312 
TI-IE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[February 13. 
haps a sharper angle would be well. Place your flue about a foot from 
I the front wall, have a good cavity all around it, and take care that the 
surface of the flue is, at least, a yard distant from the vine stems. Make 
your front wall on arches. Plant the vines inside in materials described 
in early numbers of The Cottage Gardener, but take care that they 
be allowed to ramble freely through the front arches. Remember that 
thorough drainage and a free and open soil is essential; stagnation of 
any kind is sure to prove fatal to your plan. You want to embrace other 
objects in your vinery, and so should we. Write again, and give us a 
definite idea as to what period of the year, and for how long, you require 
grapes. We will then undertake to settle the rest. Say also if you have 
1 other glass, and what your general aims may be. 
I Neglected Pear-tree ( Philocarpus ).—If your tree is gross, prune 
I away all wild-looking foreright shoots, but tie or nail down a great many 
I of the more moderate and shorter-jointed ones. Unless you are deter- 
j mined on symmetry, let your large branch ramble away, although poach- 
j ing on his neighbour’s manor ; that is, as long as he is able to “pay his 
rent.” The cutlers will give you the best information about rusty knives, 
albeit we do know that if seldom used a slight dressing of sweet oil now 
and then is a good preservative. The age of cherry stocks is not alone 
the criterion as to grafting. Graft them as soon as they are as thick as 
a strong goose quill. The old May Duke is a capital sort for a half 
standard. A half standard has about three to four feet of stem. A 
dwarf standard is, we conceive, a misnomer. Such a term, we conceive, 
may be applied to fruit-trees grown as bushes ; that is to say, without a 
length of naked stem. Gooseberries do not usually make tap-roots ; by 
all means encourage surface-roots. 
Tulips in Holland ( Sister Anne). —You would be sadly disap¬ 
pointed if you went to Holland to see a fine display of the best kinds of 
tulips, such as are emphatically called florists’ flowers. You would see, 
it is true, immense quantities of such things as double and single Van 
Tliols, Tournesols, Pottebaakers, and such like ; but you would look in 
vain for such flowers as the Semper Augustus and Viceroy , for which 
such immense sums were given during the Tulipomania. If you desire 
to sec the finest sight in tulip culture, you must visit a place much 
nearer home, Mr. Groom’s establishment, at Clapham Rise. There you 
may behold a truly magnificent collection of the finest tulips in the 
world. If, however, you are hard of belief, visit the ancient city of 
Haerlem about the first week in May, and inquire for the flower-gardens 
of P. Van Velson and G. Byvoet, two of the greatest growers of tulips in 
that country. 
Forced Bulbs (G. A. F.). —Your hyacinths, tulips, and crocuses that 
have been forced, will be of no use for that purpose next year. The 
hyacinths are fit for nothing but to plant in the borders next year. 
Place such as have been forced in pots, in a cold frame, and give plenty 
of water, till the leaves begin to turn yellow; then place the pots on one 
side out of doors in a shady place. As soon as the leaves are all dead, 
turn them out of the pots, dry the bulbs, remove the dead roots and 
leaves, and in autumn plant them out in the borders to flower there. 
Hyacinths that have bloomed in glasses are still more injured, as the 
water does not add any fresh coats to the bulbs. As soon as they have 
done flowering, take them out of the water, and lay them in a shady 
border, covering the bulbs and roots with soil and protecting them from 
frost. When the leaves are all yellow and dead, take the bulbs up, and 
treat like the others mentioned above. Tulips and crocuses must be 
treated in a similar manner the first year after forcing, and the year 
after should be planted out in a bed of rich earth rather thinly. Here 
they will recover the effects of forcing, and two years afterwards may be 
forced again. But these bulbs are so cheap now, that it is scarcely worth 
while to be at all this trouble to bring them round again. They serve 
well to ornament the flower border, but we recommend fresh roots from 
Holland for forcing every year. 
Forced Roses {Ibid). —Your perpetual roses in pots will answer well 
for forcing again next year, if you take off all the llower-buds as they 
appear in the summer. Indeed they, like all other shrubs, whether 
flowering or otherwise, will acquire a habit of flowering early. Nip off 
all flower-buds that may appear during the summer and autumn, and 
place the plants in a cool, but not tree-shaded, place, so that no trees 
should drip upon them. Behind a north wall, or the north of a low 
hedge, is a good place for them. Repot in autumn in rich soil, and 
prune early. 
Zephyranthes Grandiflora (F. //.).—This is a bulbous plant of 
! considerable beauty. It may be potted now in sandy peat and leaf 
| mould, two parts of the former to one of the latter ; put three bulbs in 
I a 5^-inch pot, and place them on a shelf in the greenhouse, watering 
1 moderately at first, but as the leaves advance give more abundantly. 
When the leaves begin to turn yellow put the pots in a cool place where 
no frost can reach them, and in the spring repot again, when it is pro¬ 
bable your plant will flower. 
Hotbed for Cuttings {Ibid), —Procure a quantity of fresh stable 
litter, throw it on a heap and dash some water amongst it; turn it over 
frequently, and when it is uniformly moistened and in good heat make 
it into a bed the size of the frame ; beat it well with the fork as it is made 
layer upon layer : 2^ to 3 feet high will make a good bed. Set the frame 
upon it, and tilt the lights behind, to let off the rank steam. In a fort¬ 
night the heat will be moderated, then cover the surface with some coal- 
ashes, or sawdust, or sand, and it is then ready for the cuttings. 
