28 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ February, 
small pots, in rich liglit soil, and placed in 
lieat, water being very sparingly given, until 
the plants liave commenced to grow freely ; 
and wlien the small pots have become well 
filled with roots, thej^ should be shifted into 
6-in. pots, in which they may be left to flower. 
By the time the flower-stem is pushing 
up, the plants will bear to be treated 
liberally with water, and they should also 
be kept well up to the glass. They 
may now be occasionally watered with manure- 
water. The leaves should present a rich green 
colour. When the foliage takes on a yellow 
hue there is something wrong at the roots, and 
plants in this, condition never produce good 
flowers—very frequently no flowers at all. If, 
however, the plants are grown on in a healthy, 
vigorous state, the flower-stems will grow 3 ft. 
high, or sometimes even more, and will pro¬ 
duce from 15 to 20 beautiful white flowers. 
The flowers of the Tuberose being deliciously 
fragrant, they are great favourites for the 
decoration of the drawing-room and the con¬ 
servatory. The double-flowered variety repre¬ 
sented in the accompanying figure [kindly lent 
to us by Messrs. Baxter and Son] is the hand¬ 
somest and most durable. By planting at differ¬ 
ent periods, say, in March, April, and May, the 
season of flowering may be correspondingly 
prolonged. 
Some growers prefer to plant the roots on a 
slight liot-bed, and to pot them off after they 
have started into growth at once into the 
flowering-pots. In this case, they may be left 
until the flower-stem is 6 in. high. After 
potting, they should be kept close, and shaded 
for a few days, until they have drawn fresh 
roots. If this method be preferred, a liot-bed 
frame will be required for the first lot; hooped 
sticks and mats would do for the second ; and 
the third, which need not be planted out until 
May, might be put into the open ground, but 
these, also, will be benefited by having a 
slight liot-bed beneath, to start them into 
growth.— George Eyles, Mortlale Road, Kew. 
SUBURBAN GARDENING. 
c j' : ^)EBRUARY.—We opened our last article 
1 under this heading by remarking, 
“ What a glorious autumn !” At the 
present moment we can remark with equal 
truth,—“ What a severe winter!” The 
wintry weather has burst upon us suddenly with 
a hurricane of wind, driving before it such a 
fall of snow as the country has not witnessed 
for years. The land is snow-bound and frost- 
bound, and gardening operations, as far as the 
open ground is concerned, are at a stand-still. 
It may be days or weeks that the land will lie in 
the wintry embrace, therefore the amateur gar¬ 
dener should make it a time of preparation, so 
far as he can do so, for the busy season that will 
come when the icy reign is over. There are 
many things he can do, as we indicated last 
month. 
Kitchen Garden. —So soon as the snow has 
cleared away, and the soil is sufficiently dry to 
be workable, ground to be cropped should be 
dug or trenched, or forked down, as required, 
and efforts made to get the surface as dry as 
possible, ready for sowing. In dry, frosty 
weather, soils and manures should be wheeled 
on to the ground where necessary, and new 
borders and beds constructed. Sowing should 
be proceeded with immediately, if circumstances 
of weather are favourable to the prosecution 
of this work ; but the villa gardener should not 
be in too great a hurry to sow, and the more 
especially as of late years we have experi¬ 
enced late and inclement springs. Cauliflower , 
Lettuce , and Parsley plants should be protected 
as much as possible, but we anticipate that the 
severity of the frost will have nearly destroyed 
many of them. February should be as much 
as possible a time of preparation for the 
active work in the garden that must be done 
in March. 
Fruit Garden. —Any arrears of pruning and 
training should be pushed forward when the 
weather is favourable. Old fastenings should 
be examined, and their stability and size ascer¬ 
tained. The latter is a point of considerable 
importance. A clever gardener has remarked, 
“ No end of plants have their symmetry mar¬ 
red, and their health ruined, through neglect¬ 
ing old ties, shreds, and nails. These eat 
through the bark, cut and corrode the wood, 
unseen and unthought of, and beget canker 
and a host of diseases, and, indeed, sudden 
deaths when least expected. Our young 
trees, or fast-growing plants of any kind, should 
have every shred or tie examined, and, if need 
be, removed each season. If the fastenings 
are at all firm now, they will bite deeply into 
the bark or wood before the end of the year. 
In making fresh ties or shreds, see that space is 
left for the growth of the wood; and that, if 
nails are used, they are placed clear of the 
growing shoots, with sufficient margin for rapid 
growth. Such are some of the essentials of 
training.” As to pruning, it is difficult to give 
exact directions that will meet all cases. The 
gardener should remove as much old and worn- 
out wood as possible, and fill up the spaces 
with younger wood that will bear fruit. After 
tliinning-out the old wood on Peaches , Nec¬ 
tarines , Apricots , and Plums , the young shoots 
will need shortening back to from six to 
fifteen inches from their base. Short wood 
