824 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
August 29th, 1885. 
The Amatmis 1 ©aimm. 
THE GREENHOUSE. 
Climbers. —The free growth these are now making 
renders frequent attention necessary in the way of 
thinning and regulating the shoots, which should be 
kept tied loosely, and allowed to depend as naturally 
as possible, for nothing looks worse than formal or 
stiff training of plants that are used for adorning 
pillars or roofs of houses, where they ought to be 
allowed to display their habit, and run pretty much at 
their will. 
Lapagerias.— These will soon be at their best, and 
full of flower, at which time almost unlimited quan¬ 
tities of water are required, but its free use must 
depend greatly on the drainage of the border, as 
though Lapagerias will bear, and need large supplies, 
it is very important that it passes quickly through, or 
the soil soon becomes sour. 
Roses. —Few plants are more serviceable for the 
embellishment of greenhouses in spring than pot 
Roses, especially the Tea-scented varieties, some of 
which may be had in bloom nearly the whole year 
round, but to enable them to produce flowers freely 
they must be well grown, which can only be done by 
giving them good soil and potting them on. The best 
mixture that can be .prepared for them is good fibry 
loam, leaf-mould, and rotten cow-manure, in the pro¬ 
portion of two-thirds of the first-named to equal parts 
of the latter, in which the Roses should be potted firm 
and plunged in some open sunny spot, where they can 
be attended to in the way of watering, and kept free 
from mildew, which may be done, if that parasite 
shows itself, by dusting the foliage with flowers of 
sulphur, or syringing with a solution of Gishurst, as 
either will destroy it at once. 
Perpetual Carnations. —For cutting from during 
winter, tree Carnations are quite unrivalled, and those 
who are not so fortunate as to have plants should 
procure some at once, and pot them into larger pots, 
giving them sharp sandy loam and a little rotten dung, 
after which the most suitable place for them is out- 
of-doors, where they may be left till quite late in the 
autumn, and then stood on light airy shelves near the 
glass. 
Bouvardias. —These succeed well under similar 
treatment, and do far better fully exposed than they 
do in pits, as when subjected to the full influence 
of the weather they ripen their growth, and bloom 
profusely when taken under cover, where, if favoured 
with a temperature of about 55 degs., the plants will 
continue in full beauty the greater part of the winter. 
Bulbs. —It is time now to be thinking of these, the 
most desirable being the Hyacinths, Tulips, and Nar¬ 
cissus, all of which should be ordered at once, and a 
portion for early display potted as soon as they are 
received, the first to come in among the Hyacinths 
being the Roman, which require but slight forcing to 
have them in flower at Christmas. As the bulbs of 
this variety are small, six or seven may be put into a 
32-sized pot, but the soil should be rich and light, and 
in it the bulbs ought to be just buried, leaving only 
the crowns visible above. The large sorts should be 
treated precisely in the same way, but they look best 
singly, or in threes, and in the first case 48-sized pots 
are necessary for growing them, and in the latter 
23’s or ,24’s, according to the purpose for which 
they are wanted. Tulips and Narcissus ought to be 
treated in like manner, the kind of soil suitable for 
the whole being the same as that mentioned for the 
Roman Hyacinths, and as soon as the potting is com¬ 
plete they should be stood on a hard bottom that 
worms cannot get through, and be covered with about 
G ins. of cocoa-nut fibre or coal-ashes, and there left 
in themselves till they start. 
Mignonette. —Nothing in the way of sweet-scented 
plants is more acceptable than Mignonette, and to 
have it in bloom early next spring, seed must be sown 
now, for the doing of which 6-in. pots should be 
prepared by being well-drained and then filled with 
rich loamy soil pressed in very firm, after which it 
should be watered and then allowed to stand a few 
hours, when the seed should be scattered thinly over 
the surface and just covered, and if the pots are then 
placed in a cold frame under glass, the plants will 
soon show themselves, and as soon as they are well 
up they ought to be thinned, leaving only the strongest, 
and about five or six in a pot. 
Watering. —Why many fail with Mignonette is 
in giving too much water while the plants are 
young, a period when they are very impatient of 
moisture and should be kept moderately dry 
till they are well rooted and get somewhat large, 
when they will be greatly benefited by weak liquid 
manure. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
The Season has been a very trying one for hardy 
perennials, which have suffered as much perhaps from 
the arid state of the atmosphere as from want of rain, 
but with a little assistance, all late-blooming kinds 
will be good yet, the help they require being a thorough 
soaking of water or liquid manure, of the latter of 
which herbaceous Phloxes and the fine Anemone 
japonica cannot well have too much. 
Propagating. —In cases where it is desired to 
increase any of the plants referred to, no time should 
be lost in putting in cuttings of such as may be pro¬ 
pagated in that way, as they will strike well now, the 
conditions requisite to get them to root being shade 
and a close moist atmosphere, such as may be afforded 
under handlights, or in any cold frame. 
Roses. —These have suffered much, owing to the 
absence of wet, but now that we are getting rains and 
cooler weather, with night dews, Roses are reviving a 
bit, and will yet give a crop of bloom if the plants are 
assisted in their growth by free applications of liquid 
manure. Although it is late now to be budding, buds 
will still take freely if the bark runs so that they can 
be put in, and any stocks that have failed and have 
fresh shoots may therefore be worked over again. 
Cuttings. —The present is a good time to put in 
cuttings of Roses, which root readily under handlights 
stood on a half spent hotbed, where they should be 
shaded and syringed occasionally, so as to keep the 
foliage fresh till they strike. The best shoots to form 
the cuttings are those of small size and firm, and the 
way to make them is to cut into lengths so that each 
piece has three buds, the leaves from the lower to 
be trimmed away and the wood severed close under, 
when the cuttings should be inserted in sharp sandy 
soil. 
