December 19, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
251 
CUCUMBERS IN JUNE. 
Ik reply to your correspondent, “ J. F.,” who asks 
for instructions at p. 238 as to how to grow the plants 
so that he can cut Cucumbers in June, I may say that he 
should sow, at the end of February, seed of Rollisson’s 
Telegraph singly in 3-in. pots, having a few pieces of 
small crocks in the bottom, over which a few half- 
decomposed leaves should be put for drainage, and 
two-parts filled with light rich compost, covering the 
seed with a little of the same kind of compost, then 
plunge the pots to the rims in sawdust or leaf-mould in a 
box sufficiently deep to allow of a square of glass being 
placed over it without touching the pots, and place it 
on the pipes in his house. 
After an interval of a few days the plant, if the seed 
is good, will appear through the soil, the box should 
then be placed near the glass to prevent the seedling 
plants from being “ drawn,” and as soon as they have 
attained to the height of 2 ins. they should be top- 
dressed with soil of the same description and temper¬ 
ature as that in which they are growing ; care being 
taken in doing so not to press the stems of the plants, 
as that would be likely to injure them in their then 
stage of growth. 
They should be afterwards either planted on a bed in 
the house, if there is one, or shifted into larger pots 
before becoming pot-bound at the roots, putting a stick 
to each plant for support, and applying tepid water at 
the roots sparingly until the latter have pushed well 
into the soil, after which more liberal and frequent 
supplies should be given. In shifting the plants do 
not bury the stems of the individual plants any deeper 
in the soil in the large pots than they were in the 
smaller-sized ones. 
Five plants will be sufficient to fill your corre¬ 
spondents house of 15 ft. in length, and if they are 
intended for fruiting in pots, the larger the latter are 
the better it will be for the plants and the crop ; the 
pots should be well drained. Doubtless the information 
necessary to their proper after-treatment will be given 
in The Gardening “World in due time.— H. TV. TV. 
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FRUITS, FLO WERS & V EGETABLES. 
The Lady Downes Grape. —This Grape does 
not keep so well when grown in a cool house as when 
treated to a Muscat temperature. The writer has 
had experience of some Lady Downes, which, though 
much blacker and more heavily bloomed than others 
grown in a much higher temperature, do not keep so 
well, invariably showing signs of shrivelling in De¬ 
cember, while the less black and more lightly bloomed 
ones treated to a higher temperature keep well till 
April. Good colour and bloom are generally considered 
signs of pierfectiou in Grapes, and generally, we may 
say such is the case, but Lady Downes seems an 
exception to this rule. A cool temperature and plenty 
of air seems to be favourable to the production of good 
colour and heavy bloom, but the qualities that go to 
make Lady Downes such a grand keeper, seem to be 
developed more perfectly in a stronger heat, and pro¬ 
portionally less air. In the latter case, colour and 
bloom seem to suffer, but the keeping qualities are 
developed to a satisfactory extent, and after all that 
is the great thing in Lady Downes.— J. T. 
Gladiolus Saundersii.— This is one of the 
most distinct forms in this family. The three upper 
petals are of the same length, the centre one erect, 
the two side ones very much recurved ; the lower 
petals are of unequal length, the two side ones very much 
recurved ; the colour is a bright salmon-scarlet, the 
bottom portion of the three lower petals white, covered 
with remarkably even spots brighter in colour than the 
body of the flower, and so forms a very remarkable and 
telling plant well worthy of cultivation. — TV. E. 
