THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 2, 1907. 
! 5 6 
gestions about this point would much oblige. 
(H. Readman, Derbyshire.) 
The Hop is a very accommodating plant, 
and will climb in a variety of directions, 
except directly downwards. Its method of 
climbing is by twining, and if the arch is 
made of wires, iron rods, wire netting, or 
anything open, it will twine and support 
itself until it reaches the top, after which 
it may be allowed to ramble at its own sweet 
will. The stems have, of course, to be cut 
down every year, as they are herbaceous. 
Your better plan, therefore, would be to 
get an arch as simple as possible, remember¬ 
ing that if much interlaced amongst wire 
netting it would take a deal of trouble to 
cut down in the autumn. . 
1569. Tuberous Begonias and Lobelias. 
At the bottom of my garden I have a 
raised bed facing due south. Two years ago 
I planted Begonias and half-standard Fu¬ 
chsias, Duke of Edinburgh. The bed was 
very heavy mould, and neither the Begonias 
nor Fuchsias did any real good. The past 
two seasons the ground has been heavily 
manured, limed, and worked 2 ft. deep. It 
is now certainly in much better tilth. Do 
you think I am likely to succeed with double 
Begonias in such a position, the aspect being 
due south? My idea is to carpet the bed 
with Lobelia Emperor William, putting 
white Begonias between and filling the 
circles with white Lobelia, putting scarlet 
Begonias between. Would not the Lobelia 
forming the carpet keep the Begonia tubers 
moist at the roots? My trouble is that the 
surface gets so baked with the sun in 
summer. If my system is feasible, how far 
apart should I plant the Lobelias to form a 
complete carpet? Any suggestions will be 
thankfully acted on. Enclosed sketch will 
show the positions. (Faye, Harringay.) 
You have done right in manuring and 
liming the ground in order to open it up 
and make it more porous. You are also cor¬ 
rect in supposing that the heavy soil gets 
baked in summer. In summer flower bed¬ 
ding it is necessary to carpet the ground 
with something if the taller plants are put 
in at some distance apart, as no ground 
should be left unhidden. The Lobelias will, 
however, assist greatly in keeping the sur¬ 
face soil cool, if not moist, because such 
plants are always giving off a certain 
amount of moisture on their own account. 
Begonias are very shallow rooting plants, 
and those nurserymen who raise them in 
quantity plant them so close together that 
their roots soon cover the ground after 
they commence growing. In dry seasons 
it is necessary, however, even then to give 
copious supplies of water. You should, 
therefore, give water liberally if you can, 
and the Lobelias will be of great assistance 
in preventing the rapid escape of the mois¬ 
ture. Before planting the Begonias, if you 
could give the ground a good dressing with 
well rotted cow manure broken up finely, 
or even leaf mould, this would help largely 
in retaining the moisture. When you dig 
or trench the ground in autumn ranker 
manure may be employed for the purpose of 
improving your clay soil. Road sweepings 
would also’ be of service, as they contain 
grit as well as horse droppings. The Lo¬ 
belias should not be planted more than 3 in. 
apart, as the stems of Emperor William are 
very short, and do not cover much ground 
If the question of watering is a difficult 
one, you might be-able to get some cocoa- 
nut fibre with which to mulch the ground, 
as this would act in retaining the moisture. 
A layer of it could be put over the surface 
after the Lobelias and other subjects have 
been planted. Artificial watering is of much 
or eater service when a mulch has been used. 
Bv thus improving the soil you should cer- 
ta'inlv be able to grow Begonias in a gaiden 
with such good exposure to sunshine. 
1570. Raising Rhodanthe. 
Many thanks for kind information regard¬ 
ing Rhodanthe. I am sorry I did not make 
you fully understand that it was for cut 
bloom I wished to raise them. Will you 
say if it is possible to raise the plants in 
the greenhouse and transplant them out¬ 
doors as I wish to grow a large quantity. 
(Enterprise, Warwickshire). 
We have raised Rhodanthe and also the 
closely allied Acrcclinium roseum in the 
same way as we did Stocks and Asters. 
The plan is to sow the seeds in pots or pans 
as seeds are usually treated and then trans¬ 
plant them into boxes about 3 in. deep in a 
compost consisting of loam, leaf mould and 
sand, using a fair quantity of the leaf 
mould to bind the soil together about the 
roots to facilitate transplanting. After they 
have been established in heat you can trans¬ 
fer the boxes to a cold frame, planting out 
the Rhodanthes some time in May. It would 
entail a good deal of labour to raise them 
all in this way, but you can get a succes¬ 
sion by raising a quantity under glass and 
sowing the remainder out of dcors about the 
beginning of April. These latter seedlings 
will bloom later than the others. 
LAWNS. 
1571. Lawn with Scanty Germination. 
You will greatly oblige me if you will 
give me advice on the above. I have a 
piece of ground at the back of my house 
which I had prepared and planted with 
grass seed last October. It measures 13 
yds. by 4^ yds., but I find the grass has 
come up rather scanty. Should you advise 
me to scatter some more seed over this and 
to riddle some soil over it or rake it over 
first? I might say it is very good soil. 
