40 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
September 19, 1896. 
ints for Amateurs. 
Calceolarias. —These, as they well deserve, are 
held in high favour everywhere, more particularly 
the yellow-flowered varieties. The cuttings root 
fairly well in shallow pans, but an even better plan 
is to make up a small bed of soil some 6 in. or there¬ 
abouts, in depth, in a cold frame. The soil should 
be very sandy, and a layer of silver sand some 
quarter of an inch in depth should be laid over the 
soil. Cuttings, some 3 in. or 4 in. in length may 
usually be obtained in abundance from the side 
shoots of the old plants, without interfering in the 
least with the flower trusses. Three or four of the 
lower leaves of the cutting should be removed as in 
the case of the Pelargoniums, and the transverse cut 
below the node made neatly. From 1 in. to ij in. 
will be deep enough to insert the cuttings in the soil. 
The lights should be put upon the frame, and the 
latter kept fairly close for a week or two, after which 
air may be given in increasing quantities, should the 
weather prove favourable. It will be advisable here 
also to allow a margin of cuttings for possible deaths 
during the winter months. 
Pentstemonf . — There are no more beautiful 
bedding plants than these, and they are as easy of 
propagation as they are beautiful in appearance. 
Cuttings should be put in now of any specially fine 
variety. The side shoots will, as a rule, furnish 
plenty of material for the purpose. The cuttings 
should be from 3 in. to 5 in. in length, 4 in. being a 
good medium. They should be treated in precisely 
the same way as the Calceolarias, when almost every 
one of the cuttings may be expected to produce a 
plant by next spring that will be suitable for bedding 
out in the ordinary way. 
Violas. —It is manifest that these occupy a 
prominent position in any flower garden, small or 
large, no matter whether it be situated in the country 
®r in the town. In town gardens, indeed, they are 
indisoensible, so well do they resist the baneful 
effects of the smoke, but in order to succeed with 
them there they have to be treated very differently 
to those grown in the country. London fogs play 
terrible havoc with the young plants during the 
winter, and hence the cuttings or divisions, which¬ 
ever plan is followed, have to receive the protection 
of a cold frame during the inclement months, other¬ 
wise their existence is greatly endangered. In the 
country the cuttings may be put in, in a prepared 
piece of ground under the shelter of a wall, or if the 
old plants are divided, the divisions may be con¬ 
signed straight away to their permanent quarters. 
In this matter, therefore, our readers must use their 
own discretion, Cuttings root very readily now, 
and dividing up the plants is at once a safe and an 
expeditious method of propagation. 
As a rule the plants throw up numerous young 
growths near the crowns. These may be cut out 
with a sharp knife and dibbled into a bed of soil in 
a cold frame, made up in the same way as for the 
Calceolarias and Pentstemons. After having been 
watered they will not require very much water 
all through the winter. Nothing like coddling 
should be attempted. Plenty of air should be given, 
although during showery weather the lights, instead 
of being pushed down should be tilted up by 
inserting a brick or a block of wood between the 
light and the frame. 
Nasturtiums.—The dwarf growing varieties may 
be increased very readily by cuttings. A 60-size pot 
will hold six or eight cuttings easily. The soil 
should be made nicely firm in the pots, and covered 
with a thin layer of sand. A place should be given 
the cuttings in a corner of a cold frame. If the 
whole of the frame cannot be kept close owing to the 
presence of other plants, the cuttings should be 
covered with a small hand light or a bellglass for a 
few weeks until they are rooted, after which they will 
pass through the winter very well if stood upon a 
shelf in the greenhouse. 
Cuttings of all the foregoing common bedding 
plants will strike very easily either in the open air or 
in a cold frame, if inserted now, and no amateur need 
be afraid of trying his hand to propagating them. 
There are numbers of other subjects, that enter 
largely into many bedding arrangements, that require 
a little more coddling, and the exercise of a little 
more skill to increase them with any amount of 
certainty. We must leave the consideration of these 
until a subsequent issue. 
After the cuttings,have been taken the beds will 
naturally look rather desolate, as most of the flowers 
will have been taken away with the cuttings. The 
dead and yellow leaves, too, at the base of the stems, 
which have hitherto been hidden by the younger 
growth, will show up pretty plainly. It will be 
necessary, therefore, to give the beds a thoroughly 
good picking over and cleaning. All dead leaves, 
old flower trusses, and weeds must be removed, and 
the soil hoed over in order to loosen the soil which 
will have been trodden down a good deal by the 
trampling about consequent on taking off the 
cuttings. The plants will soon pull round, and if 
we have a favourable autumn, and the frost keeps 
off, these beds may look presentable for some weeks 
yet.— Rex. 
-- 
Correspondence. 
Questions asked by amateurs on any subject pertaining 
to gardens or gardening will be answered on this page. 
A nyone may give additional or more explanatory answers 
to questions that have already appeared. Those who desire 
their communications to appear on this page should write 
“Amateurs' Page " on the top of their letters. 
Hollyhocks. —As you come from the north of York¬ 
shire, Robert L., your best plan to keep your Holly¬ 
hocks safely through the winter will be to lift them 
up about the end of the month, and transfer them to 
boxes. The roots may be lightly covered with any 
soil that comes to hand, and the boxes placed in a 
frame or underneath the stage in a greenhouse. You 
may propagate from the old stools in the spring. 
Unripe Tomatos. —It is pratically certain that by 
far the greater part of the fruit upon your Tomato 
plants will not ripen out of doors, J. T. Bingham. 
You may let it hang as long as possible so as to give 
it every chance of maturing itself. If frost threatens, 
you must cut them all and take them inside out of 
the way, or they will inevitably be spoiled. If you 
lay the fruit on a shelf, or better still, hang it up in a 
warm room, it will ripen off gradually. Of course, 
the flavour of these artificially ripened fruits will not 
be so good as that of those ripened naturally upon 
the plants, but still it will be passable. 
