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THE GARDENING WORLD. 
February 13, 1909. 
Address : The Editor, The Gardening 
World, 37 and 38, Shoe Lane, London, E.C. 
The Editor invites enquiries, which mav 
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- 
STOVE AND GREENHOUSE. 
3 613. Temperature for Certain Plants. 
In what temperature should Acokanthera 
spectabilis be grown, or is it hardy, and 
should it be trained as a climbing plant? 
When does Deutzia crenata flower? Could 
I flower it in April? Is Chlorophytum ela- 
tum variegatum a stove plant? (Old China, 
Fifeshire.) 
Acokanthera spectabilis comes, from South 
Africa, and may be grown in a greenhouse 
and flowered at a temperature of 50 degs. to 
52 degs. in winter. It has also been grown 
in a stove. It may be grown as a dwarf 
plant in pots or as a climber. Deutzia 
crenata is a hardy shrub flowering in June 
and July. You could probably get it to 
bloom by establishing it in pots and growing 
it in a greenhouse with a winter night tem¬ 
perature of 45 degs. to 50 degs., and thereby 
getting it in bloom in April. As it is a 
strong growing shrub it is scarcely worth 
this trouble, when there are several small 
Deutzias more easily accommodated in pots 
of moderate size. D. gracilis would be 
hardy, or nearly so, with you, but it is best 
in a greenhouse. By allowing it to come 
along naturally with the heat of the sun 
it would bloom by April even in an un¬ 
heated greenhouse, and in a heated one may 
be had considerably earlier. The Chloro¬ 
phytum you mention is a cool greenhouse 
plant, and may be grown with great success 
in the window of a dwelling house. 
3614. Name of Plant and Treatment. 
The green leaf I bought last year as a pot. 
plant, and have been keeping in a cold 
greenhouse. Is this the proper treatment, 
and do you think I am likely to succeed with 
it ? Please let me know the name of it and 
what treatment I should give it in summer 
and oblige. (W. Green, Sussex.) 
The small twig sent us was Asparagus 
Sprengeri, which should stand the winter 
in your cold greenhouse, if not much subjec¬ 
ted to frost. If it is in too small a pot, re-pot 
it at the end of March or the beginning of 
April in a compost of two parts fibrous 
loam, one part leaf-mould and a good dash 
of sand. Do not give it much water until 
it commences to grow, but after it has .filled 
the pot with roots and is growing freely, 
give it plenty of water during summer, 
especially in dry weather. In winter it re¬ 
quires much less water, but should not be 
allowed to get dust-dry, otherwise the foli¬ 
age will suffer. It should acquire a better 
colour if slightly shaded during the warmer 
parts of summer. 
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. 
3615. Winter-flowering Carnation Un¬ 
satisfactory. 
I have some winter-flowering Carnations 
that I obtained last spring in 3 in. pots. In 
May I put them into 8 in. pots and kept 
them well watered in the greenhouse. They 
turned rather pale at first, but afterwards 
began to grow away with only one stem. I 
thought they would do better as the summer 
passed along, but they kept to one stem all 
the time, and gave only about one flower 
each in November. They have a few little 
shoots now, and I would like to know what 
to do with them. How can I make them 
bushy? (W. T. Matthews, Surrey.) 
The initial mistake you made was to shift 
the plants from 3 in. pots into 8 in. pots. 
Carnations sliould never be given too much 
soil at any one time, so you should have put 
the plants into 5 in. pots after you got them 
if they were well rooted, potting them firmly. 
Later on, after they have made some more 
growth, a good plan would be to put them in¬ 
to 6^ in fc pots and finally into the flowering 
pots. By moving them from time to time in 
this way before roots get matted you en¬ 
courage them to make growth. There is an¬ 
other important point which you overlooked, 
and that was to stop the plants from time to 
time as they require it, in order to make 
them branch out and become bushy. When 
the plants get about 6 in. high about 1 in. 
or 2. in. of this should be cut off just above 
a joint, to encourage the plants to throw out 
side shoots. This may be done from time 
to time as it becomes necessary till the end 
of July, after which they should be quite 
bushy, and can then be allowed to throw up 
their flower stems. After the final shift, and 
the roots a.re well round the sides of the pots, 
weak liquid manure may be given. You can¬ 
not do much good with the plants you now 
have, so that those side shoots should be 
taken off with a heel of old wood when 3 in. 
or 4 in. long, dressed as cuttings and in¬ 
serted firmly in pots of light, sandy soil. 
