THE GARDENING WORLD 
February 15, 1908. 
114 
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. 
Replies 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. 
STOVE AND GREENHOUSE. 
2593. Seedling * 1 Geraniums Rotted. 
I sowed Zonal Geranium seed in my 
greenhouse at the beginning of last month, 
and placed the seed pan in a temperature of 
60 degs. My greenhouse is heated by an oil 
“ Western ” boiler. The seeds germinated 
well, thirty to thirty-five coming up. On 
examining the seedlings one morning I 
noticed that some of the leaves had fallen 
off, the stalks had evidently been eaten 
through by some insect. 1 immediately 
lightly dusted the seedlings with lime. The 
leaves ceased to drop off, but as the seed¬ 
lings did not appear to be doing well I 
watered them with a very fine rose, and then 
the following day transferred them around 
the edges of flower pots, watering them after 
planting. All the seedlings excepting five 
have withered away. They appear on ex¬ 
amination to have rotted. Can you tell me 
the reason of this, as I nursed them with 
every care. (Leslie Buchanan, Berks.) 
The seeds of many things, especially 
those of a succulent nature, require to be 
■very carefully dealt with in their early 
stages at this period of the year, when the 
absence of sunshine and temperature are so 
much against them. Evidently the seed¬ 
lings rotted away as a result of watering 
and shifting. The water probably made the 
soil too cold, and this checked them, but pro¬ 
bably, also, it encouraged the growth of a 
fungus named Pythium, which is responsi¬ 
ble for the malady known as damping off. 
If we had been raising Geraniums at that 
early period, we should have taken means to 
protect them from insects and at the 
same time refrain from watering them 
until the seedlings had got a little 
more stocky and at least produced one 
rough leaf. The chief danger lies just when 
the cotyledons or seed leaves have developed 
and their resources are exhausted. They re¬ 
quire to be dealt with very carefully then 
until they have made a good start at shift¬ 
ing for themselves by making fresh matter 
under the influence of sunlight. A very 
good way to protect seedlings that are a bait 
to slugs and woodl.ioe is to fill a saucer with 
water, then turn a small pot upside down 
in the middle of this saucer, and stand the 
pot of seedlings on the top of the inverted 
one. This will prevent all crawling and 
creeping insects from getting at the seed¬ 
lings. Lime applied to these delicate seed¬ 
lings was also rather risky, especially if the 
lime was in any way fresh. If the five seed¬ 
lings are still alive, we should advise you to 
be very careful of the watering pot until they 
have made some growth. It would be better 
to keep them rather on. the dry side than to 
attempt keeping them alive by means of 
water. Water that is used for watering 
newly potted off seedlings or plants should 
be at least as warm as the atmosphere of the 
house to prevent giving a check to seedlings. 
Even then, unless the pots are plunged in a 
hotbed it is necessary to exercise great care 
at this season of the year. 
2594. Potting and Planting Out 
Gladioli. 
Will you please inform me how to treat 
the following (1) for potting in greenhouse 
and (2) planting out :—Gladioli Blushing 
Bride, Ciardinalis elegans, Colvillei alba, 
and Ne Plus Ultra. I am not certain if 
Spiraea can be planted out, but please give 
me directions for doing so if it is suitable, 
and also for potting under glass. (Be¬ 
ginner, Hereford.) 
The Gladioli you mention all belong to 
the early flowering^ section, and besides, 
being dwarf, are well suited for cultivation 
in pots. Use 5im or 6in. pots, placing five 
corms in each. Use a compost of two parts 
of loam, one part of leaf mould, and quar¬ 
ter part of sand. The bulbs should be about 
2in. below the surface at least, because the 
young ones are made on the top of the old. 
If you had done this in October and stood 
the pots in a cold frame they would have 
made roots by this time and very quickly 
have commenced to prepare for flowering. 
As it is, you can stand them in the green¬ 
house, but do not give any water until the 
soil is getting quite dry. When they com¬ 
mence growing the}'" would require more 
water, and must from that time be kept 
moist, but not sodden by too frequent water¬ 
ing. Wait until the soil shows signs of be¬ 
coming brown and dry, then fill the pots so 
that all parts of the soil will be moistened. 
