io6 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
PRIZE LETTER COMPETITION. 
Readers are invited to contribute to this 
column short letters discussing any gar. 
dening subject. 
Letters should not exceed 150 -words each 
in length, and must be written on one 
side of the paper only. 
Two Prizes of 2s. 6d. each will be 
awarded each week for the two Letters 
which the Editor considers to be the best. 
How to Plant Horseradish. 
Instead of throwing away the crow'ns 
of this fine vegetable after use in the 
kitchen, they should be trimmed and re¬ 
planted, there being no better time for 
this than January or early February. 
There is, however, a right and a wrong 
way of planting. If cut squarely through, 
the root, instead of growing straight and 
thick, will probably split into several thin 
and useless growths. It should, there¬ 
fore, be cut wedge-shaped and carefully 
dibbed six to nine inches deep into some 
previously well-dug and manured corner 
of the kitchen garden, for it is the upward 
growth of the crown from the base that 
forms the’ straight and knotless sticks that 
are valued as an accompaniment to 
Britain’s national joint. 
Geo., A. Fisher. 
Enfield, N. 
Fuchsias. 
These greenhouse and hardy flowering 
shrubs are very useful, both for green¬ 
house decoration and grown as standards 
for bedding. They can be trained in 
almost any fashion, and if they are 
pinched frequently in spring and early 
summer they will make bushy growth. 
The compost should consist of two parts 
good fibrous loam, one part well decayed 
manure and leaf mould, with a liberal 
quantity of silver sand. Old plants 
should be potted in February or March; 
young ones as they require it. At this 
season of the year, they will require very 
little water, but it can be given freely 
during the months of May to October, 
when a little liquid or artificial manure 
can be applied with benefit. Fuchsias 
can be propagated by cuttings of young 
shoots inserted in sandy soil in a tem¬ 
perature of from 70 deg. to 80 deg. in 
February, or in a cool greenhouse in 
April. The best varieties are: Lucy 
Finnis and Champion of the World 
(doubles), Swanley Gem, Countess of 
Aberdeen, Rose of Castile, Loveliness, 
and Beauty of Trowbridge. 
Albert R. Gould. 
Welbeck Gardens, Worksop. 
Carnations: Simple Hints from Daily 
Practice. 
We hear many complaints that the seed 
of Carnations does not germinate well, 
and instead of large double flowers ex¬ 
pected. small and single ones are pro¬ 
duced. It has been proved by many ob¬ 
servations that the mistake, in most cases, 
lies in covering the seed of Carnations too 
deeply in the soil, and therefore it is pre¬ 
vented from germinating for want of air. 
In sowing Dianthus Caryophyllus, D.C. 
scrapei florens (remontant), and D. Mar¬ 
guerite it is the rule to sow in well- 
drained boxes or pots filled with sandy 
leaf or mellow sandy compost. The seed 
may be covered thinly with the same com¬ 
post, always keeping it moist, but not too 
wet, and shaded to protect it from strong 
sunshine. The Carnation develops 
numerous buds, and if you allow all of 
them to expand you will have small 
flowers only and many of them single. 
Remove, therefore, at an early stage, half 
or rather one-third of the buds. Though 
you get fewer flowers, they will be much 
larger tynd more of them double. 
S. Savoly. 
Too! for Making Furrows. 
The enclosed sketch is a practical sys¬ 
tem for drawing lines before planting a 
flower border. Procure a piece of board 
and bore holes at the distances at which 
the flowers are to be sown or planted in 
the border. Wooden pins are driven in 
these holes, so that the tool looks like a 
garden rake. Then draw the lines on the 
border. See that the latter is well forked 
over before drawing the lines. As an ex¬ 
ample of this, I have sketched a plan, 
showing the flowers I should plant and 
the distances at which they should be 
planted. Commencing at the front, they 
are Cerastium, Lobelia, tricolor Gera¬ 
nium, yellow Calceolaria, and Lobelia 
cardinalis. The distance from these, 
commencing at the front, are 6 in., 7 in., 
9 in., 9 in. and 12 in. The holes made in 
the iDoarcl should correspond with these 
distances, so that all of them will be made 
by dragging the board, pegs downward, 
along the border. These lines will, of 
course, be parallel. 
