April 25, 1896. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
543 
be necessary; neglect in this matter will soon 
mean deformed and stunted foliage from which good 
results cannot be obtained. 
Mildew, in some instances, will show itself at this 
juncture on the underside of the foliage. This 
may be accounted for by cold, biting draughts, 
sudden chills, or injudicious watering. The 
most approved remedy is flowers of sulphur 
dusted on the underside of the leaves. Green fly is 
a constant source of trouble, but may be overcome by 
persistent dustings of tobacco powder on the grow¬ 
ing point. Soft soap and water can be also used, only 
it must be borne in mind that the portion treated is 
the most tender of the whole plant, and therefore 
every care must be taken to rid the plant of the pest; 
but the means of eradication must not be worse or 
more harmful than the pest. 
Stopping. 
This is a matter that has considerable bearing upon 
" timing ” the flower, but as the season is nearly past 
it is not necessary to go into details. The incurved, 
reflexed, and anemone sections should have been 
stopped last month ; and most of the Japanese are 
similarly placed, excepting such late varieties as 
Stanstead White, J. S. Dibbin, Lord Brooke, Boule 
d’Or (not Calvat’s), The Queen, &c. These, if not 
pinched, should be done at once, which will shut out 
the July bud and thus hasten the flowering season. 
Where stopping has not been carried out, the plants 
must be allowed to grow on until the July bud, when 
three shoots should be selected (the same number as 
in pinched plants) which will mean three flowers to 
each plant—the number approved by most growers. 
— Gt'swey. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
The press of.ordinary work that now exists calls for 
regular and sustained effort if it is to be kept pace 
with. The grass is growing at an extraordinary 
rate, and the mowing machine or the scythe, as the 
case may be, have to be kept busily employed. The 
results of spring are apparent, not only in the bud¬ 
ding verdure of our hardy trees and shrubs, and the 
rapid growth of perennials in the herbaceous 
borders, but also in the wondrous rapidity with 
which the weeds make their appearance, and en¬ 
croach upon gravel walks, or beds and borders. 
With these a continual warfare must be waged 
ceasing only when the sky lowers, and the rain pours. 
Gravel paths, too, have to be swept and rolled, and 
the grass edges kept neatly trimmed, Whilst our 
gardens and pleasure grounds are gay with the rich 
and varied colours of Tulips and Daffodils, note 
should be made of possible improvements either as 
to modification or extension of the effect that maybe 
put in force when the summer has worn on, and 
bulb-planting time is once more with us. 
Watering. —It may seem rather early in the 
season to speak of watering, after the copious rains 
which fell at the beginning of the month, too, 
but it is a necessary attention that must be paid to 
newly-planted trees and shrubs, whether deciduous 
or evergreen, if they are to do really well. This is 
particularly the case where the subsoil is gravelly 
and of a thirsty nature, and the land naturally well 
drained. 
Vacant Beds. —As the planting of spring 
flowers becomes more and more the fashion, 
the number ot vacant beds will be constantly on 
the decrease at least, in establishments—where 
the expense incurred for bulbs of various kinds is a 
secondary consideration to effect. Where any vacant 
beds do exist, however, no time should be lost in put¬ 
ting them ship-shape, and getting them ready for 
the plants that are to occupy them during the 
coming summer and autumn. 
The Mixed Herbaceous Border will be looking 
at least fresh and tidy after the overhauling it has 
received during the past month. The propagation 
of various subjects by root division will necessarily 
be now completed. The clumps will have been 
properly arranged, and the whole border dug neatly 
over. The process of filling up vacant spaces will 
be actively in progress. 
Hardy Annuals, in variety, may be sown at once 
in patches where they are to flower, protecting these 
miniature seed-beds from sparrows and other small 
birds by small pieces of netting 
Hollyhocks.— Plants that were obtained from 
grafts upon their own roots made, and potted up in 
the spring into small thumb pots, will subsequently 
have been shifted into 48-sized pots, and should now 
be in fit condition for planting out. In some 
gardens it is the practice to plant a single row at 
the back of the herbaceous border. It is true that 
such a row looks very imposing, but it is also very 
stiff and formal. It is a far better plan to associate 
the plants together in groups of three, four, or five, 
in favourable positions. These chosen places should 
have been given a liberal dressing of well-rotted 
manure a month or two previously, as the Hollyhock 
loves a rich soil. Generally speaking, a space of 
from 2 ft. to 3 ft. each way, will not be too much. 
