170 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
March 7, 1908. 
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. 
2655. Lilies and Liquid Manure. 
I shall be much obliged if you will give 
me some hints on Lilium growing. I read 
your paper every week, and have not noticed 
any information about Liliums. I have a 
lofty conservatory (no heat), and wish to 
have a good show of L. auratum at the end 
of July, and L. rubrum later on. Should I 
give them liquid manure? If so, at what 
stages of growth? (Lilium, Liverpool.) 
You can give Liliums in pots liquid 
manure when in full growth and the pots 
are filled with roots. It would be a mistake 
to give them any manure while they are just 
pushing through the soil or for some time 
afterwards. A little manure may sometimes 
be used in the soil when potting, but more 
especially when top-dressing, and m that case 
liquid manure would be unnecessary until 
some time after the top-dressing. You may, 
however give liquid manure when the stems 
are about 18 in. high or 1 ft., provided the 
leaves are fully expanded, but 't ought to be 
weak rather than strong. After the buds 
commence to show the liquid manure may 
be made stronger. After the flowers com¬ 
mence to expand liquid manure is of no 
further service as far as the flowers 
are concerned, and the soil should, 
indeed, be sufficiently enriched to enable 
Liliums to complete their growth without 
any further liquid manure after that time. 
You must remember that Lilies are rather 
troublesome subjects if they are manured in 
the same way as Chrysanthemums. They are 
not such gross feeders, and if their constitu¬ 
tion is in any way weakened by over-feeding 
the bulbs will decay after flowering. See 
another answer, “ Lilies in Pots.” 
2656. Raising: Half Hardy Annuals. 
Could I raise plants of the following from 
seed in time to plant out in summer :— 
Asters, Stocks, Mignonette and Beet for bor¬ 
ders ? I propose trying them in a conserva¬ 
tory (no heat) facing south-west. It gets 
the sun all day and stands against the house. 
Any information will be thankfully received. 
(Lilium, Liverpool.) 
Asters and Stocks may be sown during the 
present month and stood in the warmest part 
of your house till they germinate. They 
should, of course, be shaded from bright 
sunshine until germination has taken place. 
You cannot then expose them too fully to 
light after they have made a few leaves, but 
ventilation will be of great importance in 
keeping them healthy and sturdy. When 
they have made two or three leaves each you 
should prick them off into boxes about 2 in. 
apart each way till they attain some size, 
but as soon as they are established in the 
boxes transfer the latter to a cold frame and 
plant them out of doors at the end of May. 
We should not care to have to grow them 
entirely in the conservatory as they would 
be much more easy to manage in cold frames, 
where they could be close to the glass and 
get plenty of ventilation during the heat of 
the day. Indeed, a cold frame would be the 
best place for Stocks and Asters until they 
commence to bloom, if meant for pots. Asters 
are easy to manage in another way. For 
instance, :you oould grow them in cold 
frames as we have described, in boxes until 
the end of May, when they could be planted 
out in beds in a sunny situation. W hen the 
plants are coming into flower you can give 
them a good watering, and at the end of two 
or three hours lift them and pot them up 
with a good ball of soil. By keeping them 
shaded for a day or two, and moist, they 
will soon take to the soil and flower for 
some considerable time in the conservatory. 
Mignonette is somewhat more troublesome, 
as it does not transplant well. If you in¬ 
tend flowering it in the conservatory, your 
best plan will be to sow seeds thinly in 5 in. 
or 6 in. pots and flower them in the same. 
Use good fibrous- loam with plenty of sand, 
a little leaf-mould and a little lime rubble. 
As the seedlings develop they should be 
thinned out to three or five plants, accord¬ 
ing to their vigour. You will get better 
Mignonette, however, by sowing seeds in the 
open ground at the beginning of April. Thin 
out the plants in good time to get vigorous 
specimens. Beet, if intended for decorative 
purposes in a flower border, may be sown 
at the same time i nd under the same condi¬ 
tions as Stocks and Asters, and subsequently 
transferred to cold frames and planted out 
at the end of May. If you desire the Beet 
for culinary purposes, }u>u can sow the earli¬ 
est variety, such as Globe Beet, about the 
end of April, but the main crop about the 
middle to the end of May. 
