THE GARDENING WORLD 
March 13, 1909. 
i3o 
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. 
3688. Name and Value of Orchid. 
Will you kindly tell me through The 
Gardening World the name of this Orchid 
and also its value. It has seven spikes or 
growths. I have had it seven years and this 
is the first time it has flowered. (T. Miller, 
Northumberland.) 
The flower you sent us was Dendrobium 
Ainsworthii roseum catalogued and priced 
some years ago at 10s. 6d. each, but it must 
now be cheaper, though that would depend 
upon the size of the plant. It belongs to a 
group of hybrids which flower freely every 
vear if grown under suitable conditions. 
We presume you have been keeping it at too 
low a temperature when making its growth 
or else you failed to ripen it off properly 
after the completion of growth. The tem¬ 
perature from November to February may 
be kept at 55 degs. while the plant is rest¬ 
ing. During 'March and April when the 
fine weather is causing it to recommence 
growth the night temperature may rise to 
60 degs. with a rise of 5 degs. by day or 
10 degs. by sun heat. From May to August 
a night temperature of 65 degs. should be 
allowed. From September to October it may 
begin to drop again to 60 degs. or 62 degs., 
always remembering that the temperature 
should rise a few degrees during the day 
and higher with sun heat without doing the 
plants any damage. It is a hybrid between 
some of the forms of Dendrobium nobile and 
D. aureum, and although the former at least 
may be flowered in a much lower tempera¬ 
ture the blooms are neither so large nor so 
well coloured as they would be when treated 
as above directed. 
3689. Trailers for Front of Staging. 
We have a small span-roofed conservatory 
in which we grow Fuchsias, Geraniums, 
Marguerites and Heliotropes. The house 
has a central staging with side shelves, and 
we want some plants, flowering or otherwise, 
to stand on the edges of the staging and to 
hang down. Frost is kept out in winter. 
Please name a few things we could grow 
(F. Ward, Birmingham.) 
Useful flowering trailing plants, that could 
be grown in small pots and stood on the 
edges of the staging are Campanula iso 
phylla, C. i. alba. Fuchsia procumbens, Har- 
' ison’s Musk and Convolvulus mauritanicus. 
Easily-grown foliage plants for the same ^ 
purpose are Isolepis gracilis and Trades- 
cantia zebrina. 
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. V/hen 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. 
3 690. Particulars of South African 
Plants. 
There is a gentleman who tells me that this 
is not Acokanthera spectabilis. He got it 
in .South Africa. I forget what he called 
it. He says the juice after cutting is 
poisonous. I enclose you the flower of it to 
name, or did it go under another name? 
Please give me full particulars. You will 
remember I sent you part of the same plant 
with berries on it three or four weeks ago. 
I want to see who is right. Also, is No. 2 
the Agapanthus? (Old China, 'Fifeshire.) 
We quite agree with your friend that the 
plant comes from South Africa, but we still 
maintain that we furnished you with the 
right name. There are only two species in 
cultivation, namely, Acokanthera specta¬ 
bilis, sometimes grown under the name of 
Toxicophlaea spectabilis. The other is A. 
venenata, also called Toxicophlaea Thun- 
bergii, But the leaves of this one are shorter. 
The plants may be grown in a warm green¬ 
house, and yours has evidently been grown 
under this cool treatment. When grown in 
a stove the leaves are of a brighter green. 
The second one we name is sometimes grown 
as a stove climber, when it is trained up 
under the roof, but A. spectabilis is usually 
grown in pots in the stove or greenhouse 
for the sake of its sweet-scented flowers in 
winter and early soring. The blue flower 
you sent us was the South African Lily 
(Aeapanthus umbellatus), which is even 
more at home in a greenhouse than the shrub 
you sent. The Agapanthus is nearly hardy 
in the neighbourhood of London. 
3691. Pruning' Habrothamnus. 
I have two plants of Habrothamnus ele- 
eans trained up nillars in the greenhouse. 
They were planted two years ago and gave 
a fair amount of bloom last year. Some of 
the branches, especially those upon the top, 
are rather straggling. Do they renuire prun¬ 
ing and what should I do to them now? 
(Charles Page, Hants.) 
It is not yet too late to prune the Habro¬ 
thamnus, but you could have Druned it with 
advantage after it had finished flowering, 
and that would have given it a longer time 
to make a fresh start, produce young wood 
and flower again. Retain a sufficient num¬ 
ber of the main stems or branches, tie them 
to the pillar and then prune back the lateral 
shoots to one or two buds near the base. 
This makes the process very simple, and in 
future years, if you give the plants this cut¬ 
ting back as soon as flowering is finished, 
the buds for the following year’s shoots will 
be gradually pushing as the temperature 
rises in spring, and thus give them longer 
time to develop and enable them to flower 
earlier. 
ROOM PLANTS. 
3692. Shamrock and Worms. 
I have a Shaihrock plant in a pot and 
every morning there is a heap of worm casts 
on the top of the pot, and these are very 
unsightly. Can you say how I can get rid 
of the worms? (E. Carter, Sussex.) 
Give the plant a good watering so as to 
loosen the roots from the sides of the pots, 
wait for two hours till this drains away, 
and then turn the pot mouth downwards 
over your hand and tap it with a piece of 
wood to make the ball of soil drop out on 
your hand. When worms are in pots they 
often lie round the sides of the pot and out¬ 
side the soil. If you act quickly you can 
catch the worm and thereby get rid of it. 
Another plan is to put a lump of quicklime 
about the size of the hand into a gallon of 
water and let this stand for twenty-four 
hours. The sediment will then settle and 
you can water the plant with the clear water. 
This lime water will cause the worms that 
are present to come on the top of the soil, 
when, of course, you can get rid of them. 
FERNS. 
3693. Maidenhair Ferns Turning 
Brown. 
Could you say why my Maidenhair Ferns 
turn brown after they have been in the house 
for six or eight weeks? They are regularly 
watered every week. (E. Carter, Sussex.) 
The pinnae, that is, the leafy portion of 
the fronds, are so thin that they very soon 
part with their moisture in the dry atmo¬ 
sphere of dwelling rooms. They thus gradu¬ 
ally get dried up and become old and brown 
before their proper time. If you have anyj 
other means of keeping them you should 
make a point of changing the plants fre¬ 
quently, bringing some fresh ones into the. 
house and carrying out the old ones, return¬ 
ing them to the greenhouse, fernery or pit, 
or even frame, if you have one. This would 
allow the Ferns to partly recuperate after 
being in the house, but the fronds would 
really not suffer to any great extent if you 
remove them once a week or fortnight pro¬ 
vided there are no gas fumes in the house. 
Another method of dealing with them is 
covering each plant with a bell-glass suffi¬ 
ciently large to cover them without crushing; 
the fronds. This has the effect of retaining 
the moisture about them, and the fronds 
should keep green all the year round. Of 
course, there will be a time when the bell- 
glass gets so covered with condensed mois¬ 
ture that it would be convenient for appear¬ 
ance sake even to wipe the inside of the glass: 
with a piece of cloth or a sponge. If this 
was allowed to drip on the fronds it would 
have an injurious effect upon them. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
3694. Mixed Border Unsatisfactory. 
Last year I had a mixed border that did 
not do so well as I should have expected. 
The Hollyhocks threw out large leaves and 
seemed to shade the Pentstemons too much, 
and they only gave small spikes of bloom. 
■Some large, clumps of Daffodils did well, 
but when the leaves died down they left 
large bare patches that looked unsightly all 
the summer. The Violets were planted in; 
March and they only gave a few bloomsj 
and did not make very good growth ail the 
