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THE GARDENING WORLD 
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column short letters, discussing any 
gardening subject. 
Letters should not exceed 150 words 
each in length, and must be written 
on one side oj the fafer only. 
Two Ptizes of ?s. bd. each will be 
awarded each week for the two Letters 
which the- Editor considers to be the 
best. 
How I Made a Garden Roller. 
I wanted to roll a gravel path in my 
garden ; an iron roller costs more than 1 
cared to spend for my small requirements, 
so I procured a two feet length of 12 in. 
drain pipe, and cut two discs of wood to 
fit tightly in the. ends, filling the pipe 
with wet clay, rammed tightly as pos¬ 
sible, and drove in the wooden discs, fas¬ 
tening them with thin w r edges. An iron 
rod passed through the centre acted as 
axle, and fastening to the projecting ends 
two stout sticks (binding with wire) I had 
a complete roller that has done all the 
work 1 needed. 
MALMAISON. 
Alocasias. 
Alocasias are plants of great beauty and 
easily grown into large specimens, pro¬ 
viding the' proper treatment be given, 
which consists of supplying them with 
strong moist heat, and an abundant supply 
of water at the roots during the growing 
season. This naturally causes the 
material in which they are potted to de¬ 
compose quickly, and necessitates its 
being renewed yearly. Where this is not 
done it is liable to get sour. The soil 
should consist of peat and well-decom¬ 
posed manure in equal parts, with the ad¬ 
dition of a little loam and silver sand. 
Spring being the best time to shift them, 
most of the old soil should be taken.away. 
Alocasias are surface rooters, and do best 
when the pots have a greater depth of 
drainage in them than is used for most 
things. In summer the plants should 
have a warm stove temperature, and be 
carefully shaded from the sun. 
Fitz. 
Hamilton. 
A Simple Frame. 
Wishing to strike a quantity of Pansies, 
Violas, Calceolarias, Pentstemons and 
some herbaceous cuttings, and not having 
sufficient frame room, I made up a slop¬ 
ing bed at the foot of a south-east wall 
alongside my frames. Having some old 
window sashes, I proceeded to erect a few 
frames with common red bricks. I merely 
laid the bricks on edge on the surface of 
the sloping bed, forming a frame the de¬ 
sired size. The frames were then filled 
with cuttings, the sashes laid on and 
shaded till the cuttings were rooted. They 
were very easily protected during severe 
frosts, being so close to the ground. I 
lost a considerable quantity of the cut¬ 
tings in the wooden frames by damping 
off, but in the brick ones nearly every cut¬ 
ting came safely 7 through the winter, and 
thev were also stronger plants. Bricks 
being of an absorbent nature had kept the 
atmosphere of the frames in a more con¬ 
genial condition during wet weather. 
W. Chalmers. 
Muchalls. 
Removing Faded and Seeding Flowers. 
This is far more important work than 
most people realise, indeed, some think 
so little of it that it is scarcely done at 
all. Yet how much the future vitality 
and floriferousness of a plant is helped 
by the continual doing of this simple task, 
to say nothing of the added neatness the 
removal of decaying flowers must mean. 
The following, among others, particularly 
repay such care:—Sweet Peas, Violas, 
Linums, single Roses, Mignonette, and 
Verbenas. A strong pair of scissors an¬ 
swers admirably for this purpose. 
C. T. 
Highgate, N. 
What to do with Refuse. 
In winter most folks have fires which 
serve as destructors for their vegetable, 
fruit, and other food refuse. In summer 
fires are rare in thousands of homes to 
which gardens are attached, and it is 
sometimes quite a problem what best to 
do for want of the winter destructor. Pro¬ 
bably 7 most of those who know the value of 
the chemical elements composing the re¬ 
fuse stack it from day to day to rot for 
future use. This is not the most sanitary 
thing to do, and much of the virtue of 
the heap is wasted. A better and more 
economical method is to trench every 
available piece of ground and dig the re¬ 
fuse in at once, leaving a few inches of 
clear soil on the surface in which to im¬ 
mediately plant either seedlings or larger 
growths. 
