October 10, 1903. 
THE OARDENINQ WORLD. 
£4 9 
READERS’ COMPETITION. 
For details of this competition and prize offered, please 
see page 851. Please post on Friday night. 
Violets for Winter. 
Now the time has come for lifting and planting this lovely 
and much appreciated winter-flowering plant into cold frames, 
I will endeavour to give, by the Editor’s permission, a few 
useful and timely hints on management and way to carry out 
the work satisfactorily. The first item to be considered is the 
position of the frames. These should face due south, so as to 
command every available ray of sunshine during the cold days 
of winter. 
Soil will need the next consideration. This should consist 
of good loam, leaf soil, and good sharp sand mixed well to¬ 
gether, and taken to the frames as required. Everything being 
now in readiness, preparation of the plants is the next important 
subject. The plants should be lifted with a good ball, using a 
garden fork for the operation ; then carefully remove all run¬ 
ners by breaking or pulling them clean away from the parent 
plant. This operation will need very careful handling; if a 
knife is used in merely cutting the offending runners back, more 
harm will result than good, as this method only produces and 
increases the number of runners. They must be taken out 
clean from the base with a heel and taken to the rubbish 
heap. 
The plants should now be taken carefully to their winter 
quarters, taking care not to disturb the ball of the plant, which 
should now be stood in n row along the back of the frames. =o 
as to allow'the tops of the foliage being about 9 in. from the 
roof glass. After the first row is placed in position, soil, which 
should be in readiness, must be made up to them, taking great 
care not to bury the crowns, or damp and mildew will be the 
consequence, and cause disappointment to the cultivator. The 
crowns should stand just nicely above the soil level. After the 
first row is completed, and soil made up to the plants, place 
row number two in position, and so on till the work is finished. 
The whole should now have a good watering, and lights left 
off till the weather becomes unsafe, which the grower will 
determine for himself. Great care will now be needed in airing 
and watering ; air should be admitted on all favourable oppor¬ 
tunities. Weather permitting, lights should be lifted off. It 
is essential to exclude frost. Violets mav be successfully 
grown in pots and boxes, placing these on shelves of fruit houses 
whi'ch are resting. Violets can then be fathered for button¬ 
holes. etc., when weather will not admit the frames being 
opened. 
Bv the Editor’s permission, I will endeavour in due seasonl 
to give cultural instructions, from the cutting onwards. 
Studley Castle Gardens. Wm. Jas. Penton. 
Suitable Plants for Table Decoration. 
A friend of mine once entered a competition at a large show 
for six table plants. His plants were all first-class, and he 
seemed certain of gaining the first prize, when, lo and behold, 
the judges disqualified his exhibit because he had included a 
Fem—a pretty, well-balanced plant of Pteris cretica albo-lineata 
in the regulation 5-in. pot. After that one feels inclined to 
ask the question, “What is a table plant?” Well, I maintain 
that a table plant is a well-balanced plant in a pot of 5 in. or 
less in diameter, whether a foliage or flowering plant or Fern. 
Many ladies prefer bowls of flowers all the summer and flower¬ 
ing plants through the winter. 
We are all acquainted with the stereotyped half-dozen table 
plants of our shows, which invariably include an Aralia 
Veitchii, Pandanus Veitchii, two Crotons, and generally two 
Dracaenas ; they, however, are hard to beat as foliage plants. 
The first named is a light and graceful plant; the second, with 
green and white foliage, is an ideal table plant. Some of the 
Dracaenas are very useful, such as Miss Glenrlinning, Mr. 
Freake, Salmonea, Aurantiaca, and Goldiana, which make nice, 
well-balanced plants. The Croton, when well grown to bring 
out the exquisite colouring, cannot be surpassed as a table 
plant, the variety is so great and the colouring so rich and tell¬ 
ing. Among the best, with narrow, graceful leaves, ma.v be 
mentioned Golden Ring fa superb variety), Golden Gem, War- 
renii, Picturata. Aigburth Gem, Her Majesty, Mrs. Dorman, 
Mrs. McLeod, Weismanii, and Hawkerii. 
