December 6. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
away with speed, certainty, and by means of a per¬ 
manent character. Very few soils in Britain are so 
constituted but that the vine would he benchtted 
by some amount of drainage. This may seem an 
extreme assertion, hut we do not mean that the vine 
will grow and produce fruit in few soils, but that 
the drainage here alluded to, in combination with a 
proper texture of soil, will facilitate the ripening 
process; which, accelerated even two or three weeks 
only, will prove a matter of immense importance. 
Improvement of Staple. — Plenty of loam and 
manure were, at one period, considered by gardeners 
as indispensable in vine culture ; but the late Mr 
Clement Hoare was one of the first to break these 
trammels, and to show that the vine might be culti¬ 
vated in almost any ordinary material, or a com 
bination of them, provided it was thoroughly pene- 
tratable by the atmosphere. Thus we find him suc¬ 
cessful with such materials as charcoal, old plaster, 
lime rubbish, broken bricks, &c., with scarcely any 
soil: and from this circumstance there can be little 
doubt that the vine has a capacity to draw a great 
portion of its nourishment from the atmosphere, 
provided such can have a constant and free en¬ 
trance into the soil. We are not of those, however, 
who would advise the adoption of such maxims in 
full. Ingenious persons are apt to “ ride their 
hobby too hard;” and we consider Mr. Hoare’s 
practice very interesting, as being highly illustrative, 
and as opening a wider field for vine culture, inas¬ 
much as a portion of the materials used by him will, 
with proper management, combine with almost any 
soil that may happen to be on the spot; for the 
amateur, or cottager, cannot command turfy mate¬ 
rials at all times. 
Every one must he aware of the tendency in the 
vine to throw out stem roots in the damp atmosphere 
of our hothouses; also of the fact that vines have fre¬ 
quently been known to grow out of brick walls. We 
once knew a case in which the border being exces¬ 
sively rich, deep, and, of course, stagnant, the vine 
had attached itself firmly to the wall, and ramified 
along its surface like some orchidaceous plant to its 
block of wood, having few or no roots in the border, 
from which it seemed to turn with a decided disre¬ 
lish. Again ; we once knew a Black Hamburgh vine 
planted in the bark of the tan-pit where pines had 
been removed; the pit was all tan, or nearly so, and 
this Hamburgh proved a splendid tree, hearing pro¬ 
fusely first-rate grapes. This was about thirty-five 
years since, and occurred in a small house at Mel¬ 
rose Hall, then the seat of Daniel Rucker, Esq., at 
West Hill, Wandsworth, but now, or lately, belong¬ 
ing to his grace the Duke of Sutherland. 
Here, then, we have extreme cases; the one vine 
growing altogether in stones, charcoal, &c., where 
decomposing animal and vegetable manures would, 
at first sight, appear to be totally absent; the other, 
a vine growing entirely in old tan, which was little 
else. It must be remembered, however, that the same 
results would not have followed if the tan had been 
out doors; it would, in that case, very soon liavo be¬ 
come so sodden and soured that the air could with 
difficulty enter, and then good-by to farther success. 
The heat of the atmosphere in doors, together with 
cautious watering, kept the tan always mellow. 
Manures. —These we may at once class under two 
distinct heads, the animal and the mere vegetable 
manures. Wo have before said that the vine may bo 
cultivated without them; let us not, however, be un¬ 
derstood as recommending their total disuse. In all 
cases a certain portion is useful if judiciously applied, 
127 
and, in many cases, they become particularly neces¬ 
sary. Such a case is when vines become exhausted 
through over-bearing, or through age; also, when 
the vine is growing in a very limited space, covering 
houses in the vicinity of our towns ; in which latter 
case liquid manures, at certain periods, are of much 
service. The use of manure mixed with the soil of 
the border depends on the amount of vegetable or 
other organic matter which the soil contains. Thus 
a free, sandy, loamy turf, from an old pasture, is com¬ 
plete in itself for vine culture, provided the subsoil 
of the border is sound. What we would here direct 
csjiecial attention to in the use of manures is, their 
application as top-dressing, in combination with a 
shallow soil; which, as before observed, we regard as 
forming the foundation principle in the perfecting or 
ripening of the wood of fruits from hot climates; a 
principle of so much importance that success can 
never be attained unless it be carried out. 
Ripening the wood, then, signifies that the plant 
should attain its full maturity (in regard of the leaf) 
which nature has ordained; that is to say, that the 
leaf shall have been fully developed, have gone 
through its due course of elaborations, and have 
taken its autumnal hue, by the influence of solar 
heat and light. The sure consequence of this is, that 
the buds will be plump and firm, and will develop 
in the ensuing spring with a freshness and freedom 
unknown to ill-ripened buds. The blossoms will, 
moreover, set for fruit with more certainty, and the 
fruit itself swell in a much more perfect manner. 
Another point is, that the wood of tender fruits, such 
as the fig, the peach, the vine, &c., will be in a much 
better position to endure a severe winter. 
We have now taken a survey of the general first 
principles on which successful vine culture may be 
said to rest, and we propose shortly to enter into a 
detail of the proceedings necessary in vine-planting 
and culture. We have written thus much to pave 
the way to a broad consideration of the question in 
all its bearings. 11. Errington. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
My notes on late flowering plants in the flower- 
garden ended with those on a beautiful geranium 
called Lady Mary Fox. The next one I shall men¬ 
tion is Diadematum, which, with another one called 
Diadematum rubescens, are fully as good and showy 
in beds as Unique and Lady Mary Fox. These two 
arc very old, and were the first of this class with 
which I began to make flower-beds in 1812, so that 
1 am comparatively a beginner in this branch of 
flower-gardening; others, whom I could name, 
having, for more than twenty years, paid more or 
less attention to them. These Diadematums are 
dwarf plants, but literally covered with their gay red¬ 
dish-pink blossoms all the season, and after they are 
taken up and potted at the end of the season they 
flower on for a long time, Indeed, of all the hybrid- 
perpetual geraniums, these are the last to cease 
blooming. For this merit, and perhaps a little pre¬ 
judice in their favour as old acquaintances, they 
are my own peculiar pets; they are all but barren, 
yet I make a fresh trial to cross them every season ; 
and once, about three years since, I succeeded in ob¬ 
taining one seed between Diadematum rubescens and 
Priory Queen, one of the best lute flowering pelargo¬ 
niums for the open borders wo yet possess. The 
pollen of the Priory Queen, one would think, ought 
to throw strength and stature into an offspring of the 
