436 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 14th, 1885. 
hey have received the better students of practice 
and in practice will they prove. On the whole, 
we have, perhaps, no better schools of general 
horticulture than are found in good private 
gardens, and the training there received may 
well be supplemented by practice in leading 
nurseries, and. in some of our best market estab¬ 
lishments. 
Protecting Wall-Tbees. —Without doubt few 
matters create just now more anxiety in the 
mind of the gardener than does the protection of 
the bloom on his wall-trees. Keally all kinds of 
protection are but evils, still, necessary ones. We 
may take the option of the lesser evil, involved 
in providing some form of protection, or the 
greater one of providing none, and letting the 
bloom take its chance. On the other hand, 
though it may seem paradoxical, yet it is a fact 
that, should the spring-time prove mild and 
genial, the greater evil of one season would prove 
the lesser one then, and to omit protection 
altogether would be the wisest course. But then, 
such is the uncertainty of our climate that we 
can be certain of nothing for twelve hours at a 
time, and the warmest of spring days may be 
followed by the coldest of spring nights. In 
such case it is wise to exclude some of the sun’s 
power as it is well to exclude all that of the frost. 
Could we certainly foresee the climatic nature 
of our springs, how easily we might deal with 
genial ones, by letting well alone, or with cold 
and dangerous ones, by establishing for our wall- 
trees ample protection. Of course the best 
policy is to be fully prepared for all eventualities, 
but especially for frosty ones. A season of con¬ 
tinued dullness and low temperature, though not 
absolutely frosty, is perhaps the most dangerous 
season of all, for so long a spell of cold will do 
mischief which the frost might have been pre¬ 
vented from doing. With the shelter of walls, 
the culture of wall-fruits should be easy enough, 
but such is not the case. Still, all experience 
shows that the gardener who can secure good 
hard ripened wood in his trees has more than 
half won the battle with nature in the spring. 
Cupeessus Lawsoniana eeecta tiridis.— 
This is one of those great acquisitions which are 
only produced a few times in a century, and for 
giving a character to garden scenery is hardly to 
be approached by any known tree. We meet with 
it everywhere—in pots in the market, in window- 
boxes in town, and all over the country in gardens 
it is the most prominent plant; but nowhere does 
it appear in such splendour as in its home, the 
Knap Hill Nurseries of Mr. Anthony Waterer, at 
Woking, where the specimens, 20 ft. in height, 
show it to great advantage. Knap Hill was the 
cradle of the original C. Lawsoniana, which is 
the great favourite with landscape gardeners, and 
its variety erecta viridis is in every way before 
it in merit. Cedrus atlantica glauca, one of the 
most telling of coniferous plants, and the glaucous¬ 
leaved form of the common Spruce Fir, which is 
one of the most beautiful as well as the hardiest 
of the tribe, are also worthy of note at Knap Hill. 
- rr~ ' - i j — —0 —- 
Saxifraga ligulata. —This early-blooming, large- 
leaved Saxifrage is now a conspicuous feature in my 
cold-house. I have two large plants, one in a 12-in., 
the other in a 16-in. pot, well established, and now 
charmingly in bloom; plenty of largo spikes of flower 
rise up from among its leathery heart-shaped leaves. 
This species flowers so early in the open ground that it 
is often cut off by frost. On the warm sunny slopes of 
Belvoir Castle, Mr Ingram uses it largely, and with 
striking effect, but finds it necessary to cover it up at 
night when frost is imminent. My plants go out of 
doors as soon as they have done flowering, are kept 
well watered, and are taken within doors late in the 
autumn.— E. W. 
(Sarfrcrairg mterelhwiT, 
The first exhibition of the season of the Manchester 
Botanical and Horticultural Society will be held in the 
New Town Hall, on Tuesday and Wednesday next. 
On Wednesday and Thursday next the Preston and 
Fulwood Horticultural Society will hold its spring 
Show. 
