April 6, 1907. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
245 
l, et partly rotted. This should then be 
iroken up into pieces about the size of a 
walnut by hand. It would be necessary to 
I'et some leaf mould and some clean, sharp- 
’and. Make this up in the proportion of 
hree parts of loam to one of leaf mould and 
lalf part of sand. Mix them thoroughly 
before using. r lhen turn your Aspidistras 
>ut of the pots and work away the soil from 
he roots by your hand. You can them see 
vhether it "is possible to cut the roots into 
suitable pieces, each furnished with leaves 
md buds or crowns. By this means there 
would be no damage to the plant, and if 
lone at once the plants would commence 
■rowing again presently. Put in good) 
drainage in the pots, and pot rather firmly. 
Do not bury the crowns too deeply in the soil. 
1692. Hyacinths not Flowering. 
Miss Wilson had some fine Hyacinth bulbs 
new this season, which were planted in pots 
in November last, and they progressed well 
and showed flower spikes, but only one or 
two have bloomed properly. The others, 
though showing colours well, yet do not 
shoot up. The stems were right down close 
to the bulbs (though all the leaves were of 
the proper height), and some turned yellow 
before the flower buds opened. What is the 
reason the flower stems did not shoot up and 
so allow them to bloom properly. They were 
manured with liquid manure occasionally. I 
shall be glad if you can tell me the reason. 
(Surrey.) 
Without knowing all the facts of the case, 
we presume that the bulbs have been kept 
rather close and warm from the time they 
were potted in November. Leaves are al¬ 
ways ready to push under these conditions, 
and if encouraged they grow away in ad¬ 
vance of the flowers, and the latter are then 
more or less checked by the leaves. In any 
case, the flower stems do not ocoupy the 
position they should. It would be better if 
you would pot them in October, say, about 
the beginning of it, and then stand the 
bulbs out in the garden under a covering 
of eocoanut fibre, but otherwise exposed to 
all the rain that may fall. In case we had 
severe early frosts, a cold frame would be 
a better place, for the sake ot the pots. If 
the bulbs are kept in the dark and weighted 
down by eocoanut fibre, the flowers will 
push in advance of the leaves, and when 
they have grown about an inch in length 
the’ pots could then be taken indoors and 
placed close to the glass in a well lighted 
window. The flower stems having had a 
start, will then keep the lead, while the 
leaves, being close to the glass, would re¬ 
main relatively short. We presume that 
something is wrong with the roots, and if 
vou commenced giving manure water before 
thev were well advanced the soil would be 
kept in a cold and sodden condition. Dur¬ 
ing the'dullest part of winter it is neces¬ 
sary to give water with discretion, always 
when it is wanted—that is, when the soil 
is dry or getting dry, but not otherwise. 
1693. Hyacinths Going Bad. 
I am sending you one of the Hyacinth 
bulbs King of the Blues. This one was 
completely rotten half-way down the bloom 
spike. The treatment they had was : Pot¬ 
ted in a compost of loam, leaf soil and 
sand, and put in clean pots and put in the 
dark on 1st October and taken out of the 
dark on 3rd January. Three times they 
were watered. They were placed in the 
panitry on a brick floor, and when brought 
to the light, which was done gradually, 
some were up an inch and others longer, 
and the pots were full of roots. I was very 
careful when watering, and potted them 
rather high, so as to guard against water 
going on the bloom spike, which, I am sure, 
had not one drop.- They were occasionally 
watered with liquid manure. (Amateur, 
Hull). 
We examined the bulb you sent us, 
and were surprised to find it in su^h healthy 
and clean condition. There were no bulb 
mites on it, and we presume it must have 
been some fault in cultural treatment. In 
our experience, however, the beginning of 
October to the beginning of January is too 
long to leave the sprouting bulbs in dark¬ 
ness. They might have been placed near the 
glass long before that time, and the leaves 
would have been assisting the flower stems 
to develop. Wfe are afraid that the pantry 
floor was too far from the light, and that 
the bulbs, flower stems and leaves got 
weakened in this way. Could you not de¬ 
vise a means of placing the pots close to the 
glass as soon as they appear well above the 
soil? You also speak of watering them 
•three times, but we should have been in¬ 
clined to think that if the soil was in proper 
condition- when- potted it would scarcely 
have required watering while the bulbs were 
kept in the dark, and, we presume, in a 
damp condition. Of course, they must be 
kept moist at all times when- they are getting 
dry. Another suggestion we should make 
is -that the pan-try had been damp, but the 
want of light, we think, was the greatest 
enemy in- the case. 
1694. Name and Treatment ot Plant. 
What is the name of enclosed leaf of 
Lily? It grows in a pot hanging downwards, 
and there are long branching stems on which 
grow little tufts of tiny leaves. I planted 
the root given me in a pot, in- rather rich 
garden soil. Is this suitable? What ex¬ 
posure would suit it best, and does it re¬ 
quire much water? (Freda, Northampton¬ 
shire.) 
