THE GARDENING WORLD 
December 19, 1908. 
,84 
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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 gar dens f indicating 
the position of beds and lawns, the charac- 
STOVE AMD GREEMHOUSE. 
3464. Keeping Begonia Tubers in 
Winter. 
Kindly instruct me how to keep Begonia 
bulbs during winter. (S. Hudson, Surrey.) 
It depends upon the condition under which 
you have the Begonia tubers at present as to 
the method of keeping them through the 
winter. If they are in pots keep them in 
the soil and stand the pots in the green¬ 
house out of reach of drip. If you have no 
greenhouse put them in a .spare room or 
cellar out of the reach of frost. If your 
plants were grown in the open ground dur¬ 
ing summer, lay them in some shed or other 
dry, airy place to let the soil about them 
and the roots get dry, so that you can clean 
the tubers. In the event of frost they should, 
of course, be covered up at night if in an 
open shed. When sufficiently dry shake 
away the soil and break off the roots so as 
to reduce their bulk. You can then put them 
in layers amongst cocoanut fibre in boxes so 
as to keep them just moist during the win¬ 
ter. You can then store these boxes in some 
dry, cool and frost-proof place. If this is 
carefully done they will keep well until it 
is time to start them again in spring. 
3465. How to Get Tall Aspidistras. 
Will,you tell me how to. grow Aspidistras 
with high leaves, as I have several healthy 
plants, but the leaves are short, in some 
cases breaking just above the mould. I 
want to get high ones, such as are sold in 
shops, and should be glad to know if they 
ought to be stood near the roof m a green¬ 
house or on the floor under the staging. 
(R. S. T., Essex.) 
There are several species and varieties of 
Aspidistras and some of them are of dwarf 
growth. A. lurida and its variety, A. 1 . 
variegata, will grow 2 ft. to 25 ft. high if 
properly treated. The cultivation is really 
very simple, but in a great many cases the 
plants are neglected in the matter of water¬ 
ing and kept in dark places where they can¬ 
not get any light. You could stand your 
plants in a slightly shadv position, or 
amongst other plants in the greenhouse. 
You .could try some of them on the floor just 
at the edge of the staging, but not beneath 
it Attend to watering regularly and give 
sufficient to wet the ball of soil through just 
when the soil is netting dry and brown in¬ 
stead of black. Accc-rding to our observa¬ 
tions, -.--idistras are often allowed to stand 
for some lime after getting dry and then 
they are put into a pail of water to soak 
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. 
them. This is bad gardening, and if you 
attend regularly to watering by observing 
when the soil is getting dry and watering 
immediately, they are not difficult to keep 
moist, finder cool conditions at the present 
time, and in windows, watering is only re¬ 
quired once or twice a week. This is not a 
set rule, but the water is given before*the 
soil gets anything like dust-dry. Potting 
is also another matter that requires atten¬ 
tion, although if properly done it requires 
renewal only once a year, or every second 
year, according to the size of the plants and 
the pots containing them. ' You should repot 
them in fresh soii!l about the end of March 
or the beginning of April just before they 
commence to make fresh growth. They make 
only one growth a year and during that 
period they should get more water than in 
winter. Your statement that some o-f the 
leaves are only just breaking above the 
mould would mean that they have commenced 
growing very late in the season for some 
reason due to treatment. You should en¬ 
courage them to make their growth as early 
in the season as possible — say, during May 
and June. It then gets into a well-ripened 
condition before winter and growth should 
start regularly in the following year. A 
little shade, we consider, induces the leaves 
to get taller than if they were stood in a 
hot, sunny place. 
3466. Seedling Oranges. 
I have some seedling Orange trees in 
small pots. How many years will it take 
them to flower and will they require graft¬ 
ing before they will fruit? (Inexperi¬ 
enced, Hants.) 