The grand Quinquennial Exhibition of Bulbs, or¬ 
ganized to celebrate the fourth centenary of the 
Haarlem Society of Bulb Growers, will be opened at 
Haarlem on Friday next. The exhibition will close 
on the following Tuesday. 
Mr.Anbbew Jamieson, gardener, Haigh Hall, Wigan, 
read a paper of a good practical character at the 
meeting of the Liverpool Horticultural Association, 
on Saturday last. Mr. J. Smith, of Waterdale, St. 
Helen’s, the well-known grape grower, also read an 
excellent paper on the Vine at the same meeting. 
The Council of the Boyal Horticultural Society 
have appointed a small committee to organize a 
Primula Conference for the spring of 1886, and which 
it is presumed will take place on the same date as the 
National Auricula Society’s exhibition. 
Mr. William B. Bridgfobd, head of the old- 
established firm of Thomas Bridgford & Sons, 48, 
Lower Sackville Street, and Spafield Nurseries, Ball’s 
Bridge, Dublin, died on March 1st- 
At the Sale of the new Lselia anceps Sehroderiana, 
at Protheroe and Morris’s Booms, on Tuesday, 
nearly 50 lots in all, were disposed of at prices ranging 
from 20 gs. to 40 gs. each for the larger pieces. 
The rare Phajus tuberculosus, which has only 
twice before flowered in this country, once with Sir 
Trevor Lawrence, and more recently with Mr. Dorman, 
has just flowered with G. F. Wilson, Esq., F.B.S., who 
showed a spike of 10 flowers on Tuesday, at the 
meeting of the Floral Committee. 
At the last meeting of the Chambre syndicale des 
horticulteurs, at Ghent, Certificates of Merit were 
awarded to Mr. Ed. Pynaert, for Begonia sceptrum ; 
to Mr. Aug. Van Geert, for Korthalsia robusta ; to 
Mr. F. J. Spae, for Imantophyllum Ambroise Vers- 
ehaffelt; to the Compagnie Continentale d’horticulture, 
for Odontoglossum Edwardi, Phalsenopsis Stuartiana, 
and Camellia General Stewart; and to Mr. James Bray, 
for Cattleya Trianas, Popyan var. 
On Monday and Tuesday the collection of plants 
belonging to E. J. Coleman, Esq., will be sold by Mr. 
Stevens, on the premises at Stoke Park, Slough. 
The stock of the fine new Violet Wellsiana, which 
was raised by Mr. Wells, of Winkfield, and certificated 
by the Floral Committee last year, has passed into 
the hands of Mr. Turner, of Slough. 
The Spring Show of the Glasgow and West of Scot¬ 
land Horticultural Society is fixed to be held on 
March 25th ; and the Autumn one will be held on 
September 2nd. 
At a general meeting of the Boyal Horticultural 
Society, held March 10th, at South Kensington, Dr. M. 
T. Masters, F.B.S., in the chair, the following candi¬ 
dates were elected Fellows of the Society:—Samuel 
Deards, William Glover, Alfred Harley, Bev. G. B. 
Haydon, Enoch Harvey, William B. Head, James 
Flood, Bobert B. Lemon, Ernest Mathan, E. J. Painter, 
J. Potts, T. W. Budston Bead, D.L., Charles F. Shaw, 
Henry Smith, Mrs. Frederick Tantz, Charles Temple, 
William Vanner, and Alfred Williams. 
The quantity of cut-flowers now being imported 
from France may be estimated from the fact that one 
of the largest dealers in Birmingham is now readily 
disposing of 700 dozen bunches five days in the week. 
They consist chiefly of white Lent Lillies, Nar- 
cissus in varieties, White Stocks, Marguerites, 
Anemones, and Violets. Surely the love for cut- 
flowers in our great centres of industry is looking up. 
A New Use for Moss.—In Norway and Sweden 
accumulations of moss, often more than a foot thick, 
and half decomposed, serve to make paper and mill- 
board, as hard as wood, blocks of which, formed by 
the hydraulic press, may even be turned in the lathe 
and polished. This substance is said to possess the 
good qualities of wood without the defects, such as 
warping and splitting, so that it is suitable for making 
doors and windows. 
