362 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
February 4, 1888. 
ARDENING 
ISCELIANY. 
Spring .blowers : Cyclamen Coum. 
The most beautiful spring flower now out at Oakwood 
is Cyclamen Coum ; it is growing in full sun in a bed 
containing old mortar. After many experiments I am 
sure that this treatment suits hardy Cyclamens better 
than any other we have tried. Both flowers and leaves 
are finer and brighter in colour.— George F. IVilson, 
Heatherbank, Weybridgc Heath, Jan. 27th. 
Bullfinches and the Fruit Buds. 
I, too, have a garden, or rather the keeping of one, 
with a large wood on two sides of it, and I have read 
the plaint of t! H. D. T.” at p. 314, with sympathy. I 
have also just read, rather late in the week, the remarks 
of “C. A. G.” p. 328, but I cannot, like your corre¬ 
spondent, write in praise of the finches; I am thinking 
the birds about the garden mentioned must differ from 
others, when it is stated that they generally linger 
about till two o’clock after being regaled with their 
breakfast. I would ask what are the birds doing whilst 
lingering there ? My experience is that, breakfast or no 
breakfast, if they are about the garden they are doing 
mischief; most likely it is not -in their power to keep 
from it. Has “C. A. G.” ever seen a bullfinch search¬ 
ing in the ground for grubs or wireworms 1 I quite 
agree that a great many birds do a deal of good at 
various seasons of the year in clearing the insects and 
caterpillars from the occupants of our gardens; but 
different birds have - different habits and appetites. 
"Why, the common house or bam sparrow is the greatest 
thief that ever wore feathers ; but the quiet little hedge 
sparrow is worth much more than his weight in gold. 
The tit, again—I wonder how many gardeners there are 
who do Dot find many of their largest and best Pears 
and Appies spoiled by this little busybody, poking his 
bill into them, making a small hole, so that the rains 
and dews get in and cause the fruit to rot ? "Will any 
feeding keep them from this when their minds seem set 
on the job ? I say, No !— J. H. 
Camellias Out of Doors. 
Quoting the following passage from my paper at 
p. 325 —“Although hardy enough to stand most of our 
winters, yet it cannot be grown out of doors with any 
degree of success”—“A. D.,” at p. 344 of last week’s 
issue, says: “Doubtless this is the general opinion of the 
Camellia held in the north,” and I may say that it 
certainly is an opinion in which I, and no doubt most of 
my fellow gardeners in Lancashire, concur. The 
Camellia being cultivated for the beauty of its flowers, 
to grow it even luxuriantly without flowering it would 
not be growing it successfully. I have no doubt that 
it can be seen in grand form in the neighbourhood of 
Southampton, and I should be highly pleased to look 
upon the plants “A.'D.” alludes to, but what they 
would look like here I cannot even imagine. “A. D. ” 
does wisely not to advise planting it out even as a 
shrub, higher than the- Midlands. Bold indeed would 
be the man to recommend planting it out in thus 
district.— James Hicks, Bolton. 
Lobelia, Queen Victoria. 
The vivid scarlet blossoms of this Lobelia, together 
with its metallic-crimson foliage, render it a most 
useful and beautiful plant for the embellishment of 
the flower garden. If massed or intermingled with 
silver-leaved Pelargoniums, or used in ribbon borders, 
&c., it has a very pleasing effect; and from the amount 
of admiration it receives from the observer, one is 
almost at a loss why it does not receive more attention 
than what is generally given it. It is readily and 
easily raised from seed ; but to have strong healthy 
plants that will flower and give satisfaction the first 
season, seed must be sown early in the year to give 
the plants plenty of time to develop themselves into 
nice sturdy stuff by the first week in June, when, if 
properly hardened off, they will be in a fit state for 
bedding-out purposes. The seed should be sown in 
clean, well-drained pans, firmly filled with a rather 
light sandy compost, and watered about a quarter of 
an hour prior to sowing the seed. I always cover the 
seed with dry sand to the depth of the thickness of 
them ; and as there is generally sufficient moisture in 
the soil to damp through the sand, no water is required 
for some days after. The pans should then be placed 
in a gentle heat, and if a square of glass be placed over 
them, and shaded with a piece of brown paper all the 
better ; it will assist the germination of the seeds. 
