THE GARDENING WORLD . February 22, 1908 
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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. 
T wo Prizes of 2s. (id, each will be 
; awarded each week for the two Letters 
which the Editor considers to be the best. 
Early Mignonette. 
Everyone likes to prolong the Mignon¬ 
ette season as far as possible. 1 am 
thinking now of Mignonette out-of-doors. 
Much seed is wasted and disappointment 
caused by too early sowing in the open, 
and to those who have a greenhouse or 
garden frame 1 would say, “ sow a batch 
under glass early in March to be planted 
out at the end of May.” Where room 
and pots can be spared, three-inch pots, 
with a few seeds in each, is the best plan, 
but this is not necessary. If turfy loam 
is used, a batch may be sown thinly in 
an ordinary propagating box, gradually 
hardened off, and planted out carefully 
at the period indicated, giving one good 
watering after planting and none if the 
weather is dry. By this method, cutting 
may commence a month earlier than from 
seed sown in the open. 
C. C. 
Cure for Vines Bleeding. 
Very often mistakes are made by 
pruning Vines before the wood is thor¬ 
oughly ripened off or by being too late 
in pruning after the sap is up again, when 
bleeding sets in. Many cure's have been 
tried, but I have found none better than 
the following:—Procure a plumber’s bolt 
and heat it until almost red-hot; press it 
against the ends of the spurs ^vhich are 
bleeding for a second or two, and then 
apply styptic. If bleeding continue, re¬ 
peat the operation, and that will certainly 
stop it. This causes no injury to the Vine, 
but care must be taken not to allow the 
bolt to touch any of the eyes. 
T. S. Dick. 
Blairvaddick Gardens Row, 
Dumbartonshire. 
How to Prevent Damage to Young 
Onion Roots. 
There is, as a rule, a great deal of 
damage done to the roots of young 
Onions when planting them out in spring 
and thereby checking their growth to a 
great extent. Now, a lot of this might 
be saved with very little extra trouble, 
and in the following manner:—Procure 
some good fibrous turf, and with the 
spade, cut it into pieces about three 
inches square, then place these neatly to¬ 
gether in lines, on top of a hot-bed pre¬ 
viously prepared in a frame. When the 
seedlings are large enough to be pricked 
off from the seed-boxes, dibble them into 
the turf, one plant to each piece of turf. 
When planting-out time comes, lift the 
turf with the Onion, and with a trowel, 
plant them in the ground prepared for 
them. Very few of the roots will be as 
much as disturbed in this way, and the 
growth of the young plant will suffer 
little or no check by the lifting and re¬ 
planting. 
Clydeside. 
Dumbartonshire, N.B. 
Autumn-Sown Sweet Peas in Pots. 
The frost has again played havoc with 
the most forward of these (those sown in 
August), but still some survive, and of 
course they would have to have been 
thinned, but not quite so much—as they 
were sown thin. The September, Octo¬ 
ber, and November batches look “pretty 
fit,” and will now deserve a little extra 
attention and some, perhaps, “potting 
on” and given a summer place if possible. 
I could not spare a frame for them this 
winter, but covered them with old sacks, 
etc., on frosty nights, as frosts penetrate 
the pots and cripple the roots. 
D. V. E. 
Onions: Special Culture. 
In the race for improvement and in re¬ 
cent competitions at special Onion exhibi¬ 
tions, prizes have been awarded for the 
heaviest bulbs. These are now so fine 
under the culture adopted that fine speci¬ 
mens will scale from 25 to 32 lbs. each. 
The special routine consists in sowing the 
seeds in shallow boxes in January and 
placing in a gentle heat, and when from 
3 to 4 inches in height, carefully lifting 
and dibbling them out into other boxes 
some two inches apart in a compost of 
good turfy loam and one-fourth of well- 
decayed manure. After being gradually 
hardened off, they are, about the end of 
April, carefully lifted with a good ball of 
soil and planted in deeply-trenched and 
highly-manured ground. The rows 
should be 16 inches apar* and the plants 
12 inches apart. During the summer oc¬ 
casional dressings ofUitrate of soda, salt, 
soot, and guano are given and liberally 
watered in. A large proportion of these 
Onions do not keep long, seldom later 
than the end of the year. The best kinds 
to grow are Ailsa Craig, Anglo Spanish, 
Rousham Park Hero, and Lord Keeper. 