ON WARMING POTTING COM¬ 
POSTS. 
From this time onwards for a month or two much 
potting is done, and sometimes it has to be performed 
under very adverse circumstances. Where a number 
of plants require shifting from one pot to another in 
one house, probably the simplest method is to have 
a temporary bench erected in the same house, and to 
have the soil carried in to warm some hours before it 
is wanted for use, but more often it has to be per¬ 
formed in a cold potting-shed. To place plants from 
warm houses into cold soil would be to invite failure, 
so that if we are compelled to remove plants from 
warm houses in order to pot them, we should at 
least make the soil into which they are put congenial 
to their requirements; and if returned to their proper 
quarters with as little delay as possible, no harm will 
accrue. 
We have adopted several methods for getting the 
soil into a proper state for the reception of the plants, 
such as making it up the night before, and putting it 
in a warm house till convenient to use ; and by heat¬ 
ing some sand on a fire, and mixing it with the com¬ 
post when making up the same, which also answers 
very well; but the plan we most frequently adopt is to 
put some bricks on the fire and make them very hot, 
then bury them in the soil we wish to have made warm 
for half an hour or so, when the whole is turned over 
and thoroughly mixed. By this simple means it is an 
easy matter to get soil in the best possible order for 
potting in little more than an hour, while to warm the 
same amount of soil by standing it in a warm struc¬ 
ture it would take twelve times as long. 
Where first-rate accommodation is not provided for 
storing composts under cover, and the same has to 
stand out-of-doors, exposed to all weathers, it will fre¬ 
quently get too wet for present use, and to wait for the 
same to get dry in the ordinary way would mean, to 
say the least, a great delay, and here again the bricks 
made very nearly or quite red-hot, and buried in a 
heap of soil, will be found of immense service. Three 
bricks buried in a barrowful of wet mould, and allowed 
to remain there until the whole gets cold, would be 
found to have brought a saturated soil to a workable 
state, and, if anything, the charring will do the whole 
good. Often success or failure depends upon a proper 
state of the soil at potting time, and too much atten¬ 
tion cannot be paid to the preparation of the same, 
for if not properly carried out then, ills may be brought 
about which no after-treatment will remedy.— C. W. 
HERBACEOUS PHLOXES. 
Permit me to offer a few remarks respecting these 
extremely useful and show'y perennials, to which your 
correspondent “ D.” alludes at p. 420. It is evident 
that your correspondent has experienced some diffi¬ 
culty in raising Phloxes from seed, and judging by his 
observation further on, where he says, “ perhaps the 
coating of the seeds hardens so much by exposure and 
drying, that germination cannot result,” it would 
appear that the actual seeds had never been removed 
from the capsules. There is no better time for sowing 
the seeds of these Phloxes than the late autumn 
months, or as soon as they can be collected and 
dressed; and by being dressed I mean the removal of 
the capsule which contains the seeds. This done, sow 
in the ordinary way, regulating the surface covering 
of the soil according to the size of the seeds; in the 
present instance a quarter of an inch covering will bo 
ample. If sown in the open ground, place some slates 
over the seeds, to maintain the soil in an uniformly 
moist condition, and to prevent it from being dashed 
from the seeds by heavy rains. The slates will 
also prevent any interference from birds, cats, or other 
intruders. Seeds may, however, if placed in air-tight 
vessels, be kept till February or March, and then be 
sown in slight heat; no system, however, can surpass 
that of sowing the seeds as soon as they are ripe. 
It may be mentioned that self-sown Herbaceous 
Phloxes are a rarity, the reason for this being that the 
flower stems, if allowed to remain on the plants, will 
retain the capsules intact for several months, indeed 
I have known instances of plants in shrubberies or 
cottage gardens that have retained them till several 
inches of new growth have been made ; but the flower ' 
stems in most cases being removed the seed goes with 
them to the rubbish heap. Another reason why self- 
