May 9th, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
571 
Camellias .—These are also greatly benefited by 
the frequent use of the syringe during the time they 
are making their growth, and a little liquid manure 
occasionally ■will be beneficial; soot and cow-dung 
makes a good manure for the purpose, or guano may 
be used, but in either case it should be made some 
time before it is required, so that it may have time to 
settle down before being used. 
East Lothian Stocks from February onwards. 
—If there is one flower more than another which 
gives me pleasure, that flower is a double white Stock 
in early spring. I grow these beauties somewhat 
largely, both for out-door and house decoration in 
pots. The latter are grown from cuttings, which we 
put in at intervals of once a fortnight from the middle 
of August through September. We select short-jointed 
wood, and place one cutting in the centre of a 60- 
sized pot filled with sandy loam and leaf soil. They 
are then placed under handlights at the back of a 
north wall, where they soon strike root. The earliest 
batches we shift into 48-sized pots, and stand them in 
a cool house near the glass, where they soon make 
progress. The late batches in sixties flower in the 
same pot. I have for some weeks past had one of 
these small plants in my sitting-room, and it is the 
admiration of all who see it.— E. Gilbert, Burghley 
Park Gardens, Stamford. 
-- 
Tacsonia Van Volxemii. —This is one of the 
very best creepers for covering the roofs of large cool 
houses, as it is a strong grower, and delights in 
having plenty of room to extend itself, and to show 
off its true character. The young shoots should be 
thinly trained, and simply fastened to wires on the 
sash bars at intervals, and the points of the shoots 
bearing flowers allowed to droop at various lengths 
over the whole surface of the root. Treated in this 
way it has a charmingly natural and striking appear¬ 
ance, and the rich majenta-coloured flowers are 
shown off to better advantage than by any other 
mode of training that I have seen. In order to keep 
it from growing unduly strong, and to induce it to 
flower abundantly, it should be planted in a rather 
narrow, well-drained border, and receive an abun¬ 
dance of water at all times. If it is allowed to get too 
dry at the roots, the effect will soon be visible, as the 
flowers will not open properly.— H. Dunkin. 
-- 
Yucca filamentosa variegata. —At the last 
meeting of the Maidstone Gardeners’ Mutual Im¬ 
provement Society, Mr. Bashford, gardener to John 
Corlett, Esq., Sutton, near Maidstone, exhibited what 
has been described to us as a remarkably perfect 
specimen of this handsome plant. The specimen 
which is believed to be some seventeen or eighteen 
years old, is about 4 ft. high, clothed with leaves to 
the base, and with such leaves as are very seldom 
seen. The plant, moreover, is throwing up a spike of 
flowers, which is not a common occurrence, and we 
hope when it is in bloom Mr. Bashford will let us see 
it at South Kensington. 
--H*- 
Primrose Dr. Arthur Dumolin. —I have to 
thank Mr. Knight (p. 554) for calling my attention 
to this charming variety, which, however, is known 
to me, but I have not seen it of late, and had for the 
time forgotten it. There are yet several other good 
free-flowering kinds of continental origin, the names 
of which do not occur to me now, and which are 
possessed of good vigorous constitutions and free- 
flowering qualities also, I may, however, refer to these 
on some future day.— E. J. 
-- 
A New White Passion-flower.— Messrs. 
Lucombe, Pinee & Co., of Exeter, have favoured us 
with some blooms of their new hardy white Passiflora, 
Constance Elliott, whioh is now being put into 
commerce. It is a seedling from the common blue 
Passion-flower (P. coerulea), which ornaments the 
fronts of so many houses in the southern suburbs of 
London, has the same handsome dark green foliage, 
and flowers of the same size, but ivory white, and 
agreeably fragrant. The two sorts would form an 
agreeable contrast if planted together, but whether 
the new one sets its fruit as freely as the old has yet 
to be proved. 
