520 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
HINTS FOR AMATEURS. 
The Fuchsia. 
The conveniences which the amateur usually has at 
his command for the ministering to the necessities of 
his favourite plants usually being of the limited 
order of things, it of course follows that the variety 
of subjects he can cultivate are perforce limited also. 
Still, however poor with regard to variety an 
amateur's collection of plants may be, it, with 
marvellously few exceptions, comprises a number of 
Fuchsias. Again, it usually happens that the plants 
with which the small greenhouse or pits are filled 
have to be chosen with an eye to the decoration of 
the window of the villa or the cottage whichever it 
may chance to be. Besides this, there is always the 
constitution of the plant to be considered ; whether 
it is likely to resent the first indignity that is offered 
it by going to its long home ; also as to whether it is 
a plant that requires a great deal of heat to start it 
into growth in its early stages. Lastly, whether it is 
possessed of good flowering abilities which it may be 
easily mduced to exhibit to admiring friends and 
neighbours and to enable the proud cultivator to say 
*' I grew it." 
In all of these points, the Fuchsia comes out with 
an exceedingly good record, a fact that is amply 
substantiated by the popularity it so deservedly 
enjoys. It is an undeniably good-tempered subject 
and will put up with a very fair amount of hardships. 
It gives, moreover, but little or no trouble during 
the winter months, usually being stored away in an 
old shed or cellar from which frost only is excluded. 
It requires but little heat to start it growing in the 
spring, just an ordinary greenhouse temperature ; 
unless of course it is required to bloom early in the 
season, when a greater heat will be necessary. And 
as to its appearance, it can be stated without being 
in the least derogatory to other favourite flowers 
that it is a fine and handsome plant; in fact, an ideal 
amateur's flower, and one which always repays him 
well for any trouble he mav take with it. 
Where the plants have been stowed away in sheds 
or cellars no time should be lost in bringing them to 
the light of day, for they will now be breaking into 
growth, and if kept long in the dark the growths 
will become drawn and worthless and the appearance 
of the plant spoiled for the season. Pruning must 
first be resorted to if nice shapely plants are required, 
spurring the straggling growths back with a sharp 
knife or a secateur. The plants may then be knocked 
out of their pots, and have as much of the old dry 
soil shaken from the roots as possible. They should 
then be re-potted into’as small pots as will comfort¬ 
ably contain them, the formation of new fibrous 
roots being thus greatly encouraged. If the plants 
are small a cold frame will meet all their require¬ 
ments, as they are thus brought close to the glass, 
and short-jointed sturdy growth is produced as a 
consequence. The frame may be kept fairly close 
until the plants get a good start, and cccasional 
dewings over with the syringe in the afternoons of 
bright days will greatly assist in keeping the foliage 
clean and healthy. Treated thus, an abundance of 
new roots will soon be made and a shift into larger 
pots will then be required. 
For the first potting a compost of two-thirds of 
loam to one of leaf soil, with plenty of silver sand, 
will do very well, but for the second shift the soil 
should be made rather richer, as Fuchsias like good 
living. If any of the manure from an old Mushroom 
bed is obtainable a quantity of this should be baked 
to free it from any vermin it may contain and mixed 
with the potting compost, of which it should con¬ 
stitute about one-fourth. For larger specimens, 
which are of too great a size to be accommodated 
in a frame, a place in the greenhouse will be neces¬ 
sary. If this structure is a lean-to house, care must 
be taken to turn the plants round occasionally so 
that they receive an equal amount of light on all 
sides, or they inevitably grow in the direction from 
which the light proceeds, and as a result will become 
lop-sided and anything but graceful specimens. 
Large plants of this kind, if grown on now, will, if 
too big to be kept under glass throughout the season, 
come in splendidly for plunging in the flower garden, 
for during the summer they will grow quite as well 
out-of-doors as under glass, the only drawback being 
that their flowers are liable to be damaged by storms 
of wind and rain. During anything like a favourable 
season, however, outdoor Fuchsias will make a 
splendid show, and if left in the pots as suggested 
may be lifted in the autumn with very little trouble 
and taken in out of harm’s way.— Rex. 
