June 17, 1905. 
The Editor invites enquiries, which may cover 
<iy branch of gardening. Questions should be as 
■ief as possible and written on one side of the paper 
ily; a separate sheet of paper should be used for 
2 ch question. Readers are invited to give their 
\llow gardeners the benefit of their experience by send- 
rig supplementary replies—see Prize Competitions. 
Replies cannot be sent by post. 
Garden Plans.— Gardeners who would make the 
2 st use of this column are invited to prepare and 
rrward to us a rough outline drawing or plan of their 
ardens, indicating the position of beds and lawn; 
the character and height of the fence or wall ; position 
f vegetable garden, orchard, etc. The north side of 
he garden and any overshadowing buildings should 
•e denoted. It should also be slated whether the 
'arden is fiat or on a declivity, and all large trees 
hould be marked- Particulars of the nature of the 
oil will also help us to give satisfactory replies. 
Vhen such plans are received they mil be carefully 
lied, with the name and address of the sender, and 
vill be consulted by the Editor whenever an enquiry 
■s sent. 
Planting Clematis Montana, 
Planting Clematis montana. 
Copy of The Gardening World received. I 
find it very interesting as I have a large garden 
and sometimes am at a loss to know what to put 
in to get a nice effect. The back of my house 
is very bare, and I see you illustrate lovely 
climber (Clematis montana). Will you kindly 
let me know in your next issue if I can plant now, 
or when, and the best place to obtain that 
particular plant. (J. J. Page.) 
The above climber would be a very suitable 
subject to train over the walls of your house, pro¬ 
vided the situation is such that the plant will get 
a fair amount of sunshine during the day, in 
order to ripen the wood and make it flower 
freely. The aspect facing the sun at noon 
would give the greatest number of advantages, 
but it may also be planted facing almost any 
other aspect except the north, provided always the 
situation is not shaded by trees or houses. It 
is a Himalayan plant, and requires sunshine to 
make it flower freely. It is as described very 
plentiful on cottages and villas in the south, and 
will, no doubt, succeed with you provided you 
take out a large hole and fill it with some good soil 
to give the climber a start. You can plant it 
now by securing specimens from any good nursery¬ 
man, because if he does not actually grow it 
he can procure it for you. It would be too late 
to plant it if dug up out of the ground, but those 
who keep a stock in pots do so with the object 
of planting it any reasonable time of the year. 
It is hardly our province to recommend any par¬ 
ticular nurseryman, but no doubt you can 
glean from our advertising pages who are the 
growers of trees, and we have no doubt you will 
be well served. 
Size of Stands for Fancy Pansies. 
Would you be good enough to state through 
your valuable journal what is, the regulation size 
for the boards for staging fancy Pansies? (G. E. 
Sadler.) 
The blooms of this race of Pansies are amongst 
the largest we have, so that it would be safe to 
make the board Min. long and at least, 12in. wide 
from front to back. Arrange the holes at equal 
distances apart for three rows of four blooms each. 
That would give you a board for a dozen blooms, 
which is a very common number. For a half- 
dozen blooms it may be convenient to have boxes 
ot half size so as to prevent the waste of space 
on the staging. 
TUB GARDENING WORLD . 
Gooseberry Leaves Destroyed by Cater, 
pillars. 
I understand that Hellebore powder is a good 
remedy for Gooseberry caterpillars, but that it is 
poisonous. Some of our bushes have had the 
leaves badly destroyed. What remedy would you 
suggest, as we do not like the idea of poison on 
the berries? (P. Smith.) 
Very few gardeners care to use Hellebore powder 
on Gooseberry bushes, especially when green 
berries are gathered in May or June for kitchen 
purposes, in that case they take the trouble of 
setting on men or boys to go carefully over the 
bushes where there is any evidence of caterpillar 
and picking them off. We suspect that the cater¬ 
pillars you mention are those of the Gooseberry 
and Currant Sawfly rather than the Gooseberry 
caterpillar. Caterpillars of the latter have a 
looping motion in their method of walking, and 
being of large size they are easily distinguished. 
The Gooseberry Sawfly is usually a much greater 
pest on account of its greater numbers. It may 
be recognised by the bluish colour of the cater¬ 
pillars, with black spots and a black head. In 
either case, although it would take a little longer 
your best plan now would be to hand-pick the 
bushes. If done at a much earlier period it would 
have taken much less time, when the small cater¬ 
pillars were crowded together in groups on a few 
leaves. After the berries are all gathered it 
would then be safe enough to use Hellebore powder 
if any caterpillars should make their appearance. 
Wallflowers Unsatisfactory. 
This year our Wallflowers were not nearly so 
fine as last year. Lately I pulled up a plant, 
and the roots were very much swollen. Could this 
have been the cause of the poor plants? (H. 
Redding.) 
The> swollen roots were no doubt due to the 
disease which so much affects all the Cabbage 
family, as well as Turnips. That is the anbury 
disease (Plasmodiophora Brassicae), more often 
spoken of by gardeners as the club-root disease. 
The same means of prevention and remedy as 
taken for Cabbages should be carried out here. 
