294 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
April 27, 1907. 
riddled, except for seedlings which require 
a fine soil to enable them to germinate freely. 
All potting soils should be used in a rough 
or lumipy condition, as it keeps open and ad¬ 
vantageous to the roots for a long time, 
whereas sifted soil would soon get pasty 
and muddy with the frequent watering. The 
same mould will answer admirably for 
potting bulbs next September. Here again 
the soil should mot be fine. You can add 
some wood ashes to the compost you make up 
for your Chrysanthemums, apd about a 60 
size potful of bone meal to every bushel of 
soil. The peat moss in the manure already 
used will be suitable and may answer fairly 
well for Chrysanthemums, but we should 
like to keep out as much of the peat as 
possible, as it would incline the Chrysanthe¬ 
mums to make long jointed stems. In other 
words, it is not solid enough to give the pro¬ 
per wood in Chrysanthemums for the pro¬ 
duction of big blooms. The portion of it 
which is broken up finely would do no harm, 
but we should hold back all the bigger 
pieces from the Chrysanthemums. 
VEGETABLES. 
1774. Tomatos for Market. 
Would you please answer the following 
question through The Gardening World? 
Is it possible to grow Tomatos fit for market 
all the year round in this country? (Rex, 
Middlesex.) 
It is quite possible to grow Tomatos for 
market, and good Tomatos too, in this coun¬ 
try, but the question remains to be answered 
whether you can make it pay the extra ex¬ 
pense of fire heat necessary- during the win¬ 
ter. You must remember that the days are 
very short in winter, the light poor, and fre¬ 
quently we have low temperatures. The 
question then arises whether y-ou can get so 
much more per pound for your Tomatos 
than the Guernsey and Canary Island 
growers to make it pay you. The expense 
of growing Tomatos in summer is, of 
course, much less than in winter. You could 
rear young plants early in the season, so as 
to commence fruiting as early as possible, 
and have a late crop that would ripen in the 
autumn with as little expense as possible. 
1775. Round or Kidney Potatos. 
Would you please answer me the follow¬ 
ing questions in your valuable paper? 
Which Potatos are classed as Kidneys and 
which are round (1) Sir John Llewellyn, (2) 
Satchell’s Seedling, (3) Earliest of All, (4) 
Up-to-date, (5) Myatt’s Ashleaf ? Please 
mention which are the best for show. (E.M., 
Rowington, Warwickshire.) 
No. 1 is a White Kidney and excellent for 
show purposes. No. 2 must be a new one, 
otherwise it is not of great value, as we do 
not find it in the leading lists. One dish 
of Earliest of All was shown at the National 
Potato Show in 1903, but only the name was 
recorded, so it cannot be of very great value. 
No. 4 is a White Kidney and excellent for 
exhibition. No. 3 is a White Kidney and 
an excellent one for ordinary use, but not 
being a handsome tuber we seldom see it ex¬ 
hibited for the reason that more shapely ones 
are shown instead. 
FRUIT. 
17 76. Strawberries in Tubs. 
I want to grow Strawberries in a tub. 
Will you please advise me the best sort to 
procure and method of procedure, such as 
soil, position, and distance apart ? Would 
you indicate the best position for same as 
per plan herewith. (A. G. Wythes, Kent.) 
We should advise you to get either Vicom- 
tesse Hericart de Thury, which has fruits 
of medium size, or Royal Sovereign with 
very much larger fruits. Both of them 
fruit very freely, and if you manage them 
well should give you a good return. We 
should consider it a better plan to get 
barrels rather than tubs, and if you fix them 
up on a pivot so that you can readily turn 
the barrels round every second day it will 
encourage the Strawberries to ripen evenly. 
The centre of the barrels might be open by 
having a small barrel inside the larger one, 
and in such a case it would be easy to fit up 
a central axis or pivot on which the barrels 
could be turned round. Furthermore, you 
can bore large holes in the barrels at 12 in. 
apart all round the barrel. This will give 
you a greater amount of space for growing 
Straw-berries than by merely getting tubs and 
planting on the top. The Strawberries may 
have their rcots put in at the holes and 
covered' with soil just while you are filling 
the barrel. The soil sould be made firm 
as you proceed. A ring of Strawberries oan 
be planted on the top of the barrel, thus 
giving you all the chances possible for num¬ 
ber of plants. Good fibrous loam is the 
best to employ, and if very heavy and not 
much fibre in it, a little sand would help to 
keep it open. These barrels might be placed 
on the edge of the .grass between the clothes’ 
posts or between the clothes’ post and the 
Apple tree on the east side of the garden. 
We select these positions to get the barrels 
clear away from fences and the shade of 
trees as much as possible. A sunny position 
should always be selected for Strawberries 
for the setting of the flowers and the proper 
ripening of the fruits. It would, of course, 
destroy the grass where the tubs are stood, 
but if you make a whole line of barrels no 
space would be wasted, while the small strip 
of gras’s might easily be sacrificed to give 
you the opportunity of ripening some of 
these delicious fruits. 
