The Gardening World, Jangary, g, 1909. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“0 how happy the tiller* of the ground are, 
if they but knew their btessings.”— Virgil. 
CONTENTS. 
Amateur's Letter to Amateurs . 15 
Carnation Rita (illus.) . 21 
Competition Awards . 16 
Crucifer, A Yiolet-like (illus.) . 21 
Enquire Within . 23 
Ferns of Easy Culture . 16 
Flower Garden, The (illus.) . 19 
Fruit Garden, The (illus.) . 19 
Greenhouse, The Amateurs .. 20 
Hart's-Tongue, A Branching (illus.) 18 
Kitchen Garden, The (illus.) . 19 
Light and Colour . 16 
Lobelia Kathleen Mallard . 23 
.Manure, The Uses of Artificial . 22 
Mistletoe on the Walnut . iS 
Orchids for Amateurs . 20 
Rhubarb : To Force Quickly. 22 
Roses in Pots . l 7 
Vine Borders, How to make (illus.)... 17 
Work of the Week (illus.) . 19 
Jk Slows VC\U *^oom Main. 
Shed no tear! Oh, shed no tear 1 
The flower will bloom another year, 
Weep no more! Oh, weep no more! 
Young buds sleep in the root s white core. 
Dry your eyes ! Oh, dry your eyes! 
For I was "taught in Paradise 
To ease my breast of melodies— 
Shed no tear. 
Iverhead! look overhead ! 
Tong the blossoms white and red— 
.ook up, look up. I flutter now 
)n this flush pomegranate bough, 
iee me ! his this silvery bill 
ever cures the good man s ill. 
>hed no tear! Oh, shed no tear! 
'he flower will bloom, another year. 
Idieu. adieu — I fly, adieu, 
vanish in the heaven s blue— 
Adieu, adieu! 
John Keats. 
I always look upon the wintering of 
those subjects that are not quite hardy 
as extremely interesting, and one open to 
experiments. If there should have been 
left in the borders such plants as Lobelia 
cardinalis, L. fulgens, Gazanias, and 
others, so far they will have taken no 
hurt, but if we wish to ensure their safety 
it is well worth while taking them up, if 
it has not already been done, and with a 
considerable quantity of soil, and trans¬ 
ferring them to boxes or pots, and these 
boxes or pots to frames or greenEouses. 
This rough and ready method as a rule 
is quite sufficient. 
Wintering Calceolaria Cuttings 
Then, again, take Calceolaria cuttings. 
So' often these are occupying valuable 
space within the greenhouse or cold 
frames when really there is no necessity 
for it. I will shortly describe my own 
method of wintering them, with a loss of 
not more than two or three per cent. A 
border facing due east is dug for them 
under the outside wall of the greenhouse, 
and here, any time from mid-October to 
the middle of November, the cuttings are 
put in. I am never in a hurry to get 
them in, for I find that they winter all 
the better for not having made much root. 
Here they have been, up to this Christ¬ 
mas week with no sort of shade or pro¬ 
tection day or night. What is more, 
whatever the weather may be later on, 
they will receive nothing further than a 
heavy wooden screen slantwise over them, 
and the ends protected with heavy sack¬ 
ing. This protection will be removed 
whenever the weather permits, but when 
it is really severe will remain in place as 
long as the cold is intense. This method 
is no trial trip, but has been my way of 
treating Calceolarias for the last five or 
six winters, and I find the resulting plants 
are strong, sturdy, and robust to a won¬ 
derful degree, and flower the whole sum¬ 
mer, and, what counts for much in most 
seasons, may safely be transferred to their 
flowering quarters by the end of April. 
I think many of us scarcely realise as we 
might, how good a thing it is to make 
our plants as hardy and strong as pos¬ 
sible. On the other hand, there are some 
subjects that do not flower profusely if 
their winter quarters be ungenial. In 
London and its neighbourhood there is 
no need to protect Hydrangeas, but I find 
up here in an exposed garden in East 
Anglia that unless the plants are housed 
for the winter their flowering capacity is 
not very great. A supply of dry bracken 
to have’at hand to use during severe spells 
of frost is of great sendee. With its help 
I have wintered that beautiful little rock- 
work plant. Convolvulus mauritanicus, 
which is so often regarded as unable to 
survive our winters. I put in a few cut¬ 
tings as a safeguard in the greenhouse, 
but with the bracken and a plentiful 
supply of dry Beech leaves, and the help 
of a great rocky slab to shelter it from 
the north-east, it survives winter after 
winter. 
Zonal Pelargoniums. 
The Zonal Pelargoniums are always a 
source of anxiety from their proneness to 
damping off. This is even more to be 
fought than frost. A dry atmosphere 
goes a long way in preserving these 
plants, but it is hard to achieve some¬ 
times. Every decaying leaf, and the 
small bracts upon the stems, if attacked 
and discoloured from damp, should be re¬ 
moved, and flowers of sulphur freely 
dusted wherever a cut has to be 
made to remove a piece of decay¬ 
ing stem. The soil in which they 
are planted may be allowed to become 
almost, but not quite, dust dry, and I 
found it convenient a short while ago to 
have a few fires in the usually cold house 
so that the place might be dried, for even 
the pans and pots were wet, and mildew 
was doing considerable damage. Failing 
a stove, even an oil lamp put in helps to 
dry the place. 
Camellias. 
So far the Camellias are standing out 
in the open. They are so nearly hardy 
that we may well try to keep them so, and 
give them no sort of coddling treatment. 
When the buds fall instead of opening, 
it is often the result of too high a tem¬ 
perature. Where they are housed, a cold 
house, or one with the frost just excluded, 
is far better for them than one where a 
warm, genial temperature is maintained. 
Carnations and Fuchsias. 
Carnations require plenty of air, and to 
be kept as near the glass as possible if in 
a lean-to greenhouse as they are essen¬ 
tially light-loving plants. Some people 
turn their Fuchsia pots on their sides and 
let them become quite dry. I do not like 
that plan at all, and few hard-woodecl 
plants if treated in this way would sur¬ 
vive. Of course, we w r ant them to rest 
so far as possible during this season, and 
we may give them a shaded position, but 
dust dry no, not that. I often find a posi¬ 
tion on the brick floor of the greenhouse 
a convenient place, as they require then 
but little moisture and do not dry quickly. 
F. Norfolk. 
-- 
The Protection of Small Birds. 
The Royal Agricultural and Horticul¬ 
tural Society of Conferences of Ixelles, 
organised a "banquet in order to fete their 
devoted President, Mr. Goosens, and 
some other of his supporters who had re¬ 
cently received a special decoration of 
the First Class. Their object was to 
petition the Minister of Agriculture by- 
means of a hundred signatures asking for 
the alteration of the.law. which every year 
allowed the destruction of thousands of 
useful auxiliaries of agriculture and 
horticulture. “La) Tribune Horticole ” 
hopes that the example given by the So¬ 
ciety of Ixelles will be followed by numer¬ 
ous horticultural bodies of the country. 
