THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, April 28, 1857. 57 
interest in tlie way of effect by planting all or one quarter of 
the Salvias.] 
RAISING A HOLLY HEDGE. 
“ I shall he obliged by your inserting an answer to the 
following questions:—Will not seeds sown make the best 
Holly hedge ? When would you sow the seeds ? How 
would you keep them till sown? In how many years, with 
proper care, might you expect to have a hedge?”—R. P. 
Turner. 
[Raising hedges from seed was one of the popular errors 
of the generation which is now being gathered to their 
fathers ; but Hollies and Oaks, with all other trees, are 
brought up for hedges or for timber in less time, and at 
one-tenth of the expense, by nursery practice, than by the 
more natural method of sowing the seeds at once where the 
plants are to remain. Holly is the last of the hedge plants 
to soav “ for good the Holly seed never comes up the first 
year, but lies dormant, like the “ quick,” one year. When 
they do come the seedlings are almost as delicate the first 
year, and as easily destroyed by slugs, snails, and “ vermin,” 
as the seedlings of Tom Thumb Geranium; but, supposing 
them to answer as well as any young Hollies ever did, the 
hedge will be ten years old from the sowing of the seeds 
before it is sufficiently strong to keep back a calf three 
months old; therefore, to get up one hedge or fence of 
Holly, you will have to keep up two good fences—one on 
each side—for at least twelve years; but if you sow the 
Holly seeds in the kitchen garden, and reckon every¬ 
thing, you may keep them there for nine years at less 
expense than one wood fence would cost you, and gain two 
years’ size in the plants meantime. Hollies from a nursery 
should be planted, or be fit for planting, at the end of seven 
years from sowing the seeds ; but if you rear them at home, 
and go through the best course of culture with them, take 
our word for it you will gain very considerably by not 
planting the hedge till your own plants are just ten years 
old from the sowing of the seeds. First of all, gather the 
seeds just before the annual tempting premium is offered to 
thieves and poachers to break down and steal Holly for 
Christmas. If you have more than a bushel of berries mix 
them with an equal quantity of sand, and bury them, or 
cover them in a heap as you would a heap of potatoes; if 
less than a bushel, put them in a box with sand, and bury 
the box, and at the end of the following October sow them, 
sand and all, and cover them half an inch deep. The best 
soil to sow them in is a piece of fresh ground which was 
trenched in the spring and planted with Potatoes. Next 
spring the seedlings will appear, and, to do them justice, they 
should be watered in dry weather during the first two 
summers. At the end of two years, in October, or earlier, 
transplant them into a newly-trenched bed or piece of 
ground at six inches apart, water as before, and at the end 
of four years transplant them again eighteen inches apart 
in rows, and six inches leaf from leaf in the row, and water 
at least next summer. At the end of six years take them 
all up, and trim their roots. Here is the turning point and 
grand secret of getting Holly fences. The plants being now 
root pruned, must have lots of rotten dung, as for an Onion 
bed, in their new quarters, and room enough to leave twelve 
inches clear from leaf to leaf between the rows, and six or 
eight inches from leaf to leaf in the row. Here let them 
remain three years, when they are ready to plant out in a 
hedge; but some prefer having the spade “run down” on 
each side of the rows, and leaving them another season. The 
site of the hedge should be trenched four feet wide and 
three or four feet deep the winter before ; then planted with 
Potatoes; and, as soon as the Potatoes are up, down with 
the Hollies. We prefer buying four-year seedlings, and doing 
the rest at home.] 
SYRINGING VINES AND PLANTS IN A VINERY. 
“ My house is a small one in three compartments, 
Vines in each. We do not force, merely exclude frost. 
Should Vines be syringed before they are in flower, and 
continued after ? and if not, may Geraniums, &c., in 
the house be syringed without injury to the Vines? As my 
gardener is much more successful with fruit out of doors 
than with Vines, I should be glad to know if there is any 
small work with plain, simple directions for Vine culture 
published ? Is the ‘ Polmaise ’ system of heating approved 
of, or has it got out of fashion ? ”—A Subscriber, Ireland. 
[We recently answered queries the same as your own. 
Some of the best gardeners syringe Vines freely before they 
come into flower, and freely night and morning afterwards 
until they begin to change colour ; and if the water is good 
little injury will be done, and the practice keeps the leaves 
clean, and so far prevents the attacks of the red spider. 
The water here is not to be depended on, and therefore we 
rarely syringe above once or twice after the fruit is set, or 
most likely we should have a sediment on the berries. We 
syringe pretty regularly before the Vines are in bloom, not 
only to encourage the breaking of the buds and the growing 
of the young shoots, but as helping to loosen and render 
slimy the clay and sulphur paint with which we cover the 
wood when in a state of rest after pruning, as the soft state 
of that covering helps, in our opinion, to keep the eggs of 
insects pretty well sealed up from contact with the atmo¬ 
sphere. While we refrain, for the above reasons, from 
syringing the Vines, we syringe freely French Beans and 
any flowering plants that are growing beneath them; and 
even if there are no plants growing beneath at all we 
frequently sprinkle Avails, paths, and floors before the Grapes 
approach maturity, and after that the drier they are kept the 
better. The syringing of the Geraniums will not, therefore, 
injure the Vines, though if the sun strikes the Geraniums 
before they are dry, and your glass is not super-excellent, 
you may get your Geranium leaves spotted. 
You cannot, however, give your Vines the justice they 
require as respects temperature, &c., and keep Geraniums 
in a healthy state beneath them. You must make a com¬ 
promise between them. The Geraniums require more air 
than Avould suit Vines when in bloom and swelling freely. 
You must have been doing something more than keeping 
out frost if your Vines are in bloom now. Our Vines kept 
so cool have just started their buds. The scarlet Geraniums 
will stand more heat and also more cold than any others. 
Roberts on the Vine is very good, though we disapprove 
of using offal in the borders. There are also several cheap 
publications. 
There are also full particulars given in our pages, and we 
shall perhaps have a small manual on the subject ere 
long. See Vine failures to-day. You would see in a late 
volume how Mr. Lane uses a modification of the Polmaise 
principle with success. We should be glad to adopt it as an 
auxiliary, and have done so at times; but few seem to 
understand it properly, and Avithout that there is little 
chance of working it successfully. A common flue, all 
things considered, would be cheaper and more easily 
managed. The underground drains are about as expensive 
as a cheap flue. The brick stove with which Mr. Lane heats 
a long, low house, as described by Mr. Fisli some time ago, 
is the simplest and cheapest we have met Avith; but that 
nurseryman has made the moving of heated and cold air a 
regular study.] 
LIFTING VINES.—CAUSE OF GRAPES FAILING. 
“ Will you be kind enough to give me a few hints on lift¬ 
ing Vines, both as to the time and soil? also if rotten 
nettle roots two years old be good for the purpose? I 
began to force a vinery about the middle of January at 
45° by night, and increased to 60° by night. The Vines 
showed abundance of fruit, but about a month ago the 
' bunches curled up, Avent yellow, and consequently all, or 
nearly so, dropped off; those that stopped on are not in flower 
yet. They had not very many Grapes on last year, made 
some good Avood, and ripened pretty well, and are making 
wood very strong this year, with healthy foliage.”—Y. Z., an 
Old Subscriber. 
[If you will refer back to our notes on Dalkeith Gardens 
last year you will see that Mr. Thomson top pruned consider¬ 
ably, root pruned, lifted, and replanted Vines at the end of 
May and the beginning of June, which Vines ripened the fruit 
that Avas left on them that year, and made such excellent 
Avood that, in the following May when we saw them, there 
