no 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 7 , 1889. 
is a dense tuft of bright orange stamens, a fine relief to the rest of the 
flower. The plant is easily raised from seeds, and thrives in a rich sandy 
loam, provided it be not too dry. 
PLANTING YOUNG VINES. 
The time for planting young Vines is once more drawing near. 
Those who planted last season, and intend doing so again this, will 
have noted how they have succeeded, and try to avoid any errors 
that may have occurred. That there are mistakes made in planting 
I am quite aware. I have heard it said that there are more Vines 
ruined during the first year of their establishment than afterwards, 
and I am inclined to believe it is so. 
I will describe two houses of Vines which were planted last year, 
both being in the same district, not one mile distant from each 
other. The Vines in No. 1 house look worse at the present time 
than they did when planted last May. Those in No. 2 house, which 
were planted last February, have done better than was expected. 
It was not the fault of the Vines in No. 1 house, but the manage¬ 
ment which was wrong. It is a place where the owner will have 
everything done in his own way, and the gardener bears the blame 
if anything goes wrong. This ought not to be ; a man would be 
much better off as a labourer than holding such a situation, the 
gardener in this case being quite competent to manage the place if 
not interfered with. But to return to the Vines. The border 
could not have been in a better situation, being high, facing south, 
with the ground receding naturally from it, and the drainage good ; 
but in the formation of the border itself the first error occurred—soft 
fibreless soil was employed, with a too free use of artificial manures ; 
in fact, the whole border was made into one mass of sticky poisonous 
soil, in which no Vine roots could live or enter. The Vines were 
good, they were turned out of their pots, the soil shaken away, 
and the roots washed ; then they were planted in the border 
much too deep, and the canes left nearly their entire length, the 
border being inside and out. If I mistake not, Mr. Bardney some 
time ago condemned in the Journal the washing of Vine roots when 
being planted, and I feel I cannot too strongly support his views of 
the subject. The washing of at least 90 per cent, of all ordinary 
plant roots should be avoided ; it is not necessary unless disease be 
present. The Vines were shaded much too heavily, and the house 
kept too close. What are the results ? weak spindly growth, full 
of pith, and only 2 feet or so long, instead of reaching to the top of 
the house. 
I will now describe the Vines in house No. 2. The border is an 
inside one, the situation flat, no means of thorough drainage, 
the subsoil being pure red clay, yet the Vines have done well 
and been much praised by all who have seen them. The border 
is little more than 2 feet deep, the clay not being distuibed 
more than was necessary ; brick ends and clinkers were placed in 
the bottom, and green turves, grass side down, came next. The 
border was composed of roughly chopped turves, old mortar rub¬ 
bish, and a sprinkling of soot, no manure of any kind being used in 
its formation. The drainage was effected in the following manner. 
The width of the house (span roof) is 18 feet, the borders for the 
Vines being placed at each side in the usual way, 4 feet wide, and 
which will be added to each season till both meet. A well, a little 
deeper than the Vine borders, was made under the pathway in the 
centre of the house, and a few large drain pipes connected the Vine 
borders with the well. Occasionally this well can be examined, 
and if the water is higher than the drain pipes it is then known 
that water lies at the bottom of the border, and it can be emptied 
at once. So far water has not given any trouble. 
The young Vines were planted in February, the roots not being 
disturbed more than to spread out some of the largest, which were 
matted around the ball of soil and covered within a few inches of 
the surface, on which a layer of fresh horse manure was placed, and 
the whole border thoroughly watered. The canes were shortened 
to within about 3 feet from the ground. The Vines were allowed 
to start into growth very slowly with only the aid of sun heat, on 
hot-water pipes being put in the house till the following autumn. 
Even if the house had been heated, fires would have been very 
sparingly used, as autumn is the time when plenty of heat is 
required to ripen the wood. Ample ventilation on all favourable 
occasions was given, weak liquid manure supplied in quantity, 
and a light dressing or two of artificial manure applied when the 
Vines were in full growth. By the month of August some had 
short-jointed canes reaching to the top of the house, with stout 
foliage like leather. The past autumn being dull and cold, fire 
heat was applied with plenty of ventilation, the results in this 
case being strong, short jointed, well ripened canes nearly to the 
top of the house. 
