September 12, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
23 
The Amateurs’ Garden. 
THE GREENHOUSE. 
Roof Climbers. —With shortening days and waning 
light, it will now be necessary to keep roof climbers 
thin, which should he done by cutting away any shoots 
that have flowered, or are not wanted for laying in or 
leaving to furnish vacant parts, and to clothe the house 
for the winter. Clianthus puniceus is one of the finest 
things for a pillar or rafter, where it has not far to run. 
It is remarkably showy, sending out, as it does freely, 
long racemes of large, red, pea-shaped blooms, that last 
a long time in perfection. 
Habrothamnus elegans. —This is another plant 
that should be in every greenhouse, for when planted 
out so that it can grow freely, it is rarely out of flower 
either in summer or winter. For furnishing the roof 
and depending therefrom the Passion Flowers and Tac- 
sonias are the best, as they give little or no trouble 
beyond thinning, and are exceedingly graceful, the 
finest and most suitable among the first-named being 
P. racemosa ccerulea, and T. Yan Volxemii and T. 
exoniensis are the showiest of the Tacsonias. 
Lapagerias. —For walls or other shady parts nothing 
is equal to the Lapagerias, the red and white being 
splendid together, the one helping to show the other 
off to the greatest advantage. 
Planting. —Although spring is the best time to plant 
these climbers, borders may be made and the plants put 
in now, as they will get root-hohl if they do not grow 
much, and will start strong by-and bye. In preparing 
for the Lapagerias, drainage is the great essential, as 
their welfare depends on the water passing quickly 
through. The soil most suitable for them is fresh 
fibry peat, which should be used rough, with a good 
sprinkling of sand to keep it open and porous. 
Fuchsias. —Plants of these that have been flowering 
during the summer, and have lost their beauty, will be 
all the better for being stood out under a wall or other 
sheltered spot to ripen, preparatory to storing them 
away by-and-bye for the winter. 
Cuttings. —Any young shoots that have soft tender 
points may be taken off for cuttings, and if these are 
put in under bell-glasses or hand-lights, and kept close 
and moist, they will soon root, and should then be 
potted singly and grown on to flower early in spring. 
Petunias. —Although these, both double and single, 
come freely from seed, sorts that are exceptionally 
good are worth keeping, and cuttings are in proper order 
now, and may be struck in the same way as the 
Fuchsias, when the old plants should be thrown away, 
as they will be of no further use. 
Primulas and Cinerarias.— If not already done, 
these should receive their last shift, and as soon as 
potted stood on a hard coal-ash bottom in a pit or 
frame, up near the glass, where they can get plenty of 
light and air to keep them from drawing. The soil 
most suitable for Primulas and Cinerarias is loam, leaf- 
mould, and decomposed cow-manure, in the proportion 
of two-tliirds or so of the first-named to equal parts of 
the latter, to which should be added a little sharp sand 
to keep the mixture open and porous. 
Pelargoniums.— Plants of these that have been 
pinched in small pots, as advised, and grown outdoors 
for autumn and winter-blooming, will now be in fine 
order, and ought soon to be moved in under glass, the 
most suitable place for them being a light airy shelf, 
where their flowers will open well and come of good 
colour. 
Calceolarias.— Herbaceous kinds of Calceolarias 
are among the most showy of greenhouse plants, and 
are easily grown ; but it is late now for sowing, as 
seedlings ought to be up aud ready for pricking off, 
which should be done in pans filled with light rich 
soil, and if then stood in a damp shady frame, their 
progress will be rapid. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
Propagating. —As we are now getting fast on into 
the autumn, no time should be lost in bringing propa¬ 
gating to a close, the cuttings which take longest to 
strike being Pelargoniums, and if these are not in and 
rooted within the next month, success with them will 
be out of the question. The shoots best adapted to 
make the cuttings are those that are firm, the sappy 
ones being more apt to rot, especially at this late season 
now that the air is becoming damp, and the sun losing 
its power ; but to prevent them going off, they should 
be stood out quite in the open, and have no water after 
they are first put in, as they contain sufficient sap to keep 
them alive. 