-4.- 
EARLY CAULIFLOWERS. 
The loss of all kinds of green stuff has been so 
general throughout the country that it needs no 
special comment. All have suffered, some perhaps 
more than others, according to the part of the coun¬ 
try in which their lot is cast, and in a less measure 
in proportion to the state of partial or complete 
preparedness of each individual to pass through a 
severe winter. Broccoli in an ordinary way can 
seldom be depended upon ; sometimes a fair percen¬ 
tage of plants will survive the winter, whilst at others 
the deaths will be so numerous as to cause the 
gardener to ask himself the question as to whether it 
is worth his while attempting to grow them. This 
year the results areatleast more uniform, for with one 
consent all the plants, at least as far as we have been 
able to discover, have signified their inability to with 
stand a winter of such Arctic-like severity as that of 
1894-95, has been by dying off wholesale. This will, 
of course, occasion an awkward break in the succes¬ 
sion, for which no remedy can be found. 
The sowing of Cauliflower seed in heat in the early 
part of the year will necessarily have been exten¬ 
sively practised, and in due course these seedlings will 
have been planted out on specially prepared ground 
in warm and sheltered positions. Still the weather 
of late has certainly not been favourable to the 
growth of these plants, and in more than one instance 
which has come under our notice, plants which were 
put out at the beginning of March are really smaller 
now than they were at the time of transplanting, so 
trying have the cold winds been. Then the terrific 
gale which visited us a few weeks ago, and which 
was responsible for such extensive damage in various 
parts of the country, also did a great deal of harm 
to the young plants by breaking off many of the 
larger leaves. In fact, everything has been against 
the progress of subjects of this kind, and as a natural 
consequence everything is at least three weeks 
behind. 
A few weeks of really warm growing weather 
would be a boon to the much-worried gardener, 
whose prospects of securing early vegetables is every 
day looking fainter and more obscure. Cauliflowers 
which are planted out in the manner suggested should 
have every care taken with them, and all necessary 
protection given, both from frosts and rough winds. 
An excellent plan of shielding small plants from 
unfavourable conditions of this kind is to invert an 
empty flowerpot over each one at night-fall, remov¬ 
ing it in the daytime. This is an operation which, 
while it does not take up a great deal of time nor 
entail a lot of trouble, ensures the plants receiving 
sufficient protection during cold nights. They 
possess the additional recommendation, moreover, 
of being excellent traps for slugs, for if any of these 
mischievous animals which may be in the vicinity 
are tempted to satiate their hunger upon the leaves 
of the young plants, they are almost sure to be 
caught quietly resting upon the sides of the pots 
when they are removed in the morning. As a rule, 
a thirty-two sized pot will be found a handy size to 
use, a forty-eight being of course quite large enough 
if the plants are very small.— Bcche. 
-- 
SALADINGS. 
In many gardens it is one of the requirements of the 
establishment that the salad bowl be kept filled from 
one year's end to another, and although this does 
not at the first thought appear to be either a difficult 
or a troublesome operation, still it is not every 
gardener who is able to do it, more especially in 
those parts of the country where the winters are 
often much more severe than they are in the 
southern counties. At this season of the year a 
little difficulty is often experienced in finding suitable 
material, especially after a hard winter has been 
experienced. Endive has of course been an invalu¬ 
able salading from late autumn right through the 
winter, but at the present, even if the supply has 
not become exhausted, the produce will have so 
much deteriorated in quality as to be practically 
valueless. Lettuces which were sown in autumn 
and planted out in cold frames will also have become 
about exhausted, and thus an awkward break occurs 
at the present time, as nothing outside is ready for 
April 13,'1895. 
cutting as yet, because, v/ith very few exceptions, 
nothing in the way of green stuff has survived the 
terrible winter. 
