THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, April 7, 1857. 
Midsummer your fermenting material might be all removed. 
If you cannot well adopt this plan, then your next best is to 
light and keep a fair fire in your flue, so as to raise the 
temperature to an average of from 60° to 65°, and syringe 
the trees often, and keep the atmosphere close and moist by 
pouring water on the floor, &c., until fresh growth is 
proceeding freely, when in either method the trees must be 
gradually inured to more light and air.] 
FORCED STRAWBERRIES FAILING. 
“ Being wishful to try a few Strawberries, according to Mr. 
McEwen’s directions, in pots in a vinery, and having pro¬ 
cured a hundred plants of Alice Maud , the only ones I could 
get at the time to make good plants of for this season, and 
having taken every care of them, they have turned out very 
strong plants, being kept in the vinery all winter. I lit my 
fire on the 1st of February, but have no appearance of any 
bloom upon them yet, though sending out strong runners. 
I am wishful to know whether they will do anything yet, 
as I am losing hopes of them.”—A Constant Reader. 
[You say nothing of the treatment of the plants before 
you put them into forcing trim. Last season a learned doc¬ 
tor aroused us old-fashioned practicals from anything like 
self-esteem by telling how, in the gardens, Strawberries were 
forced in small pots, without much previous preparation, so 
as to gather fruit, so far as we recollect, at the wonderfully 
early period of the end of May. We owe a vast deal of our 
best scientific gardening to the expanded views of the learned 
doctor, but now and then he comes out with a startler that is 
attended with results very different from what the fresh men 
in gardening have been led to anticipate, and many are the 
complaints of failures this season as respects Strawberries, 
though they have done as the doctor recommended, never 
thinking that, though plants may be taken up in March and 
April, and forced tolerably well, there will be less chance of 
success with such plants if put into heat in December and 
January. The fact is that with all early forcing of Straw¬ 
berries success will greatly depend, not so much on the size 
of the pots or the strength of the plants, as on the buds 
being thoroughly matured and the pots full of roots before 
the end of autumn. You say nothing of how you stood your 
plants, and how the roots were in this respect, but very 
likely we have alluded to the cause of failure. As they will 
now have been fully seven weeks or more in heat we can 
hold out no hopes of their doing much good. If you took 
them out and protected them for a fortnight or so, and then 
planted them out, you might have a gathering in September, 
and wonderful crops the year' following. We presume that 
you raised the temperature gradually, say from 45° to 55°. 
They should hardly be at 60° until they have finished 
blooming.] - 
GREENHOUSE PLANTS IN EARLY VINERY. 
“ Having a vinery that I am obliged to grow flowers in, 
and my Cinerarias, Calceolarias, and Geraniums being 
covered with green fly, I want to fumigate them ; but I am 
afraid of hurting the Vines, as they are just setting their 
fruit. If you would give me a little advice how to act I 
should be greatly obliged.”—A Greenhorn. 
[Yours is a case in which insects and failures are a neces¬ 
sary consequence. If your Vine buds were just beginning 
to swell your Calceolarias and Cinerarias might have been 
in perfect health, because the average night temperature 
might be about 45°, with a rise from sunshine, and plenty 
of air during the day. As your Vines are setting from the 
middle to the end of March, your plants, we presume, have 
had an average night temperature of 60°, or thereabouts, 
and no great quantity of air during the day, and these 
two tribes especially it would be difficult to keep clean 
and healthy in such circumstances. Geraniums will stand 
more heat, but will be lanky in consequence. The scarlet 
group, if they have a fair quantity of light, will seldom 
quarrel with the amount of heat. If you must use such a 
vinery as a greenhouse you should use plants that will 
stand heat after you commence forcing. For instance, you 
might have had Camellias and Epacrises in bloom since the 
end of October, and these finished blooming and pruned 
would make their fresh growth in such a house nicely. But 
n ' 
how have you let your plants be so full of green fly ?- Very ! 