Should you recommend me to give it a dres¬ 
sing of nitrate of soda or any other chemical 
manure? If so, please advise me how much 
to use on this piece of ground. (Subscriber, 
Birmingham). 
We consider you were somewhat late in 
sowing grass seed to ensure the best ger¬ 
mination, or if all the seeds came up, then 
they must have been thinly sown or some 
of them had been eaten by birds. We should 
prefer to sow the seed in September or as 
soon as the first good rain came in autumn. 
This enables the grass to get a good hold 
of the soil and it is not so liable to get 
thrown out with the frost in winter. Your 
best plan now would be to sow some more 
seeds towards the end of this month and 
then give the ground a sprinkling of finely- 
sifted soil to hide the seed from birds. We 
should not advise you to rake the ground 
as it would disturb some of the small seed¬ 
ling grasses. The coating of sifted soil 
need not be more than sufficient to cover 
and hide the seeds. Should the weather be 
dry at the time a watering with the rosed 
watering pot would settle the soil and en¬ 
courage germination. When the young 
grass_ gets green you can then give it a 
dressing of nitrate of soda. About 2^ lbs. 
will be quite sufficient to do the whole 
lawn, and if you think you will have diffi¬ 
culty in scattering it over the whole lawn 
you should first mix it with a quantity of 
sand or dry soil, and by this means you 
will be able to distribute it-evenly over the 
surface. We should consider this dressing 
quite sufficient for the season. There is 
one other point we should suggest for the 
thinness of the grass, and that is the position 
mav be shaded by houses and trees. In 
such gardens Poa annua succeeds best, and 
though an annual, it sows itself in the 
autumn. If the garden is shaded you might 
use such seed or get a proportion of it. 
ROSES. 
1572. Cutting Back Ramblers. 
Would you kindly tell me if Red Rambler 
and Dorothy. Perkins Roses should be cn 
back at the same time as other Roses, anc 
when is the best time? (Devonian). 
You do not tell us when the Roses were 
planted. If planted in autumn or this 
spring these ramblers should be cut back 
to within 2 ft. of the ground or even 18 in 
if the shoots are short. If the plants an 
established, pruning is scarcely the correc; 
designation. You should, first commence by j 
removing all dead wood, and if the stems 
are crowded, cut out the worst of the ole 
ones and leave sufficient of the youngei 
stems to cover the space at command with 
out crowding. If the lateral shoots are toe 
numerous, you should thin them out, remov 
ing those first which are badly placed 01 
badly ripened, and retaining just a suf 
ficient numbei; to fill the space at command 
The second fortnight of March is a good 
time for attending to this. 
1573. Pruning Roses. 
I am now planting the following Roses 
all on their own roots and shall be glad if 
you will inform me if I should prune them 
when planting and how much. Blooms will 
be required chiefly for cutting and not foi 
exhibition. The varieties are Mildred 
Grant, Mrs. W. J. Grant, Lady Roberts 
Longworth Rambler and Peine Marie Hen 
riette. I have also an established rambling 
Rose (name unknown), which produces £ 
great number of clusters of small white 
flowers, sometimes edged with pink. This 
is a very strong grower and at the present 
time very ragged. How should this be 
pruned? (A. S. L., Norfolk). 
You can certainly prune all of those Roses 
as soon as you plant them, and the sconei 
they are planted the better. Mildred Gram 
and Mrs. W. J. Grant should have the 
shoots shortened to 6 in., 8 in. or 9 in. 
according to their strength, the longest ones 
having 9 in. left. If any of the stems are 
more than one year old and carry lateral 
shoots, such shoots should be shortened to 
3 in. Make sure that you cut to a bud point¬ 
ing away from the centre of the bush. Lady 
Roberts is a Tea Rose and the stems that 
come from the ground should be shortened 
to 12 in. Tea Roses should not be so severely- 
pruned as the Hybrid Teas. Longworth 
Rambler is a very strong growing climber 
for walls and should be cut back to 2 ft. 
when planting. Next year the long stems 
should be laid in their full length, merely- 
removing the tips, but of course all dead 
wood, and weak and useless shcots should 
be removed. You will get the flowers from 
the shoots produced on these long stems. 
When just planting Reine Marie Henriette 
it is also advantageous to cut back the stems 
within 2 ft. of the ground like other ram¬ 
blers. This encourages the production of 
strong young shoots from the base of the 
plant, which thereby gets better established 
during the first year than if the stems had 
been left at full length. The large estab¬ 
lished plant you have is no doubt one of the 
climbing Polyantha Roses and should be 
treated much the same as the two tall-grow¬ 
ing ones just mentioned. It is thinning 
that is necessary rather than pruning. Be¬ 
gin then by cutting out all dead wood, and 
if the stems are crowded, cut back some of 
the old ones to the verv base. Then some 
of the lateral shoots of those left should be 
thinned out if there is not sufficient space 
for them and the remaining ones nailed into 
position. You must expect the next crop of 
Roses from the young shoots that were made 
last year. Those should be left at full 
length unless the tips are weak or unripe 
and can be remei.ed. 
