168 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
November 14, 1896. 
JNTS FOR MMATEURS. 
Correspondence. 
Questions asked by amateurs on any subject pertaining 
to gardens or gardening will be answered on this page. 
Anyone 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. 
Flowering Ranunculuses in August.—This will he 
a somewhat difficult task, H. H. B., and one that as 
far as we are aware has never been practised, 
possibly because there are numbers of other flowers 
at that time of the year. The only way in which we 
can see a chance for you to obtain your desire is to 
carry out the same idea as that put in practice with 
Lilies of the Valley, viz., of retarding them by 
placing them in an ice-chamber. Whether they 
would stand this treatment must be decided by 
experiment. We see no reason why they should not, 
for the roots when planted in the open ground must 
often be frozen. The Turban varieties are rather 
stronger in habit than the Persian, and would stand 
the better chance. The roots should be potted up 
in autumn, in 6-in. pots for preference. Use a 
mixture of two parts of good loam to one part of leaf 
soil, and old horse droppings, with plenty of sharp 
sand. Drain the pots thoroughly, as the plants are 
very impatient of moisture. Place the pots in the 
ice-chamber and keep them there until within about 
six weeks of the date at which they are wanted to 
flower. We can only state the time approximately, 
as here again experiments must decide. 
up for some distance round the plants with great 
freedom, and I thus have no difficulty in getting 
sufficient cuttings at one time for myself, as well as 
a few to give away to my neighbours. F. W. 
Johnson. 
Lifting Gladiolus.— The corms must not be 
allowed to stay out of doors all the winter, otherwise 
they will be spoiled, Eugene. Lift them at once with 
the foliage attached, and hang them up in a shed or 
outhouse to dry. When they are dry, cut off the old 
stems and leaves with a sharp knife or pair of 
scissors, and pack the corms for the winter in dry 
sand or soil. 
Chrysanthemum L. Canning. —This is one of the 
finest late blooming white Chrysanthemums we 
have, Condor, and would answer your purpose 
admirably. The plants run to about 3 ft. in height, 
and tend to take on a bushy habit. They are best 
grown naturally, and allowed to carry as many buds 
as they like. 
The Cape Hyacinth. — F. T. G. asks for a little 
information about Galtonia candicans, the Cape 
Hyacinth, whether it is hardy, or requires lifting each 
year as Gladioli ? and also what soil suits it and how 
it can be propagated ? 
The plant is perfectly hardy, and may thus be 
allowed to remain where it is planted all the year 
round without any fear. It will grow in almost any 
ordinary garden soil, although it prefers one of a 
light but rich character.* Associated with Rhodo¬ 
dendrons, or other dwarf shrubs requiring a peaty 
soil, it is thus in’ its element, and does exceptionally 
well. It is propagated by offsets, which are given off 
pretty freely. Plants may also be raised from seed, 
but this is rather a slow process, as the seedlings take 
about four years to grow into flowering strength. 
A good Nectarine. —The old variety Pineapple is 
one of the best flavoured Nectarines grown, G. 
Crimpton, and as it is a good doer you would do very 
well with it. It will ripen with you early in 
September in an ordinary season. Lord Napier 
would possibly be an even better investment. The 
fruit is large, well-coloured, and the flesh white, and 
of excellent flavour. Its greatest recommendation, 
however, is its earliness, for in favourable situations 
it will ripen on an outside wall early in August. If 
you want a variety for outdoor planting, this is the 
one for you. Pineapple will do better under glass. 
Chrysanthemum Cuttings. —As many people 
experience a difficulty in getting cuttings of special 
varieties the following idea may be of service to 
them. It is one that I practice with marked 
success. After the flowers have been taken off, the 
plants are cut down, and any of them that are shy in 
throwing up cuttings are knocked out of their pots, 
and planted in a bed of soil made up in a heated pit. 
The roots soon begin to run, and cuttings are thrown 
Freesias. —You may give your plants a little weak 
manure water twice a week now, Reader, as from 
what you say the pots must be well-filled with 
roots. 
Poor Roman Hyacinths.— X. is grumbling 
because the flowers of his Roman Hyacinths are 
poor and flimsy, whilst they obstinately refuse to 
come up out of the leaves. He is inclined to blame 
the bulbs, and suggest one or two things he would 
like to do to the man from whom he got them. In 
order to get Roman Hyacinths thus early, the plants 
have to be forced hard, and this is sure to have some 
such result as that experienced by X. Moral! if you 
want to have good Hyacinths do not force them too 
hard. 
Temperatures. —An ordinary greenhouse tempera¬ 
ture through the winter would mean about 40° 
Fahr., as a minimum by night, and 45° during the 
day. A warm greenhouse would be 5 0 higher than 
this, T. Wesley. If you can keep your house some¬ 
where about the latter temperature, you will find 
that damp will not trouble you very much, and that 
Chinese Primulas will give much more satisfactory 
results than they would in a lower temperature. 
Choisya ternata.—You are too far north for this to 
stand the winter out-of-doors, and unprotected, 
Durham. In the south of England and other parts of 
the country the plant is hardy enough with the 
simple protection of a wall. In the north of 
England it is generally grown in pots for cool con¬ 
servatory decoration. 
Fern Walls —There are several ways of making a 
fern wall, /. Eastman. One is to nail a quantity of 
virgin cork on to the wall in such a way as to form 
pockets sufficiently deep to hold the soil which the 
plants need. Sheets of cork can be obtained at a 
fairly cheap rate, and this will be the best plan for 
you to adopt. Another way is to cover the wall with 
1 in. mesh wire, and to fill in the space between the 
wall and the wire with rough peaty soil in which 
the ferns may be planted. A third plan is to hang 
upon the wall a number of fern tiles, i.e. fancy pot- 
ware made like flattened pockets, and filled with 
growing Ferns. This last-mentioned idea is rather 
more expensive than the first two, but when carried 
out is very effective. 
