June 8, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
437 
have got into that section of all-the-year-round plants. They 
require a certain treatment to ensure such a supply, but it is a 
treatment which exactly suits them, and therefore worth making 
a note of. It may also be said that it is a treatment which pays, 
as a grower (perhaps the largest in the north) who follows it 
not only places a larger quantity of spathes in the market at 
special seasons than any other, but keeps up a constant supply 
from the same set of plants. 
The present time is most suitable for beginning the treat¬ 
ment of which I write. It is at least a dozen years since I first 
wrote of it. and with slight though necessary modifications it is 
the same now as then. Our plan, then, is first to keep the plants 
under glass long enough to save the foliage from damage. They 
cannot be put out of doors with any degree of safety here before 
the last week in May; if windy weather prevails, even later. In 
the ordinary acceptation of the word, Richardias will not bear 
“ hardening off.” I do not suppose any plant likes it, but this 
one will not put up with it. The foliage under the process 
becomes flaccid, brown, withered, and decays. The way 
Richai’dias like to be “ hardened off ” is to wait until the 
weather is warm, keep the plants on the dry side for a day or 
two, and well aired, and on a fine morning remove to a warm 
sheltered shady corner where they can stand for a week, and the 
hardening process will be completed alike to the gratification of 
the plant and its owner. The summer treatment is most simple. 
Our plants are flowered mostly in 10 and 11-inch pots, and at 
this time they are turned out of their pots, each plant divided so 
as to have one or two growths, saving in the process all the roots 
possible, and planting the divided pieces at once. If the ground 
is moist and the weather dull no water is given ; if dry, a good 
soaking is allowed each piece, a strong stake put to the plant 
and the leaves tied thereto, and that, with the exception of 
hoeing, comprises the summer treatment. Spathes are produced 
before the plants have been long in their new quarters, and 
meanwhile a supply is kept up by a few pot plants which are not 
needed for stock. Now 1 think it is a mistake to supply the 
plants with either much manure or much water. The man of 
my acquaintance who produces the finest foliage, the largest 
plants, and the smallest quantity of bloom is the one who goes 
in for manure trenches and floodings of water. 
About the middle of September we lift. The roots are 
crammed into the pots, and unfilled spaces filled with strong 
loam. Until the middle of October the plants remain out of 
doors; at that time they are housed, and are kept in a tempera¬ 
ture of about 55°, growing and flowering throughout the winter. 
Any that are wanted to open quickly are placed for a week, more 
or less, in a stove temperature. Fortnightly applications of 
manure are given, and the plants are never allowed to go dry. 
Each spathe as it opens is cut, and if not wanted is kept in a cool 
dry room. With the cut end resting on wet moss they keep 
perfectly good for three weeks, and will stand a week or ten 
days in vases after that. We emp'oy the spathes constantly for 
church vases, occasionally for room vases as a change from 
other flowers. They look best in large glasses among a setting 
of their own foliage, half a dozen or more spathes, according-to 
the size of the glass, making a very effective vase. For dinner 
table decoration it may not be known that Richardia spathes 
give a very massive effect if used with judgment. In all these 
cases medium-sized spathe3 are better than large ones ; indeed, 
we often use opening spathe3 for some purposes. Plants are 
also valued for room decoration. For this purpose we have had 
very neat little plants from seed, and flowered inti-inch pots.—B. 
WATERING INSIDE VINE BORDERS. 
What 1 may relate on this subject, whether in opposition or 
corroborative of others’ experience, will be advanced without any 
reference to what has recently been written, my sole aim is to be 
instructive to those who may need information. I have long 
held the opinion that the generation of gardeners who carried 
the sway when many of us were in our infancy were too fond of 
hard-and fast lines, were too stereotyped in their notions and 
practices in fact. The temper itures must be kept almost to one 
figure, the composts must consist of certain quantities of certain 
materials, water was given at certain periods and in exact quan¬ 
tities, and yet in spite of all this exactitude I think l may safely 
say their productions would scarcely equal what are now grown 
by less precise and less particular gardeners of the present day. 
Times have changed materially even in my short career, and 
there are but few of us who can imitate the expensive practices 
of our forefathers Fewer men are kept and more work has to 
be done, hence the revolution in our proceedings. 
