THE GARDENING 
WORLD 
401 
June 3, 1005. 
Seakale, 
and How to Grow It. 
Owners of small as well as large gardens can 
iceessfully cultivate this delicious vegetable 
|ith but little expenditure or elaborate pre- 
t rations, and I am sure that were its culture 
tter understood by amateurs they would 
nd a place for one or two hundred crowns 
ich year. 
I propose to offer some remarks upon our 
ethods of cultivating and forcing, in the hope 
jiey may prove of use to intending growers, 
ind possibly of some interest to those who 
'ready grow the plants. I shall not dwell 
,pon the merits of Seakale except to say that 
o more delicate or profitable esculent is 
.•own, or one that better repays for any 
ouble bestowed upon it, whilst it comes into 
be when other choice vegetables are scarce. 
Propagating .—The required number of sets 
re obtained by selecting the stoutest thongs, 
- side roots, that are broken off the forcing 
•owns at lifting time in autumn. These 
iake the best of plants for next winter’s 
wring. Break them into lengths of 4 in., 
id make an oblique cut at the thin end to 
stinguish it from the other, which will pro- 
ice the crown. They are then bedded in 
enches 2 in. under the surface on a border 
cing east until planting time arrives. 
{Planting .—Almost any good garden soil 
its Seakale, provided it is not clayey and is 
ell drained. An open situation, well away 
om large trees, should be chosen, and the 
ound should be heavily manured and deeply 
lg or trenched during winter. By the end 
April or early in May the sets will have 
•oduced shoots, and should then be planted, 
is good practice to apply a liberal dressing 
soot and ashes from the burnt garden- 
fuse heap, then tread firmlv and rake level. 
ie rows should be 18 in. apart, and the sets 
bbled in 15 in. or 18 in. apart in the row. 
i poor soils a less distance apart will suffice, 
le top of the set, when dropped in the hole, 
ould be 2 in. below the surface. Before 
anting remove all the weakest shoots, leav- 
z two of the strongest. 
Summer Treatment .—This will consist of 
eing between the plants on fine days to 
stroy small weeds and to aerate the soil, 
d when the shoots are well above ground 
e weaker of the two left should be cut off 
th a knife. When well established give a 
isting of common salt round each plant, and 
ford a good watering with clear water a day 
two afterwards, unless rain falls in the 
terim. Occasional applications of farm¬ 
ed liquid manure or soot-water should be 
I yen during dry periods, in order to main- 
in that robust growth which is so essential 
the building up of strong plants for forcing. 
Lifting .—Early in November, or when the 
ves have decayed, is the time to lift. A 
$ging fork must be used for the operation, 
avoid severing the roots. Remove every 
rticle of root from the ground, or they will 
>w and be troublesome another year. Break 
all side roots close to the main stem, and 
er selecting the best for next year’s sets 
t'n the remainder. The forcing crowns 
»uld be placed on end in trenches or any 
re plot of ground and covered with litter 
'ing spells of severe weather; they can 
n be readily got out for forcing as re- 
red. 
'arcing. — For the earliest supplies at 
lstmas time and on into the new year the 
' wns should be forced in a mushroom-house 
a warm disused room in the dwelling, 
rd forcing must be avoided, or the heads 
1 be weak and insipid. To ensure fine 
CIS arid full flavour a few weeks’ complete 
rest after lifting is essential. Plunge the 
crowns in tan or old fairly dry mushroom-bed 
material nearly to the top, and maintain 
an equable temperature, accompanied with 
humidity, of about 55 to 60 deg. As the 
season advances less heat will be required; 
indeed, excellent produce can be cut from 
plants placed in old cupboards, boxes, or bins 
with lids. In all cases exclude all air and 
light. 
Blanching in the Open .—For the latest 
supply we depend solely upon those planted 
out in permanent positions. We plant these 
at the same time as the others in double lines 
near the garden walks for convenience in cut¬ 
ting. The rows are 15 in. apart, and the sets 
are inserted 12 in. in the row. When the foliage 
decays it is taken away, and in February 
12 in. of old mushroom-bed material is placed 
over the crowns. During April and on into 
May these produce large, clean, crisp heads 
that are of inestimable value. It can readily 
be seen when they are fit for cutting by the 
upheaval of the covering material; they are 
then cut within an inch or two of the root- 
stem with a sharp thistle spud. 
H. T. Martin. 
Stoneleigh Abbey Gardens. 
The Rhododendron as a Town 
Plant. 
