•20 
THE GARDENING 
WORLD . 
•T inu irv 2. 1904. 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 
The Editor invites enquiries for reply in this column. These 
enquiries may cover any branch of gardening. Questions should he 
put as briefly as possible, and written on one side of the paper only ; 
a separate sheet of paper should be used for each question. 
Renders nre nlso invited to give their fellow gardeners the benefit 
o* their experience by sending supplementary replies. 
Replies ennnot be sent by post, even if a stamped , addressed 
envelope is enclosed , and the return of specimens cannot be undertaken. 
Anonymous communicntions are treated in the usual editorial manner , 
Address letters: The Editor, ‘‘The Gnrdening World, 37 nnd 
38, Shoe Lane, London, E.C. 
Best New Zealand Paper for Advertising. (Pil.) 
There are no gardening papers in New Zealand, but there 
are several very good lay papers which might meet your require¬ 
ments. We give three of the more important, so that you can, 
select any or all of them. A very important one is the i^ytte 
ton Times,” published at Christchurch, New Zealand. The 
“New Zealand Herald” is published at Auckland, New Zea¬ 
land, and the “ Otago Daily Times ” is published at Dunedin, 
.New Zealand. 
Circular Inviting Articles. (E. D.) 
We do not know to what you refer when you speak of a 
circular or notice inviting articles ; but there must be a mistake 
somewhere, as that is not our usual way, nor our custom at 
all. We think you must have referred to the Readers Comueti- 
tion, the particulars of which you will find every week in die 
middle of the paper. 
Report of Mutual Improvement Society. (J. Alexander.) 
We should be pleased to have a short account of the papers 
read at the society, provided you merely pick out the most 
essential features of the papers read, such as would impart 
useful and interesting information to our readers. The space 
at our command never permits of a lengthy account, but if 
you can comply with the above instructions, we should be 
pleased to receive the monthly report. 
Yellow Austrian Brier not Flowering. (G. B.) 
You must have been pruning this Rose in a similar fashion 
to that given to a hybrid perpetual for exhibition purposes. 
The fact is, the yellow Brier will flower in most parts of Britain 
if simply planted out in suitable situations, and not pruned 
at all in the proper sense of the term. What you might do 
would be to cut down the older branches or shoots, so as to* 
make room for the younger branches, which should not be 
pruned, nor even shortened, as this Rose flowers on short side 
shoots from branches, it may be, of some duration. To cut these 
back would prevent the bush from flowering anywhere. Ito 
should be planted in a well-exposed or sunny position, to ensure 
the ripening of the wood, 
Storing Potatos in Earth Pits. (W. W.) 
Some advocate the digging out of a rather deep pit or trench 
in which to store Potatos, but this we consider quite a mistake. 
Three or four inches is quite sufficient, as you can then make 
provision for draining away the surface water, which would 
otherwise be liable to sink into the pit amongst the Potatos, if 
cut down to below the level of the ground. 
Brown Rings on Apples. (A. D. AndersoD.) 
These are due to a fungus named Monilia fructigena. If 
the fruits were attacked with the fungus while still upon the 
tree, as most likely they were, the disease would continue even 
while stored in the fruit-room, and bad fruits would affect 
others by means of the spores, which ripen and get carried 
about from one to the other by various means. You should keep 
a good look-out for the disease during the autumn, when the 
fruits are advancing to maturity, and any diseased fruits you 
may find should be gathered at once and burnt in the stoke¬ 
hole furnace, to prevent the spores being carried to other fruits. 
The trees at the same time may be sprayed with sulphate of iron 
dissolved in water, at the rate of 5 lbs. of the sulphate of iron 
to 6 gallons of water. 
Overgrown Box for Edging. (W. M.) 
We are aware that in some gardens the Box edgings are very 
liable to die out, especially the dwarf box (Buxus sempervirens 
suffrutieosa) used for edgings. When this is the case you should 
always have in reserve a quantity of box which has been layered 
or laid in trenches in some reserved part of the garden, covering 
them rather deeply with soil, so that the branches may root 
close up to the leaves ; then, when you wish to relay the Box 
edging you will have no difficulty in breaking up these old 
bustles in such a way that each shoot will already have some 
young roots upon it. In very heavy clay soils it is sometimes 
necessary to use the ordinary tree Box for edgings, as it is 
stronger in constitution, and not so liable to die out. 