The brown Bath Cos Lettuce is an excellently 
hardy sort, and we have often seen it pass through 
ordinary winters with no other shelter than that 
given by a hedge or a brick wall, close to which the 
young plants were set out. It is always the best 
plan, however, to be on the safe side and to devote 
a spare frame or two to the housing and sheltering of 
the plants during the winter months, the lights 
being pulled off and the occupants of the frame 
fully exposed to light and air whenever atmospheric 
conditions will permit of its being done. Even 
where this system has been adopted, however, the 
long period of darkness to which the plants have 
been subjected, owing to the impossibility of re¬ 
moving the covering, has resulted in the death of a 
very large proportion. Seed should therefore have 
been sown as soon as the extent of the damage was 
discovered, and pricked off into pans as soon as the 
seedlings were large enough. By this time, therefore, 
there should be plenty of plants fit for putting out. 
A warm south border is the best situation for them, 
and after a dressing of soot and wocd-ashes has 
been given and the soil well forked over, planting 
may be seen to. 
In a position like this it is surprising how soon 
the plants make headway, always supposing we get 
anything like fine weather, which we have now a 
right to expect. Besides those plants which have 
been put outside, a number should be pricked off 
into nice light soil in a cold frame. They may be 
placed together pretty closely, and as they require 
room, every other one may be taken out and used as 
salading material, as all the leaves will be of use 
being so young and tender, and thus it is not neces¬ 
sary to wait until they heart in. We have found the 
Cabbage varieties much superior to the Cos sorts for 
growing in this way. 
Mustard and Cress is an indispensable 
salading and maybe had in abundance at all seasons 
with exceedingly little trouble. The amount sown at 
a time will of course entirely depend upon the 
demand there is for it, weekly sowings being neces¬ 
sary, however small they may be. It is important, 
too, that the Cress should be sown a couple of days 
before the Mustard so that they shall both be in con¬ 
dition at the same time, for Cress seed usually takes 
rather longer to germinate than dees the Mustard. 
The quantity of seed sown at a time must of course 
be determined by the demand there is for it. The 
sowings, however small, should at least be made 
once a week for as long as required —Lactuca. 
- 4 -- 
CHRYSANTHEMUM PHILADELPHIA. 
The reception which this new variety received from 
the various florists, Chrysanthemum Societies and 
others in the United States last autumn, is remark¬ 
able. It was raised by Mr. H. Graham, a very 
enthusiastic florist of Philadelphia, and not having 
been put into commerce, only a few flowers made 
their appearance in this country last year. Accord¬ 
ing to our standards of classification in this country, 
it belongs to the incurved Japanese section. The 
blooms are globular, and 6 in. in diameter, and of a 
delicate creamy-white with the tips of the florets 
tinted with sulphur 3 ellow. The florets themselves 
are long, but compactly incurved, with the pointed tips 
turned to the right and left in a very peculiar manner, 
and which is one of the peculiar characteristics 
of the variety. It is so decided and neat in form 
that it must prove of exceptional merit for exhibition 
purposes when well grown. The durability of the 
flowers when cut, and their great size must render 
the variety invaluable to market growers when it 
comes to be distributed and better known in this 
country. Half-a-dozen blooms exhibited at the 
Royal Aquarium, Westminster, in November last, 
had been cut in Philadelphia ten days previously, 
and shipped to this country where they arrived in 
fine condition, notwithstanding the fact that they 
had been packed so long. We are indebted to 
Messrs. B. S. Williams & Sod, Upper Holloway, for 
the present opportunity of figuring this new and 
beautiful variety. 
Chrysanthemums and their Culture. By Edwin 
Molyneux. Eighth Edition. By far the best practical work yet 
written on this subject. Price, is.; post free, is. 2d. Publisher, 
Gardening World, i, Clement's Inn, Strand, London, W.C. 
