458 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Juna-ity 1887. 
down by frost, should give them the support and shelter of a wall 
or wood fence. The position should invariably be exposed fully to 
the sun, and the wall may either be round the garden, the front, or 
end of a dwelling house, or anywhere else. Those with large 
walled-in gardens will find many positions for their Tomato plants, 
between the fruit trees, on low walls, in front of glass houses ; and 
amateurs may always utilise the walls of their dwelling houses. It 
is not for the want of sheltered, sunny, and suitable positions that 
Tomato culture in the open air is not universal. We annually 
plant out many dozens of plants at this time. They begin to ripen 
their fruit early in August, and from then until November we cut 
some hundredweights of finely swelled grandly coloured flavoured 
fruit. In former years our plants have been planted chiefly be¬ 
tween fruit trees on the walls, but this year we have devoted a wall 
50 yards in length to them. It is wired, the plants are placed at 
the bottom, the shoots will be tied to the wires as they grow, and I 
feel quite sure the ‘crop will be one of the most pleasing and re¬ 
munerative we could introduce. 
In planting no great preparation need be made for them. They 
must have a moderately rich soil, and as a rule the ordinary soil of 
the garden will suit them with the addition of some manure. A 
soil that will grow good Cauliflowers or Peas will always produce 
fine Tomatoes. They should be planted with balls of soil attached 
to the roots, if possible, and water them well soon afterwards. 
They may not show any signs of growth for a week or so, but when 
once they begin growing they will go on freely. I have known 
Tomato plants to be cai’efully reared and rightly planted, in fact 
in proper condition for bearing a first-rate crop ; but they did not, 
as they were neglected after being planted, and this is liable to 
occur. The labour of attending to a few dozen plants is trifling, 
but it is giving them timely attention that is the secret of success. 
It never answers to allow them to become a mass of superfluous 
growths, and then cut all away except those which are bearing 
fruit. There will not be much fruit found on such plants ; the 
cutting in will check the plant severely, and they will probably fail; 
but if one, or two leading stems at the most, are taken up from 
each root, and the side shoots are carefully taken off, they will 
never suffer from bearing superfluous growth or its removal, and I 
regard this frequent pinching of the side shoots a most important 
point in open air Tomato culture. The plants always grow very 
dwarf or compact. They begin to bear fruit quite close to the 
ground, and by exposing the flowers and fruit they grow fast ana 
soon gain maturity. The point should never be taken out of the 
leading shoots so long as they can be taken upwards, and those who 
take the ends out of the leaders under the impression that they are 
improving them in any way make a mistake. Give them clear 
water when necessary, and until the fruit has formed in consider¬ 
able quantity, then give them abundance of liquid manure. As to 
which is the best variety for open air culture, I may say they are 
all good when properly treated, but in cold districts preference 
should be given to Laxton’s open air variety.—M. 
THE AURICULA. 
MR. W. BOLTON AT HOME. 
Amongst those northern amateurs who have made their mark 
as successful growers and raisers of Auriculas, not only did he this 
year carry off the Turner Memorial prize, but he also gained other 
prizes, and exhibited and obtained prizes for seedlings of his own 
aising, and I therefore think that notes of a visit I paid to him the 
other day may not be uninteresting, especially as not only did I see 
his collection, but also had a talk with him on various matters 
connected with our favourite flower, and may thus perhaps meet 
the wants of your correspondent in a recent number of the 
Journal. 
Mr. Bolton’s collection I have known and seen the progress of 
for some years. When I first saw it it was a small one, and was 
contained in a small house in a backyard in Mersey Street, War¬ 
rington. When I next saw it it was in Latchford Road, a little 
way out of the town, and now he has removed to Stockton Heath, 
about two miles off, where, in purer air, and with larger surround¬ 
ings, lie is able to carry out not only his love for this flower, but 
also for other things connected with horticulture. One can always 
learn something, even in unlooked-for ways, if we keep our eyes 
open, and so here I saw, for the first time, the sweet-scented and 
pretty Cape Pondweed (Aponogeton distachyon) grown in pans in 
a greenhouse. The house being badly ventilated, Mr. Bolton had 
put in several large pans of it, about 18 inches across, in order that 
they might give out some moisture by evaporation, so as to take 
away from the excessive dryness of the atmosphere. They answered 
a twofold purpose, for they were in flower all the winter, and 
supplied him plenty of cut blooms. 
