239 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
■ at home. Please to advise me what heat I ought to keep 
the house at, and if I shall do right by putting Camellias into 
the same house, as I am short of room.—J. P. S. Newton.” 
[We have not forced Sir Harry. Twenty-five plants will 
not supply you long, provided they all do well. Set a fresh 
lot on the 1st of January, and more by the end of the month. 
If you commence in a forcing-house you should have from 
fifty to a hundred at once, as they will bear a good while, and 
will be brought on along with other things. Commence with 
! 45° at night; in a week or ten days rise to 50°, then to 05°, 
and never above 60° with fire-heat until all the fruit are set, 
nor yet at any time if you want good-flavoured fruit. You 
' may allow a rise of from 10° to 15° from sunshine, with air. 
Keep your soil rather dryish until the flower-trusses show. 
Camellias will do well in the same treatment after they have 
done flowering. Kidney Beans will do after the temperature 
i is 55° at night; 45° is a good night average for the green¬ 
house, and a rise of from 10° to 15° from sunshine. If you 
| could bring your successive Strawberries forward in a mild 
1 bottom-heat in a frame, before introducing them, they would 
| thank you.] - 
i PROMOTING THE PRODUCTION OF NECTARINE 
SHOOTS. 
“I have three Pitmaston Orange Nectarines just planted 
! against the back wall of a cold orchard-house. They are 
; dwarf plants two years trained. They should have ten or 
i twelve shoots for training, five or six on each side, instead 
i of which they have but six, three on each side, and these not 
; of the strongest. The lower shoots are very weak indeed. 
: Now, how should I prune these trees ? My gardener is for 
| cutting them shorter, in order to make wood. I have my 
: doubts about the policy of so doing; but what can be done 
I with them ? Had the trees been well furnished with, say 
' ten strong shoots, I should have known what to do.—J. S. L.” 
i 
[Turn up the ends of the lower shoots nearly vertical, that 
| the sap may be conveyed into them, and shorten the two 
; middle shoots, and you may thus get as many shoots as you 
j please. There is no danger of the centre filling if you keep 
I the sides supplied. 
The Churn you ask about can he obtained of the firm 
j whose stand we noticed at the time.] 
VINE PRUNING.—GROWING LARGE SCARLET 
GERANIUMS. 
“ I have a Vinery to be started on the 1st of January. I 
intend pruning the Vines to two buds: I suppose they have 
been pruned to that before. Now, I intend leaving some 
shoots about a foot long; perhaps four or five shoots on 
each Vine; and when the buds have pushed and shown 
: fruit, to take off all the shoots that do not show fruit, as 
j my Vines are in pretty good health. Now, what I want to 
know is, what you think about this system, and when is the 
best time to stop the young shoots ? for I often notice the 
bunches curl when the shoots are stopped. 
; “I have some Tom Thumb and Punch Geraniums that 
I were struck in September, and some that were struck 
last March and planted out, taken up in October, and 
potted in thirty-six sized pots. Now, I want to know 
j which would be best for making large plants in pots for 
j a good show, and how I should treat them. I have only a 
! Vinery and a two-light frame.—R. Preston.” 
[If your Vines are in good heart, why not keep to the 
| spurring system ? If you leave these short shoots, most 
i likely the best bunches will appear from the buds at the 
| greatest distance from the main stem. In a previous volume 
the how to prune according to circumstances was discussed. 
If you are at all in doubt about the Vines you had better 
have plenty of wood for this year, and you will know better 
how to do next season. Your system may be called the 
mixed system; but it is anything but so neat as spurring. 
The young shoots may have the point pinched out, when a 
joint or two can be seen beyond the fruit. The stopping has 
nothing to do with the bunches curling off; it rather 
prevents it. Leave only as many shoots on your Vines as 
you can expose to light. 
