78 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 27, ISOO. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
l ittle & Ballantyne, Carlisle .—Lid of Floiver and Yvnetahlc Seeds, 
ISOO. 
M. de Reydellet, Valence (DrOtne), France .—Cotalogne of Chrys¬ 
anthemums. 
F. C. Heinemann, Erfurt .—Seed Catalogue, 1S90. 
T. S. Ware, Tottenham .—Catalogue of Flower Seeds, Chrysanthe¬ 
mums, Bahlias, and Gladioli, 1S90. 
W. Piercy, 89, West Eoad, Forest Hill, S.E. ; Dobie & Mason, C6, 
Demsgate, Manchester .—List of Reliahle Seeds, ISOO. 
Samuel Yates, 78, Shadehill, Manchester.— Catalogue of Seeds, 1890. 
William Bull, .oSfi, King’s Road, Chelsea .—Catalogue of Flower and 
Vegetable Seeds. 
William Baylor Hartland .—Year Booh of Seeds, 1S90. 
^,5* All correspondence should be directed either to “ The 
Editor” or to “The Publisher.” Letters addressed to 
Dr. Hogg or members of the staff often remain unopened 
unavoidably. We request that no one 'will write privately 
to any of our correspondents, as doing so subjects them to 
unjustifiable trouble and expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions 
relating to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should 
never send more than two or three questions at once. All 
articles intended for insertion should be written on one side of 
the paper only. AVe cannot reply to questions through the 
post, and we do not undertake to return rejected communica¬ 
tions. 
Vine Shoots and Vine Wood (A'. Y. Z .').—Please send particu¬ 
lars of the age and condition of the trees and border, and indicate the 
■treatment that has been pursued at the roots and otherwise ; also favour 
with similar information about the Vines from which you send wood, 
and state the extent of the cropping in both cases. It is necessary that 
we receive the information this week for a satisfactory reply being in- 
Tserted in our next issue. 
Cyclamen (.7. C. G .").—The flower and leaf of Cyclamen having been 
•sent in a dry box, without any packing, such as gieen leaves or grass, 
arrived completely withered and curled up, so that no estimate could be 
formed of the merits of the variety. The photograph you send repre¬ 
sents an admirably grown plant, which you say measures 2 feet 7 inches 
across, and on a day which you mention was bearing 226i flowers. The 
specimen is most creditable to the cultivator. 
Palms for the Isle of Man (A. B. Boug'as ').—You might try 
•Chammrops Fortunei, which would be the most likely to succeed. Pos- 
•sibly in sheltered places Phoenix dactylifera would be safe, at least it 
can, with many others, be grown out of doors in the summer. In the 
Kew Bulletin for December last you will find much useful information 
respecting the Palms grown in the Riviera. It can be obtained through 
booksellers or from Eyre & Spottiswoode, East Harding Street, Fleet 
Street, E.C., price 2d. 
Fruit Trees In Pots (A. 7?.).—Under the circumstances you 
describe we should have removed the trees from the house some time 
ago, and packed litter round and over the pots, and thatched this to 
prevent the heavy rains we think you have in your district saturating 
the soil. If the buds are still dormant we should remove the trees now, 
and sheltfcr them as you propose in severe weather. If you retard the 
flowering you may expect a better set of fruit under favourable atmo¬ 
spheric influences under glass. 
Peach Trees Unsatisfactory (Jdeni ).—In your case there can 
be little doubt that the premature falling of the buds is the result of 
immature wood. You would probably have done well by again lifting 
the trees before the leaves fell last autumn. Your object should be to 
encourage a mass of fibrous roots near the surface in firm calcareous 
soil, then by disposing the growths thinly the wood would have the best 
chance of ripening. You had better carry out your proposition of 
employing more fire heat, so that more air can be admitted and a drier 
atmosphere maintained, especially in the autumn. Fire heat is often 
of great benefit in the daytime after the fruit is gathered, and 
until the leaves change, with full ventilation. All the wood not 
required for the next crop should be cut out as soon as possible in the 
autumn after the fruit is removed from the trees. More than half the 
Peach trees in the kingdom are much overcrowded in the summer and 
autumn by retaining too many shoots when disbudding, and letting 
them remain till the leaves fall. You say your “ place is white with 
Snowdrops and Winter Aconites.” We suspect you mean white and 
yellow. I f you have any white Winter Aconites we shall be glid to see 
a few of the flowers. 
Taberneem>ntana Plo-wers Falling- (TI'. IF.).—Are you sure 
the soil h.as not become too dry at some time during the past month ? 
An hour’s dryness would cause the buds to fall, so also would a sudden 
change from a moist to a dry atmo.sphere ; and if you syringed freely 
and frequently you may have gone from one e.xtreme of moisture to the 
other by ceasing syringing altogether. Then, again, a sudden fall in 
temperature would prevent the flowers expanding. Try a night tempera¬ 
ture of 05®. 
Ventilating Three-quarter Span-roofed House (S'. G. Bf). 
