2S2 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
r October S, 1889. 
equal speed. It may be noticed that where coal ashes are sprinkled 
over beds of Beans, Peas, &e., they are generally a few days earlier, 
as it is a well-known fact that dark-coloured bodies absorb heat 
more readily than those of a lighter hue.—A. G. Frameton. 
TUBEROSES. 
Where buttonholes, sprays, wreaths, or bouquets are in de¬ 
mand few flowers are more useful than those of the single and 
double Tuberose. The bulbs can generally be obtained by the last 
week in September or early in October, and when the flowers are 
required early the bulbs should be potted at once and pushed for¬ 
ward. For succession and late flowering they can be potted 
at intervals of a month until the beginning of May. 
An impression prevails that bottom heat is necessary for the 
successful culture of Tuberoses. This is erroneous, and maybe 
the means of preventing many growing them who might readily 
do so in an ordinary greenhouse. Bottom heat is unquestionably a 
great aid where the flowers are needed early in the season, but for 
successional plants it need not be applied, the only difference 
observable is the greater length of time required before the flower 
spikes are visible. 
The bulbs may be potted singly in 4I-incli pots, or three may be 
placed into 6-inch pots. Good drainage is essential, and the com¬ 
post must be pressed in moderately firm. They succeed admirably 
in two parts good loam, the other two parts being composed of leaf 
soil, sand, and decayed manure. Not more than one-sixth or 
seventh of the latter should be used, the sand being proportioned 
according to the texture of the loam. During the past year our 
plants have been grown in soil that had produced a crop of Cucumbers 
with the addition of sand and one-third leaf mould. When potting 
is completed the bulbs must be about three-quarters of an inch 
above the soil, leaving plenty of room for water. There are 
usually a number of eyes that produce suckers and give endless 
trouble after they start into growth. They are quickly removed 
with the point of a knife, and the time required before potting is 
labour well spent. When they are allowed to grow they rob the 
plant of support that would otherwise be concentrated in the pro¬ 
duction of the stem and flowers. It is important that the soil be 
in an intermediate state of moisture, as the application of water is 
injurious before root growth has commenced. 
If the pots can be plunged where the bottom heat ranges 
65° to 70°, and the temperature of the structure is 60°, the plants 
will quickly commence rooting and growing. We prefer to cover 
the surface of the soil and rim of the pot with the plunging 
material to arrest evaporation and obviate the necessity for water¬ 
ing. Where bottom heat cannot be given stand them on the sur¬ 
face of a bed, in the temperature named, and fill the space between 
the pots with cocoa-nut fibre refuse, covering the surface as advised 
for those plunged. Bulbs started during November, December, 
and January may be subjected to the same treatment. Those 
started afterwards will do very well in warm vineries or Peach 
houses. It is not wise to start them in greenhouses before the 
beginning of March, and in all cases plunge or cover the pots to 
p event the soil drying. Even in May, however, we prefer to 
start them in any structure where a littie heat is maintained, and 
then remove them to cold frames or a cool house. When they are 
growing and rooting freely they will bear without injury the cool 
airy treatment of the greenhouse or cold frames where the lights 
can be thrown off during fine warm days. Those required for 
flowering during the two last months of the year may be plunged 
outside in a sunny position, where they can remain until the 
middle of September. Amateurs who have only a greenhouse 
would do well to pot only two supplies of bulbs—namely, on the 
1st of March and on the 1st of the following month. 
The bulbs potted at the present time should have the plunging 
material removed from the surface of the soil as soon as active 
growth has commenced, and supply the plants with tepid water as 
they need it. They can have the advantage of bottom heat until 
the flower spike is visible, when they may be lifted out and stood 
upon the surface. After they reach this stage bottom heat affords 
no help, for the spikes are quickly developed and commence unfold¬ 
ing their flowers. Arrange them as near the glass as possible to keep 
the foliage dwarf and sturdy. If the flowers are only needed for 
cutting the plants can be packed closely together without the 
slightest injury. Those housed about the middle of September 
may be placed where they will enjoy a temperature that does not 
fall below 50°. In this position the flower spikes will quickly 
appear, and the plants may be introduced into a higher temperature 
as required. After October they should not be in a lower tempera¬ 
ture than 55°, which may be increased 5° to 10° by the time they 
commence opening their flowers. To show how accommodating 
the Tuberose plant is, it may be stated that late bulbs have been 
stood in vineries where the roof is covered with foliage, the house 
has been closed only when there has been a prospect of frost, and 
the plants have commenced producing their spikes freely. We have 
kept them in this position for at least a month without the slightest 
sign of injury. Plants started late and grown on under glass in a 
sunny position frequently produce the majority of their flowers 
early in September. During the season of growth abundance of 
water at the roots is needed, in fact the soil must never be allowed 
to become dry. Weak stimulants, whether the plants are early or 
late, are very beneficial. 