Soil. —The soil most suitable for striking Pelargo¬ 
niums in, is that which is sharp and sandy, and in this 
they may be inserted, three in a 60-sized pot or a number 
put into shallow boxes, which answer well for the work if 
made the width of any shelves in the house on which 
the plants are to be wintered, and in this way great 
numbers may be kept in a small space till the spring. 
Verbenas, Ageratums, Petunias, Heliotropes, 
and all such like, are best propagated in the spring, 
and it is only necessary now, to provide store pots of 
each, and to do this the cuttings should be placed in a 
frame where they can be kept close, and have the bene¬ 
fit of a little bottom heat, and if then sprinkled and 
shaded from the sun, they will soon root, when air will 
be required to make them sturdy and strong. 
Flower Beds and Borders. —These will need 
constant looking over to keep them neat aud tidy, by 
picking off any dead or decaying leaves and flowers or 
seed heads, and tying up and supporting all such as 
are likely to be knocked down or affected by the wind, 
which we may soon expect in force, and should prepare 
for in time. 
Carnations, Picotees, and Pinks. —If these were 
layered as directed some weeks back, or cuttings put in 
under hail flights, they ought now to be sufficiently 
rooted to be ready for taking off the parent plants, or, 
be planted out in beds or borders where it is intended 
to grow and flower them. Before this is done, however, 
the ground should be manured, and dug to a good 
depth, and then made firm around the plants, which 
will require a watering to give them a start. 
Arranging Plants. — It often happens in mixed 
borders where perennials are grown, that many get too 
high, or are otherwise unsuitable for the positions they 
occupy, and it is a good plan to take stock, and make 
note or mark such as need moving or re-arranging, 
while it can be seen which they are before they die 
down. 
Dividing and Replanting. —Some will bear this 
now, and others that have done blooming,, and are too 
large, may be reduced at once by cutting them through 
with a spade. 
THE FRUIT GARDEN. 
Pears.—E arly sorts of these will now be getting 
ripe, but if gathered all at once, as is generally done, 
their season is but short, the best way being to go care¬ 
fully over the trees and to take off the most forward, when 
the others will come on after, and form a succession. 
Later kinds have been much checked in their swelling, 
owing to the continuous drought, and unless heavily 
watered they will be small and poor, as instead of being 
juicy and soft in the flesh, the fibrous portion hardens, 
and becomes gritty, and this is why the fruit splits or 
cracks in the skin. To prevent this, the trees must be 
well fed, and the way to do this is to scrape away the 
surface soil around the stem so as to form a saucer-like 
receptacle, 5 or 6 ft. across, and then fill it up with 
sewage, and after this has soaked in, the dry earth 
may be returned again, or a mulching of dung given, 
the latter being the most preferable, as liquid manure 
can be given again without making any fresh pre¬ 
paration for pouring it on. 
Apples.— Bush and espalier Apples should be treated 
precisely the same, and if these, or the Pears, have any 
shoots on that are not wanted as leaders, or for filling 
in vacant parts, they should be cut away, leaving only 
a bud or two at the base. 
Peaches and Nectarines. —These, like Pears, 
have suffered much from want of rain, and any late 
kinds that have fruit on must still be watered, as also 
young trees that are not well established, for without 
such assistance it is impossible for them to keep their 
leaves healthy and plump up their buds. 
Syringing. —One of the greatest aids towards help¬ 
ing them to sw^ell the buds is syringing, which is very 
refreshing to the foliage, and does much in keeping off 
red spider, which, if it gets a foothold, does a deal of 
harm to the trees. 