Poinsettias flowering during the dullest months 
of the year, afford the most brilliant adornments of our 
stoves and drawing-rooms during the festive season now 
so close at hand. Having successfully grown a batch 
of them by methods somewhat out of the beaten track, 
I was thinking of writing to you about them, when I 
saw with great pleasure the admirable paper by “ J. ” 
at p. 229. At the first glance I thought I would defer 
what I had to say on the subject till another time ; but 
as my modus operandi has been somewhat different from 
that described by him, it may be of use to some of your 
readers at a future time. Always reluctant to throw 
anything away that may be of use, at the beginning of 
last July I found I had on hand a number of Poinsettia 
rods of last year’s growth, stowed away in a box with a 
few handsfiill of dry soil, they having been shaken out 
of their pots in the month of March and left with just 
sufficient soil to keep life in them, and placed under a 
Vinery-stage. During the first week of July they were 
cut down to the first eyes from the roots, and the latter 
were trimmed back to within 2 ins. of the stem. Then 
we potted them into 48-sized pots, using a mixture of 
soil from a Melon-bed with about one-half of well- 
decayed leaf-mould, using the compost in a moderately 
moist condition, and giving no water at the time of 
potting. The pots were plunged on a Vine-border up 
to their rims, and the surface mulched with short grass 
from the lawn. No watering was required till they had 
well broke. They remained there till the first week in 
August, when finding the nights abnormally cold, we 
put them on a gentle hot-bed, but without any pro¬ 
tection. They made stiff deep-coloured growth while 
there, and about the first week in September they were 
shifted into a brick pit with a slight bottom-heat, the 
air being kept on night and day, and the lights removed 
on all favourable occasions till the end ot September. 
From then till their removal to their present quarters 
in the second week of December, they had the benefit 
of a slight amount of fire-heat; but with this the tem¬ 
perature must have often, for days together, have been 
below 50°. They are now a promising lot of plants, 
varying from 9 ins. to 20 ins. in height, with plenty of 
green healthy foliage, and will give good average heads 
of bracts from Christmas and on into the new year. 
They are now kept in a temperature of from 55° at 
night to 65° in the daytime, and syringed on all favour¬ 
able occasions. From the time the pots were filled 
with roots they have had occasional waterings of liquid 
mauure made with cow-urine, and a healthier lot of 
stuff could not be wished for.— TV. B. GT. 
A useful Kitchen Garden Label. — There 
are few more useful things than a thoroughly good 
kitchen garden label, for correctly labelling the subjects 
grown in this department is an important point. 
These labels should stand 12 ins. above the ground, be 
written in a legible hand, and state the time of sowing, 
planting, and from what firm the seeds came, so that 
all the information wanted may be had in the proverbial 
nut-shell, and on the spot. “We have tried numbers of 
different labels, but we find none so useful, so come-at- 
able, and so easily made as those made from Lime-stakes. 
They are about the thickness of a man’s wrist, cut into 
16-inch lengths, pointed at one end, and the plane run 
over the other. You then have a label after being 
painted, which is a real pleasure to write upon.— R. 
Gilbert, Burghley Park, Stamford. 
Christmas Roses. —My plants of Christmas Roses 
potted up in October from the open ground, are 
throwing up, in some cases, from forty to sixty flowers, 
each as white as snow. It is the variety known as 
angustifolius, the whitest of all, and the blossoms in 
their charming purity look like the flowers of some 
hardy Eucharis. They will be in admirable form just 
at Christmas, and will come in with Holly and Misleto 
to grace that festive season. My Christmas Roses do 
not receive a particle of help from artificial heat; a 
few days since they were frozen hard, but no ill effects 
have come from it. So many persons might grow some 
flowers in this way, by having a dozen or so strong 
clumps, but let them take care that they obtain the right 
variety, the one named above ; and let them also have 
a small piece of reserve ground in which there is some 
good loam, to plant out the clumps in, as soon as 
possible in early spring, when frosty weather has passed 
away.— R. D. 