—The house will be efficiently ventilated by having a board or flap 
ventilator 11 inches wide the whole length of the front, and is best 
either immediately below the sill or roof plate, or immediately above 
the intended inside ground level. It will answer very well as shown 
in your sketch. The top ventilation is best on the south side of the 
roof, the lights being 2 feet deep and the whole length of the house 
opening with crank and lever movement so as to faciliate operations. 
Annuals for Cutting (.7. 77).—In addition to those mentioned in 
your letter the following are grown for the purpose in question :— 
Sweet Peas, Cornflowers, Acrocliniums, Rhodanthes, Nigellas, Mignonette 
in varieties, Venus’s Looking Glass, Erysimums, Phlox Drummondi. 
Larkspurs, Dwarf Convolvul uses, Godetias, Helichrysums, Bartonia aurea. 
We should not consider it the best plan to sow these and some of those 
you name in hotbeds in February and transplant them twice as you 
describe. You, however, cannot do better than follow the practice you 
have found successful. We should sow several outside towards the 
end of March or in April for succession, thinning the plants early 
and sufficiently, and allow them to grow and flower without any trans¬ 
planting. 
Moss on Xia-wn (^G. 77).—Your lawn probably needs draining. 
There is no permanent cure for moss in lawns when the soil contains 
stagnant water. It is not at all uncommon for soot to do good on many 
lawns, then in two or three years for the moss to grow as luxuriantly as 
ever. On a suitable day scratch out all the moss you can with a small 
fine-toothed rake, then spread on the surface a mixture of equal parts of 
wood ashes, lime, and soil (sifted) nearly a quarter of an inc’n thick if 
you have enough. Do this now, and in about a month's time sow a 
renovating mixture containing White Clover seed, scratching it in, also 
sifting a little fresh soil over it, and draw a light clean roller over the 
surface. If this fails to accomplish the desired object, nothing will do 
so except draining. 
Fuebsias for Cutting {Suhseriber'). —We presume from your 
letter that you refer to varieties usually grown in greenhouses, that you 
desire to plant outdoors in summer, and take up in the autumn for 
preserving through the winter. This we have done for years, and the 
older the plants became the more satisfactory we found them. For the 
purpose in question we have found the old Rose of Castille one of the 
most useful, but a newer variety. Prince Alfred, is equally free, and has 
a darker corolla. Erecta Von Novelty is also good for your purpose. 
Those have white sepals. A good variety with white corolla is Flocon 
de Neige. Suitable dark varieties are less numerous. One of the best 
we have seen for vase decoration is Madame Thibaut; Crimson Globe is 
also good. You should plant some of the hardy border Fuchsias, and 
allow them to remain to be cut down by frost, as they will be in your 
district, and grow again in the spring. The most useful of these we 
have found in F. Riccartoni, though F. corallina, F. coccinea, F. gracilis, 
and F. discolor are worth growing for affording sprays for cutting. 
Vinery Arrangements (.7. Gl ).—The width being 22 feet, the 
height from the floor level in the centre of the house may be 13 feet as 
you propose—certainly not less than 11 feet. 1, A flow and return 
4-inch pipe all round the house, except doorway, will give sufficient heat, 
the house not being intended for forcing. 2, It is no disadvantage to 
have the Vine border inside, the only difference is that an inside border 
entails more labour in watering ; the roots being inside are under con¬ 
trol, and can be fed by surface dressings or liquid manure as required. 
As there is water at 3 feet depth it would be well to have drains to carry 
it off, at least there must be a drain with proper fall and outlet to take 
superfluous water away from the drainage, as Amines cannot be satisfac¬ 
tory in a water-logged border. In other respects your proposed method 
of forming the border is sound. If the border is made 4 feet wide and 
the old soil left in the unmade part it will not be necessary to put any¬ 
thing down to keep the roots from entering the unmade part, as the few 
the Vines make in it will not prejudice their growth when the other 
part of the border is made, through their being disturbed. The house 
being 20 feet long five Amines on each side will be a proper number. 
Half the Vines being Black Hamburghs, you may have Foster’s Seedling. 
Madresfield Court, Alnwick Seedling, Mrs. Pearson, and Lady Downe’s. 
The A^'ines being started early in March the Black Hamburgh will be 
ripe late in July or early in August, and the others will ripen succes- 
sionally afterwards—all by the middle or close of September, and afford 
a supply of Grapes up to the time of again starting the A’ines, or later ; 
but the Grapes must be cut and bottled not later than the new year, so 
as to allow of the A'ines being pruned, and have a few weeks’ rest. 
The best Vines to plant are those known as “ planting ” canes, which 
are usually one year old from the eye, being clean, healthy and well 
rooted. 
Fear not Bearing (.7. F- IF.).—As you say the tree was “ thoroughly 
root-pruned tv,’o years ago,” and your gardener thinks it does not make 
too much wood, "it is a little strange it does not produce flower buds 
on a wall facing west. Possibly it may do so this spring, as last 
summer was much more favourable for ripening the wood than the 
