666 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
June 20th, 1885. 
OUR EUCHARIS LILIES. 
Eucharis Amazonica, or the Lily of the Nile as it is 
sometimes called, is universally admired by all, and 
where there is anything like convenience for growing 
it, and often where there is not, the Eucharis is 
generally found, but, I must add, not always in the 
best possible condition. It is not my purpose here 
to sing the praises of my own plants, or rather, those 
under my charge, but simply to state a few facts 
which I have gained during a period of time devoted 
to an endeavour to recover to health and vigour a 
sickly lot of Ihese bulbs, which after three years’ 
constant nursing I have given up in favour of a fresh 
lot of healthy bulbs. We have often heard it stated 
that the most valuable lessons are often gathered 
from failures, so I will not flinch from detailing my 
experience. 
The plants above mentioned, when I took them in 
hand, were of a sickly hue, or a mixture of green and 
yellow, and the leaves were little more than 1 ft. 
in length, foot-stalk and leaf together, so that the 
plants, which were in large pots, presented a dumpy 
appearance. The soil was found to be of a dark 
colour, close, wet, and pasty, so much so, that after 
a watering, and I might say almost at any time, you 
might take a pinch of the soil out of the pots and 
roll it up into a ball like putty, and if this was thrown 
at a wall it would not break to pieces, but would 
either adhere tp the same, or fall in a flat mass. I 
think most gardeners would agree with me, that this 
kind of soil was of the most undesirable character 
one could have for any plant of this nature, devoid 
as it was of all sand, or any other substance for keep¬ 
ing the soil open. 
I thought the most desirable thing we could do 
was to shake the whole out of their pots, and pot them 
afresh in some good material, consisting of fibrous 
loam and peat, with sand and broken crocks mixed 
with the soil to keep the whole porous. The pots 
into which they were placed after removing all 
the soil from the roots, which we found no difficulty 
in doing, were half filled w T ith crocks, and the bulbs 
potted somewhat in the same manner as we found 
them, in this new compost, after which the pots and 
plants were plunged on a bed of fermenting material. 
Here, as might be supposed, they lost some of their 
leaves and made some fresh ones, but never in a satis¬ 
factory manner. As the heat of this bed declined, a 
fresh one was made up, and so on through the first 
summer, but without any great strides having been 
made. 
The following winter, with the fall of temperature 
they went back again to a worse plight than before, as 
many of the bulbs lost the whole of their leaves. The 
following summer they were taken in hand again, 
some having the hotbed and others placed in vineries 
that were at work, but no progress was made, for when 
a few, to all appearance healthy, leaves were sent up, 
they -went off again before a fresh one appeared on the 
same bulb. This somewhat similar treatment was 
followed for nearly another season, when we determined 
to let them take their, chance. So they were all shaken 
out of their pots and spread about on a bed in a warm 
pit there to take their chance, and if any do make a 
start they wall be moved into pots. I may add that 
during this forcing process several of the bulbs threw 
up flower scapes and perfected some good blooms, and 
several of these were leafless bulbs. 
During the time above detailed, some healthy bulbs 
were bought in, and some part of their time placed 
by the side of the others, and received precisely the 
same treatment. These are growing away well, and 
are now as green as Leeks. There are two or three 
things we shall take care to observe in the culture of 
these plants in future, and one is to disturb the roots 
as little as possible except when dividing old and 
cumbersome plants and to increase stock, in which 
case we should pot into small pots, and pot them on 
as they require it. We shall also be very careful in 
the use of bottom-heat from fermenting materials, 
and always give them plenty of atmospheric heat, 
careful watering and stimulants when required to 
encourage growth, and slightly withholding the same 
to induce flowering. 
There are two gardeners in the neighbourhood of 
Salisbury who are noted for the good cultivation of 
these plants, viz., Mr. Ward, of Longford Castle 
Gardens, and Mr. Thomson, of The Gardens, Norman 
Court; and I know that neither are advocates for 
breaking up the balls and sorting the bulbs when 
potting, unless absolutely necessary.— C. W. 
Fruit Culture under Glass.— Vineries : The 
work to be done in this department from this date 
until the Grapes are cut will be chiefly of a routine 
character. As stated in a former paper, the lateral 
and sub-lateral growths will require to be pinched 
once or twice a week, the borders—inside borders and 
outside ones, too, in the absence of heavy rains—will 
require watering at least twice in three weeks, and the 
pathways, walls, &c., of houses in which Grapes are 
swelling should be well damped over with the syringe 
and tepid water morning, mid-day, and afternoon 
at closing time—about four o’clock—when the tem¬ 
perature may be run up to 90 degs., with plenty 
of atmospheric moisture at the same time. With 
a view to preventing the berries of such varieties 
as Lady Downes, Muscat of Alexandria, Madresfield 
Court, Ac., from being caught by the sun when covered 
with and full of moisture, air should be admitted 
to the house in which the varieties susceptible to 
scalding are growing somewhat earlier, during the 
stoning period, and, with the same object in view, 
a rather free lateral growth should be allowed until 
the berries are stoned. 
Fire-heat should now be reduced to a minimum, 
starting the fires only sufficiently early in the evening 
of bright days to slightly warm the water in the pipes 
before banking them up for the night. But should 
the weather happen to be wet or dull during the day¬ 
time, the fires, as a matter of course, should be pushed 
on first thing in the morning, so as to raise the tem¬ 
perature to 75 degs. with a little air on ; and aim at 
a humid rather than an arid atmosphere, except in 
houses in which the fruit is ripe or ripening, in which 
case, by a diminution of atmospheric mosture, and 
a free circulation of fresh air, a buoyant atmosphere 
should be maintained. The bunches of late Grapes 
should be looked through, and any small berries that 
happen to be in them removed carefully with a sharp 
pair of scissors, as their presence in perhaps otherwise 
symmetrical bunches is as undesirable as they are 
themselves useless. 