Stand them where they will get a bottom 
heat of 60 degs., to encourage the formation 
of roots. As soon as they are well rooted 
pot them off singly into large thumb pots or 
small 6o’s, according to their size, and treat 
as above advised. They must have plenty of 
light and air at all times. 
3616. Sowing Dahlia Seed. 
I have some seed saved from Cactus Dah¬ 
lia Britannia. It seems very thin. Do you 
think it will be good? When should I sow 
it, and what treatment should I give it? 
(A. C. Denny, Herts.) 
The seeds of Dahlias are naturally thin, 
but the embryo may be perfect, all the same 
If you cannot determine this by cutting on 
open, you should sow the seeds in pots .0 
pans of light, sandy soil, about the beginnim 
of March. They should have a bottom hea 
of 60 degs., if possible, to encourage fre 
germination. Ac soon as they are fit ti 
handle they may be transplanted into boxe 
about 2 in. apart each way, and when the' 
have made a number of leaves you can po 
them off singly in small pots at first, but i 
you succeed in getting them to come alonj 
quickly they should have a shift into ; 
larger size a month in advance of the tim 
you plant them out at the beginning of June 
ROOM PLANTS, 
3 617. Begonia Steins Falling Away. 
I have two Begonias in the front windov 
that grew well and flowered last summer 
One had the leaves red underneath and pro 
duced small pink flowers, and the other hac 
large, red flowers. The stems of both sud 
denly came away in November, and the rec 
one had a kind of tuber below the stem 
Will they grow again, and if so, how shal 
I treat them? (M. F. Sharp, Essex.) 
The Begonia with the small flowers anc 
the under-surface of the leaves red was prob 
ably B. evansiana, which has a tuber like 
the other one. That with the large red 
flowers was, no doubt, a variety of tuberou; 
Begonia. Keep them both in the same pot; 
till they commence to grow in spring, and 
as soon as you see the small shoots sprouting 
up you should re-pot them into pots consider 
ably smaller than they are in at present. 
Use a compost of one part fibrous loam, one 
part leaf-mould and a good sprinkling of 
sand. Mix the compost well, and pot mode¬ 
rately firmly. When the plants are about 
3 in. high you can re-pot the plants in a 
size larger, using the same compost, with 
the addition of half a part of well-decayed 
cow manure. In this they should grow 
freely, and when pushing up for flower vou 
can give them weak liquid manure once or 
twice a week. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
3 618. Rock Plants with Grey Foliage. 
We have a rockery at the lower end of the 
garden that rises up to a good height in the 
centre, and I think this will be a good 
place for planting a collection of plants 
with grey foliage, which I think would show 
up well from the doorway, whether in flower 
or not. Could you assist me with the names 
of a fair number, for the sake of variety, and 
because some may turn out better than others,1 
as the place gets rather dry in summer? (L. 
A. M., Worcestershire.) 
Plants with grey foliage suitable *for the 
drier parts of your rockery are Snow in 
Summer (Cerastium tomentosum), Achillea in 
variety, encrusted Saxifrages, Tanacetum 
argenteum, and others of that character. A11- 
tennaria dioica, A. tomentosa, Dianthus 
caesius, Festuca glaucli, Lychnis coronaria, 
L. Flos-jovis, Potentilla argyrophylla, Sem- 
pervivum arachnoideum, S. Laggeri, Ve¬ 
ronica incana, Stachys lanata, Artemisia 
glacialis, Hieracium villosum, Edelweiss 
(Leontopodium-alpinum), Teucrium Folium 
and Origanum Dictamnus are others of suit¬ 
able character for different parts of the 
rockery. 
3619. Choice Irises. 
I am going to grow Irises amongst the 
Roses, which would give a display before 
the Roses would come into bloom, and I 
think the slight shade given the Irises would 
be beneficial to them, and do the Roses no 
harm. Please name about twenty showy 
varieties. (H. Mitchell, Surrey.) 
In view of }'our intention to plant Irises 
amongst the Roses, the latter should be 5 ft. 
apart and the Roses planted alternately, to 
give them full advantage of the ground, and 