Thos. Norton Doherty. 
Pollokshaws 
Wallflowers. 
These plants, so associated with our 
childhood days, when no spring garden 
was complete without them, are now 
seldom seen except in a spindly condition, 
gaunt, leafless, and with just a scrap of 
bloom, and it would be wiser to leave 
them out altogether in our spring arrange¬ 
ment than grow them thus. I think the 
following hints may prove useful. Sow 
in April and transplant the seedlings 
twice if possible before placing them in 
their final position, in good soil in a 
sunny bed, and give each plant room. 
1 his transplanting prevents the formation 
of the. tap-root,, and encourages root 
fibres instead. Take up early in Octo¬ 
ber with a good ball of earth, not dis¬ 
turbing the roots at all. Plant rather 
deeply and very firmly (this is important), 
and I think there will be no cause for 
complaint. A south and sheltered posi¬ 
tion suits them best. 
Crawley. Isabel Cherry. 
How to Trim Tree Roots. 
In this, as in most other operations, 
there is a wrong and a right way. To 
February 15, 1908. 
take the wrong way first—and, by the 
way, it is one that has been pretty gener¬ 
ally advised in the past—that is, to cut the 
root so that when it is placed out in a 
slightly descending position, the cut sur¬ 
face rests level on the soil with the in¬ 
evitable result that after the clean-cut 
surface has callussed, the new roots strike 
out in a directly downward way, at right 
angles to' the cut surface, causing the tree 
to be unfruitful, and, if the subsoil is un¬ 
wholesome, probably to canker. The 
other and right way is to so cut the root 
so that when the tree is placed in the soil 
the cut surface is vertical or nearly so, 
thus causing the new roots to strike off 
in a horizontal direction close under the 
soil surface, where they can receive the 
benefit of sunlight and air, with the final 
result of a fruitful, healthy tree. 
Romford. Pan-Adam. 
Salvia Splendons from Seed. 
Those who have any difficulty in pro¬ 
curing a supply of cuttings of this attrac¬ 
tive autumn-flowering greenhouse Salvia 
can easily raise a stock from seed, as most 
of the leading seedsmen now list it at is. 
per packet. 
The seed should be sown in heat not 
later than early March. When fit to 
handle pot up the seedlings in “thumbs” 
and duly shift into 4 inch pots, using a 
light, rich soil. About the 1st of May 
transfer to a cold frame and gradually 
harden off. Pot into 7 inch pots in due 
course, using a compost the same as used 
for the Chrysanthemums, beside which 
they may be grown all the summer. 
Pinch twice and give occasional weak 
doses of liquid manure. House in Sep¬ 
tember before heavy, cold rains set in, 
and they will greatly help to brighten the 
greenhouse or conservatory till well into 
December. C. C. 
-- 
A Gardener’s Paradise. 
Perhaps there is no place that has a 
better claim to be considered the “gar¬ 
den of the world ” than Southern Cali¬ 
fornia. The inhabitants claim that it is 
“the land that Winter forgot,” and that 
the climate is absolute perfection. Its 
fertility may be judged of, says the 
“Field,” by the fact that European 
raisers of new Sweet Peas, etc., send their 
first seeds there to have the crop grown 
for them, and receive in return prodigious 
quantities at the cost of a few cents per 
pound, while an account to hand of a 
floral fete annually held on New Year's 
Day at Pasadena, near to Los Angeles, 
during the Californian winter, is such as 
to excite the English garden lover, and 
to make him reflect upon the many diffi¬ 
culties which beset him in this compara¬ 
tively inhospitable northern clime. We 
read of cars entirely decorated with Poin- 
settias, of horses caparisoned with As¬ 
paragus plumosus, masses of Bougain¬ 
villea, of decoration comprising such 
items as 4,000 Arum Lilies; while a battle 
of Roses formed a feature of this mid¬ 
winter Californian spectacle. The cli¬ 
mate and fertility of the Riviera cannot 
compare with that of California, and the 
fashion of wealthy English garden en¬ 
thusiasts possessing a garden on the 
Mediterranean will perhaps presently ex-, 
tend to the ownership of gardens there. 
