January 25, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
55 
Address : The Editor, The Gardening 
World, 37 and 38, Shoe Lane, London, E.C. 
The Editor invites enquiries, which may 
cover any branch of gardening. Questions 
should be as brief as ■possible and written on 
one side of the paper only; a separate sheet 
of paper should be used for each^question, 
keplies cannot be sent by post. 
Garden Plans .—Gardeners who would make 
the best use of this column are invited to 
prepare and forward to us a rough outline 
drawing or plan-of their gardens, indicating 
the position of beds and lawns, the charac¬ 
ter and height of the fence or wall', posi¬ 
tion of vegetable garden, orchard, etc. The 
north side of the garden and any over¬ 
shadowing buildings should be denoted. It 
should also be stated whether the garden is 
flat or on a declivity, and all large trees 
should be marked. Particulars of the na¬ 
ture of the soil will also help us to give 
satisfactory replies. When such plans are 
received they will be carefully filed, with 
the name and address of the sender, and 
will be consulted by the Editor whenever an 
enquiry is sent. 
spring, in the meantime keeping them in cold 
frames. They will sooner get to flowering 
size by being planted out in an open, sunny 
situation than in the small compass of pots. 
On the other hand, if your plants are Ro¬ 
man Hyacinths you might have said so, as 
that would have enabled us to answer more 
definitely. You also say that the pots are 
plunged in ashes, but whether those ashes 
are in frames or outside we are unable to 
say. If the bulbs are Roman Hyacinths of 
flowering size, you should remove the ashes 
from them and place them in a cold frame or 
greenhouse, so that they can gradually de¬ 
velop their flowers and foliage. If you have 
only a cold frame very little water will be 
necessary, unless the weather proves windy, 
but in a greenhouse or in a sunny window 
they will require regular attention in the 
matter of watering, as the soil will be li.'> v • 
to get dry. Keep the plants as near the 
glass as possible to prevent them from get¬ 
ting drawn, and the flowers will make their 
appearance in due course. Indeed, if you 
had placed some of them in a greenhouse, 
or in a window, as soon as the leaves came 
through the soil, they would have nearly 
reached the flowering state by this time, even 
in a window or greenhouse. 
STOVE AND GREENHOUSE. 
2533. Raising: Coleus from Seed. 
Is it possible to raise Coleus from seed, 
when I have only two cold frames, but no 
greenhouse? I want to grow some in pots 
and plant some out in a bed, but am just a 
little doubtful if I should succeed. (F. 
Kelk, Gloucestershire.) 
Your only difficulty would be in the matter 
of temperature, and to overcome that diffi¬ 
culty you should make up a hotbed early 
in March and place one of the frames over 
it. Put 3in. or 4m. of soil on the top of 
the manure, so that you can stand the pots 
on the top of that, or plunge them in the 
soil if more heat is necessary. At first the 
temperature will be rather high, but when it 
has subsided to about 70 degs. it will be 
safe enough to stand the pots on the top of 
the soil then. Use light sandy soil and 
leaf mould for filling the pots. When the 
seedlings have made a couple of rough leaves 
you can pot them off singly into thumb pots, 
or prick them into a box about 2in. apart each 
way. This, of course, would be less trouble 
than potting them, but those you intend 
growing in pots should be potted off either 
at first or after they have made an inch or 
two of growth. The pots or boxes can be 
returned to the frame after the operation, and 
if the heat of the bed is declining too much 
before the advent of fine weather you can 
plunge the pots in the soil, so as to get them 
closer to the manure. Those which you intend 
planting out of doors should be placed in 
an unheated frame towards the end of April 
or the beginning of May. Towards the 
end of May harden them off by giving more 
ventilation, leaving the sash off over night. 
Usually it will be safe to stand the Coleus 
out at the beginning of June, but if cold 
weather prevails delay it till it settles. 
2534. Tall Eucalyptus. 
Will you kindly give me instructions what 
to do with Eucalvptus or Blue Gum, which 
has grown too tall for my greenhouse, and 
I do not care to throw it away? Can I take 
cuttings of it, and when? (R. C. W., 
Lancs.) 