The Kitchen Gardener’s Calendar.— Tomato 
Planting : Preparations should now be made for 
getting the earliest batch of plants planted out. The 
first step to be taken in this direction is to get the 
necessary number of holes opened between the fruit 
trees on a south or west wall, or wooden fence, and 
to put into each hole half a barrow-load of compost, 
consisting of three parts of good loam and one of 
well decomposed stable-manure. The plants, which 
should be well established in 8-in. pots, and bo 
thoroughly moist at the roots before being turned 
out of the pots, as well as having been previously 
hardened off in cold pits, should then be planted, one 
in each hole. Pross the soil firmly about the roots 
with the hands, and nail the plants to the wall, 
leaving room in doing so for the development of the 
shoots. This done, a Spruce, Laurel, Yew, or Beech 
bough should be stuck firmly in the ground in front 
of each plant, for protection from frosts (should wo 
unfortunately have any after this date) and cutting 
winds. 
Geneeal Work. —The haulms of early sowings of 
Peas now in flower should have the points pinched 
out to hasten the podding process. The same remarks 
apply also to Broad Beans. Asparagus should be 
looked over daily, and the shoots be c.ut as they 
become fit for use, taking care in doing so not to injure 
with the knife the crowns of the plants nor the shoots 
below the surface. The “grass” should then be 
washed, sized, tied up in bundles, and stood on end 
in saucers containing half an inch of water in a cool 
room until required for use. If not already done, plant 
a sufficient number of Beetroot at the foot of a south 
wall for seed, and for the same purpose put sticks, one 
to each of the best formed heads of Cabbage, as a 
means of indicating their intended use. 
Advantage should be taken of showery weather 
to thin out spring-sown Onions to 2 ins. or 3 ins. in 
the rows, and at the same time to make good any 
blanks that may have occurred in the rows by trans¬ 
planting the thinnings the same depth in the ground 
as they were before, and, if necessary, extend the crop 
in the same way. Sow Mustard and Cress in boxes or 
under handlights out-of-doors, and shade with a board 
or mat until the seeds have made half an inch of 
growth. Where Parsnips are much sought after a 
sowing made now wall come in well for late use.— 
H. TV. Ward, Longford Castl-e. 
-H*- 
Stopping Scarlet Runner Beans. —I am afraid 
that your correspondents, Mr. J. Knight and “ School¬ 
master,” have misunderstood my remarks on this 
subjeot at p. 523 ; and if they will be good enough to 
again refer to the note in question, they will see that 
I there say “ if long Bean-sticks, say from 12 ft. to 
20 ft. long, can be as easily prooured as the 8 ft. long 
ones, which are generally used for supports for the 
haulm, plant one row now (April 18th) from 30 yds. 
to 60 yds. long,” and a second row two months later. 
Also, further down in the same note, your corres¬ 
pondents will see that, instead of advocating the 
stopping of the Runners at any height whatever, 
I advise that they be allowed to grow “ uninter¬ 
ruptedly,” when they will produce Beans till cutaway 
by frost. 
I may here remark that more of our Bean-sticks 
are over than under 20 ft. long; that the two rows of 
Runner Beans, 64 yds. long each, and 8 ft. asunder, 
are greatly admired by gardeners and amateurs alike, 
when in flower, as being a capital example of the 
ornamental and useful combined; and that in con¬ 
sequence of the rows running east and west, and the 
first row having been sown north of and a couple 
of months earlier (about April 20th) than the second, 
protects the latter effectively from being injured by 
autumn frosts, by which time, moreover, the supply 
on the first row is exhausted. Hence it is that we 
frequently seoure daily gatherings of Runner Beans of 
excellent quality up to the middle or 20th of Novem¬ 
ber. When apprehending sharp frosts, we gather all 
the pods that are fit for use and spread them on a 
shelf in a oool room, and sometimes we have sufficient 
to serve over three weeks or a month. 
