January 28, 1805. 
THE QARDEN/NQ WORLD, 
73 
Seakale Notes. 
The old plan of growing Seakale in clumps of three roots 
still exists in some quite pretentious gardens, but the practice 
of leaving them there for years and blanching the growth 
each spring under pots or barrels covered with long manure 
and leaves has nothing to recommend it. These coverings, 
while excluding light and air, give very little heat, and during 
cold snaps cannot be depended upon to keep up successional 
supplies of this useful winter vegetable. High cultivation is 
seldom possible under this method, and quality of produce is 
usually poor and often tainted by the odour of the covering 
material. 
There are many contrivances which can be utilised for the 
forcing of Seakale if a supply of strong two-year roots is at 
hand, and there is but little difficulty in 
obtaining these either from seeds or 
cuttings. 
Once a stock is acquired it becomes an 
easy matter to keep it up, as the annual 
lifting of the forcing roots will furnish a 
supply of cuttings which, properly planted 
and cared for, will in due season yield both 
forcing crowns and material for cuttings. 
Whether grown from seeds or cuttings, 
the roots should have two seasons’ growth 
before lifting for forcing purposes, and 
should be taken up in autumn before the 
advent of severe weather. All side-roots 
should be trimmed off for . cuttings, and 
forcing crowns laid thickly in some sheltered 
corner with the crowns just covered, and 
where protection can be quickly given in 
frosty weather. 
Cuttings should be cut square across at 
the thick or upper end, with the sloping cut 
at lower end or point, should be about 9 in. 
long, and any of less diameter than a good 
lead pencil should be rejected. 
Treated similarly to forcing roots until 
spring they should be planted out in the end 
of March in lines about 2 ft. apart and 
about the same distance between the cut¬ 
tings. The greater distance is none too 
much if ground can be spared, but if space 
is deficient they can be set a few inches 
closer each way. Ground for their recep¬ 
tion should be deeply dug and well manured, 
and if soil is of heavy, close texture, a dress¬ 
ing with sea-sand or other sharp, lightening 
material will improve it, Seakale being 
somewhat partial to a sandy root-run. 
The tops of the cuttings should be just 
covered with soil, and as growth appears 
all buds should be removed but one, and 
this the strongest. 
When foliage dies off in autumn a light 
mulch should be appplied, the shorter por¬ 
tions of which should be lightly forked in 
in spring. With good cultivation they 
will be fit for forcing the second winter after planting. 
Where a properly constructed Mushroom-house is at com¬ 
mand forcing can be carried out with the minimum of trouble, 
the roots simply requiring to be set out on the floor and some 
ligh,t warm soil shaken amongst them. Excellent results can 
be obtained, however, where such structures are not available, 
if a good depth of Oak or Beech leaves is at hand, and these 
are usually plentiful about the majority of gardens. 
An old garden frame or bottomless box about 2 ft. deep and 
any convenient length or breadth may be buried to the rim 
in a heap of leaves, and with 3 ft. or so of leaves still under¬ 
neath and sufficient warm coverings for the top, forcing can 
be successfully earned out. 
If leaves have been collected in a very wet state, the bottom 
heat may be rather strong in early winter, in which case more- 
soil must be used below the roots, but if leaves were fairly 
dry, tlie genial heat and moisture will give almost perfect 
conditions for forcing, provided light and air are properly ex¬ 
cluded. Gardeners, as a rule, are men of resource, and many 
other suitable comers will occur to those who require to pro¬ 
duce a supply of this vegetable, many or all of which, if given 
proper care and attention, will give better results for the 
labour expended than the old system of open ground forcing. 
__ G. F. 
Crocus hycmalis. 
As the above name indicates, this is the winter-flowering 
Crocus, and very appropriate it is, seeing that it has been in 
Cypeipedium Memoeia Jebninghamiae. (See p. 69.) 
bloom since the beginning of the present month and is still 
fresh. It is a native of Palestine, and like all other winter¬ 
flowering plants of a similar slender character, requires to be 
housed under glass in winter, though fire-heat is neither neces¬ 
sary nor desirable. Each conn sends up from one to four 
flowers, which are white, with a brownish-purple band on the 
base of the segments outside and running a little way down 
the tube. Curiously enough, in Crocuses colour seems to be 
confined to one side of the flower, so that on the other we may 
have a different hue. In this instance the colour on the inside 
is yellow, though confined to the base of the flower. Many 
Crocuses are variable in their markings, and when introduced 
from the wild state these variations may be seen together in 
the same pot. The brownish-purple band sometimes ' v ’"ves 