Goldfussia Anisophylla not Flow ering {E. A. P.). —Your plant 
is of a straggling habit, and does not flower. You do not state how you 
I have grown it, nor the condition its roots are in. It is probably pot-bound, 
and will never flower so long as it is so. Cut it down and give no water 
for a week, then turn it out of the pot, reduce the ball, trim off part of the 
roots, and repot in the same sized pot in a compost of loam, peat, leaf- 
mould, and sand; keep it in the stove all the summer, pinching off the 
ends of the shoots two or three times to make it bushy. Keep it rather 
cool during autumn and the early part of winter, and there is no doubt it 
will flower freely next spring. Put in a few cuttings to raise a new plant 
or two to succeed the old one when it becomes weak and straggling again. 
It is worth all the trouble. 
Cottage Gardeners’ Dictionary (G. Haygood). —The December, 
January, and February parts have all appeared regularly. Your book¬ 
seller is in fault. 
Sugar Beer (S. J. Y.).—The hops should be put in when the water 
is boiling, and be boiled only five minutes. A temperate place—40° or 
50°—is that in which the fermentation should proceed. 
Storing Potatoes (J. B. C.). —We are glad you find our plan of 
storing in alternate layers with dry earth so effectual. Hay does not 
answer—it does not exclude the air, and is apt to become damp and 
ferment. Keep the mulch over the roots of your newly-planted fruit- 
trees ; it will exclude the drying winds of spring and the drought of 
summer. 
Heating Greenhouse by Gas (W. B.). —We have a small gas stove, 
merely to exclude frost from a greenhouse, and it answers very well. It 
is a small circular stove, with one Argand burner, and an iron tube 
instead of glass round the burner. A tin chimney carries off all the 
noxious gases, and the air to support the flame is supplied from without- 
side by a pipe passing into the bottom of the stove. 
Name of Plant {A Florist). —Your plant is Pelargonium echinu- 
tum , from the Cape of Good Hope, and requires the same treatment as 
the Ixias, and as you have given to it in part. Under the best treatment 
it is a shy bloomer ; it will grow in any kind of light porous compost, and 
your own seems as good as any. We find plants from three to five years 
old the easiest to bloom, and we think a dry shelf, or under the stage in a 
greenhouse, is rather against it. About the end of May we turn the pot 
on one side under a south wall, to take its chance till the end of Sep- i 
tember, then keep it in a cool part of the greenhouse all the winter, with 
very little water till the end of January, and only once in ten days through 
the spring. It flowers in April, and a very pretty whitish flower it is, on I 
long footstalks. It will also force to flower in February, but the plant is 
not willing to flower for three or four seasons afterwards, 
Flower-beds ( C . T. J.). —For standard Fuchsias, take Coralina as 
the best, then Epsii, Ricartonii , and Ezoniensis —all red ones; and if you 
want white ones, Sir Henry Pultinger and Cassa?idra are as good as any 
of the newer ones for standards; all the plants you name, and ninc- 
tenths of the present race, will do very well in your border 18 inches wide 
and 2 feet deep of good soil. Ranunculuses and Anemones are not im¬ 
proved by “good stable manure,” and may be spoiled by too much of it. 
Keep the manure for the summer crop, and what remains of it will be 
just the thing for the “florists* roots.” 
Flower-garden {Naval Officer). —Mr. Beaton commenced his flower- 
garden lists from October 1849, and through the following winter and 
spring he described all the best in our gardens. Read his remarks on 
these before we trouble him any farther on the subject. , 
Bees {Rev. T. II. Roper ).— We are glad that you are about to demon- ; 
strate to your parishioners the vast superiority of the depriving system. 
You must begin by buying swarms in May or June. Use Payne’s hives. I 
Mr. Payne will have you supplied if you write to him. Do not have a \ 
shed, but shelter your bees with a milk-pan. It may be placed upon : 
the uppermost hive with safety, though there be three or four hives one | 
above the other. If you have an early swarm, and the season be good, ! 
you will require both the large and small hive of Mr. Payne. Guide ! 
comb is necessary. See The Cottage Gardener, page 281 of present 
volume. 
Everlasting Sweet Peas (. Hudibras). —Sow them an inch deep in ! 
the open border at the commencement of April. They require no par¬ 
ticular culture. Weeding and supporting includes the whole. 
* Earthing-up Potatoes {II. W. S.). —We shall be much obliged by 
your notes on this subject. Thanks for the offer of seed, but no more 
required. 
Mildew on Vines (.4 Subsci'iber , Lewis N. B.). —Dust the affected 
parts unremittingly with flowers of sulphur as soon as the mildew is 
detected, and dress the stems and branches of the vines with a paint of 
clay and sulphur. 
Geranium Leaves {G. F .).—Remedy for your diseased geranium 
leaves! Why, keep out the frost from vour greenhouse; they have been 
destroyed by it. 
Passion-flowers ( Philocarpus). —You may cut off large branches 
of these if absolutely necessary ; but it is much better to unnail them, 
and retrain those crossing each other. The eggs you enclosed are those 
of the Lackey Moth. 
Ferns for Glass-case (F. Z.).—You will find a list at page 308 of 
vol. 4. We cannot recommend tradesmen. Write to any florist who j 
advertises with us. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester Iligh-street, I 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published by William ' 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of ! 
Christchurch, City of London.—February 13th, 1851. 