Bedding Plants. —The season for these to display 
their beauty is short at best, and therefore they should 
be made to look as well as possible by going over them 
frequently and removing all dead or decaying leaves, 
flowers, or seed-pods that show and disfigure the 
plants. 
Sowing Seeds. —Perennials and hardy annuals may 
be sown as fasfias seeds ripen, for though plants raised 
thus late will be small, they will have an advantage over 
others that are left till the spring. If not sown where 
they are to stand and grow, they should be put on 
some sheltered sunny border, where the soil is light 
and dry, and from there they can be lifted and trans¬ 
planted as vacancies occur in the borders. 
THE FRUIT GARDEN. 
Little remains to be done in this department, 
except giving any trees that have fruit on them plenty 
of liquid manure or -water, either one or the other 
of which are essential to aid the Apples or Pears 
swelling, as we have not had enough rain to get down 
to the roots. 
Plums will now be ripening fast, and wasps, the 
plague of gardens, will be at them if not sought out and 
destroyed in their nests, which may easily be done by 
watching their flight and pouring a little turps or coal 
tar into the holes where the nests are, and blocking 
the openings, when the fumes will stifle the insects. 
Raspberries. —These are generally left till winter 
before being trimmed and seen to, but the proper time 
to do the thinning out is as soon as the fruit is 
gathered, which gives the young canes a chance to 
harden and ripen. The number of these to be left 
depends on the distance the plants are apart, but from 
three to five is quite sufficient in any case, and beyond 
these, which should be the strongest, all others may 
be pruned out and any straggling suckers in the 
ground dug up or pulled away and cleared off with 
the weeds. 
Strawberries. — These, like everything else in 
gardens, are suffering from want of rain, and, unless 
watered so as to assist the plants in forming and 
developing their crowns, the prospect of obtaining a 
crop next year will be a poor one, especially in light 
soils, but on these the beds should be heavily 
mulched. 
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 
Potatos. —All early and second early kinds of these 
are now ripe, and will be far better out of the ground 
than in, for while there, not only are they more liable 
to disease, but when heavy rain comes they are 
almost sure to super-tuberate or spro.ut, and this quite 
spoils them for eating. If the skins are not quite 
fixed, a few hours exposure will set them, but those 
for cooking must not be left long out in the sun and 
light, or they will become discoloured and spoiled. 
Celery. —Liquid-manure or water, and plenty of 
the one or the other, are the great things for Celery, 
which should not be earthed up, as is too commonly 
done, but tied so as to bring the leaf-stalks together 
and keep the plants compact and close, as the blanch¬ 
ing can be done later on when the Celery has com¬ 
pleted its growth. 
Onions. —Spring - sown beds of these are now 
approaching the ripening stage, and as soon as they 
will leave the ground readily they should be pulled 
and laid out to mature, which they will in a week or 
so, when they will be ready for harvesting and storing 
in some dry, cool, airy shed. 
Spinach. —Winter beds of this most useful vegetable 
ought to be sufficiently forward for thinning, which 
should be done as soon as the plants are large enough 
to handle, leaving them from 6 ins. to 8 ins. apart, 
which will afford room for full and free growth, and 
for the production of large fleshy leaves. 
Cabbages will require unremitting attention in the 
way of watering to get them established, and succes- 
sional plantations should be put out at once, the best 
time for moving the plants being towards evening, 
when they suffer less from being moved. 
Tomatos. —It is useless now to allow these to make 
further growth or flower, and the way to manage the 
plants after this is to keep them stopped, and all fruit 
exposed by a judicious thinning of the leaves, giving 
plenty of water or liquid manure at the roots till rain 
comes, after which the plants may be left to them¬ 
selves. 
•— g-j^Tc -^ err-— o — 
CATTLEYA HARDYANA. 
Thanks to the kindness of Mr. George Hardy, 
Pickering Lodge, Timperley, we are enabled to 
give in our pages to-day an illustration (admirably 
rendered by our artist) of the magnificent hybrid 
Cattleya which he had the gratification to flower a 
month ago, and which afforded so much pleasure to 
Orchid lovers when shown at South Kensington on 
August 11th. Cattleya Hardyana, under which name 
it was certificated and will in future be known, is, 
there can be little doubt, a natural hybrid between C. 
aurea and C. gigas, both handsome species in them¬ 
selves, but neither comparable to Mr. Hardy’s lucky 
purchase. As was stated in a recent number by Mr. 
Swan, the plant was bought about five years ago as 
C. Sanderiana, but was soon seen to be distinct from 
that showy Orchid. The flow'ers measure 8 ins. 
across, and the sepals and petals are of a deep shade 
of mauve. The lip is large and well-formed, the lower 
half as indicated in our engraving, deep rosy-purple, 
which is carried into the throat between two large 
rich golden blotches. The plant has made several 
fine growths, is in splendid health, and Mr. Hardy is 
certainly to be congratulated on its possession, for no 
man loves a good Orchid better. 
— o—- — 
A COTTAGERS’ SHOW. 
The prizes offered for fruits and vegetables grown 
by cottagers and artizans brought such a wealth of 
produce to South Kensington on Tuesday last, as 
must have fairly astonished those visitors to the 
Inventions Exhibition who passed through the large 
Conservatory. We thought last year’s display a most 
creditable one, but it was beaten in every way on the 
present occasion, the display being larger, and the 
produce staged of a much superior order of merit. 
We believe there were over 700 entries, and a thousand 
or more plates were used in displaying the samples of 
those who did not bring their own. The collections 