Where large bunches of Gros Guillaume, Trebbiano, 
and other large-growing varieties of Grapes are tied 
out, so that they may the better ripen and develop 
themselves, they should be looked over a couple 
of times a iveek while growing, and, if necessary, 
have additional ties put to them, so that the weight 
of the shoulders of the individual bunches may be 
duly balanced over the several ties by which they are 
suspended from the trellis, because, in the event 
of any of the horizontal points of the bunches so tied 
inclining ever so little to the perpendicular from the 
point of support, loss of those parts of the bunch would 
probably ensue, in consequence of injury to the stem 
at the point of contact with the tie.— H. IV. Ward, 
Longford Castle, Salisbury. 
-- 
Carter’s Blenheim Orange Melon and Im¬ 
proved Telegraph Cucumber.—Those amateurs 
who have small houses, and who may wish to 
cultivate Melons and Cucumbers would, I think, find 
these two varieties suit them admirably, as they fruit 
wonderfully well in a small space. I have a little 
lean-to house, 23 ft. long and 6 ft. wide, which is 
divided into two compartments, 13 ft. for the Melons 
and 10 ft. for the Cucumbers. Of the latter, three 
plants were put out in the end of February, and from 
these I have cut 250 fruits, and there are now thirty 
more hanging on the plants. It is a very straight 
and well-flavoured variety. Of the Melons I have 
five plants, which were planted in March, and which 
have now thirty-two beautifully netted fruits upon 
them, and all of a good size. I may add that I used 
Clay’s Fertilizer for the Cucumbers, and an excellent 
and comparatively inexpensive manure I find it.— F. 
King, Kenton Grange. — [If other readers would favour 
us with the benefit of their experience with different 
varieties, they would confer a great boon on those who 
cannot afford to experiment with new sorts.— Ed .] 
Work in the Plant-houses.— Drac.exas : Young 
plants that are to be grown on for autumn and winter 
use should be potted on as soon as they require it, 
and have every encouragement to get them to make 
vigorous growth through the summer. They do well 
plunged where there is a brisk bottom-heat, but 
as this cannot always be obtained in a position suffi¬ 
ciently close to the glass, a good plan is to make 
up a hotbed for the purpose. The best materials 
for making up such a hotbed are leaves and dung. 
Leaves retain the heat longer than most fermenting 
materials. The planting-out system is largely prac¬ 
tised on the Continent; the plants so treated make 
very vigorous growth, and if taken up carefully in the 
autumn they suffer very little from being moved. 
It is essential that the plants should have plenty 
of room, as if they are crowded they will run up too 
tall, and the lower leaves will suffer. After the plants 
have made a good growth, if they are not colouring 
satisfactorily they should be taken out from the hot¬ 
bed and stood on inverted pots, so as to bring the 
plants as close to the glass as possible. 
Dieffenbachias.— These' do well under similar 
treatment to that recommended for Dracrenas, except 
that they require a richer compost, and more liquid 
manure. Marantas should also be liberally treated 
during their growing season. 
New Chrysanthemum “Coquette de Cas- 
tille.”—In your last issue I noticed that this 
novelty had bloomed in the nursery of Mr. Owen, 
of Maidenhead. I wish to record the fact that the 
same variety is now coming into bloom in my garden. 
I think, therefore, considering that it is blooming 
so early in two different places at least, it may be 
regarded as a great acquisition to the early-blooming 
section of Japanese varieties. I may also state that 
the plant which is now coming into bloom with me 
is not the original plant sent to me by Messrs. Delaux 
& Son, of Toulouse, in their set, but one which I 
struck in April, making it, therefore, not over ten 
weeks since it was put in as a cutting. I have also 
another of the same set showing colour, it is named 
M. Ghys, and Hoi des Precoces, a novelty in the 
summer-flowering section of Japanese varieties sent 
out this season by Messrs. Delaux (with four other 
summer - flowering Japanese, named respectively, 
Mandarin, Fleur d’Ete, Bouquet d’Estival, and Ete 
fleuri) is also in bud. I look forward to the time, 
which I fully believe is not far distant, when we shall 
have as many and as fine flowers in the summer- 
flowering section of Japanese as we have of the later 
varieties.— W. Clark, 56, Ferine Park Eoad North, 
Hornsey, N., June 15th. 
- - —>$< - 
The “Onion Plant” (Ornithogalurn longe- 
bracteatum.—I have one of these plants about nine 
years old, which bloomed three years ago. After it 
had flowered I re-potted it, and in the very ordinary 
compost which I used I placed three small pieces of 
the parings of horses’ hoof. It did not bloom again 
till last December, but since then it flowered in March 
and is now throwing up another very fine spike. I 
have never known this old favourite to flower so 
frequently. As it has not been repotted and the hoof 
parings are very slow in decomposing, I should like 
to know if its free flowering now is to be attributed to 
its being pot-bound or to its feeling the benefit of the 
manure. Would it flower as freely if potted in a rich 
compost? I may add that I have used the hoof- 
parings for some years with success for Liliums in 
pots.— J. IF., 21, King Edward Street, S.E. 
- ^ - 
Paul’s Double Crimson Thorn.—While all the 
Thorns have flowered with great freedom during the 
past month, that superb variety, Paul's Crimson Thorn, 
has been particularly effective. There are some fine 
trees of it at Gunnersbury Park, Acton, and it is not 
too much to say that their branches have been laden 
with richly-coloured flowers, and they proved a great 
feature in the landscape. The value of the Thorns 
as early summer-flowering plants cannot be too highly 
appreciated. 