2657. Roman Hyacinths and Narcissi. 
I should be much obliged if you will 
answer the following questions in -the next 
issue of The Gardening World. What is it 
usual to do with bulbs which have finished 
flowering in pots, such as Roman Hyacinths 
and Narcissi? (Reader, Lancs.) 
Some people would throw the bulbs away 
after flowering them in pots, especially the 
Roman Hyacinths. The Narcissi are vPorth a 
little more trouble, but you can treat both 
kinds in the same way if you desire to make 
any further use of them. If you have a cold 
frame the pots could be stood there as soon 
as they finish flowering, but they should not 
be allowed to get dry. In a cold frame they 
will not -require much water at this season 
of the year, but as the days lengthen they 
will take more. In any case you could treat 
them as you would plants that have not yet 
flowered by continuing to water them as they 
require it until the leaves begin to turn 
yellow. They can then be allowed to dry 
off, and the bulbs will ripen with the influ¬ 
ence of warmth and sunshine. After this 
the bulbs may be cleaned and stored in a 
dry, cool place until autumn. You can then 
select positions for these bulbs, either in 
flower borders- or in the wild garden. You 
can prepare them for forcing again, if you 
feel so inclined, by planting them next 
autumn in a piece of good soil well exposed 
to sunshine and allow them to grow there un¬ 
disturbed for another season. The Hyacinths 
may not give very good results, but the Nar¬ 
cissi §hould be perfectly amenable to this 
treatment, when you could lift the bulbs in 
the following summer after the foliage dies 
down. In the autumn you can select the 
largest bulbs and pot them up Small 
bulbs can, of course, be planted out in good 
ground again. 
2658. Pinching: Petunia Cuttings. 
Must I pinch the tops of cuttings of 
Petunias which are just beginning to grow, 
to treat them rightly? (Reader, London.) 
We presume that you have -rooted the cut¬ 
tings under favourable conditions, and have 
had them potted for some -little time. If in¬ 
clined to run away with one stem, -the best 
plan certainly would be to pinch the stem 
when about 2 in. or 3 in. high, merely tak¬ 
ing out the tip of the stem. This will cause 
the plants to throw up a number of stems, 
and if they are intended for large specimens 
you can pinch again when the young shoots 
are 2 in. long. In the case of large plants, 
it will be -necessary to stake and tie out the 
young shoots, to prevent them crowding and 
crippling one another for Light. 
2659. Name and Treatment of Plants. 
Please name the enclosed two plants. I 
hope the small leaves will be sufficient. Both 
are taken from hanging baskets. The larger, 
you wil-l see, is throwing out leaves from 
ends of -runners apparently dead. Should 
these all be cut off? Please say treatment, 
and oblige. (J. Sturt, Middlesex.) 
The two small leaves were those of the 
variegated Ground Ivy (Nepeta Glechoma 
variegata). This is a British plant, and 
therefore hardy. It may ibe grown on the 
rockery, or as a covering to the ground in 
any half-shady situation, but hitherto it has 
proved most serviceable in hanging baskets 
for conservatories and also as small plants 
in pots for edging cool moist houses. In 
the summer time, or, say, in September, 
you could take off cuttings and root them in 
small pots to be kept in a cold frame till 
spring, You can then make up baskets afresh 
with them, or put them to any other purpose 
you like. If -the old plants are in good con¬ 
dition you can break them into small pieces 
with roots to eaclq -tnd either make up the 
basket afresh or put them in small pots until 
you require them for that purpose- You 
should never give this plant very much heat. 
In fact, the cooler it is kept the better. The 
larger plant is Tradescantia multicolor of 
gardens, and requires stove or greenhouse 
treatment. In the winter’time it should have 
a temperature of 45 degs. to 50 degs.^ by 
night, with a rise by day. In the spring¬ 
time, say, during March, you can take off the 
tips of the shoots and insert them in light 
sandy soil and leaf-mould, and let them 
