September 12, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
589 
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 gardens, indicating 
the position of beds and lawns, the charac- 
STOVE AND GREENHOUSE. 
3185. Treatment of Gloxinias. 
As a constant reader of your paper, and 
especially the -‘Enquire Within” column, 
I should feel obliged if you could assist 
me with an answer to the following. I 
have some seedling Gloxinias in small 60 
pets, the largest would measure io inches 
across. What treatment should I give these 
to ensure a good show next summer. 
'Rosette, Surrey.) 
After your plants go out of flower grad¬ 
ually with-hold water to induce the leaves 
n ripen off. When the leaves are quite 
withered, you can pull them off and stand 
your plants in some house where the tem¬ 
perature will remain at 45 degs. to 50 degs. 
of heat if you have that convenience. The 
high temperature is necessary to prevent 
damping, but if they are well ripened off 
before being stored away they may come 
through the winter safely in a lower tem¬ 
perature. Keep the tubers in the pots as 
they are and lay the pots on their sides 
in some part of the house where they will 
not be subjected to drip from pots above 
them. In February you should think of 
starting them again. There are two methods 
of doing this, one of which is to take the 
pots, soil and all, into a warm house or 
stand them in a hotbed at a temperature of 
60 degrees. Syringe the pots occasionally 
on the top of the soil to encourage fresh 
growth in the tubers. As soon as they have 
begun to sprout it would be well to pot 
them off singly in 2^ in. pots which will 
just take the tuber comfortably. Another 
plan is to shake the tubers out of the old 
soil and put them into pots of the size we 
mention. It is better not to put them into 
too large pots to begin with as they might 
damp oft. This is why we advocate small 
pets to start them in. As they are in 60 
size pots now, they may be repotted as soon 
as they have made some leaves and the roots 
have passed through the soil and show 
themselves at the sides of the small pots. 
I hey should fill a 4^ in. or 5 in. pot accord¬ 
ing to the size and strength of the tuber. 
They can either be flowered in this size or 
if they show plenty of vigour you can re¬ 
pot them into the 32 size y that is, 6 in. pots. 
Compost varies a good deal, but generally 
it is light, and you could make up a good 
compost consisting of one part each of leaf 
mould and peat with half a part of fibrous 
loam and a good dash of sand. The leaf 
trould should be flaky and not over decayed. 
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. 
By starting in February you will have 
plenty of time to get good growth in }'our 
plants, and if you have seedlings next year 
they will form a succession to the old 
plants. While making their growth they 
should, of course, be close to the glass and 
have plenty of light, except when the sun 
gets powerful, after which a light shading 
during the middle of the day will be bene¬ 
ficial. In fine weather they should be 
syringed twice a day to keep down thrips 
and .red spider. 
3186. Heliotropes in Winter. 
Could I treat my bedding Heliotropes the 
same as I do my Fuchsias, namely, when 
the frost cuts off the leaves dry them off 
and store them in boxes of soil in a cellar 
for the winter, as my greenhouse room is 
limited. (Rosette, Surrey.) 
Heliotropes being evergreen cannot be 
treated like Fuchsias, as they are very soon 
injured by frost, not being hardy. Your 
best plan would be to cut them well back 
at the end of September or earlier. If 
there is any sign of frost before that time, 
you will have to protect them at night by 
some means or ether. The best plan then 
would be to lift the plants, cut them well 
back, leaving a fair quantity of foliage 
upon them. Pot them up in light soil in 
pots that will just take the roots comfort¬ 
ably without being too big. These pots 
should be stood upon a shelf in the green¬ 
house. In many greenhouses special shelves 
are fitted up in winter for the purpose of 
holding bedding plants, and j'ou could 
possiblv manage to suspend a shelf in a 
convenient place for holding bedding plants 
in this way. It would be woith your while 
to have cuttings inserted at once in pots in 
light soil and have them rooted. They 
would be more likely to pass through the 
winter than plants which have been lifted 
from the open ground and had their roots 
mutilated at the end of the growing season. 