Wallflowers should not be sown on the same soil 
as they were grown on last year, nor on any soil 
which was occupied by any of the Cabbage tribe 
for some years previously. These plants, like 
Cabbages, veiy often get affected with the disease 
in the seed bed and carry the malady with them 
to where they may be planted out. The plan of 
sowing seeds in the same beds year after year may 
be a matter of convenience, but it is a very 
thoughtless one where club-root is at all prevalent. 
The only thing you can do now is to dig up all 
the Wallflowers carefully so as to remove the 
club-roots from the ground, and have them de¬ 
stroyed—burning is the most effective means. 
The soil in which they were reared and flowered 
should be trenched in the autumn, and a good 
dressing of gas lime given so as to destroy the 
spores of the fungus still in the soil. These are 
to be regarded as means of prevention, for there 
is no remedy after the plants have been attacked. 
Proportions for Using Liquid Manure. 
Could you tell me what would be a safe rule 
for diluting liquid manure for Pelargoniums, 
Fuchsias, Hydrangeas, and plants like that, which 
require liquid manure made from cow dung. 
(C. R.) 
Liquid manure is a very variable quantity when 
obtained from a tank into which water can run at 
any time during rain. Allowances must always be 
made for this. The liquid would also vary if 
made artificially, as it would depend upon the 
quantity and quality of the manure you placed 
in the tank, and the proportion of water. You 
can easily regulate it, however, by pouring water 
into it until it has simply a pale brown appear 
ance when the hand is placed in it. If the liquid 
was so dark that you could not see any depth in 
it. usually it would prove too strong for the 
plants, but you can always dilute it until of 
a pale brown colour. On the other hand, when 
the soil in the pots is well filled with roots, such 
strong-growing plants as you mention can take 
it relatively strong, at least twice a week, with¬ 
out taking any harm. If the plants are very 
501 
dry we should not recommend the use of strong 
liquid manure, but to moisten the soil with 
clear water some time previously. 
Red Leaves of Almonds. 
A fine Almond tree in our front garden bloomed 
in March and April, and since then some strange 
leaves have appeared on them. They are quite, 
red and look like fruits or flowers at a short 
distance. Will they do any harm to the tree? 
(W. Bentley.) 
The red leaves mentioned owe this colour to 
the fact that they have been attacked by a fungus 
such as that which produces Peach blister. The 
fungus is named Exoascus. As a rule these red 
leaves are only moderately numerous upon any 
given tree planted as a standard in the open. 
The fungus does not spread so rapidly on trees 
grown in this manner as in the case of Peaches 
against a wall. If you object to the appear¬ 
ance of the leaves, or fear the spread of the 
fungus to such an extent as to do any harm, you 
can cut them off and burn them. It will even 
be more effective if a small portion of shoot is 
cut off with the leaves as the fungus lives in the 
interior of the shoots during winter, and appears 
again in spring. 
Vine Leaves and Mildew. 
We had a bad attack of mildew soon after this 
time last year, and we should like to keep it in 
check if it commences again this summer. Any in¬ 
formation that would help us would be grate¬ 
fully received through your correspondence 
column. (H. Fletcher.) 
Half the battle in checking or eradicating mil¬ 
dew is to commence attacking it at its very 
first appearance. Whenever you see a speck of 
mildew on a leaf you should dust it with flowers 
of sulphur. That will immediately check the 
mildew with which it comes in contact. Each 
little patch of the enemy is really the centre of 
infection, and it only needs a moist state of the 
weather or a damp atmosphere in the house, with 
draughts, to cause a rapid spread of the mildew 
in every part of the house. With the object of 
making the sulphur hang on it might be advisable 
to spray the foliage, but as a rule, unless the 
house is draughty, the mere dusting of the leaves 
is sufficient. Another easy method is to make 
up a thin paint of flowers of sulphur and water 
and to paint the hot-water pipes with this. 
Strawberries for Forcing. 
We have a moderate amount of convenience 
for forcing Strawberries, and intend to try some 
of them on shelves close to the glass. What is 
the best plan of preparing the plants in their 
early stages ? (P. G.) 
The first operation is to fill soriie 60-size pots 
with good fibrous loam, sink them into the soil 
amongst the herbaceous plants, and peg down one 
runner on the top of each pot. Some gardeners 
use small square pieces of turf for this purpose, 
but that method is usually intended for making 
plantations in the open air, so that pots will 
prove altogether more suitable for plants in¬ 
tended to be grown for forcing. As soon as the 
soil'in the pots is well filled with roots, the run¬ 
ners may be severed from the parent plants, and 
the pots carried to a shady place for a few days, 
after which they may be stood upon ashes in 
a sunny position. When the pots are well filled 
with roots the plants should be repotted into 
6 in. pots, in which they may be fruited. After 
the operation of potting, a good watering should 
be given immediately to settle the soil. Stand 
the pots fairly close together upon a bed of ashes 
in an open situation, well exposed to light and air 
and here the plants will make good crowns and 
amply fill the pots with roots. Here they may 
stand until the end of September, when some 
means may be taken for the protection of the 
pots against frost until required for forcing. Some 
growers merely plunge them in ashes, others 
make a stack of them in the open, embedding 
the pots in ashes and turning.them on their sides 
so as to prevent rain from soaking the roots. 
Another good, safe plan is to put them in a cold 
frame, where the rain will be prevented from 
entering the pots. They should be well ventilated 
