216 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
Dec. 6th, 1884. 
iIE j^MAlEf»$’ IrAtlM. 
Planting Poses.—'When should an amateur plant 
Roses ? is a question that was put to me the other day. 
My answer was at once, without delay, as soon as the 
plants can be got from the nursery. Then my inquirer 
said, Have you any instructions to give me in the 
matter of selecting plants for my purpose ? And I 
said in reply, In making your selection, pay special 
regard to those points essential to constitute a good 
Hose—a hardy, sturdy character, a healthy and mode¬ 
rately robust habit of growth, for be the flowers of a 
variety ever so good, if the plant will not grow kindly, 
it does little else but cumber the ground. Then to 
have good showy garden Roses, varieties of free form, 
large size, full, good substance, fragrance, freshness of 
bloom, distinct, and good colour should be selected. 
As a matter of course the purchaser must be assisted 
in his selection by the advice of his nurseryman, and 
by what he knows of certain varieties. If he goes to 
the nursery himself to select his plants he can see if 
they are of vigorous growth. 
It generally happens that the nurseryman will trim 
the plants for the buyer ; but should he fail to do this, 
as soon as the plants are received the roots should be 
well examined, all decayed portions of these and the 
wood be cut away, and the long fibrous roots may be 
shortened with advantage. On no account should the 
roots be allowed to become dry; but the planting- 
ground should be got ready beforehand, and the plants 
be put into .the ground as soon as received. If it is not 
convenient to plant at once, dig a hole in a piece of 
spare ground and lay the plants in “ by the heels,” as 
the nurserymen say, until such time as they can be 
permanently planted. The next question was as to 
soil. I said that Roses do well in a rather stiff, rich 
loam ; but granted the proper quality of loam, it can 
soon be enriched with manure. Roses like a good, 
open, airy situation, but it should not be so exposed as 
to be liable to the action of high winds, or shaded by 
the nearness of high trees. 
And then as to planting. All things being in readi¬ 
ness, a fine day should be chosen for the operation, so 
that the soil can be sufficiently but not too dry to 
enable the work to be done properly. Soil moist, 
without sticking to one’s shoes or the spade, and then 
plant something in this fashion: Dig holes 18 ins. to 
2 ft. wide and nearly as deep, and fill this to 4 ins. or 
5 ins. above the surface with good fresh loam, three- 
fourths and one-fourth of rotten manure, either horse, 
cow, or pig-dung (the latter being the best), and the 
whole well mixed together. Then take a spadeful or 
two out from the middle, and in the hole thus made 
place the plant, taking care to spread out the roots 
and not to plant too deep. It is necessary to tread the 
soil firmly about the roots, holding the plant in one 
hand to prevent its sinking deeper into the soil, and 
put a stake to all standard Roses that have stems over 
2 ft. in height, in order to prevent them from being 
moved about by the wind. In placing a stake against 
a standard Rose, do not, as some thoughtless gardeners 
do, have it sticking a few inches up in the head where 
it looks very unsightly and unbusiness-like, but allow 
it to come only just above the point where the Rose 
was budded. When Tea-scented and Noisette Roses 
are planted, a little leaf-soil and sand may be added 
with advantage. It is perhaps best not to plant these 
until the spring. 
Here is a list of good vigorous growing Hybrid Per¬ 
petual Roses well adapted for garden decoration:— 
Anna Alexeiff, delicate rose colour, large and full; Glory 
of Waltham, crimson, large and double ; Leon Renault, 
light bright crimson, large and showy; Lord Clyde, 
rich scarlet crimson, very hardy and vigorous; Madame 
Fanny Giron, rosy flesh, a good garden Rose ; Madame 
Jules Grevy, delicate salmon-pink, verypretty; Madame 
Pierre Margery, cherry rose, very free; Mrs. Harry 
Turner, dazzling crimson scarlet, the brightest of 
garden roses; Princess Louise, delicate flesh, almost 
white ; and The Shah, pure red, very bright and effec¬ 
tive, and remarkably fine. Any one requiring some 
good pillar Roses will do well to give the climbing 
forms of Captain Christy, Edward Morell, Jules Mar- 
gottin, Bessie Johnson, Countess of Oxford, Victor 
Verdier ; and of Teas and Noisettes : Celine Forestier, 
Devoniensis (climbing), Cheshunt Hybrid, Gloire de 
Dijon, and Perfection de Montplaisir.— Quo. 
