February 6, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
363 
full, that the leaves may float close to the surface. 
Place the vessel in a stove or any house in which the 
temperature is kept above 65°; the water should be 
kept at from 65° to 70°, and the plants shaded from 
the full rays of the sun. Fresh water should be given 
them frequently during the day every time the house is 
damped, from a can with a rose held over the plant, 
so that the water descends on it in the form of heavy 
rain. The vessel should be cleaned out once a fortnight 
or oftener if it gets dirty, and all dirt should be sponged 
off the leaves, and a sharp look out kept for a small 
snail, which is very fond of the young foliage. It is 
very seldom that the plants throw up a flower spike 
until they become large, and the pot is filled with roots ; 
if the flowers are kept under the water they seed freely. 
Sow the seeds singly in small pots, and give the same 
treatment. — George Holmes, The Gardens, Shipley Hall, 
Derby. 
Spiraea japonica. —This is a plant of great merit 
for window or vase decoration, and is without doubt a 
general favourite. It is of easy culture, and with a 
little pains great results may be obtained. From now 
onwards may be seen in villa windows near towns, 
many good, and some indifferent specimens. Many of 
these are specially grown for sale, and a good market 
is made of them. Now I should like to know what 
becomes of all these after blooming ; the answer would 
be, in many cases, they die. I would advise, as far as 
the means allow,; that these, if planted out in the 
border, would by and bye become useful as well as orna¬ 
mental. As regards habit, this Spiraea, or Astilbe, is the 
beau ideal of what a pot or vase plant should be ; the 
flesh green, elegant foliage, with the plume-like masses 
of pure white flowers renders it one of the most attrac¬ 
tive plants we have. It is a coarse-rooted plant, and 
when once the roots have taken hold of the new soil 
after potting, they should have an abundance of water, 
with occasional weak liquid manure, then the results 
will be highly satisfactory.— J. S. T. 
Herbaceous Phloxes.— “W. B. G.’s” paper 
upon these Phloxes is interesting and pleasing, because 
drawing attention to one of the most beautiful of 
hardy herbaceous plants. I have often been surprised 
to find how few of these Phloxes are to be found in 
many pretentious gardens, and still further, when 
found, how few plants are propagated and produced as 
advised by “ W. B. G. ” Then I note with great sur¬ 
prise how few either of plants or heads of bloom are 
to be met with at late summer and autumn shows. 
Plants on single stems from spring cuttings, and in 6 
in. or 8 in. pots, would, if shown in 9’s or 12’s, make 
very attractive and beautiful displays. Possibly they 
may be so encouraged in some parts of the country, but 
I have not been fortunate enough to meet with them. 
Apart from exhibition purposes, a few dozen such plants 
in pots would prove most valuable for decorative pur¬ 
poses in any garden. I have, though not in a carping 
spirit, to take exception to what “ W. B. G. ” states 
with regard to raising seedlings. In the first place, 
my experience of 300 seedlings raised from seed and 
from just a few named kinds, in the autumn of 1884, is 
that the variation of colours and markings in the 
seedling flowers is most remarkable, hardly two out of 
the whole number being exactly alike. That fact alone 
may encourage some readers of The Gardening World 
to go in for seed-sowing at the proper time. At the 
risk of being charged with iteration, I would again say 
that I prefer sowing seed the moment it is ripe and 
threshed out. My previous batch of seedlings were 
torn seed sown in November in a frame and which 
germinated freely. The seedlings, when strong enough, 
were dibbled out in rows in the open field, and every 
plant carried a fine head of bloom. A similar sowing 
has been made this winter, the seed being saved from 
a score of the best of the seedlings, and I am hopeful of 
being rewarded with still further variety next autumn. 
— A. D. 
Late Chrysanthemums. —I see by your leader 
of January 23rd, on late Chrysanthemums, that a few 
growers in the south have no difficulty in keeping the 
flowers back until Christmas and the two following 
weeks. I may say, that it is nothing uncommon here 
in Scotland, if the plants have been well grown, housed 
in a good airy greenhouse or conservatory, and kept 
free of mildew, to have them much later than the 
above date. I grow about sixty pots here, and this 
season the second earliest were at their best on new 
year’s day, such sorts as Empress of India, Mrs. G. 