The leaf you sent us was that of Chloro- 
phytum elatum, a greenhouse plant which is 
often grown in windows. The stems, bear¬ 
ing tufts of tiny leaves, are the flower stems 
of last year, and you can get young plants 
by taking these off and putting them in pots 
of soil as cuttings. The flower stems 
should bear small white flowers, and after¬ 
wards tufts of small leaves will form at the 
joints again. There are two variegated 
varieties, which are even prettier than the 
green one, and, in our experience, are as 
easily grown. They are Chlorophytum 
elatum variegatum and L.e. medio-pictum, 
the variegation in the former being on the 
edges of the leaves and in the latter in the 
middle. It is properly a greenhouse plant, 
but you can keep it in 1 a window close to 
the glass. During the summer months, 
while growth is being made, it will take a 
good deal of water without injury, and even 
be benefited, if the drainage is good. We 
do not like your soil, however, because there 
is no fibre in garden, soil, and after that 
gets watered it is liable to get muddy'. If 
you have convenience in the garden, you 
could have a heap of -turves or grassy sods 
decaying for six or twelve months ; then you 
would have at hand a store of good fibrous 
loam that you could employ at any time, 
mixing it with one part of leaf soil to two 
of loam, with a~good dash of -san-d to keep 
it open. Before using garden soil you could 
improve it by using one-third of leaf mould 
with plenty of sand in it. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
1695. Rudbeckia speciosa. 
Would Rudbeckia speciosa be suitable for 
ordinary garden soil? Could I procure 
this flower'from any nursery?- I generally 
have all my flowers from Messrs. Dobbie, 
of Rothesay. (Freda, Northamptonshire.) 
Rudbeckia speciosa is a very hardy and 
free-growing plant, and can, therefore, be 
accommodated in any good garden soil. The 
secret of growing it well is to lift and re¬ 
plant young pieces of it in September every 
second year at least, because it then grows 
more vigorously and flowers more freely. 
Any nurseryman who has a fair collection 
of herbaceous plants would have this one, 
or be able to procure it for you. 
1690. Violets and Transplanting. 
Should Violets planted last year and 
flowering well this be transplanted again 
after flowering? (Freda, Northampton¬ 
shire.) 
Violets always flower best when a young 
plantation is made every year. About the 
end of May or the beginning of June you 
could make a fresh plantation by taking off 
rooted runners and inserting them as young 
plants at the same distances apart as the 
parents. The ground should, of course, be 
previously well manured and deeply dug, 
allowing about a fortnight for it to settle 
before planting 
1697. Digging; Herbaceous Border. 
What is the proper plan of digging over 
the herbaceous border in- autumn when it is 
filled with all manner of bulbs? How can 
they be disturbed? This soil keeps sinking 
and would evidently be benefited by a 
thorough digging. (Freda, Northampton¬ 
shire). 
If you contemplate renewing the border in 
autumn you should lfft the bulbs after they 
thoroughly die down. Allow them to ripe® 
off and partly give off their superfluous 
moisture and then store them in large flower 
pots or boxes where mice will not get at 
them to eat them. About the end of Sep¬ 
tember or some time in November, when most 
of the herbaceous plants can be cut down, 
you could lift the whole of them and lay 
them on one side until the border has been 
dug or trenched. If you can trench it at 
least 2 ft. deep so much the better. While 
the trenching is being carried out you 
should enrich the soil by putting in stable 
manure between- the trenches or by using 
leaf mould, that is, partly decayed leaves 
or the manure from old Melon or Cucumber 
beds. After the soil has settled a little you 
can then replant the herbaceous plants and 
plant the bulbs at suitable places between 
them. If you leave the bulbs in the border 
until about to dig it many of them would 
have started into growth. At that time of 
year, however, many people would not hesi¬ 
tate to lift bulbs even after they had com¬ 
menced growing. The plan under those 
circumstances is to retain some soil about the 
roots. The best plan, however, is to lift the 
bulbs when they have died down, because 
you can then assort them into sizes and 
plant them at proper distances apart. Your 
other questions next week. 
1698. How tc Get Double Carnations. 
Will you kindly tell me how double 
flowers are obtained when crossing Carna¬ 
tions. Would not the seedlings most likely 
give single flowers? (W. J. Stanton, Es¬ 
sex). 
Double flowers are obtained by saving 
seeds from parents that had double flowers. 
Even- then some of the seedlings may be 
single, but the more skilfully you select the 
parents the more likely you are to get a 
high percentage of double flowers. Even 
some of those that are quite double may be 
faulty in some respect of shade colour or in 
the liability of the calyx to burst. You 
should, therefore, select as parents those 
which have the most perfect flowers in every¬ 
thing that is desirable in a Carnation. You 
would find the book on “ Select Carnations, 
Picotees and Pinks ” very serviceable to 
you, as it has a chapter upon this subject. 
You will find information about it on p. vii. 
of March 30th of The Gardening World. 
1699. Tulips and Hyacinths Eaten. 
I have a Rose border running east and 
west with a grass walk in the centre about 
8 ft. wide, and at the edge of the walk are 
Tulips and Hyacinths. I happened to lift 
some bulbs of each and I found the Hya¬ 
cinths very badly eaten wdth grubs. Of 