Agaye americana is not hardy, G. Emerson, 
although it will stand two or three degrees of frost 
with impunity, for its skin is very tough and 
leathery. Your plant must be taken indoors at 
once though, for the wet will do it more harm than 
a slight frost. It ought to have been removed in¬ 
doors at the beginning of October. 
CRYPTOSPERMA FEROX. 
The general appearance of this Aroid would not lead 
one to suspect that it belongs to the same family as 
Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum) of our hedges, 
and woodlands ; yet such is the case. The forests of 
South America continue to furnish us with maDy 
strange and striking novelties, several of which turn 
up at the Temple Show almost every year as did 
that under notice, and which was introduced and 
exhibited by Messrs. Linden, L’Horticulture Inter¬ 
nationale, Parc Leopold, Brussels. We are indebted 
to them for the present opportunity of illustrating 
this striking novelty. The leaves are acutely has¬ 
tate, the three lobes or portions being very similar 
in appearance and form. Both surfaces are nearly 
of the same uniform dark green colour, or, if any¬ 
thing, the undersurface is slightly paler. The 
petioles are singularly spiny and dark green, marbled 
with deep red in a very charming manner. The 
flower stalk is also spiny, but not marbled with red. 
The spathe is grayish-white or greenish above, and 
_of a brilliant, brownish-violet beneath—a very 
singular combination of colours, indeed. The 
spadix is short, green, shaded with white and 
clouded with lilac. The foliage, however, is the 
ornamental part of this subject, which may be 
described as a stove fine foliage plant of unique 
aspect. 
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF CHRY¬ 
SANTHEMUMS. 
I think it was November, 1841 or 1842, my father 
hoisted me up on his shoulder to carry me into the 
then new Corn Exchange, Norwich, to see a Chry¬ 
santhemum show; and I remember as well as 
possible seeing plants with one flower in 5-in. or 6-in. 
pots exhibited thus ° 0 ° 0 °; also monster Drumhead 
O 
Cabbages. I had then never seen the like before, 
and both left a lasting impression on my mind. No 
one thought of striking cuttings until April, and 
then they grew and flowered them in 5-in. or 6-in. 
pots carrying just one flower. These were stood 
pyramid shape as above. There was no green baize 
nor paper to cover the stage, all bare boards in those 
days. The following were some of the varieties :— 
Tasselled Yellow. Cluster Pink. 
Yellow Cluster. Silver White. 
Yellow Flame. Early Blush. 
Large Lilac. Golden Yellow. 
Changeable Pale Buff. 
About four or five years after this I made my way up to 
London with eager desire to see the streets paved 
with gold I had heard so much talked about in the 
country. One Sunday morning to my surprise 
wooden pavements were pointed out to me as show¬ 
ing the riches of London in the street. I could find 
no Chrysanthemums, hardly anyone had heard of 
them. After staying eighteen months I returned 
home. 
The exhibition of 1851 became everybody’s talk, 
and in anticipation I again ventured to London in 
the autumn of 1850, at Stoke Newington. Here I 
was sent by my employer to see the Chrysanthe¬ 
mums, grown by Mr. James at the Rochester Castle 
Hotel, Stoke Newington, in his skittle alley. Flowers 
were so scarce in those days that any we could get 
were admired intensely. I also went to the show 
held in the old, red-brick, low-pitched, dark Manor 
Rooms, with leaden casement and small diamond¬ 
shaped glass windows, in Church Street, and saw 
monster specimen plants of the loose half-incurved 
class, which occupied the room round by the walls. 
There were few people and I do not remember seeing 
a solitary cut bloom. A few Chinese Primulas were 
stood about here and there. Nothing here surprised 
me like the Drumhead Cabbages I saw at Norwich. 
Taylor wrote his celebrated book on the growth of 
the Chrysanthemum for the production of specimen 
blooms about 1853. This was sold in almost every 
seed-shop and it quite altered the old mode of culti¬ 
vation. Only two books on Chrysanthemum culture 
had previously been written, one about 1840 and the 
other in 1843. 
I continued to visit the Stoke Newington Show, 
following them in three different distinct buildings. 
Well I remember in a schoolroom on the east side 
of the Stamford Hill Road, opposite the present 
Abney Park Cemetery, a quantity of the lovely Mrs. 
Geo. Rundle. When first exhibited, no white 
“incurve” had before been seen to equal that, and 
its loveliness ran through all ranks of Chrysanthe¬ 
mum growers. Mr. W. Heal, the exhibitor, and the 
raiser, G. Rundle, Esq , of Devonport, were the 
theme of conversation through the year; and the 
following November at nearly all shows, fine speci¬ 
men plants were seen and admired by the British 
public over a wide area of the country; for it was 
these bush plants which formed the shows in those 
days, and their cultivation was carried to a great 
extent. Six plants as per engraving (p. 170) wasthegreat 
class in those days, and I must say, required more 
art and real skill than the cut flowers do at the 
present day. 
About the year 1854, the society called a meeting 
at the Rochester Castle, with the object of passing a 
law that unless there were 2 in. of stem clear above 
the soil and between the branches, they would be 
disqualified. This was to prevent two or more plants 
in a pot, and to show which were really the best 
cultivated. 
The South of London began to get jealous of 
North London becoming so famous that shows were 
held at Horne's Kensington Assembly Rooms. Four 
or five of the Stoke Newington and Stamford 
celebrities came and cleared the board ot the 
best prizes. I was an exhibitor and got 15/- for 
a large specimen plant. I think after this the great 
cattle show building at Islington was decided on, and 
the old society organised a large show there. By 
this time several good growers had sprung up South 