Floral Christmas and IVew Year Cards.— 
Looking over those beautiful pictorial cards which 
have now become such a great institution among us, 
I am pleased to see the much greater accord which 
now exists between the artist and the florist, than was 
the case only a very few years ago, when one had to 
puzzle a long time over the flowers represented, trying 
to make out what they were intended for, and then 
often to give it up because the artist himself had drawn 
on his imagination for the design. Often, too, in years 
gone by, when the flowers were correctly drawn, their 
colours were absurd, and such things as blue Lilies of 
the Valley, and scarlet Violets, were not unco mm on. 
By the aid of the cards I have preserved, I can trace 
rapid improvement in the flower pictures, and at last 
it seems to me that such perfection has been attained 
that it will be difficult to surpass it, the natural 
representations of Begonias, Cyclamens and every 
other kind of flower and fern being perfect, as well 
in colour and arrangement as in the minor botanical 
features. The grace with which the flowers are 
posed, too, seems to say that if the artists have been 
deeply indebted to the gardeners for the subjects, they 
can, in many cases, give them hints in arrangement, 
if they will but have them. 
A group of Primroses on one card, some Narcissus 
on another, Cyclamen on a third, and an elegant 
arrangement of a spray of white Odontoglossum over 
purple velvet which I now have before me, give fine 
examples of effective arrangement. With respect to 
the last-named, it is at once a proof of the appreciated 
beauty and popularity of Orchids, that they should 
now so often be chosen by artists for their models. 
Year by year their likenesses become more familiar on 
the cards, and many of the shops contain very fine 
water-colour groups of them. The artificial florist too 
has taken them up, and I have lately seen good 
imitations of Odontoglossums, Cattleyas, Laslia 
anceps, &c., in the Oxford Street and Regent Street 
shops. 
On high-class dinner services, too, the Orchids seem 
to have attained great favour, whole sets being 
painted almost exclusively of Orchids, a shop in 
Baker Street, and another in Queen Victoria Street, 
having some very beautiful examples of Orchid 
painting on china. Altogether the flower painter and 
designer, in every branch of the industry, seems to be 
doing his best to faithfully render those beautiful 
objects which the gardener rears, and often one comes 
across the picture of a very rare plant faithfully 
delineated, which some artist must have drawn by 
permission of a nurseryman or amateur. The moral 
appears to me to be that we may thank our love for 
flowers and our skilful gardeners in a great measure 
for the high place which true flower-painting and 
designing has attained with us.— Madeline. 
— g—- — 
MILDEW ON VINES. 
When mildew enters a vinery in which there is a 
valuable crop of Grapes, and is not checked at once, a 
sad disaster takes place. It may attack healthy vines 
by contagion, and when it is least suspected, but the 
more vigorous the vines, and the better condition they 
are in, however, the more likely are they to be 
invulnerable. Diseases of the formidable character of 
mildew will attack any vines which it can reach, and 
the havoc w r e have seen done in a very short time 
almost makes one shudder. Though never a sufferer 
from the attacks of mildew, I have grieved at the 
sufferings of others. To refer to a case or two may 
be a better illustration of what we know of the enemy, 
and how to attack him than any systematic course we 
could advise any one to pursue. 