Bundle, &c. ; and the late varieties, such as Fair Maid 
of Guernsey, Ethel, the Khedive, and others, were not 
fully expanded until the 22nd January, and I expect 
to keep them fresh for three weeks yet at least. I 
began to cut the early sorts from outside about the 12th 
of August, so that we have had a long feast of Chry¬ 
santhemums I enclose a few of the blooms with a few 
other things that have been flowering here for the last 
month.— John Dick, Gardener, Schaw Park, Alloa, 
N.B. [A very nice assortment. The Chrysanthemum 
blooms were capital. — Ed. ] 
The Culture of Libonias. —Having noticed 
an inquiry respecting these in your columns a few 
weeks back, and being a grower of them for house 
decoration, a few lines from me may be of service to 
some of your readers. We grow two varieties, L. flori- 
bunda and L. Penrliosiensis, in about the same quan¬ 
tities. The latter has the best habit and foliage, and 
is very distinct. I believe it to be the result of a cross 
between L. floribunda and Sericograpliis Ghiesbreghtii. 
We strike them early in the spring, generally in a 
Cucumber or Melon pit, using the points of young 
side shoots, cutting them off at the third joint, and 
removing the two lower leaves. They are inserted in 
a light compost of finely sifted soil, with plenty of 
sand, putting about a dozen cuttings in a 48 pot, and 
let them remain till they have made sufficient growth 
to allow of the points being taken out. When they 
have made fresh growth, we pot them singly into large 
60 pots, using a mixture of turfy loam and peat or 
leaf-mould. They are not very particular about soil, 
provided it is free and open ; but they must have a 
pretty good heat, say of about 60°, in the early stages 
of growth. When they are well established in these 
pots, and before the roots get too much matted together, 
we shift them into 48’s (generally this is the last one 
they get with us), and keep them close for a few days 
after repotting. During the summer they will do very 
well in a cold frame if the lights are kept on, sprink¬ 
ling them overhead in the afternoon ; and when well 
established, occasional doses of liquid manure are very 
beneficial. In the autumn, they are best if removed 
into a structure where a heat of from 50° to 60° is 
maintained. If larger plants are required, the one 
year old plants may be cut well back in February or 
March ; and when new growth has commenced, turn 
them out of the pots, and when well established, give 
them a shift into pots one or two sizes larger, managing 
them in the same way as plants struck fresh from 
cuttings. L. floribunda seldom requires sticking, but 
L. Penrliosiensis, from its heavier foliage, will some¬ 
times require support.— W. B. G. 
Thyrsacanthus rutilans.— We are fast losing 
sight of many of our good old stove and greenhouse 
plants. In Thyrsacanthus rutilans we have one of the 
finest high coloured of winter flowering plants ; the 
flowers are not so useful for cutting purposes as many 
other things now grown, but a few plants well grown 
help to brighten up the stove with their long pendulous 
racemes of brilliant crimson-scarlet blossoms. The 
plant when well grown is always the admiration of 
every one who sees it, and why it should have become 
so much neglected I am at a loss to understand. Its 
cultivation is very simple where a goodstove temperature 
can be maintained ; the soil that suits it being a mixture 
of equal parts of loam, peat, and manure, with a good 
sprinkling of sharp sand. The plant is sure to flower 
when small, but the gorgeousness of it is best seen 
when it attains the height of 4 ft. or 5 ft., the long 
racemes hanging on all sides down to the top of the pot. 
It is a continuous bloomer during the three darkest 
months of the year, and for brilliancy of colour 
amongst winter flowering stove plants it has no equal, 
except the Poinsettia pulcherrima, which is of a totally 
different habit. — W. G. 
Poinsettias. —The system of planting out these 
beautiful winter decorative plants in summer has been 
ably discussed in your pages by good authorities, and I 
have no doubt the plan has much to recommend it; 
but, of course, it can only be practised in the south of 
England. One thing is certain, the system gives much 
less trouble, and there is less expense than when grown 
in pots under glass ; and it is also convenient where 
space under glass is limited. But considering how 
valuable a good stock of Poinsettias is, and the tender 
constitution of the plant, I should be very loath to 
run the risk there is in planting them out. We are 
very subject in the south of England to early frosts, 
such as were spoken of by Mr. Merrit in his note 
of last -week. I shall always grow them in pots from a 
batch of cuttings struck in the spring, as I like a new 
stock every year, especially were thorough good plants 
are required, well furnished with foliage for table deco¬ 
ration, &e. The Poinsettia is very susceptible to the 
least check it sustains, either from want of water or 
disturbance at the roots ; and I cannot but think that 
when they are lifted from their planted out quarters 
they must be checked, and more so if they have to be 
reduced to a ball of a suitable size for a pot for table 
decoration, consequently a loss of foliage follows, and 
the plants are not fit for table purpose. One of the 
most successful growers of the Poinsettia I know is Mr. 
