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THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Maech 2, 1858. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
NERINE PULCHELLA CULTURE —ONALIS 
CERNUA—SPIRiEA CALLOSA. 
“ Please give directions for treating Nerine pulchella after 
flowering ; and name the best time for shifting it. Last year 
I shifted my roots of it, and took off offsets on the 1st of 
June. The young leaves, which had appeared before the old 
ones withered, now died off, and the roots sustained a severe 
check. 
“ Can you tell me what part the axillary branches of Oxalis 
rubella bear in the economy of the plant ?” [Carry leaves to 
ripen the sap.] “ Except about the first pair on a strong 
plant, they do not flower; but numbers of them are produced 
after the flowers are over. Do these later branches produce 
blossoms in the native country of the plant ? Or do they 
merely assist in forming the new bulb P 
“ Is Oxalis corniculata atro-purpurea a true species, or 
merely a variety of the native O. corniculata ? Is it worth 
cultivating?”—[We do not know it; but corniculata is a 
nice rock plant.] 
“ I do not remember to have seen Oxalis cernua , or caprina, 
noticed in The Cottage Gaedenee. It requires abundance 
of light and air, and some little attention, to keep it free from 
the aphides; but its handsome trefoil foliage, and bunches of 
bright yellow flowers, woidd repay much more trouble than 
it demands. It multiplies its bulbs with great rapidity, 
forming them in clusters, at short intervals, on the tough 
sinewy root, which it coils round and round its pot. 
“ Does Spiraea callosa require any particular soil, or culture, 
to bring its flowers to perfection ? A plant of it in a common 
border produced, last year, a very insignificant pink flower, 
quite unworthy of the praise bestowed on it by Dr. Lindley. 
I have heard that a nursery gardener had actually thrown 
away his plants ; when numerous orders, consequent on 
Dr. L.’s encomium, obliged him to replace them.”—B. H.II.H. 
[Not at all unlikely. But why give heed to these rhapso¬ 
dies ? Botanists admire the greatest weeds ; and as to callosa, 
it is hardly worth a farthing to the great mass for whom we 
cater. Dr. Lindley is a very good authority on some things; 
but his knowledge of practical gardening is very limited, and 
very peculiar. 
Oxalis cernua is a very different thing from caprina. 
Cernua is the best of all the very old yellow spring-flowering 
kinds. It is now in leaf, or should be; but when at rest, by 
the end of June, could you send a few “roots ” of it to the 
Experimental ? 
Nerine pulchella is as easy to manage as a Crocus. You 
divided yours a month too soon ; but the end of August is the 
best time to pot all of them. Get up their leaves early in 
September, and keep them in vigorous growth all the winter, 
and rest them three months in summer—that is all; only that 
light loam suits them best. No peat, or leaf mould, or codling, 
but abundance of air, day and night, when it is not frosty.] 
CAPE BULBS. 
“ A friend of mine has a lot of Cape bulbs sent to him, 
and will feel obliged by your letting him know how to grow 
them; whether they are hardy or not; and any other tiling 
you could advise regarding them ; a list of which I send, 
viz., Antholyza prcealta ; Albuca viHcliflora; Brunsvigia 
falcata ; Babiana purpurea, B. villosa , B. rubrocyanea, B. 
ringens, B. alba , and B. tubiflora; Gladiolus gracilis, G. 
fragrans, G. Mr stilus, G. alatus, and G. alba ; Geissorhiza ; 
Hcemanthus coccineus; Ixia versicolor, I.patens, and I. viridi- 
flora; Lachenalia alba; Morcea bellendina and M. purpurea ; 
Nerine undulata; Ornithogalum caudatum; Oxalis rosea ; 
Sparaxis alba and S. grandijlora ; Trichbnema grandijlora; 
Watsonia Meriana, W. Mrsuta, TV. humilis , and TV. alba.” 
—M. S., Kilma/rnocJc. 
