THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
be confined to some one well-known and widely-diffused 
variety, such as the Jargonelle, which, if numerously re¬ 
ported on, might be made an idea for comparing the earli¬ 
ness or lateness of localities, aspects, elevations, &c., by the 
dates when the blossoms pass through the several stages of 
bud, flower, and setting; and also give, by noting the per 
centage of damaged blossoms, a more correct idea than we 
at present possess of the relative effects of frost under the 
various circumstances of latitude, elevation, aspect, &c. In 
after seasons, when other varieties are under examination, 
the results could, by comparison with a Jargonelle growing 
under similar circumstances, be reduced to a common 
standard by simple calculation. 
SUMMARY. 
1. Blossoms in bud are less injured by frost than those in 
flower; hence, as frosts decrease in severity as the season 
advances, late blossoming is one source of hardiness. 
2. When frosts are accompanied with wind, the injury to 
blossoms is lessened by hedges or screens on the windward 
side of the trees. 
3. Varieties differ in hardiness, though their blossoms be 
equal in forwardness. 
4. Blossoms on low ground are occasionally as safe, or 
safer, from frosts than on high grounds. 
5. Varieties may be arranged according to their power of 
resisting frost, but not at present, from want of sufficient 
data. 
0. The blossoms on free-flowering varieties are so nume¬ 
rous, that five per cent, would be sufficient for a crop if they 
arrived at maturity. 
7. Varieties differ so much in hardiness, that occasionally 
frosts, which destroy all the blossoms of one kind, leave all 
the blossoms of another uninjured. 
8. When frosts are accompanied with wind, the injury to 
blossoms is greater on the windward than on the leeward 
side of a hill. 
9. The blossoms of old trees, and growing trees if not 
very young, are equally hardy.—( Transactions of the Pomo- 
logical Society .) 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
POTATO TUBERS VEGETATING. 
“ I am induced to request the advice of The Cottage 
Gardener on a subject quite unusual, and which apparently 
puzzles the gardeners in this neighboui-hood. The Potatoes 
in my garden and others have commenced growing as in their 
usual season, many having long shoots already. At first I 
thought it was entirely owing to the earliest kinds having been 
ripened before their time, which has been the case with the 
White-blossomed Kidneys and the Red Ash-leaved , caused 
by the long drought and great heat in a very dry soil; but on 
examination I find the Fluke Kidneys , and York Regents 
also, shooting, neither of them half ripe, the tops being only 
just coming into bloom, and the Potatoes clinging firmly to 
the roots. I do not know whether to dig them all up at 
once or not, as it seems that either way they will be injured. 
In this dilemma it would be a great obligation to myself and 
others if you could put a few words in this week’s number 
merely to say dig or do not dig your Potatoes. Then 
perhaps you could, in a following number, give an explana¬ 
tion of this remarkable occurrence against the usual course 
of nature, seeing that seeds in general do not vegetate before 
they are ripe.”—H. A. S. 
[It is usually the case, when rain occurs in the early part 
of August after a long continuance of dry weather in July, 
that the tubers vegetate, and produce a crop of young tubers. 
Knowing this we took up all our early Potatoes at the end 
of July before any rain occurred, and there was not a 
vegetated nor a diseased tuber among them. Our later 
sorts have vegetated, and will not be harmed by such 
vegetation, because the stems are still vigorous, and the 
shoots put forth by the tubers will produce other tubers,not 
at the expense of those first formed, but will be supplied 
with sap for their growth by the still vigorous stems. We 
shall not take up the crop until the stems intimate by decay 
that their power to prepare sap for the tubers is gone. The 
older tubers will then be ripe, and we do not expect to find 
them injured by the production of their later brethren.] 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, August 25, 1857. 335 
REMOVING AUCUBAS.—WALNUT TREE ON 
A LAWN. 
“ I wish to remove some Aucubas, fine shrubs five to 
seven feet in height, from the border at the bottom part of 
the back garden into the front. Can I do so with safety to 
the plants ? and, if so, what would be the best time of the 
year to remove them ? 
“ Will you also inform me whether a Weeping Walnut 
would be a suitable tree for the centre of a grass plot about 
thirty feet each way?”—T. S. 
