121 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 24. 1857. 
the Cypripedium calceolus and the Crocuses are stated to 
grow there I must confess my surprise, as I have collected 
plants in the neighbourhood of the Don sixteen years, but 
never found the Cypripedium , which is one of the most 
beautiful and interesting of our British Orchidaceee. 
I am almost inclined to think the Colchicum autumnale 
has been mistaken for the beautiful Lady’s Slipper, as an 
abundance of the Colchicum grows in many parts of York- 
shire on the limestone land. I shall take it as a great 
favour if your correspondent would inform me, through 
The Cottage Gardener, the exact locality where this is to 
be found. After cultivating this in pots I should like to see 
it in its native home.—W. G., Huddersfield . 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
SUPPORTING FLOWERS.—CERASUS JAPONtCA. 
“ Referring to a note by ‘ An Observer,’ in your issue of 
the 27th of October, on the subject of supporting flowers, I 
have been in the habit, for several years back, of using gal¬ 
vanised wire in much the same way as he proposes. I 
bought a quantity about the thickness of whip cord, quite 
strong enough for ordinary herbaceous plants, as Phloxes, 
&c., and, provided with a pair of cutting as well as holding 
pliers and a bundle of sticks, I went round each plant, 
cut off on the spot what was needed to encircle it, then 
placed three or four sticks in round about. With the pliers 
I bend the wire at each end into a hook, and, passing it 
round, hook the ends into each other; then with a bit of 
mat or string tie the wire to one or more of the sticks to 
prevent it slipping down. When the plant is cut down the 
wire is unhooked and laid away till wanted. 
“ The advantage of this over a ring, as proposed by 
I ‘ Observer, 1 is, that thinner wire may be used, conse¬ 
quently it is cheaper; that you can more readily adapt it to 
the circumference of the plant; and, finally, that you are not 
obliged to pass it over the head of the plant at the risk of 
breaking the young tips: you may at once pass it round 
any part you desire, and hook it. 
“ I have a Cerasus Japonica for e-pie no in a cool green¬ 
house : how should I treat it ? I presume when it drops its 
leaves I ought to stow it away anywhere under the stage 
like a Fuchsia, and merely keep it damp. Am I right ? 
“ Can you recommend a climber for the front of my 
greenhouse, a small one, lat. 56° north, the climber to 
be trained along the sashbars ? One with pendent flowers 
like the Rhodochiton I want. Most plants so trained turn 
their faces to the sun, and so make no show in the house.”— 
G. A. 
[Your mode of training is very good. Your Cerasus will 
bloom in March with the protection of a greenhouse. A 
Passion-flower would be as interesting a climber as any, 
because when established all you would have to do would be 
to cut it well in every winter, and the long shoots dangling 
from it would bloom all next summer. Write again if this 
does not suit.] 
TEMPERATURE OF GREENHOUSE.—RED SPIDER. 
—FRUIT TREES IN POTS. 
“ Having a greenhouse in which Grape Vines have been 
planted some years, and just come into bearing, I am 
anxious to encourage them by proper treatment so far as 
possible, but being an amateur, and wishing in the same 
house to grow plants under the Vines, I fear the heat, hot- 
water pipes being used, may be too great for the Vines, and 
shall feel obliged if you will advise me at what height I may 
safely keep my thermometer without fear of injury to my 
Vines. 
“ My plants are chiefly of the hard-wooded varieties, as 
Camellias, Azaleas, and such-like, which will soon be in fine 
bloom if I may venture upon keeping my house at about 
50° of heat. I may add that my Vines are planted in out¬ 
side borders, and that I cannot turn them out, or that would 
overcome my difficulty. 
“ I am also a disciple of Mr. Rivers in the orchard-house 
culture of fruits in pots, and have succeeded very well, and 
doubt not that, as my trees gain age, they will bear more 
bountifully, though my crop this year has been good. The 
greatest obstacles I find to this most interesting method of 
culture are that old pest, the red spider, and the extreme 
luxuriance of the growth of the trees. As regards the 
former, in spite of the free use of the syringe my trees 
were this summer much affected, and I shall be glad if you 
will advise whether they should be brushed over with soft 
soap and sulphur mixed with water, and when; and, as 
regards the latter, if you think Mr. Rivers’s principle of 
allowing the roots free emission through the bottom of the 
pots into the border is good, or whether this does notin- 
crease the excessive luxuriance of growth of which I com¬ 
plain, and how this rank growth may be best avoided.”— 
A Lover of Gardening. 
[If you have an average temperature of 50° at night you 
will be apt to start your Vines. From 40° to 45° the Vines 
will not start much before their usual time; 45° at night, 
with a rise of from 5° to 10° in sunshine, will suit most green¬ 
house winter-flowering plants. If you desire higher than 
that, and cannot take the Vines out, you might have double 
sashes in winter in front, and place the Vines between them, 
where they might remain until the buds broke. Washing 
your trees with thin glue or size water would have helped 
you, but no means of cure equals prevention. If you have 
hot water brush the pipes frequently with flowers of sulphur 
in water. If no means of heating put the sulphur on the 
lid of a saucepan, with water near the boiling point under it,. ’ 
and use water for syringing in which sulphur has been | 
mixed. Do not use much soft soap in painting, but wash all 
your trees thoroughly now with soap and water with a 
sponge or brush, and when dry paint all over with a paint 
of clay mixed up with a portion of sulphur; but clay paint 
is just as good as anything, and it is safe. The rooting of 
the trees in the border will increase their luxuriance. If 
yours are too strong you can easily prevent this source of 
luxuriance, and less feeding will do the rest.] 
WINTERING CINERARIA SEEDLINGS. 
“ Will you tell me how I am to keep seedling Cinerarias 
through the winter, not having a greenhouse ? ”—J. V. G. 
[Place them in your window in saucers, and put some 
damp moss in the saucers, or rather, place the pots in a small 
Mignonette box, with their little saucers beneath them, and 
fill the box with moss, the surface of which, if kept moist, 
will help to neutralise the drying effects of the fire in the 
room. The temperature in which they will thrive best 
will be from 38° at night to 45° and 50° during the 
day. The least frost will injure them, and so will a dry 
heat. Sponge and damp the leaves in very sunny days, 
which will help to keep them clean, and if a green fly appears 
wash it off, or smoke the plants with some shag tobacco. If 
you can put them all in a close box a mere pinch will do. 
See articles on Window Gardening.] 
SLATING A VINE BORDER. 
“ I have built a vinery containing choice Vines, the border 
on a considerable elevation facing the south. Would it be 
beneficial to cover the border, like the roof of a house, with 
slates about the thickness of pasteboard ? ”—E. M. 
[If your border is well drained, and slopes considerably, 
and the soil is not very adhesive, and you do not con¬ 
template forcing early, we see no absolute necessity for 
slating your border. If the border holds too much water, 
or you contemplate forcing early, then covering the border 
with litter, and slating it over to keep it dry, will be a great : 
advantage. In fact, in our opinion all Vine borders would 
be better if jn’otected from the melted snows and the 
deluging rains of winter, and this your slating would ac¬ 
complish. As, however, putting them on so as to throw off 
water would be apt to leave hollows beneath them, your 
border, as explained some time ago, will not be so warm in 
summer as if it were exposed at that time. We presume, j 
however, you merely mean slating in the winter and spring 
months, and there is, therefore, no necessity for speaking j 
