THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— August 26, 1856. 385 
CULTURE OF HOYA BELLA. 
This charming plant, which lias boon compared to an 
“ amethyst set in frosted silver,” is not generally well 
grown. When attempted to bo cultivated in pots in 
places whore closo attention to proper soil, heat, potting, 
and watering cannot be given to it, the growth is far 
from satisfactory. In fact, under but middling manage¬ 
ment its life is short, and death overtakes it before its 
beauties are developed to any extent. It is true, at the 
great exhibitions round London wo sco large, healthy, 
well-flowered plants, many of them three feet high, and 
two or more feet through; but in many places in the 
country such fine plants are not to be found. In former 
papers on the culture of this really beautiful plant, I 
have given directions for its culture both in pots and in 
baskets, for either of which modes, if well done, it is 
admirably suitable. Notwithstanding this, in my various 
travels and visits to gardens, I very seldom meet with 
even a tolerably well-grown and well-bloomed plant. 
When I ask the question, How does it happen that your 
Iloya bella does not thrive? tlio answer is, “ Oh, it is a 
miffy plant, and when it becomes of any size it dies off 
at the root, and in baskets it does not thrive well.” 
Now, as this is one of our best lately-introduced plants, 
1 am truly sorry to find its culture, with few exceptions, 
so unsuccessful. No doubt its roots are tender, and 
soon killed by too much water, and if too little is given, 
the plant will not grow freely or bloom well. This 
problem, then, of growing it well with ordinary care, 
seemed to me, till lately, extremely difficult to solve. I 
say lately, and the reason for this remark has drawn 
from me these somewhat lugubrious statements of the 
present state of Hoya bella in the country. 
I am happy to inform our readers that I have dis¬ 
covered a certain method of growing it successfully, but 
I claim no merit in the matter, the credit belonging to 
Mr. Acornb, gardener to O. March, Esq., of Beech 
Grove, near Leeds, in Yorkshire. I visited that place 
this summer, and saw a beautiful plant of it well grown 
and abundantly bloomed. Every shoot had many 
bunches of flowers, and the foliage was as healthy as 
possible. The anxious cultivator who reads this will be 
ready to cry out, How is it done? Can I do the same as 
well? I answer, Yes, and this is the way. 
Procure a good plant of Iloya Bidwillii, and inarch, 
or graft, a branch of Hoya bella upon it. The former 
species is a strong grower, and imparts its strength to 
its weaker relative, and the consequence is, a stronger 
growth and a more hardy plant. The ono l saw was two 
feet high, regularly branched on every side, the longest 
branches at the point, near the insertion of the graft, 
gradually shortening up to the top. Sufficient space 
was left between the branches to allow room for the 
i foliage and the clusters of blooms to be seen; thus the 
i plant forms a beautiful pyramid, the most beautiful of 
! all forms that a plaut can assume or bo trained to. 
I am pretty confident that this grafting of tender- 
rooted plants will be found highly conducive to success 
in their culture. The old Hoya carnosa would, no 
doubt, make an excellent stock to graft any more 
tender Hoyas upon, and, perhaps, be superior to the 
stock on which my friend Mr. Acornb has grafted H. 
bella. 
Most of our readers will be familiar with line plants 
of Epiphyllum truncalum grafted on Pereslcia aculeata , 
Cereuts spcciosissimus, and other allied plants. There is 
no question that many other delicato plants would 
thrive much better if grafted upon stronger-growing 
species. Let some of our curious and enterprising 
cultivators but turn their attention to this subject, and 
1 have no fear that we shall obtain still more successes 
in growing what have been hitherto considered difficult- 
to-grow plants. 
THE CANNON HALL MUSCAT GRAPE. 
If this Grape could be managed so that a sufficient 
quantity of berries could be sot on every part of the 
bunches, and the gangrenous spots prevented on each 
berry, it would be the finest Grape in the world, both 
for size of hunch, sizo of berry, and rich, vinous, musky 
flavour. When even in tolerable perfection, I know no 
Grape to equal it. Unfortunately, it is what we call “ a 
bad setter;” that is, the fertilising powder is either 
deficient in quantify, or has no power to cause the seeds 
to mature. Hence the berries either drop off, or are 
ridiculously small. To prevent, or rather, supply, this 
deficiency, it is advisable to apply pollen (the fertilising 
dust) taken from some other variety. The pollen of the 
common Muscat will answer well, or even of the still 
more common Black Harnbro’. 
The second desideratum, namely, the preventing of 
the blackish broad spots which often appear on the 
finest berries, has just been attained by the gardener 
above-mentioned (Mr. Acomb). Ho says, it is caused 
by au acrid liquor generated in spots under the outer 
skin of the berry. Whenever he observes the blister 
(for it has much that appearance) he opens the skin 
with a pin’s point, and lets out the liquor, which cures 
it completely, leaving only a small scar. I saw several 
berries so punctured, and they appeared quite healed. 
He had practised this for threo years with perfect 
success. Let every grower of this fine Grape try this 
simple remedy for this destructive disease. I have no 
doubt he will be equally successful. T. Appi.eby. 
BARLEY-SUGAR FOR BEES. 
Perhaps some of the readers of The Cottage Gardener 
may be surprised at seeing my name at the end of a com¬ 
munication respecting bees, and may be inclined to imagine 
that it must be a printer’s error, and that it has been trans¬ 
posed, by mistake, from an article on roup, soft eggs, or 
Spangled Hamburghs. But although I have never, to my 
recollection, written a lino in this publication on bees, I am 
as ardent an admirer of them as of poultry, and hope, in 
some short time, to send a few odd notes respecting them. 
My object in writing this is simply in reply to a query in 
your last, to state that barley sugar made according to the 
recipe given by Mr. Payne, in “ Bee-Keeping for the Many," 
page 15, or by Mr. Taylor, in the “ Bee-Keeper’s Manual,” 
page 155, if boiled sufficiently lony to assume a pale yellow 
colour, will not candy, but absorbs moisture so quickly from 
the air that the bees have no difficulty in feeding upon it— 
a fact which may be readily observed by placing a stick on 
the alighting board, and noticing the rapidity with which it 
is removed. Mr. Taylor's recipe is two pounds of loaf- 
sugar, and half a-piut of liquid, consisting of one-quarter 
best vinegar and three-quarters water, the whole boiled 
together until it assumes a yellow colour, when it is to be 
poured out on a well-greased plate, and cut up, before cold, 
with scissors into strips convenient for insertion into the 
hives. Should it candy on cooling, it is a proof that it has 
not been boiled long enough, when it should be returned to 
the saucepan, without water, aud boiled again. 
If well prepared, this compound is most acceptable to the 
bees. I always give a quantity when hiving a swarm, and 
with what results I propose shortly to inform my readers. 
Suffice it to say, that one swarm, which I hived on June the 
3rd, has this season increased so rapidly, that, spite of en¬ 
larged room, it has thrown off three swarms, and still re¬ 
mains sufficiently numerous to stand the winter, and has a 
small supply of honey in tlio glass super. —IV. B. Teget- 
MEIEll, 