[Now and for the next two months is the best time to re¬ 
move large Aucubas; but there is not the least fear in moving 
such any month in the year: their numerous fleshy and fibry 
roots carry such large and such occupied balls as would 
render it difficult to kill the Aucuba. 
A Walnut of any kind would be amongst the last trees we 
should plant on a grass plot, or even near a house. The 
Black American Hiccory is the best of the Walnut race for 
a lawn or a plot; but for you at Dalston one of Cobbett’s 
Locust trees would be the best to flourish, and to give 
summer shade, fragrance, and bee flowers in the face of all 
the smoke from London. Botanists call it Robinia pseudo¬ 
acacia. Get one ten feet high, and with a six feet clean 
stem, plant it at the end of October, tie it with three cords 
to three pegs stuck into the grass a yard from the stem, 
and cut it or prune it as they do young Pear trees at the first 
planting, that is, cut out entirely Ml the very small twigs 
and all the strong young wood of the last growth to a few 
inches. Water it well the first summer, and keep the 
head rather thin by summer pruning for the next half- 
dozen years, and you may have the finest tree in Middlesex. 
What makes so many bad trees round London is that they 
never thin the branches in summer.'] 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Fruits v. Flowers ( J. S.). — We are much obliged by your notes, 
but you have omitted the only weighty reasons why flowers are more 
cultivated than fruits, viz., that flowers occupy less space than fruits, 
will grow in places where to cultivate the latter would be hopeless, and 
flowers can be obtained in perfection during one season, whereas fruits 
require several years to elapse before a satisfactory return can be ob¬ 
tained. 
Fuchsia Seedlings (B. A.). —The dark one after the style of 
Globosa seemed of excellent form, but both that and the others were 
spoiled in the carriage. Damp moss in a stout box is the only means 
of conveying flowers safely. 
Sowing Apple and Pear Pips (J. S.). —The best time for doing 
this is in early spring, March and beginning of April. The fruit of the 
seedlings is not invariably worse than that of their parents. If it were, 
how could improved varieties be obtained ? It is quite true, however, 
that by far the greater part of such seedlings yield mere crabs. 
Preserving Fruit (A Constant Subscriber ).—Put the fruit into 
bottles or jars, and the jars into a saucepan of water ; make this boil, 
cork the bottles or jars closely, and seal them over whilst quite hot; 
keep each in the boiling water until taken out for corking. 
Dielytra spectabilis (A Constant Reader ).—Ample directions 
have already been given in the different numbers of The Cottage 
Gardener concerning the culture, &c., of the Dielytra spectabilis. It 
can be lifted out of the borders into pots of suitable size at any time after 
the stems of the plants have died down naturally, or in the spring just as 
the crowns are beginning to appear again, which is also a good time to 
divide the roots. Plants thus lifted, with a little care, into large pots flower 
admirably in a cool and airy conservatory. Those lifted in the autumn 
for frame or other protection can be excited into flower much earlier. 
The best method of keeping Filberts and Walnuts is to put them in 
bulk in jars bunged closely, and placed in a cool cellar. Either Filberts 
or Walnuts, if they are kept in too moist a condition, are very soon 
spoiled, and of course, if kept in too dry a situation, the kernels become 
shrivelled. 
Tank (T. Wickham ).—Your note has been overlooked. We will 
answer it next week. 
Wireworm (T. W. S .).—We know of no means of getting rid of 
the wireworms in your field of Beetroot. Powdered oil cake is said to 
kill them, but we must leave to your own ingenuity how to apply it. 
Names of Plants (A Subscriber ).—Your purple-eyed greenhouse 
climber is Tecoma jasminoides. ( Mortlake ).—No. 1. Rhus cotinus, or 
Venetian Sumach. No. 2. Punica granatum, or common Pomegranate. 
(M. C. D.). —Your first-mentioned plant is Sedum acre, and not aureum. 
Your Sedum No. 1 we do not know; it may be S. glaucum. No. 2 
is the Sernpervivum tectorum, Common Houseleek. No. 3 is Saxifraga 
hypnoides, lrom the Alps and other places; frequently seen in gardens, 
but not common in a wild state. The small plant sent is the Linaria 
cymbularia, or Ivy-leaved Toad-flax. L. spuria and L. elatine are 
the next allied plants, both annuals, and frequently found in chalky j 
fields, &c. 
