April 25, 1908. 
290 
conservatory very pleasant in warm weather 
both for yourself and for the plants. You 
could then got those two walls covered with 
such climbers as Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums, 
Zonal Pelargoniums, the blue Passion 
Flower, and the Scarlet Honeysuckle (Loni- 
cera sempervirens). There are other sub¬ 
jects which would, no doubt, grow equally 
well with careful management, namely, 
Heliotrope, Abufillon Bou'le de Neige, Plum¬ 
bago capensis, Clianthus punice-us, Swain- 
soma galegifolia and Soianum jasminoides. 
The latter is a free-growing species with 
long, drooping branches, producing a pro¬ 
fusion of whit© flowers in late summer or 
autumn and in winter can he pruned back 
to the main stems. It will, of course, flower 
every year if pruned back after it has 
finished flowering. We do not mean tha* 
you will require all these plants, but yr 
- might have a fancy for one or more of the 
The bench along the front of the house t 
should use for growing pot plants 01 
.Fuchsias, Zonal Pelargoniums, Heliotropes, 
tuberous ,Begonias, and possibly other things 
which you may fancy. We see no reason 
why you should not succeed in growing any 
of the plants we mention in that conser¬ 
vatory if you have it properly ventilated. 
We see no reason for altering any of the 
other arrangements you .mention besides those 
we state. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
2795. Properties of Violas. 
I have to thank you for the wry full reply 
you gave to my enquiry re show points in 
Auriculas, etc. As you have invited me to 
give you the subjects I, with others, am 
more definitely interested in, I should name 
the under-mentioned flowers. Of course, I 
do not expect your answers aid at once, hut 
as opportunity offers. As 'these flowers are 
usually found in every schedule T am sure 
your answers will be appreciated very widely 
by amateur exhibitors. What are the good 
points of Violas for exhibition ? WTiat con¬ 
stitutes twelve distinct sprays? Is it con¬ 
sidered a good point for them to be heavily 
rayed? Does the dry weather affect them 
in this characteristic? (H. Staddon,- Essex.) 
The' good points to be looked for in Violas 
for exhibition are good outline and texture 
of petals. The petals,- including the edge,; 
should be smooth. Setlfs should have well- 
defined colours. If they look washed out or 
if the colour is not* uniform' it would tell 
against them from a decorative point of 
view. In the case of belted flowers, or those- 
having blotches, they should be regular and 
harmonise so as to give the appearance of. 
a regular and well-defined flower. Although 
there may be blotches of varying size there 
should be no rays extending beyond the 
blotch, otherwise it detracts from their value 
to that extent in the eyes of a florist. Of 
course,, there are flowers of various colours, 
but having five to seven or more rays ex¬ 
tending from the eye down upon the three 
lower petals. That, of course, is permitted 
in Violas, because a large number of the 
varieties are rayed, while another section 
of them consists of varieties having no rays 
and said to be rayless. The flower stalks 
should be stout and all parts of the face ot 
the flower, looks towards the beholder. Some 
. varieties are naturally of large size, but 
this. is. largely dependent upon good culti¬ 
vation, and this, of course, is in their 
favour. The flowers should be clean and 
in every way free from blemish. To pre¬ 
vent the. flowers from getting soiled you can 
erect sashes over them, panes of'glass, etc., 
a dav or two previous to the' show, and as a 
matter of fact you would select the youngest, 
but fully-developed flowers. In making up 
a stand they should be selected as nearly of 
uniform size as possible, but more especially 
if they consist of one variety. In a stand 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
of twelve blooms', for instance, distinct, you 
should get the greatest variety of colour 
possible, blending the .light and dark colours 
without overpowering either ..by having too 
much of any on© ooloui. With regard to 
what may be considered sprays it will de¬ 
pend largely upon the wording of the 
schedule and the custom of a local society. 
In (the cas© of those who are accustomed to 
staging Violas, a spray would - consist of 
six or nine blooms all of one variety. If 
twelve distinct sprays- are asked for it means 
that you should have twelve varieties of 
Violas with six to nine blooms of each. 
Never mix two varieties in the same spray. 
Violas require wiring to v-ork neatly into a 
spray. Then they should 'be mixed with 
foliage of some sort or other, and all the 
flower stalks meet in one bundle, so that 
they can be tied. This -is an art which re¬ 
quires some practice to get expert. A good 
plan would be to .secure a spray from some 
exhibitor after the Show is over. Take it 
home and carefully undo it, noting every 
arrangement, and then proceed to build it 
all up again. A little practice like this 
would soon enable you to become expert. 
Violas may be heavily rayed, lightly rayed 
or iraiyless. It all depends upon the variety. 
We are speaking from Ithe point of view of 
selected and named varieties, not of seed¬ 
lings. The weather does affect some varie¬ 
ties, and they are more likely to have their 
colours somewhat deranged in the autumn 
than in spring. In this case .you have to get 
acquainted with each variety, and if 0. 
spoiled flower occurs on a plant or in a 
bed you simply avoid it, selecting only those 
that are true to colour. They are more 
likely to get clouded with other colours in 
front or on the back during dry weather, 
but there is an art in growing Violas, 
though in your county you would have some¬ 
what more difficulty than growers in the 
North of England or in 'Scotland in main¬ 
taining the ground in a sufficiently moist 
condition to enable them to make proper 
growth in summer. By mulching and by 
watering you can, however, overcome diffi¬ 
culties in this respect. 