You can either take off the top of vour 
plant some little distance below the roof, or 
you can train the top along the angle or 
ridge of the roof, and thereby preserve it 
for some years longer. If you take off the 
top at all it should be done some distance 
below the roof, which will allow the summer 
shoots to be made before coming in contact 
with the glass again. We have never seen 
cuttings of Eucalyptus struck, and feel cer¬ 
tain they would take a longer time to root 
than would be worth the trouble. The best 
plan will be to get some seeds and .sow them 
about the middle of March in light, sandy 
soil, placing the pot on a hotbed, unless you 
have a warm greenhouse to enable germina¬ 
tion to take place. As soon as germination 
is completed the plants may be potted off 
singly in thumb pots and kept for a little 
while longer in the same warm house. After 
this they may be hardened off in a cool 
greenhouse or cold frame. 
COLD FRAMES. 
2535. Taking Cuttings of Euonymus. 
How soon can I take cuttings of varie¬ 
gated Euonymus, and how should I treat 
them? (R. Wingfield, Hants.) 
At this season of the year Euonymus cut¬ 
tings take sorpe time to root, and you should 
aim at getting them well advanced before 
hot weather comes in, otherwise it causes 
the leaves to drop considerably. You can, 
therefore, take cuttings some time in Feb¬ 
ruary when the weather is mild. Make up 
a light compost consisting chiefly of loam 
and sand, with some leaf mould. Take cut¬ 
tings of the tips of the shoots about 4m. to 
6in. long; cflt them immediately below a 
joint, and remove one or two pairs of leaves, 
so that you can insert the cuttings rather 
deeply in the soil. Make the cuttings quite 
firm, Water them to settle the soil about the 
cuttings, and stand them in a cold frame. 
Here they will gradually callus over and 
then commence rooting, so that they shouM 
be in a position to commence growing again 
early in summer. Y’ou can also put in cut¬ 
tings almost at any time during the sum¬ 
mer, but after the hot weather sets in you 
will have to cover the pots of cuttings with 
hand-lights or bell-glasses, otherwise the 
leaves will verv quickly fall, and many of 
the cuttings mav perish for lack of 
Strength owing to this loss. Attention should 
be given to watering. Keep them just moist 
without being sodden. 
2536. Young Hyacinths. 
I have some pots of Hyacinths which have 
now made a little top growth. Please tell 
me how to proceed. They are miniatures, 
and have been plunged in ashes since they 
were potted. (W. J. S., Essex.) 
We presume that bv miniatures you mean 
small bulbs, which may or may not be large 
enough to give flowers, and that you intend 
to grow them to flowering size. If that is 
the case we should advise you to plant them 
out in well dug and manured soil in the 
ROOM PLANTS. 
2537. Cacti in a Window. 
I intend growing a few Cactus plants in 
a window, or I mean to try anyway. Would 
they grow in a window where a fire is kept 
on all day? Do they like shade or bright 
light? I have seen one named the Rat’s 
Tail Cactus. Would that succeed in a win¬ 
dow, or would it be too cold? (Geo. Hay, 
Forfarshire.) 
A very large number of Cactaceous plants 
may be grown in a window in the small 
state. With a selection of dwarf and slow 
growing ones you can even get them to 
flower there, and the Rat’s Tail Cactus 
should also flower there if properly exposed 
to sunlight. Some of the varieties of 
Epiphyllum truncatum may be grown there; 
also, species of Mamillaria, Cereus peru¬ 
viana, Phyllocactus and various others. 
Very few of them are, of course, hardy, and 
it would be necessary to keep out frost dur¬ 
ing winter or remove the plants from the 
window over night during frosty times. The 
plants do not like shade. The more sun¬ 
shine you can let them have the better, ex¬ 
cept, of course, when in flower, when the 
blooms would last longer bv standing the 
pots in some part of the room away from 
the sunlight, but in growing them, however, 
and preparing them for bloom, they cannot 
have too much sunshine. Y T ou can make up 
a compost for them consisting of fibrous 
loam two parts and one part each of peat 
or leaf mould and sand. Some crocks broken 
fine or soft bricks chopped up and mixed 
with the soil will keep the compost open and 
the drainage clear. They should be kept 
rather dry in winter, but will enjoy more 
water in summer. 
2538. Treatment of Campanula 
isophylla. 
I have some plants of Campanula 
isophylla, which have been kept through the 
winter in a window which is a little shaded. 
They are rather straggling, which I pre¬ 
sume is due to the bad light. There are 
some more shoots coming up from the base. 
Will you kindlv advise me the best, way to 
deal with them? (W. J. S., Essex.) 
Towards the end of March or the begin¬ 
ning of April, when the plant is about to 
recommence growing, you can cut awav those 
straggling old shoots so that the whole plant 
win b° made up of voune growths whirVi 
will develop and flower during summer. If 
vou think the plant is too large for the pot 
it i9 in, re-pot it after cutting down the old 