After the corms commence throwing up 
leaves it will be a sign that they have been 
making roots, and if you require them to 
come along as fast as possible you can then 
place the pots in a temperature of 53 degs. 
Only some of the pots need be put in heat at 
the same time, because you can keep up a 
succession by bringing them on at intervals 
of two or three weeks. The plant popularly 
named Spiraea is more properly Astilbe ja- 
ponica, and is perfectly hardy. The Gladioli 
and the Spiraea you can plant in the open 
ground whenever you find it in a suitable 
condition. Plant in well prepared soil that 
has been manured for some previous crop, 
and if you cannot be sure about that you can 
assist the Gladioli by placing a covering of 
horse droppings over the surface, which will 
also serve to keep out frost until all dan¬ 
ger of injury passes away. The corms of 
these Gladioli should be placed about 4m. 
below the surface. Use a rather heavy com¬ 
post for potting the Spiraea, adding some 
well-decayed cow manure to the compost 
mentioned for Gladioli. 
2595. Propagating Salvia praecox. 
I have a Salvia praecox which has been 
in bloom over three months with fourteen 
spikes of bloom’, and is now getting done. 
How can I obtain the seed, and what treat¬ 
ment does if require to secure cuttings later? 
(Puzzled, Hants.) 
There are three species named S. praecox, 
but all of them are wrong, and possibly the 
correct name of your one would be S. vir- 
gata. If the flowers are now over the seeds 
should be set, and if you - see no fruits de¬ 
veloping upon the flower stems you may con¬ 
clude there will be no seeds. If the seed 
pods are developing, all you want to do is 
to give the plant greenhquse treatment until 
those fruit vessels mature, when they can be 
gathered and the seeds sown. If no fruits 
are present, them you can cut back the flower 
stems at once to induce the plants to throw 
out side shoots. Then in April you will be 
able to get cuttings. Take them off with a 
heel of the harder wood and insert them in 
very light, sandy soil in pots, and place 
these pots over a hotbed if you have one. If 
not, cover them with a bell-glass in a 
greenhouse. They must not be allowed to 
get dry, but unless you have a temperature 
of 55 degs. you will have to be very care¬ 
ful in the matter of watering, otherwise you 
might cause them to damp off. 
2596. North Aspect Greenhouse. 
Being a constant reader of your valuable 
paper, could you tell me what I could grow 
in a lean-to greenhouse facing full north? 
The size is 14ft. by 6ft. Could I keep Gera¬ 
niums healthy during the winter months? 
It is heated with hot water pipes. (E. H., 
Bucks.) 
If you keep the Geraniums close to the 
glass either on staging or on shelves, you 
should have no difficulty in keeping them 
there during the winter months. If suffi¬ 
cient fire is burned just to keep out frost, 
there will be no necessity for a high tem¬ 
perature at any time. The plants should 
not make any considerable amount of 
growth during the winter, but just keep 
resting. Under those conditions we do not 
see that you should have any difficulty. If 
you attain too high a temperature the 
plants will grow under conditions that are 
unsuitable for Geraniums, and the growths 
will get drawn and weak. No doubt there 
are various plants you could grow in such 
a house, and although flowering plants may 
be kept if the temperature is sufficiently 
high, yet we should urge that the house 
should just be kept as a cool greenhouse dur¬ 
ing winter. On the other hand you could 
fill it with plants valued only for their 
foliage. You could, for instance, make a 
hobby of British Ferns or Ferns generally 
in which you are interested. You could 
also grow Camellias, Asparagus plumosus, 
Asparagus Sprengeri, Aspidistra lurida, 
A.l. variegata, Ophiopogon Jaburan varie- 
gatus, Aralia Sieboldii, and various other 
fine foliage plants. What we wish you to 
remember is that with the exception of 
hardy bulbs you should not attempt to grow 
and bloom flowering plants in that house. 
Bulbs potted in the autumn and placed theie 
would bloom in spring. 
ROOM PLANTS. 
2597. Orange Tree Not Flowering. 
Some years ago I raised an Orange tree 
from a pip, and it is now 15 in. high, but 