Only the other day we were told that the bulbs after flowering- 
could be dried and utilised another year. Such, however, is not the 
case. When strong bulbs have flowered they are useless for another 
season. But those which fail to flower and make a good growth 
may be ripened, and they will flower equally as well as imported 
bulbs. The old plants are certainly prolific in the production of 
young bulbs, but so far we have failed to see that their retention 
for future use is advisable, especially as they can be annually- 
purchased at very low rates. Probably also from the freedom by 
which they can be increased they will be cheaper in the future than 
they have been in the past. The variety known as Pearl is 
decidedly the best, but other varieties as well as the single form are 
by no means to be despised. The Pearl is n;t so tall as any other- 
variety known to me.'— Northerner. 
LIQUID MANURE FOR FRUIT TREES. 
I have rarely read an article treating of fruit trees which, 
especially as to those of full growth, contained such valuable advice* 
in so few words as that of Mr. Wright in your last number. It- 
ought not to be cursorily read and then forgotten, as is the fate of 
most advice of the kind, but remembered and carried into practice. 
Everyone whose trees are barely remunerative, especially in those 
districts which, less favoured than the counties of Hereford, 
Worcester, Gloucester, Somerset, Devon, and Kent, are not 
naturally well suited for growing fruit. Two conditions are 
eminently necessary to the perfect development of a tree : sufficient 
food in the soil in which it is growing, and sufficient moisture to 
enable the roots to avail themselves of that food. 
I have reason to believe that many fruit trees have not yet 
perfectly recovered from the extraordinary drought of 1887-8, 
which had probably quite as much share as the cold and wet 
summer of last year in preventing the proper development and 
ripening of the fruit buds, which ought to have given us fruit this 
year. Much of the success of a fruit crop, especially of Apples 
and Pears, depends on the perfect growth in the preceding year of 
the first foliage of the tree. This did not take place in 1888, as the 
drought commencing in 1887 continued until June, 1888, and the 
soil about the roots being dust dry for many feet down full 
development of the leaves was impossible. The blossom buds this 
year were quite as numerous as usual, but very small ; many of 
them before they swelled could scarcely be distinguished from 
wood buds. The blossoms were imperfect, and, notwithstanding an 
exceptionally favourable season free from frost, did not become 
fertilised and set their fruit. 
The application of liquid manure in the winter of 1887 would 
probably have remedied much of this mischief, and the plague of 
caterpillars, having larger and more fleshy leaves to feed on, would 
have left uninjured a larger proportion of them, and the maturation 
of its fruit buds and the further development of the tree would 
have been less injuriously affected. Even in an average season 
the leaves of a tree prevent the greater part of the summer 
showers from penetrating the ground occupied by its roots ; con¬ 
sequently it does not get as much moisture as it could use 
beneficially, its fruit does not swell or its growth mature so per¬ 
fectly as when its full requirements are satisfied. 
Fruit, especially of Apples and Pears, in the less favoured 
districts of the country, is comparatively small and stunted. This 
is obvious to anyone who at exhibitions compares the produce of 
the more and less favoured districts ; and even as to the former, if 
the Apples, for example, of Mr. Bunyard, grown in his Kentish 
orchard, be compared with those cultivated in his orchard houses, 
the beauty and size of the house-grown fruit are so far superior as 
to give the impression that they are varieties different from the 
same kinds grown in the open. These various degrees in quality 
prove conclusively that our fruit generally is capable of great 
improvement, and it must be worth while to make an attempt in 
that direction when some of the means are so easy. 
The majority of growers unfortunately are not cultivators. If 
they plant a fruit tree, and in fact any other tree, they leave it to 
take care of itself for ever after, doing nothing except sometimes 
in gardens where the limited space compels some pruning to keep 