Knock the plants out of their pots, and straightway 
consign them to the soil without disturbing the ball 
at all. As soon after planting as is convenient, give 
a thoroughly good watering to settle the soil well 
around the plants. Thus treated they will experience 
very little check, even if the weather be hot and 
trying. If it is desired to have a few plants to 
flower later than the first batch they may be kept 
in their pots for another month, and then transferred 
to their flowering quarters. 
Early Permanent Vinery.— Now that the 
berries are fast colouring, the atmosphere must be 
kept a good deal drier than previously. More air, 
therefore, will be required, and it is well to be fairly 
liberal in this respect, in-so-far as it is possible to be 
so without the causing of draughts. A crack of air 
may be left in all night, and the temperature should 
not fall below 68° Fahr. Damping down will, of 
course, have ceased directly colouring was fairly 
commenced. The relatively drier atmosphere that 
obtains in vineries in which the fruit is ripening is 
very favourable to the spread of insect pests. A 
watchful eye must therefore be kept upon red 
spider, thrips, and mealy bug, each and all of 
which may possibly cause trouble if allowed to have 
their own way. Perhaps the question of watering is 
one of the most important of those that have to be 
considered with regard to ripening Grapes. By all 
means withhold manurial stimulant, but do not allow 
the plants to get dry at the root, or red spider will 
be certain to have a say in the matter, and, besides 
this, the fruit will be poor and lacking in both sugar 
and flavour. 
Later Houses. —The thinning of the berries in 
the later houses will be the most engrossing task, and 
one which will take no denial. As a rule it is better 
to go over the bunches twice rather than to remove 
too many berries at once, unless, of course, the 
operator is well acquainted with the behaviour of the 
particular vines he is attending to. Stop all laterals 
at the first leaf and the main shoots two or three 
nodes behind the selected bunch. In these houses a 
temperature of 65° by night, rising to 75°by day with 
sun-heat, will answer well. Shut them up early in 
the afternoon, and keep walls and passages well 
damped, and the evaporating troughs full of water ; 
weak liquid manure may be used advantageously. 
Figs. —Trees upon which the fruit is ripening will 
require rather less water than previously, and as the 
air should now be kept rather drier, more air must 
be given. Keep up a brisk heat of not less than 70° 
by night, rising to 8o° during the day, so as to 
facilitate the ripening of the crop Where the trees 
are swelling their fruit copious supplies of water 
must be given, and the trees may be syringed up to 
a late stage. If too great vigour of growth is not 
manifested, manure-water may be given, but this is a 
matter that requires considerable judgment, particu¬ 
larly where the borders have been recently renewed, 
for the Fig is a notoriously rampant grower, and 
often developes this tendency at the expense of fruit¬ 
fulness. If properly managed the trees will bear two 
crops of good fruit each year. This will in a great 
measure depend upon the judicious stopping of the 
shoots, when they are about 9 in. in length. This 
arrests the upward flow of the sap, and encourages 
the production of fruits in the axils of the leaves 
below the point at which pinching is practised. 
Melons. —Perhaps the best test of the ripeness or 
otherwise of a Melon, and the one which most 
gardeners employ, is the sense of smell. There is no 
mistaking the aroma exhaled by a nicely-ripened 
fruit, by which it betrays the fact that it is ready 
for cutting. Another sign is the ' parting of the 
foot-stalk from the flesh. As soon as the fruits are 
ripe they should be cut and placed in a cool room to 
keep. It is desirable to send them in to the dessert 
table as soon as possible, for the period during which 
a Melon will keep without deteriorating is decidedly 
short. 