"When the plants are large enough to be handled, they 
should be pricked off either into pans or shallow boxes, 
using this time a richer compost. In this the plants 
will quickly grow, and as soon as they begin to be 
crowded it will be better to transfer them to 60-sized 
pots. To have good spikes of flower they require a 
good, rich, and deeply dug soil.— H. Markham, 
Mereworth Castle. —s— 
Primrose, Double Sulphur. 
I send you a small bunch of Primroses, the double 
sulphur-coloured variety of Primula acaulis. The 
flowers were gathered from plants potted last year in 
48-size pots, and then plunged in coal-ashes, in a cool 
and shady position, where they remained till the end of 
September, when they were remove! to a cold frame 
for about six weeks. They were then removed to a shelf 
near the glass in a late Peach-house, where they are 
now flowering profusely. It is at this season when 
their real value is recognised, and I am somewhat sur¬ 
prised that a plant of such easy culture is so little grown 
in this way.— Chas. Grant, The Gardens, The Rookery, 
Dorking. [It is certainly much to be regretted that 
these very pretty hardy flowers are not more generally 
cultivated by those who only possess cool greenhouses. 
—Ed.] —_ 
Variegated House Leek. 
Except for bedding purposes, and at establishments 
where succulent plants are made a hobby, few of the 
Sempervivums are grown for ordinary decorative pur¬ 
poses. The leaves of the ordinary green form of 
S. arboreum do not offer any special features of orna¬ 
ment ; but when young plants of S. a. variegatum are 
well grown, the broad creamy white or creamy yellow 
margins of the leaves are very conspicuous, rendering 
the plant one that might be grown for indoor decorative 
purposes with advantage. During the summer months 
young plants thrive in the open air, and are very 
effective in carpet bedding and other designs. IVe 
noticed a fine stock of it recently in the nurseries of 
Messrs. H. Cannell & Sons, Swanley, Kent. 
Late Chrysanthemum. 
Some attention should be given to varieties that 
naturally flower late, and especially to those which can 
be prolonged even to the end of January. We noticed 
a plant of Fanny Boucharlat, the other week, at Style 
Hall, Gunnersbury, bearing a considerable amount of 
bloom, which was all that might be desired in the way 
of decorative plants at this season, or for cut-flower 
purposes. In the latter case, small or medium-sized 
flower-heads are more serviceable and appropriate than 
the huge productions of more favourable seasons. The 
variety under notice is a Japanese form, with long, 
ligulate, flat, and drooping florets. Normally, the 
latter are creamy white, faintly tinted with pink ; but 
in the late-flowering specimen mentioned the blush tint 
was hardly evident, as might be expected at this dull 
period of the year. The deeply three-lobed leaves are 
as fresh as is necessary to set off the flower-heads to 
advantage. —*— 
Glazed Pots for Plant Growing. 
I am rather surprised at your correspondent, “M., 
North Britain ” (p. 346), trying to advocate the use of 
the above. I thought that was a fallacy knocked out 
some time ago ; possibly at the time their claims were 
set forth as your correspondent mentions. We cannot 
suppose such successful exhibitors as Messrs. Baines, 
Ward, and others would advocate glazed pots for 
growing such specimens as they used to produce ; and 
would it be likely that any of our leading market 
plant growers would use them? If they turned out 
such admirable stuff in 48-size glazed as they do in the 
ordinary pot, that would be an incentive for gardeners 
in private establishments to use them. It is a surprise 
to many how such plants as market growers produce 
can be grown in the restricted space of a 48-size pot ; 
and I do not suppose any of our leading Chrysan¬ 
themum exhibitors would care to grow their plants in 
glazed pots, either for the production of specimens or 
cut blooms. They may be very well for amateurs 
having a small glass structure adjoining their re¬ 
sidence, in which case they would present a much 
more effective appearance than the ordinary flower-pot. 
For the well-being of plants grown in pots, a large 
majority of cultivators still think that glazed pots are 
not preferable to the ordinary ones. It is considered 
a bad practice to paint flower pots, as they are 
then impervious to air and moisture, and glazed pots 
would have a similar effect on plants grown in them. 