likely the best thing you can do is to turn them all adrift. I 
When once so covered smoking them is almost a waste of 
money and trouble. The fingers, the syringe, and a smoking 1 
should have been resorted to when the first insects ap¬ 
peared. You will not hurt the Vines if the fruit is set j 
and the tobacco smoke is cool. It is not likely that any 
flies are on the Vines so long as they can get Calceo- j 
larias and Cinerarias to feed upon. We should, there¬ 
fore, advise moving all the plants out into a shed, closet, 
or any close place, and smoking them there, and getting . 
the house thoroughly cleaned in the meantime. If you 
could contrive any place for them where the plants could 
have light and shelter afterwards it would suit them 
better than the house. Let the plants be dry when you 
smoke them. You may give them two or three doses 
at twenty-four hours’ interval, and then lay them down 
on a mat or clean cloth. Turn them round and round, and | 
batter them with water from a syringe most unmercifully, j 
If so bad as you say the beauty will be pretty well finished 
for this year, and the most you can do is to secure a clean 
stock for future work. If you can depend on clean water 
you may syringe your Vines early in the morning, and 
towards shutting-up time in the afternoon, or only at the 
latter time, using water at about 70°, or a little more, con¬ 
tinuing the process until the berries begin to change. For 
many years we give a good syringing after the fruit is fairly 
set to clear away all remains of blossom, &e.; but after that j 
we syringe no more, but keep up the necessary moisture in j 
the atmosphere by evaporating pans, and sprinkling the 1 
floor of the house.] 
AIDING AN OLD TRANSPLANTED HOLLY. 
“ A large Holly, nine feet high, was removed during some 
alterations four years ago. The tree at present has very few 
leaves upon it; but the branches, of which I inclose a ; 
specimen, are covered with little buds. It presents a most 
forlorn appearance, and standing upon a lawn in front of 
the house is anything but ornamental. It has thrown out 
a small healthy shoot from the bottom. What ought we 
to do ? 
“We are dressing a lawn with fresh earth and ashes 
according to Mr. Beaton’s directions. Will it be advisable 
to water it with liquid manure ? and if so, should it be done 
before or after sowing? It is recommended, in a back 
number, to ‘ Berkshire Katie ’ to soak the earth before 
putting it on. Ours is already on.”— Annie Wentworth. 
[The Holly is what gardeners call dying by inches. If 
let alone it will get worse and worse for the next four or 
five years, then stand still a few years; after that it will 
slowly mend during the next twenty years, and at the end of 
that time it will look middling. When a largo Holly does 
not actually die the first year after transplanting, but looks 
very bad, it will never die 'properly from that cause, neither 
will it recover sufficiently to pay the transplanter if he was 
of age at the time of transplanting. How many cases to 
the contrary can be cited against this sweeping charge ? 
No liquid manure this season for your lawn. Be sure to 
have the stones well raked off, and no amount of rolling j 
will be too much to consolidate the surface for a “bed” 
to the seeds.] 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Many Queries must remain unanswered until next week. 
Lime Water (.1 Subscriber).—' The lime does not require slacking; j 
put it fresli from the kiln into the water. Rain water is best. The lime 1 
water is to be used clear for the sake of not whiting the lawn. The 
quantity of lime is not material; but a pint of lime to two gallons would 
be enough. 
Vegetable Marrows (A Darlington Novice ).—We have not tried | 
the “American Marrows,” but they are good, probably. Your culture 
is all right. Peg the branches down at short intervals, which will preserve 
them from damage by winds. 
Propagating Apparatus (O. H .).—Write to Mr. West, ironmonger, 
Surbiton, Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey. 
Hyacinths with several Trusses (A Window Gardener ).—It is 
difficult to account for such things. Strong bulbs frequently throw up j 
two or three stems, and if the bud has been injured, instead of throwing j 
up one fine central stem, a few small ones will be sent up, something ; 