I am not advocating planting in February and not in May, but 
simply recording facts, as I believe success lies more in forming a 
suitable border and judicious management than in having any 
exact date of planting. Shading may be necessary during the 
hottest part of the summer, but it should be light. Building 
up good strong growth from the first will obviate the necessity 
for much shading. Also, those who have to plant young Vines 
in old houses with high fronts, would do well to cut the canes down 
to the bottom of the rafters and dress at once with styptic or any¬ 
thing which stops bleeding, or rub off the eyes down to the 
required height when growth has fairly begun. The lower the Vines 
are cut down (in reason) the first year the stronger will be the 
foundation laid for future success. — G. Garmer, Amberwood 
Gardens, Hants, 
THE NEW WHITE TEA. ROSE. 
1 AM glad to see that Mr. Prince’s new Rose, Souvenir de S. A. 
Prince, is put into commerce. I saw it at Reigate last year, and 
formed a very high opinion of it. If the colour stands, which there is- 
no reason to doubt, it ought to be the best white we have, and of 
English growth. It was shown at Reigate in two large boxes side by 
side with Souvenir d’un Ami, the Rose from which it sported. Every¬ 
one knows how admirably robust and free growing the parent is, and 
how large in size. S. A. Prince, both in strong glossy foliage and stout 
pure white petals, seemed really almost an advance on it. I never saw 
it in such form again. It is impossible for a quite new Rose to be 
shown even by a nurseryman always at its best, but at Reigate, on 
June 30th, 1888, there was but one opinion as to the importance of the 
acquisition.—A. C. 
THE PESTS OF THE ROSE SEASON. 
(Continued from page 85 .) 
The Journal has already heard of my long-continued contest with 
earwigs. Immediately after despatching my letter of July 19th on the 
subject, I was talking to a friend about it, and as he seemed rather 
incredulous, I went and cut two old H.P. Rose blooms at random, and 
counted the earwigs in them. Oddly enough, the numbers were the 
same, twenty-nine in each Rose. We destroyed them by catching then* 
in hollow stalks and blowing them into water. Although we thus killed 
an average of about 400 a day for three months, and the supply seemed 
inexhaustible, we certainly did seem to keep them under so that they 
did very little damage. Chrysanthemums, with a hollow stalk to each 
pot, seemed quite uninjured. Tea Roses, especially those on walls, 
suffered the most. Nevertheless, I quite think we were indebted to the 
unusually cold and wet summer for an escape from a veritable plague. 
I shall begin putting out the stalks quite early next year, and have 
saved a good quantity for this purpose, as they are not easy to obtain at- 
midsummer. 
I am not an entomologist, but the earwig seems to me to be a queer 
beast from what I do know of him. Still, I am not prepared to use the 
same terms of description as the celebrated traveller, who, in writing 
of a tribe of savages, under the head of “ Manners and Customs,” said, 
“ Manners none, customs disgusting,” for earwigs, though possibly 
deficient in manners, have some customs that are rather peculiar than 
disgusting. The name earwig is said to be a corruption of ear-wing, 
from the wings (for the perfect insects have wings) being of the shape 
of ears. The name, however, has caused people to think in France and 
Germany, I believe, as well as in England, that the creature has an 
insane desire to penetrate into the human ear. This is a fallacy, though 
its habit of running into any dark hole when disturbed has perhaps- 
given additional colour to this idea. 
The wing is wonderfully folded under the very short wing-cover. 
Occasionally, on blowing them into the water, the puff of air in the: 
tube of the stalk got under the cover, and the creature fell into the 
water with one very serviceable wing expanded. Of course, an earwig 
is only like all other beetles in refusing to use his wings to help him to- 
escape. Every insect-eating bird looks upon him as a tit-bit. Chickens- 
will pick them up as fast as you can supply them ; and a robin always 
waited upon me when I appeared with my pails of collected stalks, and 
refused to depart without his share. From this we may understand why 
an earwig is so anxious to find a sheltering cranny when the dawn 
arrives, or if disturbed in the daytime. An entomological friend tells 
me they do not fly even at night, unless it be warm and moonlight ; so- 
that our friends, the bats, do not often get a fair chance ; but they 
must have had one or two gay times last summer. 
A decidedly peculiar custom of Madame Earwig is that she sits on 
her eggs. I am not entirely dependent on my entomological friend for 
this queer statement, for twice at least during last summer while care¬ 
fully removing the earth from the collar of a Briar for budding I 
disturbed an “old hen ” on her nest under a little clod. I suppose she 
sits on them for purposes of protection, in the same way that a certain 
