porting, water must be 
cautiously applied, allowing the soil to get thoroughly dry before watering, 
but not to such an extent as to cause them to flag. I have seen them 
treated as deciduous plants, and made to lose all their foliage in winter 
by keeping them dry at the root, but such treatment is decidedly wrong ; 
they are naturally evergreen, and must at all time3 be given enough 
water to enable them to retain some of their leaves fresh and healthy. 
Almost all kinds of insects to which stove plants are subject will live 
on Dipladenias, but with proper treatment the only ones whose attacks 
need be feared are mealy bug and brown scale, and these—provided the 
plants are thoroughly cleansed before they are started in spring—can 
generally be kept pretty well in check by using the syringe freely morn¬ 
ings and afternoons. Should they become too firmly established to be 
kept under by these means, syringing with that best of all insecticides, 
petroleum, will get rid of most of them. A wineglassful of petro¬ 
leum to three gallons of water is as much as it is consistent with 
safety to use, as when growing freely the young leaves are very tender 
and easily injured. Even this quantity must be carefully applied, mixing 
it well with the water before syringing it over the plants, and washing it 
off with clean water a few minutes after. Keep them well shaded for 
two or three days, and, if properly managed, no evil will result from the 
application, which, if necessary, may be repeated in a week or ten days. 
Scale may be got rid of in the same way, but, being more difficult to 
destroy, it is generally necessary to syringe the plants three or four times 
in succession at intervals of not less than a week. 
As soon as the flower buds appear give weak manure water at every 
alternate watering ; that made from fresh cow or sheep manure and 
diluted with clean water to the requisite strength is as good as any for 
them. This will greatly prolong their season of blooming, besides making 
the individual flowers much finer in every respect. Without some such 
aid the trusses produced after the first flowers open will be very weak 
and will have only a small quantity of buds on each ; strong trusses will 
frequently produce as many as thirty flowers in succesdon, lasting over a 
period of nearly two months. 
Any plants that are intended for exhibition should be supplied with 
balloon or other shaped trellises of the size they are likely to require, and 
the whole of the wood fastened thereto before they are started. Each 
young shoot when about 3 inches in length should have a string placed 
for it to climb on, running from the trellis to the highest part of the roof, 
always, as before mentioned, giving each shoot a fair amount of room. 
Comparatively small pots should be used, those 14 or 15 inches in 
diameter being sufficiently large for even the finest specimens. In pots 
of this size they may be grown year after year, turning them out just as 
they start into growth, and removing enough of the old soil to permit their 
being placed in the same pots again. 
There are some varieties of Dipladenias with which I am unacquainted, 
but the following are all good, thoroughly reliable, and sufficient for 
almost all purposes—amcena, hybrida, amabilis, crassinode, splenaens, 
and Brearleyana. The last named, with its flowers opening a delicate 
rosy pink colour, and changing with age to the richest crimson, is 
decidedly the finest of this truly magnificent genus of stove climbers. 
—C. L, P. 
GARDENERS AND PREMIUMS. 
In a recent number of the Journal your correspondent, “ Thinker,” 
made some allusions to the decline of the above. Hundreds of young 
men have paid premiums, and in return have received no more recogni¬ 
tion from the head gardener than if they were day labourers, though the 
money is presumably paid for special instructions, &c. It is in the power 
of an intelligent chief to impart £5 or £10’s worth of good to a youth in 
the course of two or three years, as I can testify from experience. My 
object at present, however, is not to defend or condemn the system, but to 
record what appears to me to be a very hard case and representative of 
many others from the same establishment. A young man has just left 
the gardens of an earl, where he had been engaged to perform certain 
duties with the understanding that he would be expected to pay a premium 
of £-5 in an indefinite time. Before he had been in his place a month he 
was asked how he intended to pay this sum, and he replied by two or 
three instalments ; but to his astonishment the following pay day 2s. was 
deducted from his wage, then after a time 3s. ; and when he asked for an 
explanation he was as good as told that “ if he did not like it he could go.” 
Shortly he was set to perform duties the reverse of those he had been 
engaged for, and other matters were made disagreeable to him, obviously 
with the view of forcing him to give up his place in order that the 
“ teacher ” might extract the best part of £5 from another young man, 
and so make the premiums average that sum per man per annum, which 
in the case of seven or eight men would be a nice little sum. You will see, 
Mr. Editor, that if the matter was left to the men they would most likely 
pay a portion the end of the first year and the remainder the second, and 
some might enter the third before completing payment, which would 
evidently reduce the ill-got gains by one-half. It was understood on the 
place that his lordship some time ago made an allowance to the gardener 
of Is. per week per man in order to abolish the premiums. This, if true, 
is a serious indictment, and it is a question whether the young man’s 
friends will not inquire fmm his lordship whether the gardener had a 
right to do as he did. What says “ Thiuker ?”—W. P. R. 
NEW CONSERVATORY, THE MANOR HOUSE, THAMES 
DITTON. 
We are this week enabled to present our readers with a view of the 
new conservatory recently erected by Messrs. J. Weeks k. Co. of Chelsea, in 
the garden of the Manor House, Thames Dittos, for Hanibal Speer, Esq. 