Two-year-okl Scarlet Geraniums will make the best speci¬ 
mens. Give them pot room as they need it, and they will 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, January 6, 1857. 
dearly like the Vinery when your average heat hardly reaches 
60°. When it gets to that move them to your frame. You 
may have them in twelve-inch pots, or larger, by June. 
We are not sure, though we suspect that your insects 
are Millipedes (Julus). Trap them with pieces of carrot 
stuck in the soil, and pour some ammoniacal water from 
the gas-works over the ground. Why did you not in¬ 
close an insect ? The drainings of the dunghill will do 
good, but chiefly when crops are growing. We do not 
expect that it will kill the insects.] 
CERASTIUM TOMENTOSUM.—BLACK RASPBERRY. 
“ I am pleased to see that Cerastium tomentasum is 
adopted for decorative purposes. About six years ago I saw 
it employed as an edging to a circular bed, and next to it a 
ring of Campanula Curpatica (blue), and the inner space 
filled with scarlet Verbenas. This plant has a remarkably 
silvery-white appearance, and particularly so in autumn. 
“ Now that I am troubling you, may I take the liberty of 
inquiring if the Hybrid Black Raspberry is positively known 
to be a cross between the Bramble and the Raspberry? 
Where was it originated ? If it really has been obtained as 
alleged I should presume that a cross between Rubus idceus 
and R. cwsius would be worth attempting.” 
[The Hybrid Black Raspberry was raised, we think, by 
Mr. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth. Any experiment tending to 
improve our varieties of the genus Rubus is desirable.] 
CAMELLIAS DISEASED AND ATTACKED BY 
SCALE. 
“ I have a good many Orange-trees, Camellias, and Aca¬ 
cias in big tubs or boxes, with compost of heavy loam and 
peat, and the roots are all rotten, and every leaf and bloom 
likely to drop off; they are also covered with the white scale. 
It is nearly ten years since they had a shift. Now, what am 
I to do with them ?—N. W.” 
[Perhaps the most economical plan would he to feed 
the furnace with them; but if you like to have a little hos- : 
pital experience, try the following:—Prune them hard in, so 
as to get rid of all the small twigs. Scrub every part left 
with a solution formed of six gallons of water, a pound of 
soap, half a pound of tobacco, and a pound of glue, well 
mixed in hot water. Then place all the plants to¬ 
gether where you can plunge and surround them with a 
good bed of sweet dung and leaves, taking care, however, 
not to burn the roots, and giving scarcely any water to them, 
but syringing the stems when they are not kept moist by 
the moisture from the sweet, fermenting dung. When young 
shoots have broken afresh repot into light, sandy soil, and 
inure the plants by degrees to common treatment.] 
DESTROYING THE MEALY BUG ON CACTI. 
“ Would you be so kind as to give me your opinion if I 
make half the quantity of the mixture that Mr. Fish recom¬ 
mended to kill the Mealy Bug ? If I make it the same 
strength that he recommended in the last monthly part of 
The Cottage Gardener, do you think it will injure Cac¬ 
tus, Mammillaria, Opuntia, and Echino-cactus, if I syringe 
them with it, to kill the Mealy Bug ?— Beginner.” 
[You may use half the quantity you propose for insect- 
covered Pine Apples; but we would not advise you to use 
such a strong dose for Cactus, &c. We have tried tur¬ 
pentine and spirits of wine on such without effect, or rather, 
with too much effect. For such plants as you speak of we 
would use no sulphur, except a little of the clear solution of 
it, and we should rather incline to discard the turpentine 
altogether. You may safely add half as much more glue. 
If you can just feel the liquid a little sticky when you wet 
your thumb and finger and press them together it will do, and 
you may safely syringe the Eohino-cacti, or draw them through 
the liquid. For such things we would also reduce by one- 
half the quantity of soft soap. Try a few, and let us know 
the result. We once so cleared some Melo-cacti of scale, &c., 
and attributed most of the cure to the merits of the size or 
glue. They should be syringed with clean water a few days 
after being so doctored.] 
