February i6, 1907. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
120 
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. 
1519. Pelargonium Cuttings. 
I intend putting into heat the Pelar¬ 
goniums taken from outside last autumn. 
Should cuttings be taken now? They have 
white buds about an inch long. (Ealing, 
Middlesex). 
There is no necessity for taking the cut¬ 
tings at once; indeed, they are too short. 
Put your Pelargoniums into heat, and when 
the cuttings are 2 in. or 3 in. long you can 
then take them off and insert them as cut¬ 
tings. You say the buds are white, but that 
is owing to the deficiency of light during the 
winter, but by placing the plants in heat the 
cuttings will get stronger, greener, and be 
in a much better condition for rooting later 
on than if you took them off at present. 
1520. Flowers for Unheated Conservatory. 
I should be much obliged if you would 
kindly say what seeds I could' sow that 
would be in. bloom in a cold greenhouse by 
next Christmas or January. My greenhouse 
is full oL greenery, but no flowers, as I was 
too late in sowiing last year. I mean to be 
in time this year, so when shall I sow and 
please tell me of something that will look 
showy and effective. (C. H. P., Surrey). 
The difficuty in getting plants to flower 
at Christmas in an unheated house is the 
want of light and heat, and for that reason 
only certain plants will make sufficient 
growth to flower. Several of the bulbs 
would flower by that time if potted up in 
September. For instance, you could pot up 
Snowdrops, Roman Hyacinths and Crocus 
Imperati. Christmas Roses, if potted up in 
autumn, would also flower by that time under 
glass. You might also sow Winter Brown 
Wallflower and Earliest of All Wallflower 
in July, and have them in their flowering 
pots before the end of September. You 
might sow Stock Princess Alice at the same 
time, and it might give you flowers. There 
are several of the late flowering Chrysan¬ 
themums which you could either grow in 
pots or plant out in the garden during 
summer and lift before the end of Septem¬ 
ber. You'could propagate these from cut¬ 
tings in March. The varieties we refer to 
are Mrs. T. Thompson, Snowdrift and Wes¬ 
tern King, .all white) Golden Age, Golden 
Yictoria, Negoya and Mytilene, yellow; 
Framfield Pink and Louise Charvet, pink; 
Exmouth Crimson, Violet Ladv Beaumont 
and Red Canning, crimson. If you only 
grow a number of the things we have men- 
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. 
tioned, you will be able to have some flowers 
amongst your green plants. Those who 
make a practice of filling their greenhouses 
with flowering plants in winter maintain a 
temperature of 50 degs. by night by means 
of hot water pipes. 
1521. Conservatory with Frosted Glass. 
Over the dining room is a conservatory, 
off the back drawing room. This is now 
vacant, and 1 want a scheme to do it up 
very artistically indeed. There is now no 
heat in it, but a supply of cold water. 
Could one get a self-regulating stove cheap. 
I mean one which would act by a ther¬ 
mometer some way, worked by oil even if 
not self-filling with the water/ I have had 
electric light put in it. The roof is frosted 
glass and the windows are stained glass. 
The sides are walls, also, of course, the 
back, so no doubt it will not get much heat 
from the sun. Would Roses grow in it, 
say Marechal ISTiel ? (E. J. Hoey, Middle¬ 
sex). 
YVe suppose you mean that there are hot- 
water pipes in the conservatory filled with 
cold water, otherwise you will have to get 
a stove of some sort with sufficient hot-water 
pipes attached to it, to give the necessary 
temperature. In recent numbers of The 
Gardening World you will see a variety of 
stoves of moderate price offered for sale 
for the heating of conservatories, etc. In¬ 
deed, there is frequent reference in The 
Gardening World to these small stoves. 
There is not much waste of water, so that 
even if you have no self-regulating tank, 
the supply can be kept up by putting in a 
canful or two of water into the supply 
cistern now and again. At the same time 
there would be no difficulty in getting a 
small supply tank (from a hot-water en¬ 
gineer) regulated with a valve and ball for 
keeping the pipes full of water. We regret 
very much the presence of frosted glass on 
the rcof and stained glass on the sides of 
the conservatory, as the. daylight is thereby 
shut out, making the house practically use¬ 
less for plant growing. YYe could grow 
1 erns in such a place, but should not care 
to undertake the girowing of flowers. Neither 
would we recommend Roses to be planted in 
such a house.. They would give you no end 
of torment with green fly and produce very 
few flowers. YYe think the only' hope for 
such ^house would be to remove the frosted 
glass irom the roof entirely and reglaze with 
clear glass. See under Flower Garden for 
3 r our other answers. 