My practice with inside fruit borders is much the same as 
that in the case of plants rooting in pot?. When they want 
water they as a rule receive it, and this no matter whether before, 
during, or after the stoning process. When the borders are 
partially exhausted of fertility they receive liquid manure, it 
may be before the Vines or trees are started, or perhaps much 
later on, not a little depending upon the availability of the 
manure supply. It may be asked, How are we to know when a 
border needs water ? 1 answer, Easily enough. It is true we 
cannot rattle the pot with our knuckles or with our feet if we 
are too stout or too indolent to stoop, but we can examine the 
soil with a pointed stake and to a good depth without injuring 
manyroots. In every case, whether with pot plants or borders, 
it is a common practice to let them get too dry before watering, 
and then double the quantity of water that would have sufficed 
a few days previously would not do the work nearly so well. A 
little and often is much preferable and more efficacious than 
extra large quantities given occasionally, and which when reduced 
to figures is enough to frighten a beginner. Probably the 
average-sized inside Vine border would be about 24 feet by 
12 feet, and if this was not allowed to get very dry 180 gallons of 
water would be ample at a time. This may seem a small quantity 
to some, but it is as much as is oftentimes available, and more 
than this, or say enough, for much to run through the border, 
would only be a waste of water, besides a certain loss of fertility 
carried away from the border. 
Visitors here of late have been very curious to know what I 
was doing with several large bottles suspended under some early 
Vines. Some have expressed the opinion, after my explanation, 
that the idea is ingenious, while others, so I have since heard, 
seem to think it is a pity I have not something better to amuse 
myself with. I do not now propose to state my motives for 
rooting the Vines in bottles filled with various materials, but 
principally water, though I must admit I am disappointed with 
the results. At the same time, if I failed in one respect I have 
yet gained a few “ wrinkles.” What surprises me most is the 
amount of water absorbed from the bottles during a bright day. 
Although the bottles are not half filled with the roots, owing to 
the fact of their being twice killed, yet as much as a quart of 
water has been taken up from one by the Vines in the course of 
twenty-four hours This was during an exceptionally clear 
night and day, when the evaporation from the foliage was most 
to be expected. During a fairly clear day about a pint is the 
quantity wasted, while on dull days very little is taken up, and 
scarcely any during the night. We may reasonably assume that 
much the same process is going on with the roots in the border, 
and therefore that waterings should not be given at stated 
intervals, but should be regulated according to the weather 
experienced and the state of the border, some borders being more 
absorbent and consequently do not become dry so quickly as 
others. 
Although Vine roots form and thrive surprisingly well in 
water, it may come as a revelation that anything in the shape of 
manure kills them. This I was not prepared for, as I had hoped 
for very different things. Bones, charcoal, and oystershells may 
be added in any quantity, but quite a small pinch of sulphate of 
ammonia and kainit killed them in a short time. Lime also in 
small quantities did not suit them, and, what is more surprising, 
by no means strong farmyard liquid manure added to some clear 
water already in the bottle, although it did not actually kill the 
roots it could be seen that the points were all damaged and very 
little water afterwards left the bottle. It may be the roots: 
formed in a border are not nearly so delicate as those in water;, 
but whether this is so or not I am still of opinion that they may 
be very easily injured by an overdose of liquid manure. Doubt¬ 
less there is much less danger in applying liquid manure to 
borders than to pot plants even, as it gets filtered, much remaining 
on the surface, and which is not always so well filled with roots 
as it might well be. Much also runs through the border into the 
drainpipes, this being especially the case when such heavy 
waterings that are thought necessary by some are given. I have 
seen Vines apparently at a standstill for a week after receiving 
liquid manure—it happened this season, in fact—and as this is 
about the time it takes for fresh roots to be formed in my bottles, „ 
it seems feasible enough that we had injured the roots with too 
much ammonia and potish. The lesson to be learnt from this is, 
that we should apply liquid manure also in small quantities and 
often, or we shall perhaps do more harm than good with it.. 
What has our friend “Thinker” to say to the foregoing ?— 
W. Iggulden. 
RUSHING INTO PRINT. 
It is perhaps scarcely worth while taking up your space and my time 
to reply to “ Head Gardener’s ” letter at page 411), but as it may please 
him to have his communication noticed by someone, you will permit me 
to state that I fail to identify myself with the incidents he refers 