Strawberries.— Although beds of these should 
have been made some time ago, it is not too late to do 
so yet, the chief thing towards success in getting them 
to fruit next season being to secure good plants. This 
done, the next important matter is to see that they are 
well furnished with roots, and are lifted with large 
balls, as then they feel little or no check through re¬ 
moval. To grow fine fruits the ground must be 
prepared by being heavily manured, and deeply dug or 
trenched, but after that work is earned out, the land 
should be firmly trodden down again, as Strawberries 
never do well in a soil that is loose. 
Planting.— In planting nothing is gained by having 
the rows near, the proper distance being a yard apart, 
but the plants may go within 18 ins. of each other in 
the rows, as they will have room to spread at the sides. 
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 
Potatos. —It is high time now that all these were 
out of the ground, as they have done growing, and 
though the tops may be a little green, the skins of the 
tubers are set, and that is the thing to go by and shows 
ripeness, after which there is no more swelling of the 
tubers ; but they may sprout, and this they will if not 
dug, and when they do so their quality greatly deteri¬ 
orates, and the Potatos are fit only for seed. 
Broccoli.— The dry weather is telling seriously 
against these, as may be seen by their starved appear¬ 
ance and the blue colour of their leaves, to get rid of 
which, and give them a start, a soaking of liquid 
manure should be administered, or a good watering to 
tide them over till rain comes in sufficient quantity to 
get down to the roots. 
Cauliflowers stand in need of the same kind of 
assistance, and the oftener they have it, the finer and 
larger will be the heads they produce. If no sewage is 
at hand, a cheap substitute may be had by using a 
little guano in water, a table-spoonful being quite 
sufficient for a gallon, and if stirred up it will soon mix 
and dissolve, and may be put on at once. 
Celery.— The same thing will suit Celery, which, 
to be good, must have plenty of liquid manure of some 
kind, and frequent soakings at the root so long as the 
weather continues dry, or the plants will make but a 
very poor growth. Instead of earthing-up piecemeal, 
as is generally done, it is far better to simply tie up the 
stems by running a piece of bass matting round, so as 
just to bring them close together, and do the blanching 
later on, by managing in which way watering can be 
continued without washing soil into the hearts. 
Onions. —Spring-sown beds of these are now ripe, 
and should be pulled and laid on one side for the ground 
to be cleaned and raked ready for spreading them out 
thinly again in the sun for them to ripen, on which 
their keeping sound through the winter greatly depends. 
To insure thorough maturation, it will be necessary to 
turn the bulbs over with a rake every other day or so 
till they are fit for harvesting, when they should be 
roped up and hung to the rafters in some dry open shed. 
Spinach —Beds of this ought now to be up and 
sufficiently forward for thinning, and if the plants are 
left about 8 ins. apart, that will be quite near enough, 
as they will need that space to develope fine leaves. 
What agrees with Spinach, and does the crop much 
good, is a dressing of soot, which may be sown on at 
any time while the land is dry, and hoed-in when 
stirring the surface to kill weeds, after which the rains 
will carry it down. 
Tomatos. —These are gross feeders, and require 
frequent applications of liquid manure. To get the 
fruit to ripen, shoots must be kept thin, and leaves that 
overhang the bunches removed, that the sun may have 
full play on them. 
Arctotis aureola and A. revoluta. —These two 
showy Cape plants are figured in the September 
number of the Botanical Magazine. They are similar 
in general appearance to the well-known Gazania, both 
in the leaves and flowers. A. aureola is a very old in¬ 
habitant of European gardens, though long since lost to 
cultivation. Mr. Lynch, of Cambridge, however, 
recently obtained plants from Max Leichtlin, of Baden- 
Baden, and flowered them in April last. The flowers 
are exceptionally fine, measuring over 4 ins. in diameter, 
the colour being a deep orange. Mr. Lynch attributes 
the large size of the flowers to the fact that it was 
grafted on the more robust A. aspera var. arborescens. 
He also points out that it strikes freely from cuttings. 
A. revoluta has smaller flowers, of a paler colour. 
They succeed best in a greenhouse, but in favourable 
seasons thev do far!v well out of doors. 