Seedling Oranges may take many years 
to reach the fruiting condition, or they may 
never fruit at all if the conditions are such 
that the)' are unable to make proper growth 
during the summer and be kept considerably 
warmer in summer, well exposed to sunshine 
and frequently syringed to encourage 
growth. Plenty of sunshine is necessary to 
ripen the wood. Even if you take the trouble 
to grow them on to the flowering stage, the 
chances are that the fruits may be good 
o r worthless for anything except ornamental 
purposes. They do not require grafting in 
order to flower, unless vou wish to moke 
sure of having a good varietv. then one 
could b^ grafted on to the seedling, using 
that as a stock. As the trees increase in size, 
so you must give them increasingly larger 
pots. This, of course, ought to be done in 
spring when the weather is getting warm. 
COLD FRAMES. 
34 67. Keeping Fuchsias in Winter. 
I have about three dozen Fuchsias in a 
cold frame that were planted out in sum¬ 
mer. Do you think I will be able to keep 
them through the winter by matting them up 
in severe weather, or what do you propose 
I should do? I would not like to lose them 
as they are fine varieties. (E. Holden,- Nor¬ 
folk.) 
You should be able to keep Fuchsias in a 
cold frame during winter if you succeed in 
keeping them free from drip in the frames. 
In severe weather it would be a considerable 
advantage to mat up the frames, so as to 
keep out frost. The mats need not be 
taken off during the day if the frost is very 
severe and the plants, it may be, frozen. 
I f they thaw without exposure to sunshine, 
so much the' better. During mild weather, 
however, you cannot give them too much 
ventilation, so as to keep the tops dry and 
the plants hardy. The soil in the pots may 
be allowed to get rather dry as well, though 
in a cold frame they should not become very 
dry. It will depend on what they are stand¬ 
ing upon, ashes being a good medium, but 
if they are likely to get dust-dry, owing 
to ventilation and the weather, you could 
water them. Fuchsias are so nearly hardy, 
however, that the roots and lower part of 
the stem will often live out through a severe 
winter and sprout from the base again in 
spring, but this should not even happen in 
a cold frame. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
3468. Plaints Suitable for Wall Gar¬ 
dening. 
I have an old wall which I should lik< 
to cover with plants somewhat after the 
manner described in the enclosed cutting. I 
have been advised to get some such things as 
Aubrietia graeca, A. Leichtlinii, Lychnis 
Lagascae, L. chalcedonica flore pleno and 
others mentioned in the accompanying list. 
(R. A. L., Essex.) 
Some of the plants mentioned in your list 
are suitable for the purpose of wall garden¬ 
ing, including the Aubrletias and Lychnis 
Lagascae. The other species of Lychnis are 
either too tall or unsuitable. Iberis gibral- 
tarica is not quite hardy, but I. semper- 
virens would be suitable in a fair depth of 
soil. We have selected a number of dwarf 
subjects that are suitable for planting in a 
small amount of soil on the top of the wall 
and some of them would grow in the ore¬ 
's ices, provided you can insert a small quan¬ 
tity of so-il with them. You can very often 
make openings in an old wall that would 
admit of the growth of many plants. If the 
wall is not your own, you will have to be 
careful about making holes in it. On the 
top of the wall the matter would be more 
simplified. The wild species of Carnation 
and rink are well adapted for the top cf 
an old wall, including Dianthus caesius, D. 
neg'lectus, D. sylvestris, D. arenarius, D. 
monspessulanus, the common Rink (D. plu- 
maiius), D. Sternbergii, D. superbus and 
the single Carnation (D. Caryophyllus). 
Other suitable plants are Armeria maritima, 
Arenaria balearica, Draha aizoides, D. 
Mawii, Hypericum polyphyllum, IT. Coris, 
Sapanaria ocvmoides, Sedum acre, S. album, 
S. rupestre, S. reflexum, Thymus Serpyllum, 
T. S. lanuginosus, T. S. coccineus, Veronica 
spicata, Linaria alpina, T.. Cvmbalaria, 
Erinus alpinus, F.. a. albus, Ibens correae- 
folia, I. saxatilis, Saxifraga longifolia, S. 
Airoon, S. A. balcana, S. A. pectinata, S. 
linguffita, S. 1 . lantoscana, S. cochlearjs, ?• 
m.acnabiana and S. catalaunica. The Saxi- 
fraias of this class will grow in a verv 
small quantity of soil in crevices,_ even of 
a perpendicular wall in sunny situations. 
The species of Houseleek are very suitable 
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