Japanese Chrysanthemums in the open 
Air.—Hybrid Pompones.— In trying to reply to 
“Cerilla, Hammersmith,” I must commence by 
acknowledging the courtesy of his remarks. I say 
“ trying to reply,” for hitherto, until within the last 
few' years, I have principally grown incurved, reflexed, 
and the hybrid Pompones ; which last, by the way, I 
greatly regret to find are going out of cultivation, and 
rarely now seen at show's. Mr. Cannell used to give 
them a separate section in his Floral Guide, but even 
this distinction, neither he, nor Mr. Davis, continue 
to make. For open air purposes, that is for cut¬ 
ting and decoration, no others can come near them in 
perfectness of blooms, or the quantitie^produced. The 
run now is on size, and if a variety is not capable of 
producing a bloom as big as a mop, it is incontinently 
thrown aside ; at least, I cannot remember more than 
one certificated within the past two years. There are 
numbers of private individuals raising seedlings at 
present, and, if the National Chrysanthemum Society 
does not extend its patronage to this class, many good 
things, past and present, may get lost. I commend the 
point to the notice of the Editor, and I do so from the 
point of view that I look forward to a great extension of 
the growth of Chrysanthemums in the open air, and as 
those hybrid Pompones are specially suited for the pur¬ 
pose, it would be a pity were they lost to cultivation. I 
admire Mr. Molyneux, the champion grower, all the more 
since he told one of his interviewers, that he was as proud 
of his Chrysanthemums in the open air, as of those in¬ 
doors. So long as people are ashamed to speak ofgrowing 
Chrysanthemums of any kind out doors, and are satisfied 
with one large bloom, instead of fifty, their culture must 
perforce be restricted to the affluent, instead of gracing 
the walls of every villa and cottage, and November and 
December must be dull, drear, and gloomy, for all but 
the wealthy. Without digressing in that direction 
further, I am afraid your correspondent, if under the 
influence of London smoke and fogs, cannot produce 
blooms so clean and bright as those I sent on from the 
country, and this applies still more to his favourite 
Japanese. He wants of a bright clear yellow, presumably 
to bloom early—if so there is nothing better than L’Or 
du Rhin, dwarf and free ; Madame Desgranges, one of 
the best, early, is white indoors, and light, yellow' in the 
open air. Later, that splendid yellow' Comte eje Germiny, 
with a shade of bronze. He might also try Mandarin, 
though that and such thread-like ones as Agrement de la 
Nature, bright amber, retain moisture rather too much ; 
La Rouge or Henry Jacotot, of that colour, might answ r er 
better. As a lilac-rose, better than James Salter is 
Daimio, but only blooming now ; grow both, and add 
Dr. Macary, Cry Kang, and Clytlie, for variety. The best 
rose-coloured early for cutting I know is Alexander Du- 
four. To reds, add Bacchus, L’Admirable, and Margot, 
with Reverie, and S. Delaux, fora change grow Maid of 
Guernsey, and Lady Selborne, to succeed Elaine.—IF. 
J. Murphy, Clonmel. 
Notes from Flete, South Devon. —Looking 
through the many glasshouses at Flete the other day I 
noticed a very fine lot of Calanthes, Yeitchii and vestita, 
the former carrying forty expanded and unexpanded flow¬ 
ers on a spike, and the latter over two dozen on a spike; 
also a fine piece of Phalaenopsis grandiflora in bloom. 
I also noticed in the intermediate house several good 
specimens of Clerodendron Balfourianum laden with 
their showy flowers, and this is the second time they 
have flowered this year, so Mr. Salway, the head gar¬ 
dener, informed me. A fine plant of Anthurium An- 
dreanum bore six large spathes, and several plants of 
Ixora Duffii, carried immense heads of bloom, and prov¬ 
ing very attractive at this dull season of the year. — 
James Mayne, Stowford Lodge, Ivy Bridge. 
Judging- Chrysanthemums. —Many of the 
so-called errors of judges really arise from the indefi¬ 
nite wording of schedules. Mr. Molyneux could write 
an interesting article on this subject, as I have heard 
him relate his experiences. But many others might 
easily be avoided by the adoption of a short code of 
rules, applicable alike to all shows. Would it not be 
well for the National Chrysanthemum Society to insist 
on some such plan in the case of all affiliated societies ? 
In classes were their medals are competed for such a 
course is already imperative, and helps to give the awards 
their full value. The case referred to by “Exhibitor,” 
on p. 202, could not have arisen if No. 5 of the “general 
conditions ” of the N.C.S. had been in force. It reads 
thus:—“That those Chrysanthemums bracketed as 
synonyms in the National catalogue cannot be ex¬ 
hibited in the same stand ; and that being so, shall be 
a disqualification in all classes in which the Society’s 
medals are offered.”— C. T. 
The Chrysanthemum Leaf-miner.— Can 
any of your readers suggest a remedy for the leaf-miner 
insect, which, in a similar manner to the Celery fly, 
does so much damage to Chrysanthemums ? All 
through the summer my plants were attacked by this 
pest, and leaf after leaf had to be pinched off. Syring¬ 
ing with soft soapy water, and a decoction of quassia, 
had no effect on them. I think many growers must 
have been troubled in the same way, as I saw them 
also at Weybridge as bad as mine.— Herbert. [The 