B. 
Marple Bridge. 
-f+4- 
Geranium 
Paul Crampel. 
This Geranium is most conspicuous in 
the flower garden where used as a bedding 
plant, and at the present time is at its 
best. The large scarlet flowers are much 
admired for their beauty of colour, and 
lasting properties. The praises of all gar¬ 
deners, amateur and professional, justify 7 
its position as foremost among bedding 
Geraniums. 
For bedding purposes, cuttings are best 
struck in the autumn. A simple plan is 
to strike them in August out of doors, 
first sprinkling a layer of sharp sand over 
the rooting’ area, and inserting short 
jointed, well ripened cuttings. These 
should be potted into three inch pots'when 
sufficiently rooted, and placed in a cold 
frame, using a potting compost of equal 
parts of loam, leafmould and sand. Ad¬ 
mit air on all favourable occasions, but 
have sufficient artificial heat at command 
to exclude frost during severe frosts in 
September 5, 1908. 
winter. Pinch out the growing points 
when established to form good, bushes, 
and cut off all flower buds as they' appear, 
the object being to get strong robust 
plants to give an effective summer display. 
Cuttings may also be struck in Sep¬ 
tember in boxes, and potted into three 
inch pots in February, growing them in a 
cold frame as before, and admitting 
plenty of fresh air on bright days to dis¬ 
pel excessive moisture, and so^ prevent 
damping off. In both cases the plants 
must. be hardened off so that the lights 
can be entirely removed by 7 the second of 
third week in May. 
The method we adopt is to plant them out 
in their pots, as by this means we obtain 
more blooms and a more compact plant. 
In the autumn, when the space has to be 
cleared for Wallflowers, the Geran.ums 
are lifted carefully and trimmed into 
shape, making cuttings of the trimmings, 
and the plants are housed, to be subse¬ 
quently potted into six inch pots to flower 
during the winter months,' when these 
flowers are most acceptable, both for the 
conservatory and for house decoration. 
Floral cement should be used when thev 
are to be employed as cut flowers, and 
they are always a welcome addition when 
flowers are scarce, and there is a great 
demand. 
We strike more cuttings, in spring, which 
root quickly, and make good plants by 
May, when they are hardened off, and 
ready to be bedded out for the summer 
display. 
The old plants that flowered in winter 
are used for large beds, and discarded the 
following autumn. By this system we 
always have a batch of y 7 oung plants to 
plant out, with a reserve of one year old 
plants. 
John P. Holt. 
-- 
Poisonous Mushrooms. 
Thirteen persons in France were re¬ 
cently fatally poisoned by eating veno¬ 
mous Mushrooms. . Dr. Secheyron, a 
medical expert, says that all would have 
been saved had they taken as an antidote 
powdered wood-charcoal. 
dangerous Fruit for Children. 
Giving evidence at a Hackney inquest 
on a boy who had died from eating bad 
Plums, Dr. W. A. Hume gave it as hi; 
opinion that even good Plums were a 
dangerous fruit for children, as pieces 
of skin were apt to get stuck to the coat 
of the stomach, and irritation and inflam¬ 
mation were thus set up. He added that 
he saw thirty-five cases of illness among 
children the previous day all due to eat¬ 
ing Plums or raw Tomatos. 
Caladium Golden King. 
The shield-shaped leaves of this yellow 
variety attain a large size, indicating that 
the plant is more vigorous than some ol 
the yellow leaved kinds. The darker por¬ 
tion of the leaf is greenish yellow, but 
when getting old there are creamy yel¬ 
low patches, while the veins are of a; 
darker greenish yellow. At the base oil 
the three principal ribs is a triangular 
carmine blotch, giving the whole leaf ar 
handsome appearance. A well-growr 
plant of it was shown by Messrs. Johr 
Peed and Son at the meeting of the 
R.H.S. on August 18th. 