But to return to the Auricula. Mr. Bolton has considerably 
increased his collection, but so far as named sorts are concerned, it 
is nothing like as large as many collections I have seen (Mr. Wood- 
head’s for exampleX. for like most of those who grow seedlings, he 
gives more attention to them, and belie wes he will raisa some that 
will surpass those we already have. He has the oracft kinds, of 
course, but not in any great quantity.. He still belisv'es George 
Lightbody is unsurpassed, but not unsurpassable, as no doubt with 
a more defined body colour it would be a’ more beautiful] flower, but 
still it will take a good deal of beating. Acme), amongst whites, 
-while very good, has the fault of two colours in the body colour. 
Of seifs, he considers Duke of Argyl'e the finest in colour, but 
Heroine (Horner) the best in quality that has- ye it been raised. 
By-the-by, I hear that there is a probability of this- being let out 
this year. Of green edges, he is inclined to give the palm to, 
Simonite’s Rev. F. D. Horner, and to John Sinionibe amongst the. 
whites. Frank Simonite he agrees with me i» considering a, 
defective flower, owing to its colourless eye; ia fact it has too. 
much of the Champneys style in it.. It seems, almost impossible,, 
as Ben Simonite once said to me, to get this bright purple-coloured! 
flower with a yellow or orange eye. Richard Headly had beem 
fine with him this year, as it has been, I believe everywhere. In. 
my own collection it was certainly the best off all the grey edges.. 
It was not a Lightbody or Lancashire Hero year, and hence, 
perhaps to some extent the ground of your correspondent’s obser¬ 
vations. The Auriculas were all in a house facing the storth £ 
some maturing seed, and some filling up their growth after 
blooming. 
With regard to potting. Mr. Bolton thinks that it is a mistake 
to repot before July. His idea is, that after the plants have done 
flowering, they commence rapidly to form the plant for the follow- 
ing year, and that the heart then fills up with the new growth. Iff 
they are repotted, then this growth is checked, and that therefore 
it is better to wait until July, when, if repotted, the plants will 
begin to push roots, especially about the centre of the plant, where 
he is more anxious that it should be done, instead off pushing out 
to the sides of the pot. He uses glazed pots, as they necessitate 
less watering, and are more easily kept clean, so that the sneers 
with which some meet the use of glazed pots as opposed to all 
scientific theories, only shows that practice is a good deal better 
than theory in many cases, and in this amongst the number. Like 
many successful growers he has given up the old-fashioned practice of 
top-dressing, -which used to be considered one of the most essential 
and important parts of Auricula culture. Like most growers, too, 
he has discarded all the nostrums wherewith the poor plants used 
to be physicked in former days, and altogether I feel that the older 
race of florists have been considerably taken down in these days; 
the older varieties have given way to newer ones; the old practices 
have been abandoned, and simplicity has become more the character 
of Auricula culture. In potting he believes in potting firmly, and 
in placing some material over the broken potsherds, so as to prevent 
the soil being washed down into the drainage—moss, spent hops, 
the more fibrous pieces of the loam, are all useful for this purpose— 
in fact anything that will keep the drainage clear. 
With regard to that nuisance to the Auricula grower, autumnal 
blooming, he does not think that the time of repotting makes any 
difference -whatever in its frequency or otherwise. He believes it 
to belong to particular varieties, and do what you will, some of 
them will b’oom in the autumn; but he says that if the hloom 
is nipped off as soon as it appears, the plant, if vigorous, will 
bloom again in the spring, and he mentioned one case of a plant 
that had done so, which was one of his winning flowers this 
year. There seems to me to be reason in this, and it may thus 
comfort those who are troubled by it. With regard to that pest the 
wpolly aphis, he estimates its power of harm at a very low ebb. 
He says that if you can prevent it from attacking the collar of the 
plant you have nothing to fear from it; indeed he is of opinion 
that where it only attacks the roots, it not only does no harm, but 
good, as it keeps up the root action by inducing them to throw out 
fresh fibres. I cannot quite see this, but I have certainly learned 
less to dread it. When in repotting I discover any of it, I get rid 
of it as well as I can, and wash the roots well. A solution of fir 
tree oil is a very good thing to use, and after that they should be 
washed in clean water. 
In repotting, Mr. Bolton is careful to look after the tap roots of 
the better and scarcer varieties. All Auricula growers know that 
the main root of the Auricula runs down and forms a large central 
root or carrot, which is oftentimes the cause of disease and loss, 
but it will often be found that there are incipient shoots which are 
the precursors of offsets if properly treated. His plan is to cut 
this off, leaving a sufficient number of healthy roots for the nourish¬ 
ment of the plant. The tap is then planted in a small pot, and a 
bellglass placed over it. This induces the shoots to push out, and 
in the course of a little while will show r themselves as offsets. When 
