January ig, 1907. THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Address: The Editor, The Gardening 
Vorld, 37 and 38, Shoe Lane, London, E.C. 
The Editor invites enquiries, which may 
over any branch of gardening. Questions 
hould be as brief as -possible and written on 
me side of the paper only; a separate sheet 
if paper should be used for each question. 
Replies cannot be sent by post. 
Garden Plans .—Gardeners who would make 
he best use of this column are invited to 
i Prepare and forward to us a rough outline 
Irawing or plan of their gardens, indicating 
he position of beds and lawns, the charac¬ 
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 
plat 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. 
'rrrrrrrrrrrrrrri 
STOVE AND GREENHOUSE. 
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i-129. Heating a Greenhouse. 
I have installed a heating apparatus 
which, heats 12ft. of 2in. pipe (flow and 
return) admirably. The temperature is 
.(easily retained at 43 degrees or more when 
'[there is sharp frost outside. It consists 
of an ordinary gas-heating stove with the 
asbestos removed and! a boiler made of iin. 
gas piping arranged in its place, and this 
ll connected up to 2m. piping. The gas 
fumes are carried by a 3m. pipe up from 
the stove and across the greenhouse out¬ 
side with a T piece at the end to- avoid back 
draught. Will you explain, please, why 
Azalea mollis leaves should drop off, 
Geraniums turn yellow, fibrous Begonia 
leaves drop off, 'and outer foliage of Arums 
hang very limp? Is it too much water? 
Cyclamens are fine. (X2, Glamorgan). 
As far as we can make out there is no¬ 
thing seriously wrong with your plants. 
The Azalea naturally loses all its leaves 
in winter. Geraniums lose many of their 
old leaves during winter owing to the 
weakness of the light. The fibrous Be¬ 
gonias are liable to drop- their old leaves 
for various reasons. They might be 
checked by a drop in the temperature, by 
injury from a small mite on the leaves, or 
they might really have had a little of the 
gas fumes. The limpness of the leaves 
of Arums might be due to old age, and the 
check they might have had when potting 
them up in autumn or repotting. None 
of the plants you mention should be al¬ 
lowed to get dry, but they should just be 
nicely moist at the roots. If it had been 
due to the heating apparatus,' we think the 
Cyclamens would have shown it very 
quickly by the discolouration of the flowers 
and shrivelling. So long as the gas 
fumes pass readily away, we do- not think 
that any harm will result on that score. 
Much depends upon how the wind strikes 
the top of the flue or chimney which 
carries awav the fumes, and this can only 
be determined c-n the spot. By observ¬ 
ing whether the gas burns steadily or not 
you can see whether the upward current 
is regular, and if so you should be safe. 
ROOM PLANTS. 
1430. Name of Fern and Treatment. 
Please give me the name of enclosed 
Fern, the best time of the year for parting, 
and if any special way of doiim it is 
necessary. (Fern, Somerset). 
The Fern you send us is Pteris cretica, 
vGhich is most at home in a greenhouse, 
but can be grown in a window, though you 
do not tell us what convenience you have 
for keeping it. If in your dwelling-house, 
it should be kept as near the glass as 
possible, except in severe weather. Light 
is necessary to keep the fronds vigorous 
and healthy. The fronds are liable to get 
dusty in rooms where fire is burning, but 
you can keep them clean by occasionally 
sponging the fronds or syringing them. A 
small syringe would be a very convenient 
article to possess, as it 1 eeps plants clean 
without the damage that is liable to occur 
by careless handling when sponging. April 
would be the best time for dividing the 
plant when grown in a window, as growth 
will then soon be commencing, if it has not 
already started by that time. In any case 
it would be safe to accomplish this work 
just as growth shows the first signs of 
moving. If you have a cold frame in a 
sheltered sunny position you could get 
good growth on your plant by putting it in 
there, and after hardening the fronds by 
plenty of ventilation you can return the 
plants to the house. The fronds should 
stand till the following spring. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
1431. Flowers in Spring and Autumn. 
My house is closed 1 during July and 
August, but I want all the flowers I can 
get in June and September. Will you 
kindly advise me? (J. Sturt, Middle¬ 
sex). 