In many cases glazed pots would be a sore trouble 
to those entrusted with the watering of plants—an 
operation which some do not perform very carefully with 
plants grown in the ordinary pot. "We knew a gardener 
who said, when lecturing one of his subordinates on 
watering, “I once had a young man who was nearly as 
good a waterer as myself ! ” So glazed pots, I am 
afraid, would have been a sore trouble to that man. 
Unfortunately, many conservatories are fitted with too 
much so-called staging, that no. doubt formed an 
expensive item in the builder’s account, and which 
very often show the pots to more advantage than the 
plants. Would it not be better to arrange plants on 
the floor ? Grouping would hide the unsightly pot, 
and be better for the plants during the summer time ; 
they would require less labour in watering than those 
perched on staging, one. tier above another. To those 
contemplating the extensive use of glazed pots, I would 
simply give Punch’s advice—Don't.— Geo. Potts, Jun., 
Jan. 31s£. [Our correspondent does not seem to have 
a very favourable opinion of glazed pots. We have 
noticed Orchids grown very successfully in them, at 
various widely separated establishments north of the 
Tweed, and that by cultivators of considerable reputa¬ 
tion, who gave a very favourable opinion as to their 
use in plant houses. It may depend greatly upon their 
manufacture, whether they are suitable or otherwise 
for plant growing.—E d.] 
Cucumber, Rollisson’s Telegraph. 
Noav that the seed-sowing season will again be upon 
us in a short time, it may not be amiss to call attention, 
amidst the many varieties that now exist under the 
name of “Somebody’s Improved,” to the true old 
Rollisson’s Telegraph, which is still grown by Messrs. 
Ireland & Thomson, Edinburgh. A houseful of it 
fruited in their Craigleith nurseries last summer, and 
showed the plant to be of rather dwarf habit, while the 
fruits are of large size, tender and succulent. A 
peculiarity of this variety—at least, when grown true— 
is that it produces seeds very sparingly, and these are 
mostly confined to the apical end of the fruits.— F. 
Dieffenbachia Bausei. 
Of the many forms in cultivation this is one of the 
most useful and ornamental, and when well grown con¬ 
stitutes a desirable subject in the stove. It combines 
size of leaves with the distinct and varied markings of 
the same, as exhibited by the most popular varieties. 
The ground colour is a pale green, blotched and 
margined with deep green, while the surface is irregu¬ 
larly blotched with creamy yellow. It is represented 
at Tower House, Chiswick, by well-grown specimens, 
furnished with side shoots that hide the main stems 
almost to the base. —s— 
Potting Compost. 
The season has now arrived when all gardeners and 
amateurs should at once look round and see what they 
have on hand, for the purpose of enabling them to 
proceed with the work of potting the various plants, 
and other things which must be attended to. It is 
necessary in the first place to sec that they have all the 
requisite materials, such as good fibrous loam, good 
peat, leaf-soil, silver-sand, &c. I may say that I am 
an amateur grower of a great many things, in¬ 
cluding Cape bulbs, an extensive collection of Cacti, 
and other succulents. Last season I added to my com¬ 
post as above some of Messrs. "W. Wood & Son’s prize 
Chrysanthemum compost, using it for those plants 
alone ; but being so pleased with its composition, I at 
once used it for Tea Roses in pots, and also for about 
150 Cyclamens, with a result that is really surprising. 
I do not know whether any other of your readers have 
tried it or not; if they have not, I would advise them 
to do so, when I have no doubt they will feel satisfied. 
I am speaking from practice, having used three bushels 
last season, and may say that I have used it in the pro¬ 
portion of one-third to the other material used. At the 
present time I am trying it with several other kinds of 
plants.— John Atherton, Fern Bank, Cadley. 
Lomaria gibba platypliylla. 
The ordinary and typical form of the species is, when 
well grown, a handsome object, either in a small state 
or when grown to the proportions of a miniature tree 
Fern. Its popularity may be judged from the immense 
number of plants, generally small, and of a size 
suitable for table decoration, that are grown in many 
parts of the country, and that, too, in widely separated 
localities. The variety under notice, as the name 
implies, is characterised by the much greater width of 
its fronds and pinnee than those of the type. A large 