Sickly Yiolas.— There is very little wonder that 
your Violas look sickly, X., the wonder would be if 
they did not, under the circumstances. They are 
infested with red spider which has played terrible 
havoc with them. You say that Scarlet Runner 
Beans have been growing close to them. It is more 
than likely that the red spider attacked the Beans 
first, and spread from them to the Violas. The dry 
season has caused the spider to be very prevalent 
this year and we have noticed many cases of Runner 
Beans in suburban gardens that have been literally 
covered with it. Your only plan will be to pull the 
Beans out of it, and cut your Violas back. 
Mushrooms in an Asparagus Bed.— There is 
nothing very extraordinary in what you relate, 
Electric. Ground dressed with the remains of an old 
Mushroom bed will frequently produce Mushrooms, 
even, although, the bed has been apparently 
exhausted for months before it has been disturbed. 
We remember a case in our own experience, where a 
bed after having been made up in the usual way to 
all intents and purposes, turned out a failure, for not 
a single Mushroom did it produce. After waiting 
three months and no signs of life being then shown, 
the bed was turned out and the manure thrown up in 
a heap outside. A few days of showery weather 
followed, and shortly after, much to our surprise, we 
found the heap of manure literally covered with 
Mushrooms of first-class quality, which happened to 
come in very useful at the time. 
Snakes in a Back Yard.—A startling title this, 
and it must have been a startling title too, F. W. M., 
to send an account of it on in hopes that it may 
interest some of our amateur readers. In the spring of 
the present year he had a hotbed put up in the yard 
at the back of his house. The Cucumbers were 
planted in the ordinary way, but somehow or other 
they failed to do well. Weeks passed and they did 
not move a bit, so at last it was decided, for lack of a 
better idea, to take the hotbed down, and to try and 
find out if anything was the matter. After the pro¬ 
cess of demolition had been in progress a short while, 
an ominous hissing was heard, for the fork had 
disturbed a nest of snakes, an old one and several 
young ones. War was declared, and the snakes 
promptly despatched. Thinking he had at last 
found out the secret of his Cucumbers not doing 
well, our correspondent repaired the damage to the 
hotbed. After this, the plants grew away famously 
and cropped heavily. F. IV. M. thinks the snakes 
and the eggs must have been brought to the place in 
the fermenting material, and this is probably what 
really occurred. 
Sieves. —Three sieves will be amply sufficient for 
all purposes, W. G., viz., 1 in., £ iD., and \ in. mesh. 
The largest size (1 in. mesb), is handy for separating 
stones, sticks, etc., from leaf or any other soil. The 
J in. and J in. sizes are the most useful. 
Storing Onions.— If the necks are long enough, 
Dahlia, you may “rope” your onions. Get stout 
sticks about ij inches in diameter, split them down 
the middle by two cuts made at right angles to each 
other. The necks of the Onions may be inserted in 
these cracks, the one above the other until the top of 
the stick is reached. Then bring the split portions 
together and tie them securely with stout string. 
The Onions will then be held firmly in their places. 
The strings may be suspended from the roof or hung 
against the walls of the storehouses. 
Pruning Raspberries. —You will be quite safe 
L. Vince, in cutting out the old canes of the 
Raspberries now, as you suggest, and not waiting till 
the winter. 
Stinkpots is a common name often applied to 
Stapelias, X., and all who are acquainted with the 
disagreeable odour exhaled by the flowers of these 
remarkable plants, will agree that the sobriquet is 
not inaptly bestowed. 
The Neapolitan Yiolet — Rover asks if it is worth 
while growing Neapolitan Violet as well as Marie 
Louise ? as the latter is such a much better doer in 
all ways than the former. Certainly it is well worth 
growing ! Neapolitan is rather later in blooming than 
Marie Louise, and comes in when the latter is rather 
past its best. For size and colour of the bloom, as 
well as for general utility, Marie Louise can give 
Neapolitan points. 
Fruit Room. —The shed of which you write, 
Cosmos, would make an admirable fruit room, pro¬ 
vided it undergoes a little preparation first. We 
should advise you to have the walls whitewashed, 
but do not paint the racks; they are far better left 
clean, and besides the smell of paint would not be 
dissipated before the fruit room was wanted. The 
thatched roof will, if anything be better than tiles, 
as it will keep the frost out better. You must have 
some wooden shutters made to fit the windows 
closely. These must be put up in frosty weather. 
Yiolets in Frames.— An ordinary cold frame is the 
best structure for growing Violets in during the 
winter months. The brick pit you mention F. R. 
Knighton, would do very well, but will require to be 
partially filled up with a mixture of stable manure 
and leaves. This should be trodden down as firmly 
as possible, and a layer of soil some 10 in. in depth 
placed on the top. The soil should consist of two 
parts of good mellow loam, and one part of well 
decayed stable manure, or leaf soil, well mixed 
together. The surface of the soil when the bed is 
finished, should be from 6 in. to 8 in. away from the 
glass, to allow for the shrinking of the fermenting 
material. Where a shallow pit or frame is used, and 
but little fermenting material has been employed, the 
surface of the soil should be within a foot of the 
glass. 
Tomatos with curled leaves —The specimen 
you sent us, Amateur, was perfectly healthy. Some 
varieties of Tomatos, even of the best sorts, have 
their leaves curled up in the same way as those you 
sent, whether grown under glass or out of doors. 
Ham Green Favourite is particularly liable to behave 
in this way under the best of cultural treatment, and 
yet bears heavily. There is nothing to complain of 
except on the score of appearance. Three-fourths of 
the varieties in cultivation have their leaves more or 
less curled, especially out of doors. 