You can easily get an abundant supply 
of flowers from spring up- to June by se¬ 
curing some of those subjects which natur¬ 
ally bloom about that time. For instance, 
you could sow in August such annuals as 
Erysimum perofskianu-m, Silene pendula, 
Myosotis or Forget-me-not, Eschscholtzia 
californica, Collinsia bicolor, Iceland Pop¬ 
pies, Wallflower, etc. In the way of 
perennials, you could grow Primroses, 
Polyanthuses, Arabis albida, A. a. flore 
pleno, Aquilegias, Doronicums, Trollius, 
Irises, perennial Candytuft, Pyrethrums, 
Pa-eonies, Delphiniums, etc. These could 
be greatly multiplied, and if you favour 
any particular class of plants, you might 
let us know, and we -would name varieties. 
For autumn flowering you could grow 
Antirrhinums, Love-lies-Bleeding, Prince's 
Feather, Tropaeolums, China Asters, Esch- 
scholtzias (sown in April), French and 
45 
African Marigolds, Indian Pinks, and other 
flowers of that class. In the way of 
perennials you have a whole host of 
Michaelmas Daisies, commencing with 
Aster Amellus in August right up to the 
end of November. Also Sunflowers, 
Golden Rods, Hollyhocks, Dahlias, Chry¬ 
santhemum uliginosum, C. latifolium, 
Cimicifuga simplex, and varieties of 
Japanese Anemone (Anemone japonica). 
1432. Laced Pinks. 
In your issue of January 5th there is an 
article on “Laced Pinks,” signed W. H. 
Morton. Would you kindly inform me 
where I could get the above plants, all but 
one I have John Ball. I presume they 
are all double. What would they cost? 
(J. Webster, Lancashire). 
It would be difficult to name any florist 
who has all of the variety's you mention, 
as the laced) Pinks are peculiarly florists’ 
flowers, and for many years past this fine 
strain has been very much neglected, so 
that some private growers may even have 
more of the old varieties than the florists 
themselves. Nevertheless, there are flor¬ 
ists who keep -a collection, and most of 
them know where the rest of the varieties 
are to be obtained, so that by writing to a 
florist who grows these things he would 
probably be able to get most of them for 
you. They dually run from gd. to is. 
per pair of yo-uing rooted plants. You 
will find advertisers of Carnations on the 
front cover of The Gardening World 
to lst December, and you 
will find some of them grow Pinks as well 
as Carnations. The laced Pinks are 
double. 
1433. Garden Facing North. 
Will you give me a varied list (1) of 
what to obtain to plant now for early 
satisfaction in a bed lacing north in a back 
garden about 10 yds. long by 2 yds. 
wide (2) What would be the arrangement 
of planting—highest at the back, I pre¬ 
sume (3) Being late with bulbs, having 
p anted same a day ago, can you suggest 
to me any means whereby I may, although 
ate, get them in bloom a little earlier than 
they would considering the lateness of 
planting, fhey are in open beds in back 
garden? (Egypt, Lancashire.) 
(1 and 2) We think your best plan would 
be to get good plants of easily grown 
flowers such as Wallflowers, Polyanthus and 
Forget-me-not. For instance, you mffiht 
get a pleasing effect by planting two rmvs 
of a yellow Wallflower at the back of the 
bed with two rows of a dark brown or 
blood-red variety in front of it It all 
depends, however, upon the background 
as to whether you put the yellow or the 
red at the back. We think the yellow at 
the back would show up best and serve 
to show up the dark colour in front of it. 
t ou could then follow this up by a broad 
band of a white or yellow Polyanthus 
consisting of young plants raised from 
seed last summer. In front of this again 
you could have a band of blue Foreet- 
rne-Not (Myosotis sylvatica or some variety 
of it). As an edging you could use white 
irimroses or Arabis albida with white 
flowers. All of these are easily .grown 
plants and if you get healthy stuff vou 
could get a fair display in spring. ’We 
should doubt if you could raise the plants 
in your garden to give the same satisfaction 
as young plants grown under suitable con¬ 
ditions elsewhere, but these are matters 
which have got -to be proved by experi¬ 
ment. Light is the great object, ' as most 
ot these things delight in plenty of li°fit 
even if not direct sunshine while making 
their growth. (3) Having planted your bulbs 
under the unfavourable conditions which 