Until comparatively recent times the Rho¬ 
dodendron was not generally considered a suit¬ 
able subject for the smoke-laden atmosphere 
of a town or city. It is now quite the oppo¬ 
site, and the Rhododendron is proving itself, 
where tried, to be one of the very best for 
the purpose. Here in Glasgow, a city of un¬ 
usual proportions of atmospheric contamina¬ 
tion, this beautiful class of plants appears to 
be as much at home as in the airy heights of 
the‘Himalayan mountains—at all events, as 
in the free air of the open country. In the 
most central parts of this city of smoke we 
note this plant flourish very much better than 
the unique smoke resister, Aucuba. 
The Aucuba, good as it assuredly is, in such 
circumstances loses much of its brilliancy in 
taking on a coating of soot to the very mani¬ 
fest interference of its coloration. It is a 
well-known thing that nothing looks dirtier 
when soiled than that which is nearest to 
purity of colour, especially to white. Apart 
from this fact the Rhododendron presents 
another feature which its rival has not got, 
namely, its inflorescence—an inflorescence no 
other garden plant we have can ap¬ 
proach in splendour. And here also the 
conditions of life do not in the least, 
apparently, interfere with this plant’s 
floral propensities. The foliage, too, from 
some cause or other never appears to 
suffer from deposits of soot. Whether this is 
to be accounted for in the abundant supply of 
rain peculiar to the western parts of Britain 
or not is not quite clear, but doubtless it 
materially helps. On the other hand. Laurels 
of any species, strange to sav, take badly with 
the town atmosphere, and in course pine 
away piecemeal with a species of canker which 
doubtless results from the cutting up and 
scorching they receive from winter and spring 
frosts. This, too, very probably is due to the 
humid atmosphere which in autumn stimu¬ 
lates the plants to a second growth that does 
not properly get that state of solidity before 
winter sets in to resist its frosts. D. C. 
Ivy growing on a house, so far from making 
the house damp, as is usually supposed, 
actually extracts all moisture from the walls, 
Pruning Lilacs. 
Those who would prune deciduous shrubs 
with discretion should closely study the habit 
of the plants, which may roughly be divided 
into two classes, namely, those which flower 
on last year’s wood and those which flower 
on the wood of the current season. The Lilacs 
belong to the class which flower on the wood 
made the previous year, so that it is impos¬ 
sible to prune hard during winter and expect 
flowers from them in April and May. The 
pruning should therefore be done immedi¬ 
ately after the flowers are past their best, so 
as to give the trees or bushes as long a season 
as possible to make fresh wood for next year’s 
flowering. 
Some cultivators are unfortunate in their 
selection of a suitable site to plant Lilacs, as 
they are often put in positions where they get 
very little direct sunlight during the year. 
Lilacs like the full sun, so that a sunny posi¬ 
tion well exposed to light and air should be 
selected for them in order to encourage the 
ripening of the wood. 
The next point that creates a difficulty is 
allowing suckers to come up from the base of 
the plant. This always robs a Lilac by in¬ 
ducing crowding. Lilacs always do best and 
look best when confined to a single stem. This 
is a matter which should be attended to at 
planting time and all suckers carefully re¬ 
moved. A few inches of stem above ground is 
quite sufficient if the grower desires a bush. 
The form of the bush desired should also be 
taken into consideration when the operator is 
about to prune—that is, the bush ought to be 
pruned into neat shape, which may be a 
rounded bush or a small pyramidal tree. 
That will give the clue for the first operations 
of the pruner. Then all those weak branches 
which merely serve to crowd the tree or bush 
should be cut away almost to the base so as to 
let the light and air play freely upon all parts 
of the shoots and leaves. All the remaining 
shoots should then be pruned back to a pair 
of wood buds, which will give rise to flower 
shoots during the summer. 
The length that should be left will depend 
upon whether the bush or tree has reached 
the limits of size allowed by the situation, and 
that will have to be left to the discretion of the 
operator. He shoidd always, however, prune 
back to give buds that are likely to give rise 
to strong and vigorous shoots. Bearing in 
mind the symmetry of the bush or tree and the 
size they are desired to be, the operator can 
then determine whether he should cut hard 
back or merely take off the points of the shoots 
to be left after the thinning out of the useless 
wood. 
The aids to success, then, are the thinning 
out of the useless and weak shoots to let light 
and air play upon the remainder, the keeping 
of the tree or bush to one stem, and the plant¬ 
ing in a sunny position. Good soil is always 
advantageous, provided it is well drained, but 
the Lilac will flower freely on very poor soil 
if it gets good attention otherwise. In very 
thin or sandy soils, if the leaves are weak and 
growth not proceeding favourably during dry 
weather in July, a good watering at intervals 
would be of great advantage. Towards 
autumn, when the wood should be ripening, 
no water would be necessary or even desired. 
Bon Accord. 
This is from a provincial paper:—Wanted, 
a respectable man, to look after a garden and 
milk a cow who has a good voice and is accus¬ 
tomed to sing in a choir. 