Planting Tea Roses. 
Some time ago severe weather was threatening, and we 
covered up some of the Tea- Roses with soil at the base and tied 
the branches together, after which we tied bracken round them. 
Should this covering up be left on all the winter ?—(J. Walker.) 
The soil at the base of the stems may be left as it is until well 
into March, but the bracken should only be tied round them in 
severe weather. To leave it on at all times would make the 
Roses more tender than they otherwise would be. The branches 
might be left tied up as they are, and the bracken left in some 
convenient position ready to be tied on in the event of severe 
weather, but not at any other time. You will find the bracken 
much more serviceable in spring when the days are longer and 
the sun comes out brightly, it may be after a frosty night. The 
sun would then do more damage than the frost if the shoots were 
exposed to it, especially early in the day while still in a frozen 
condition. 
Plants and Gas. 
Could you recommend any particular Palms that will stand 
the effect of gas in dwelling rooms better than those usuallv em¬ 
ployed ?—(T. B. S.) 
There are many Palms that will stand a moderate amount of 
gas and a dry atmosphere, but some are more suitable in this 
respect than others. For instance, Cocos weddeliana will stand 
better than Geonoma gracilis. Kentias will stand a fair amount 
of bad usage, but we should recommend that no one of them 
should be left in the dwelling house for any great length of time 
if you can avoid it. A better plan would be to have a sufficient 
stock of them to allow them to be removed at intervals of a few 
days, and replaced by others. The green and variegated Aspi¬ 
distras, although not Palms, may be utilised for the same pur¬ 
pose, and stand more gas than perhaps any Palm. 
Grasses for a Wet Place. 
Could you name any Grasses that will grow in a spongy wet 
place near the edge of a pond ? I should like them to be of 
some considerable size.— (Aquatic). 
There are two British Grasses which grow in such places, and 
which mig|ht very well be employed for planting in any place 
where moisture is sufficient, and they even grow actually in the 
water in many instances. These are Phalaris arundinacea and 
Phragmites communis. There are variegated varieties of both of 
them, the first named being P. a. variegata, and the other P. c. 
foliis variegatis. Some of the sedges should also prove useful, 
including Carex pendula, C. paniculata (the Tussock Sedge), and 
Scirpus sylvaticus. All the above are of vigorous growth, and 
the variegation of the two varieties of grasses should afford 
some variety. 
Chrysanthemum Cuttings. 
Are bush grown Chrysanthemums better than those grown for 
big blooms for taking cuttings from?-—(G. R. W. ). 
It all depends upon whether you have been feeding the plant 
highly or not. If the bush plants have got little else but clear 
water we should consider them of much better constitution, and 
therefore more suitable for supplying healthy cuttings for next 
year’s stock, than if they had been highly fed. This, then, is a 
matter which should rest with you, as you must be aware as to 
the amount of feeding which you have given them. 
Basic Slag for Lawns. 
The lawns here are rather patchy in places, and I have been 
recommended to use basic slag. Will it have any good effect ? 
(C. E.). . - 
Good basic slag contains about 14 to 18 per cent, of phosphoric 
acid, and where lime is deficient in the soil it is better than 
superphosphate for such a purpose. We should imagine, how¬ 
ever, that the turf lias been very badly used, or possibly the 
soil was badly prepared when the lawn, was originally made. If 
the soil consisted of different kinds of material it would be 
of different degrees of fertility, and possibly where the grass 
lias died out it may be in very bad portions of soil. These are 
matters for your own determination, but we should imagine 
that a good top-dressing of old potting bench soil, enriched 
with some weill-decayed farmyard manure, would be of material 
assistance, as it would improve the staple of the soil itself, and 
serve to keep the roots of the grass more moist in summer. That 
need not prevent you from using the basic slag, as it will have 
a fertilising value of its own in addition to the manure applied. 
It would, in fact, contain lime and phosphoric acid, both of which 
are valuable fertilisers for grass. The soil and the farmyard 