George Miles, of Victoria Nursery, Brighton ; his plants 
are grown in pots never larger than 36’s or large 48’s. 
The plants are generally about 12 ins. to 15 ins. high, 
and thoroughly furnished from the surface of the pot 
to the head of bracts with fine handsome foliage. I 
have seen heads of bracts on his plants from 12 ins. to 
15 ins. in diameter. Every attention is given in pot¬ 
ting the plants at a proper time, and in careful watering 
and ventilating ; I am sure he is well repaid for the 
labour bestowed.— E. Williams, Sliepperton, Middlesex. 
Herrin’s Blood-red Primula. —This is one of 
the richest-coloured Primulas we have ever seen, a 
good batch of it being now in bloom with Mr. C. 
Herrin at Chalfont Park Gardens, who has succeeded 
in fixing it by careful selection and seeding extending 
over some years. The flowers, which are large, perfect, 
and of good substance, are blood-red with clear yellow 
eye, some of the plants having a beautiful row of snow- 
white dots all round the margins. The habit of the 
plant is good, the foliage handsome, and altogether 
it promises to become a first favourite. — J. B. 
The Leek. — I do not think that I ever before saw 
the Leeks in the market-gardens so small as they are 
this winter. As it is a succulent plant requiring plenty 
of moisture during the growing season, it is, perhaps, 
not to be wondered at that the plants are small, seeing 
that at the time the Leeks were transplanted from the 
seed beds to the open ground the weather was both hot 
and dry, and continued so up to the end of the summer. 
Beally they made but little growth compared to what 
they generally do in a moist season, and, therefore, it 
is they are so small. But it is a delicious winter 
vegetable when nicely cooked and served up with some 
excellent sauce.— 11. D. 
Tree Carnation Pride of Penshurst.— It 
is sometimes said that it is difficult to have Tree 
Carnations in flower in winter, but those who have 
formed this opinion can have had little experience 
with them, and most of all they cannot have tried 
the variety named above. Several yellow-flowered 
Carnations are grown and enjoy various degrees of 
popularity, but the best I have seen or grown is Pride 
of Penshurst. The flowers are very neat in form, are 
produced in great numbers, and are of a most agreeable 
clear bright yellow colour. Andalusia is a good one, 
but I recommend Pride of Penshurst as being far superior 
in all respects. — W. 
Epiphyllums in a low Temperature.— 
Cultivators of these plants often recommend a much 
higher temperature than I have proved is essential to 
their welfare, and as I was deterred from undertaking 
to grow them by fearing that we could not give them 
the heat they required, it may assist others if the 
treatment I found successful be noted. I have one 
small house, and the heating apparatus does not permit 
me to get a higher temperature than 50° without the 
assistance of sun heat, and in severe frosty weather it 
is often nearer 40°. Yet in this house with a variety 
of other plants, I manage to grow Cypripedium insigne, 
Dendrobium nobile, and Epiphyllums. The latter, 
which are the subject of this note, are potted in a 
mixture of loam, lime-rubbish, sand, and a rather 
abundant proportion of old manure, the pots being 
most thoroughly drained, and to this I attribute my 
success in some degree. When growth is advancing, 
the plants are placed in the warmest and sunniest 
corner, and they are afterwards ripened by ventila¬ 
tion and exposure to sun on a shelf close to the 
glass. I treat them liberally when in growth and 
flowering, giving them weak liquid manure frequently, 
but at other times water is very sparingly and carefully 
supplied. There are now half-a-dozen plants flowering, 
and others are advancing, one of the best of the former 
which I had upon my table recently evoked the ad¬ 
miration of a professional gardener friend who saw 
it, and who said the treatment was worthy of note in 
your pages. — An Amateur. 