FLOWER GARDEN . 
1522. Plants for a Town Garden. 
I will be so much obliged if you can gi 
me some hints as to how I may make 
really original and pretty garden of tl 
little place we have. The difficulties a: 
very numerous, but still I am anxious to ,• 
least try to make something—a little oasi 
so to say. It is a town garden at tl 
back, but owing to very uneven grcun 
on the road level it is rather unusualty ope ,i 
and free from dirt. I enclose a rough plai 
Now it is all rough and I suppose woul 
want digging up and a lot of new soi 
YY'e think of running a high trellis rig] 
round, only will it stop the sun entirely 
There are a pair of old shutters outside ti 
dining-room window, but we think of ha 
ing French windows, and could one not gi 
a pair of collapsing iron shutiers? The 
the house walls would be free for nic. 
climbers. YY’culd Roses grow in the gardens 
Is stiff, cla3'ey soil wanted for them? C 
course, some nice grass would be wanted 
I do not know if a kind of little pavilion-: 
as back gardens are rather overlooked—ou 
side the dining-room window would be pc.- 
sible, one must not darken it a bit thougl 
Please answer me very fully as I am no 
at all skilled in gardening. (E. J. Hoei 
Middlesex). 
Your best plan is to set about digging th 
garden deeply or even trenching it, or g< 
someone to do so. Incorporate a considei 
able amount of manure with the soil whil 
the operations are proceeding. YY’e thin 
new soil will not be necessary if 3'ou trend 
and manure well. If the soil is clayey, a 
we think it would be if the natural soil 0 
your district is still there, the clay shoul 
not be brought to the top, though it cai 
be partly mixed with the better soil on th 
top. YY'e think it is a pity to put a higl 
trellis round a small garden, especially whei 
so many high buildings are near it. Indeed 
the chief difficulty in growing many thing: 
will be the want of proper light or direc 
sunshine. For such a garden we shoulc 
recommend such things as Iris germanica 
I. pallida, I. p. dalmatioa, I. p. Queen ol 
May, I. sibirica and I. Mme. Chereau 
also Aquilegias, Evening Primroses, Impa 
tiens Roylei (an annual that sows' itself). 
YY'oodruff and Erigeron specicsus. Annual; 
that you might try are Shirley Poppies. 
Clarkia pulchella, Malope trifida grandi- 
flora, Lavatera trimestris, Lupinus nanus, 
Eschscholtzia, Erysimum perofskianum, 
YY r allflower and Godetias. Bulbs that would 
succeed are English Bluebells, Spanish Blue¬ 
bells and Daffodils. If the garden gets a 
fair amount of sunshine ymu could grow 
such Roses as La France, Mrs. J. Laing, 
Ulrich Brunner, Capt. Hayward, Dupuv 
J amain and Caroline Testout. Tall Roses 
for pillars would be Crimson Rambler and 
Dorothy Perkins. The plan of 3'our garden 
does not quite indicate whether it is much 
overshadowed by the houses which are close 
by, but we presume that it is, and have 
mentioned those things which are most llkelv 
to do._ The Roses should be planted about 
the centre or else towards the side which 
faces , south. That again depends - whether 
the sunshine really strikes 3'our garden or 
a part of it during the day. The possibility 
of success with Roses would depend upon 
their getting sunshine at least during some 
hours of the day. There is scarce^ room 
for a lawn in the garden judging by vour 
measurements, but grass would grow if the 
conditions are suitable for flower growing. 
YY'e think you should have no difficulty in 
getting collapsing iron. shutters fitted up 
for the French windows. The wall space 
might then be covered with climbers, of 
which one of the best that could be planted 
under the circumstances is Ampelopsis 
Y'eitchi, and if the wall gets any r sunshine 
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