Rooted cuttings could be kept in much less 
space than old plants. The latter should 
only be retained if you would like large 
specimens for planting out in spring. We 
are afraid, however, that you will have 
some trouble in keeping old plants. 
3187. Winter Temperature for Helio¬ 
tropes. 
Kindly let me know the lowest tempera¬ 
ture that Heliotropes may be kept in through 
the winter. I have a cold greenhouse. (J. 
R. Welch, Middlesex.) 
The best temperature for keeping Helio¬ 
tropes in winter would be 50 degs. to 55 
degs., but if they are established in pots 
they may be brought through the winter at 
a much lower temperature. Just at what 
figure this may be placed, it would be 
difficult to say without experiment, but it 
should be at least 2 degs. or 3 degs. above 
freezing. It may even sink a little more 
than that without killing the Heliotropes 
during the resting period, but it is always 
well to have a margin of several degrees 
above the danger point. If you could 
maintain a temperature of 35 degs. to 40 
degs. the plant would pull through the 
winter. If the number is limited they could 
be taken into a dwelling house during 
severe frost, if you are unable to keep the 
frost out of the greenhouse. 
3188. Begonias with Single Flowers. 
I have some seedling Begonias in pots 
that are coming nicely into bloom. They 
were bought for double varieties, but some 
of them have only single flowers and others 
have single and double flowers on the same 
plant. Is this a freak, or have they de¬ 
generated ? How can I keep them in win¬ 
ter ? At present they are in the conserva¬ 
tory. (W. West, Bucks.) 
There is nothing strange about the con¬ 
dition of your Begonias. It is the usual 
condition to find single and double flowers 
upon the same plant. The single ones are 
female or seed bearing flowers. Both these 
forms occur on each plant. The strain of 
seed you had may not have been a very 
high-class one if some of the flowers were 
entirely single on some of the plants. Even 
the best strains may give a number of 
flowers that are inferior, but most of them 
would show flowers of varying degress of 
doubleness. Keep the plants supplied with 
water until they show signs of getting ex¬ 
hausted, when you can let them gradually 
dry off. When perfectly ripened the stems 
will fall away from the top of the tuber. 
When this has taken place;, all you have 
to do is to clear away the decayed stems 
and leaves and stand the pots in some part 
of the conservatory' where frost will just 
be kept out in winter. If fairly dry a few 
degress of frost would not hurt them. In 
March you can stand the pots in a sunny 
situation of the greenhouse and syringe the 
soil to encourage the plants to make fresh 
growth. As soon as they commence to throw 
up leafy shoots shake out the tubers, make 
up a fresh compost and repot them in pots 
of small size, so that you can give them at 
least one other shift later on. 
ROOM PLANTS. 
3189. Fuchsias not Flowering. 
I should be glad if you will tell me the 
name of the branch of iFuchsia I have sent 
and why it has not flowered this season. 
(G. Isaac, Middlesex.) 
The piece of Fuchsia you sent us is one 
of the florist’s varieties—that is, which have 
been improved by raising good varieties 
from seed. It is impossible, however, to 
name Fuchsias from leaves. It shows very 
weak growth and if your plant has not 
grown more vigorously than the piece sent 
it would indicate that something is wrong 
with the cultural treatment. You either 
have it in too small a pot, or it has been 
too long in the same pot and the soil has 
become exhausted. It is too late in the 
season now to attempt encouraging growth, 
but you should keep it on the dry side until 
some time in March, earlier or later accord¬ 
ing to your convenience. We presume vou 
have been growing it in a window,, but vou 
do not say so. In March shake away all 
the old soil and make up a compost con¬ 
sisting of one part loam, half a part each 
of leaf mould and well-decayed cow manure 
passed through a half-inch sieve to make 
it fine. Half a part of sand should be 