ROSES. 
2796. Mildew on Rose Shoot. 
In pruning my Roses I came across the 
enclosed. It 'looks like a sort of mildew. 
Can you telfL me what it is ? (Lower Har- 
dres, Kent.) 
The white woolly patches on the flower 
stems, flowers and base of the thorns con¬ 
sist of the Rose mildew (Spbaerotheca pan- 
nosa) in the winter condition. Roses are 
subject to two attacks of mildew, the first 
in the earlly part of the season being very 
easy to destroy, and that which comes later 
on’and wfhidh forms woolly patches like 
that you sent. The death of the shoot has 
been hastened by the fungus, though it may 
also have 'been injured by frost owing to its 
■being sappy and badly ripened at the time 
it was checked by the mildew. All such 
shoots should be cut off and burned, not 
thrown down, because the resting spores 
■could germinate on the dead wood and later 
on when the Roses are in leaf commence a 
fresh attack of mildew. These shoots might 
well have been removed in the autumn if 
you noticed them because they continue the 
fungus over from one year to another. After 
cutting away the dead wood in the autumn 
you could then spray the bushes with one 
part of commercial sulphuric acid to one 
thousand parts of water. Various remedies 
for mildew are advertised in our pages 1 from 
time to time, and it would 'be worth*.while 
using some of them in the early stages of 
mildew attack, so as to prevent the hushes 
from getting much infested. 
2797. Shoots Damaged in the Centre. 
Can you tell me why many of my Rose 
trees, especially those with smooth hark, 
have gone as the enclosed in the centres ana 
some with marks on the outside of other 
samples? What can I do to cure this? 
(■Carnforth, Lancs.) 
Your Roses have been partly .damaged by 
frost and some of the spots are cankered, 
but there is no cure for this. The shcot.= 
will later on die right to the tap, so that 
your only remedy is to prune to a good bud 
'below the 'portion of shoot -which has been 
killed. Sometimes marks like this are due 
to rubbing against wires. Some of the 
marks seem to have been caused in this way 
or by one shoot rubbing against another in 
a windy situation, and where damaged in 
this way .the frost scon completes it. Where 
a variety happens to be tender you can well 
guard against this by means of bracken 
amongst the shoots during severe weather. 
To guard against rubbing, the shoots should 
-be staked even if only temporarily. The 
cause of canker ?s not yet known. 
27 98. Manures for Hoses. 
I am an interested reader of your paper 
and notice in your edition of April 4th, 
under the heading of “ Among the Roses 
for April,” signed Baynton-Taylor, a few 
■hints with reference - to the application of 
liquid manure, on the subject of which, 
perhaps, you would give me particulars on 
one or two points. (1) How much kainit, 
superphosphate and sulphate of ammonia is 
to be put to a gallon of wafer? (2) How 
often is this to be applied, and how much 
to each plant? (3) How much sulphate of 
iron (ounce to the gallon) is to be -given each 
plant? (4) To what extent can these weak 
solutions be increased during May and ] ane, 
etc. Thanking you in anticipation of reply 
through your columns. (Poco, Middlesex.) 
(1) We shouLd not give more than two ap¬ 
plications of kaini-t and superphosphate in 
a year, and for preference we should use 
them some time between January and April 
If two applications are given those months 
would he suitable times. These manures 
are slowly soluble, so that the first applica¬ 
tion might he coming into use when the 
second is applied. The second dressing, 
say in April, should be. sufficient to carry 
them well through the season. These dress¬ 
ings we should put on the ground and dig 
them in lbgfhtly. Sulphate of ammonia is 
a very quick-acting manure and should not 
'be applied to the ground much before the 
plants commence growing, otherwise much 
of it will he lost. Of the first two you could 
use an ounce of each to the gallon of water 
if you intend using them that way. About 
t oz. to the gallon of water would be suf¬ 
ficient of the sulphate of ammonia. (2) We 
have already answered about the kamit and 
superphosphate. The one gallon .should do 
for four Roses. You must remember that 
plants in the ground take more watering to 
reach the roots than if they were growing 
in pots. At present the ground may be suf¬ 
ficiently moist, but when hot weather sets in 
it would be well to wiater the ground heavily 
with clean water before applying the manure. 
The sulphate of ammonia might be applied 
once a week during April and May, after 
which no more need be given until after the 
first flowering is over. (3) That amount ot 
sulphate of iron to the gallon might wel 
be spread over six plants because a very 
small quantity really is necessary, and r 
should not be overdone. The ground shouk 
be well watered after its use so that it car 
get washed down. (4) We should not very 
much increase the above solutions during 
May and June, and by that time it will b 
necessary to have the ground well waterei 
before applying any of them. The abov 
amounts of ammonia to the necessary amoun 
of water would he altogether too great, i«- 
that you should not apply any more manur 
per plant than that we just suggested. 