Show Onions should be all of good, even 
size, firm, sound, and clean, with thin 
necks or stems. 
J. C. SCAMMELL. 
A Timely Hint. 
Begonias, Dahlias, Salvias, and other 
tuberous rooted plants should be looked 
over carefully about now, as often such 
severe frost following continual wet, a 
great deal of damage may be occurring 
quite unsuspected by the grower. Where 
they have been kept in a dry, warm place 
many will be showing tiny little knobs on 
the surface or cup of the tuber (in the 
case of Begonias'), but nothing much is 
gained by starting too early. Where 
Jack frost has been, a sorry tald, no 
doubt, is told, but there may’yet be hope. 
Pick out all the damaged ones and lay 
aside, then the_ sound ones should be all 
carefully dusted with flowers of sulphur 
and put in a dry canvas bag with some 
sulphur in it. Here they may now re¬ 
main until it is time to plant them. The 
damaged ones may be cut until a sound 
piece remains. Spread these bits out 
thinly on a dark, warm place, dust with 
sulphur, and examine constantly. Some 
may pull through. 
D. V. E. 
Worthing. 
-4~f4- 
Dijon Roses. 
Dean Hole, one of our greatest authori¬ 
ties on Roses, is reported to have said 
(and I think with good cause): “Were 1 
condemned to have but one Rose for the 
rest of my life I should ask before leaving 
the dock to be presented with a strong : 
plant of Gloire de Dijon.” 
As an all-round Rose, good and reliable 
in every description, we have nothing to 
equal this Rose. Undoubtedly in a few 
points (which are liable to a serious dis¬ 
count in other difections) many Roses are 
superior to this. A florist would doubt¬ 
less prefer La France. An exhibitor 
would prefer a Horace Vernet, but for 
popular use and garden decoration, this 
excels all others, except in the matter 
of variety of colouring amongst its kin¬ 
dred. 
Gloire de Dijon (Jacotot, 1853) is the 
best known of all Roses. It is always 
classed as a pure Tea, but has the foliage 
of a Hybrid Tea, the floriferousness of a 
China, and absolute hardiness of a Scotch 
Rose. 
“ Glory Die John,” as it is popularly de¬ 
nominated, as a bush, as a Standard, or 
as a pillar Rose does equally well; but 
being of a very vigorous habit, it excel? 
as a climber, although its fine foliage is 
not so evergreen as that of Marechiel 
Niel, and some of the other Noisettes; 
nor are the base of its branches so well 
clothed with foliage as is that of Reve 
d’Or. 
Roses of this class (like Noisettes) must 
not have the strong, young shoots pruned 
back, or they will produce wood instead 
of flowers. , It laughs at rain, does not 
care for mildew, and will flourish any¬ 
how and anywhere, even doing well on a 
north wall. I find an over-rich soil 
checks its growth of flowers, and that like 
Nasturtiums, a poorer soil produces an 
abundance of flowers early and late. 
Allied Roses are decidedly' inferior in 
floriferousness and hardiness. Amongst 
them we may include the following:— 
Belle Lyonnaise, deep canary tinted; 
Bouquet d'Or, . yellow and copper; 
Duchese cl’Auerstadt, bright yellow; 
Emilie Dupuy, yellow; Henriette de 
Beauveau, bright yellow ; Kaiserin 
Frederich, buff shaded red; Madame 
Berard, salmon rose; Madame Chauvry, 
nankeen rose; M. Eugene Verdier, deep 
chamois; Reve d’Or, deep yellow, some¬ 
times copper yellow; and Reine Marie 
Henriette, fulgent crimson, magnificent, 
effective, sometimes called the red Gloire 
de Dijon. 
There is a Rose called the White Gloire 
de Dijon which is not really related there¬ 
to ; and there are several others not so 
well known but'all having shades of y r el- 
low, salmon and white. 
Baynton-Taylor. 