I am sure that the same quantity of Runner Beans 
cannot be obtained from three times the space of 
ground indicated above on the short-stick, or no- 
stick-at-all system, which latter is the one generally 
practised by market-growers with Peas a3 well as with 
Runner Beans, as in their case it is not so much 
a question of being able to procure the long sticks, 
or short ones for that matter, as it is one not only 
of their first C03t but also of that incurred in the 
labour of staking the rows of Peas and Beans, and 
the time spent in conveying the sticks to and fro and 
storing them away for use another year. Therefore, 
the fact of market-gardeners not adopting this system 
—a system which you know, Mr. Editor, I have often 
advocated in The Gardeners’ Chronicle —cannot in 
any way be accepted as affording evidence against its 
being practised in private gardens in preference to 
any other method of procedure. 
In conclusion, I may be allowed to say that by no 
other mode of culture can such satisfactory results be 
secured from treble the number of Beans sown, nor 
the latter be multiplied to such an extent. And to 
point out for the benefit of those of your readers who, 
like “ Schoolmaster,” have a taste—as every one 
ought to have—for the ornamental as well as the 
profitable combined, that by planting a single row 
of Scarlet Runner Beans about 6 ins. apart in the 
row, on either side of one of the garden walks (the 
more central it is the better will be the effect), putting 
long sticks as supports to the haulms on each side, 
and bringing the tops together and securing them 
to a series of Bean-sticks fixed longitudinally about 
7 ft. over the centre of the walk, so as to form an 
arch, a delightfully shady and ornamental arbour 
will be the result. Of course the roots should in 
every oase be kept well mulched and supplied with 
water in the absence of rain in order to obtain the 
best possible results.— H. W. Ward, Longford Castle. 
-- 
Celery Culture.—When anyone can have this 
excellent vegetable fit for use from the end of July till 
the following April its oulture surely deserves more 
attention than it generally receives, more especially 
its treatment in the trenches after being planted out. 
By treating it according to the nature of the soil much 
can be done to prolong its season for use. Mr. David 
Murray, gardener at Culzean Castle, Maybole, Ayr¬ 
shire, states in an agricultural paper that the soil at 
that place is very heavy, and for a supply in the 
spring months he sows the seed in April and grows it 
in the usual way till ready for planting out. His plan 
with regard to the trenches is not to make them very 
deep and 3 ft. wide, which allows sufficient space for 
planting three rows in the trench. After being a 
month or six weeks planted, or according to the 
progress that the plants have made, they receive a 
slight earthing-up about 2 ins. deep with the natural 
soil. They receive no other attention except watering 
in dry weather and tying the plants with matting to 
prevent the wind breaking their outer leaves, until the 
month of October, when all the new-fallen Beech- 
leaves are saved, and, when dry, are packed in the 
trench to blanch the Celery instead of using the soil; 
but before doing so a wall of soil is made about the 
height of the plants on each side of the trench 
to keep the leaves in their place, and to prevent 
them being blown about they are oovered with 
sawdust. By adopting the above plan Mr. Murray 
has at present fine fresh Celery quite different 
from that obtained by the old practioe, namely, 
surrounding the plants with heavy, wet soil. The 
advantage gained by using the leaves when lifting the 
Celery in frosty weather will easily be seen. 
— a—■ _p — 
Migration of Aphides.— Aphides migrate in count¬ 
less numbers at times, and it does not appear to be 
understood what are the causes of these emigrations, 
which take plaoe only among the winged females. It 
has been gathered that stint of food is perhaps a first 
oause, for experiments have shown that immediately 
the food becomes too sickly and exhausted by the 
Constant and irritating attaoks of the wingless forms, 
or too dry from other causes, that winged females are 
developed, and so migration becomes possible. These 
great migrations occur chiefly in spring and aut um n, 
and the weather is most favourable when hazy and 
warm. At such times one hears the countryfolk say, 
“ The blight is in the air,” which is surely the case, 
though the “ blight ” does not oome from the air, as 
so many of them think.— Field. 