I was once situated in a district where mildew had 
appeared more or less every season, mostly among 
amateurs and small growers who had not adequate 
means of applying artificial heat, and the vines had 
evidentlyin each case been “highly” fed,animal manure 
being liberally supplied, water at the roots being cur¬ 
tailed and not skilfully administered. I gave what advice 
I could, but only in a few cases was it applied as I 
desired. Without describing the ravages of the mildew 
on my neighbour’s vines, I may. state howl acted on the 
defensive myself, the disease being in such dangerously 
close proximity that I could hardly expect to escape. One 
Sunday morning it appeared, and seemed to spread so 
fast as almost to be perceptible to the naked eye, and 
this in a large house of promising fruit, just at the 
colouring period, was enough to cause grave anxiety- 
Every affected spot was dusted with flowers of sulphur, 
and a quantity of the latter was mixed with water to 
about the consistency of thin paint. The pipes were 
coated with this, and a strong fire kept going night 
and day, and a man kept a sharp look-out with dry 
sulphur, dusting every white spot as it appeared. The 
total loss of fruit was something less than a pound, and 
a fine crop was finished. 
The strong leathery foliage withstood the sulphur 
fumes well (young lateral growths did not), and the 
Grapes, being at the colouring period, did not appear 
to suffer by rust from the ordeal. I could never have 
imagined that any disease could have in such a short 
time done so much mischief as it did to the crops of 
three friends in the locality, one a practical gardener 
and the others keen amateurs. Sulphur judiciously 
applied, I believe, will keep the enemy at bay. But if 
the constitution of the vines is impared, the case may 
be reckoned as hopeless.— M. Temple, Canon House, 
Falkirk. 
— s~ - - jS — 
GLOXINIAS. 
The plant from which the accompanying illustration 
was prepared was a seedling in its second year, and at 
the time the photograph was taken bore twenty-eight 
flowers, though thirty-two were counted on it the 
previous day. All the plants in the same batch were 
raised from seeds of Messrs. Yeitch’s strain. Some 
of the growers in the neighbourhood of Manchester 
exhibited last Whitsuntide the best lot of Gloxinias 
that I have ever seen, but they all more or less bore 
symptoms of having been subjected to too much 
heat. Our plants have broad leaves of a leathery 
texture, which in many instances entirely hides the 
pots they are grown in from view, as well as those on 
which they have to be elevated ; but such foliage is 
not produced in a high moist temperature, with the 
plants far from the glass, though ours were 5 ft. from 
the glass on the side stage of the stove they were 
grown in. It should be explained, however, that the 
side lights start from the level of the stage, and the 
squares of glass are a foot wide, the same as in the 
roof, so that the plants were exposed to as much 
light as if they had been in the open. Such a 
position, and a night temperature sometimes as low 
as 55 degs., are not likely to produce elongated foliage 
and flimsy flower-stems. 
The plants at first stand upon a shallow bed of sand 
and ashes in which two or three sorts of Lycopodium 
and ferns grow freely, and ferns in pots are 
dotted amongst the Gloxinias to relieve their some¬ 
what formal appearance. When the leaves approach 
the Lycopodium growing in the sand and ashes, the 
plants are stood on inverted pots, and the ferns so 
regulated that an odd Pteris or Adiantum peeps up 
here and there amongst them. We adopt this 
arrangement because we like to have the plants 
together, and separated from all others that are likely 
to have any thrip or red spider about them. 
The Gloxinia is either raised from seeds or propagated 
by leaf cuttings, but the latter method I apprehend 
will soon become obsolete, so fine are the varieties 
now easily obtained from seeds of good strains. 
Should it, however, be desirable to perpetuate a 
variety of more than ordinary merit, cuttings are the 
most certain method of attaining that end. If the 
matured leaves are selected, and the mid-rib partially 
severed in three or four places and laid on the sur¬ 
face of some soil or cocoa-nut fibre refuse, roots will 
soon be formed and finally a conn. We have fre¬ 
quently found accidentally rooted leaves amongst the 
plants on the stove stage, while those that were placed 
in pans rooted rather indifferently. As soon as the 
cuttings have made roots, they should be taken up 
and placed in small pots, or be pricked out in pans 
and be supplied with water till every bit of leaf has 
disappeared, when they may be allowed to rest in the 
usual way. 
Seed Sowing. —Seeds may be sown from the middle 
of February to the end of May, according to the 