[The Cape bulbs are all greenhouse kinds. The large bulbs, 
as Brunsvigia, require to be potted in strong loam with a 
little sand; the medium-sized bulbs, as Antholyza and Gla¬ 
diolus, one-half loam and one-lialf peat, with a little sand; 
and the smaller kinds, as Babiana and Ixia , had better be put 
all in peat, with a little sand, the first season, and after that 
about one-third light loam and two-thirds peat. Most of ; 
the smaller kinds will begin to grow immediately, if they are 
sound; but the very large bulbs may remain dormant till 
the autumn. A cold frame would be a good place for them ; 
and do not give them much water till the leaves have pushed 
a little. Brunsvigia falcata is very difficult to flower; but 
Hcemanthus coccineus blooms freely. The rest are very easy 
to manage, and are good of the kinds. The wild Gladioluses \ 
are hardly worth growing; and Nerine undulata is scarcely 
better ; but perhaps you may be of a different opinion when 
you see them in bloom.] 
CLIMBERS FOR A SMALL GREENHOUSE. 
“ I have lately erected a lean-to greenhouse, sixteen feet 
long, twelve feet high, south aspect; and shall feel obliged by 
your recommending two or three choice climbers for the north 
wall. Also, three or four plants for my top stage.”—J. B. R. 
[You should allow nothing to cover the roof of such a 
greenhouse as yours. Depend upon its being a penny wise 
and pound foolish system. The stage must rest up against the 
back wall, so as to leave you no more than three feet or so, at | 
the top, to train climbers on. All that we should attempt, 
under the circumstances, would be one climber at each end, at 
the back. Train these over the back of the stage; and at the 
end of May, take out a square of glass at the top of the end, 
and take outside one half, or more, of such climbers. We 
believe that to be the only system by which the finer Tacsonias 
manicata, ignecea, and pinnatistipula , can ever be success¬ 
fully flowered in England ; but we would not advise you to 
try this experiment. Rather take the large blue Passion¬ 
flower for one, and certainly Mandevilla suaveolens is one of 
the finest climbers in the kingdom, for the second; but, re¬ 
collect, neither of them will do very well, unless they get their 
liberty into the open air in summer. Jasminum nudiflorum 
will bloom all the winter on the back of your house, if it is 
grown in large pots, and the pots to be taken out in May , not 
sooner. After a first growth, to be plunged against a wall, 
and to train the Jasmine against the wall all the season; 
then to remove pots and plants to the top of the stage in 
October, to remain inside till May. In a short time you will 
find that the top shelf, at the back of this house, has not too 
much head-room for the fine specimen plants from the general 
collection, which will grow on your hands ; and, to cramp 
them, in order to make room for plants on purpose, will only 
bring us back to the same point from which we started—the 
penny wise and pound foolish system.] 
FORCING VINES. 
“ I have a vinery running east and west, fifty feet long, with 
a partition in the centre, and two furnaces ; one at the east 
end, and one at the west end. I intend forcing the west end j 
of the house, and keeping the east end for late grapes : shall j 
I be right in always keeping the west end for early grapes, 
and the east for late; or would you recommend me to force j 
the west end one year, and the east end another?”— An Old 1 
Sitbsceibee. 
[Continue forcing the west end : when once the Vines in the 
west end are used to forcing, they will come earlier of their : 
own accord. In very early forcing it is advisable, at times, to 
give the house a rest; but if you begin about Christmas, or 
even a month earlier, you cannot do better than force the same 
end every year. Mind, if you begin early, to see that the 
roots are in action as well as the tops.] 
GRAFTING A LARGE CAMELLIA. 
“ I have one of the old white Camellias, too large for my 
house; the gardener wants to do away with it, but I wish to 
eut it in, root and branch, to graft two or three better ones 
on it. Can it be done ? When commence operations, and 
how proceed ? ”—Manchestee. 
[You may cut your Camellia as much as you please; it will 
break pretty well as freely as a Laurel. If the roots are all 