In the succession house where the fruits will have 
attained the size of cricket balls it will be quite 
time to see about giving the necessary support. Small 
pieces of netting slung at the four corners are 
commonly in use, as are also flat pieces of board 
about five inches square, which have also strings 
attached to the four corners. The boards should 
have a hole bored in the middle of about a third 
of an inch in diameter so as to allow of the escape 
ot the moisture which will otherwise be sure to 
collect there during syringing, and by distillation. 
Many a fine fruit has been spoilt by water col¬ 
lecting in this way, causing it to rot. 
Syringing. —Some growers are averse to the 
continual practice of this upon Melons, but if 
properly conducted it is fraught with but little 
danger, and it serves to keep the foliage of the plants 
clean and free from insect attacks, and, as a natural 
consequence, healthy. The syringe may be kept at 
work, therefore, excepting during dull or very cold 
weather, right up to the time when the fruit 
commences to ripen.— A.S.G. 
THE ORCHID HOUSES. 
East India House. —The temperature of this divi¬ 
sion may be allowed to range a few degrees higher 
at night as well as day now that most of the occu¬ 
pants have began to grow. The atmosphere, too, 
should be pretty well charged with moisture, and air 
admitted through the bottom ventilators during the 
warmest part of the day ; but it is yet too early for 
opening the top ventilators even the tiniest bit. It is 
much better to allow the temperature to rise slightly 
above the maximum than to run the risk of getting 
the plants chilled through the injudicious admission 
of cold air. 
Watering and syringing will now take up a 
good part of the grower's time where Orchids are 
grown in quantity ; and as so much depends on how 
this is done, it is best to do most of it oneself. To 
do this we water those in pots and standing on the 
stage one morning, and those in baskets or pans that 
are hanging up the next ; by working it in this 
manner, all the watering can be done and the houses 
made fit for viewing by eleven o'clock. 
Fire-heat. —This can be dispensed with during 
the warmest hours of the day in the intermediate 
divisions, but it is hardly safe to draw the fire from 
the furnace that heats the warmest house, as the 
weather is so changeable, though it should, of course, 
be steadied. 
Trichofilia crispa marginata, now in flower, is 
one that should be in every collection, however 
small. It is of easy culture and takes up very little 
room. The intermediate house suits it best, and like 
most Mexican Orchids it is rather impatient of a too 
close and moist atmosphere. On that account it 
should be grown in a pan or basket in good fibrous 
peat and live sphagnum moss, which may be 
suspended from the roof. In this way the bulbs 
become well matured. 
Angraecum falcatum. —This pretty little dwarf¬ 
growing Orchid, which finds congenial quarters 
suspended close to the glass in the Cattleya house, 
is now rooting freely, and where required should be 
afforded some fresh moss ; this can be given without 
disturbing the plants much. 
Cool House. —This house will soon be gay with 
Odontoglossum crispum, which is now opening fast. 
To prevent the flowers becoming spotted, we suspend 
them over the other plants^ so that when the 
syringing is done they do not get saturated as well. 
Ada aurantiaca.— The individual flowers of this 
species are not particularly attractive, but a well 
bloomed plant mixed in with the specimens of O. 
crispum is very showy indeed. It is of easy culture, 
for what suits the Odontoglots grows this to perfec- 
tion. 
Epidendrum vitellinum majus is another Orchid 
of a brilliant colour, and which will also do well 
when grown cool ; but being a Mexican plant the 
intermediate house is the most suitable.—C. 
New Homes in the “ Sunshine State” of America.— 
Exceptional opportunity to join Fruit and Vine growing 
Colony in U.S.A. Only small capital required. Land on ten 
years' time. Experienced local adviser. Income^ first year 
Large profits. Superior market and railway facilities ; 1,500 
miles nearer than California to Chicago and New York. Four 
to seven weeks earlier fruiting season. Ideal climate for weak, 
lungs. Splendid shooting. For free illustrated pamphlet and 
full particulars, address—Mesilla Valley Irrigation Colony, 34, 
Victoria Street, London, S.W, 