A splendid table plant 's Panax Victoriae, with green and 
white leaves, making a light and elegant plant. Panax plumosa 
is a green variety, and makes a well-balanced plant. Evodia 
elegans is another neat green-leaved plant; Asparagus plumc- 
sus nanus, Chirita asparagoides, Maranta major, Maranta lutea. 
and Cyperus alternifolius variegatus are a few more suitable 
subjects-from the stove. Many of the Palms are useful in their 
early stage, the best being Cocos weideliana and plumosa, 
Kentia belmoreana and forsteriana, and some of the Caryotas, 
especially sobolifera. 
Some of the berry-bearing plants are very effective. Mention 
may be made of Ardisia crenulata, a scarlet-berried plant which 
retains its berries all the year round ; Solanum crispum, a well- 
known plant, and Calicarpa purpurea, with long slender 
branches laden with small purple berries in mid-winter. Among 
the hardier green-leaved plants that do well in a cool green¬ 
house may be mentioned Aralia Sieboldii, Auracaria excelsa, 
Dracaena congesta, D. haageana, D. rubra, D. Australis, Carex 
japonica variegata, Eulalia japonica, Grevillea robusta, and 
Abutilon Sawitzii, all making nice, evenly-balanced plants. 
One objection to Ferns in, say, 5-in. pots is that they are usually 
too dense for table work, though, of course, there are excep¬ 
tions, and the varieties of the Pteris cretica, Pteris tr-emula, 
Adiantum cuneatum, A. c. grandiceps, and A. c. gracillimuin 
make good shapely plants, and would look well on a lai-ge table. 
Where flowering plants are wanted during the winter months 
for table work nothing can be better than the winter flower¬ 
ing Begonias, which can be flowered in almost any size of pot. 
Some of the best are Gloire de Lorraine, the white variety, Cale¬ 
donia, Corallina, and Ideala, Acalypha liispida, Gardenia 
radicans, Euphorbia jacquiniaeflora, Poinsettia pulcherima, with 
its bright scarlet bracts, Ericas in variety, Aphelandra auran¬ 
tiaca, Roezlii, with a flower spike much resembling a miniature 
Lobelia cardinalis, Calanthe Veitchii, Clerodendron fallax, and 
nutans, the white variety, and Cattleya bowringiana. 
For low-growing plants, for use in saucers, which are often 
very useful and effective, some of the Selaginellas are 
well adapted, such as S. apoda, S. kraussiana, and 
S. k. aurea. Nertera depressa, a delightful little plant 
when covered with its scarlet berries, and Panicum. 
variegatum, as small plants in thumb-pots, can be made 
into miniature groups on a large table. The most suit¬ 
able subjects for the purpose are Crotons, which will need to 
be kept plunged in boxes well rip to the light, tops of well 
coloured Coleus, which root very quickly, Asparagus plumosus 
and A. Sprengerii seedlings, Pteris serrulata and cretica, 
Adiantum cuneatum seedlings, Panax Victoriae, Dracaenas in 
variety, and Caladium argyritis and C. erubescens minus. When 
Calanthes are used they should be flanked with Asparagus or 
Adiantum cuneatum to hide the bare stems, which combina¬ 
tion produces a charming effect as a centrepiece in a silver 
bowl. Albion. 
Drosera or Sundew as a Greenhouse Plant, 
It is only on rare occasions that one meets with the Sundew 
in greenhouses, though it is an interesting, ornamental, and 
useful plant. It is interesting on account of its strange method 
of obtaining nitrogenous food material by dissolving and ab¬ 
sorbing insects. It is ornamental because of the pretty rosette 
of glistening leaves and its racemes of white flowers. It is 
useful because it helps to rid the greenhouse of small insects 
which might injure other plants. The plants should be 
gathered in April. They are found growing among sphagnum 
moss in bogs, embedded in mu!, and the plants can be brought 
in in September, before they die down for the winter. When 
gathering, raise the plants, together with a quantity of the 
mud and sphagnum in which they are growing. Take also 
some fresh green moss to plant with, them. Place all the 
material gathered in an air-tight tin vessel to prevent drying 
up. The plants should be placed in rather shallow glass 
vessels, or in saucers, with the mud and moss attached. Plant 
the rest of the space in the vessel with the fresh moss gathered 
for the purpose. The whole must be kept moist, but the water¬ 
ing must take place over the rim and not from the top. 
Cover the plants with clear glass globes or large tumblers, to 
prevent evaporation. Stand the plants in a sunny corner of 
the greenhouse. Occasionally give them an airing by removing 
the covers. This process also gives an opportunity for feeding. 
It is preferable to allow the plants to get their own food in 