SOILS AND MANURES . 
1777. Manures for Sweet Peas and 
Carnations. 
In preparing soil for the 2 ft. deep holes 
for clumps of Sweet Peas, how much super¬ 
phosphate of lime should I add to the bushel 
and how much bone meal? Do you know 
of any suitable manure for tree Carnations 
in pots and what is the best strength to use 
it? (A. J. Walker, Essex.) 
Superphosphate of lime and bone meal 
supply the same element of plant food, 
namely^ phosphorous. The superphosphate 
would, of course, contain lime in addition, 
but we think if you use a 60-size potful of 
the two in mixture to a bushel of soil it will 
answer your purpose. Wood ashes might 
be used freely in addition to the artificial 
manures just named, as it supplies potas¬ 
sium. Some well rotted cow manure is an 
excellent material for Sweet Peas, not 
merely for the supply of plant food, but be¬ 
cause it serves to hold the moisture in the 
soil during the heat of summer. Carna¬ 
tions are fond of lime, but cautious growers 
seldom use very much manure in the potting 
compost, but rely more upon feeding 
material, which they can give while the 
plants are in growth. You could use bone 
meal safelv at the same rate as above men¬ 
tioned. You could also add some oyster 
shells to the compost after pounding them 
up finely. They supply lime as well as help 
to keep the soil open. A 5 in. potful of 
wood ashes to the bushel of soil would also 
be beneficial. While the plants are making 
good growth, or approaching the flowering 
condition, you can then feed them with weak 
liquid manure alternately with some of the 
all-round manures advertised in our pages, 
and which may be suitable for dissolving in 
water for feeding purposes while the plants 
are in full growth. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
1778. The Sproughton Hoe. 
I have found Gardening World most use¬ 
ful, and would be glad if you can tell me 
where to get a Sproughton Hoe. I have 
tried Army and Navy Stores, Gamage, and 
our local shops without success both last 
year and this. I know in one number it 
was described, but unfortunately it got mis¬ 
laid. (M. Jackson, Cumberland.) 
You are quite right in stating that the 
Sproughton hoe was once described in our 
pages. If you get one with a blade about 
8 in. wide with a long handle it will cost 
somewhere about 3s. The dealers in this 
particular hoe are Messrs. Ransomes, Sims 
and Jefferies, Orwell Works, Ipswich. 
17 79. Creeping Weed. 
My garden is heavy clay. I am troubled 
with a weed with white roots, leaves and 
flowers like a Convolvulus. How can I get 
rid of it? Will continual hoeing be 
sufficient? ( [t G. W.” Reader, Middlesex.) 
From your description we have no doubt 
the plant is a Bindweed or Convolvulus, in 
all probability C. sepium. There is a 
variety of ways of getting rid of this plant, 
which is undoubtedly a great nuisance. If 
the ground is bare of plants at any time in 
the winter you can then pick out all the 
pieces you come upon when digging or 
trenching. If that is done carefully ymu 
will have very little to hoe down in the 
summer. Nevertheless a few roots will still 
continue to trouble you. We should not. 
however, hoe them down, but get a fork and 
wherever possible to follow the stem until 
you get the whole of the root; then you can 
be sure you are quite clear of it. Where 
you cannot dig deeply on acount of plants 
it will wear the weed out in time to keep it 
thoroughly hoed down. One year, however, 
will not be sufficient, as we have ourselves 
proved. 
17 80. Centre Piece for Table Decora¬ 
tions. 
I am deeply interested in table decora¬ 
tions. Can you inform me where to get an 
artistic centre for placing the flowers in? 
(Constant Reader, Hants.) 
What you want is an epergne of some more 
or less elaborate construction, yet light and 
graceful, to form a centre piece for your 
table decorations. These are so frequently 
wanted that you should have no difficulty in 
getting one from any good glass and china 
shop. If that is inconvenient for you, we 
think you would have no difficulty in pro¬ 
curing one from Messrs. James Green and 
Nephew, 107, Queen Victoria Street, London. 
E.C. 
17 81. Size of Tennis Lawn. 
Would you kindly inform me how to mark 
out the lines on" a tennis lawn for the 
players, as I have never had experience of 
this ? Some advice would be much 
esteemed. (Ignoramus, Bath.) 
The size of the lawn will depend entirely 
as to whether four-or two intend to play'. If 
four are going to play, then mark off a base 
line 36' ft. long across the lawn, then from 
both ends of this mark off other lines at 
right angles to it and 78 ft. long. Then 
find the centre and mark off the place for 
the net to be fixed up right across this 
central line. You have now got to find 
the service lines, and this is done by mark¬ 
ing off a l-ine up the middle of the court and 
21 ft. on either side of the net. The far 
end of these lines will give you the service 
lines, the distance between them being, of 
course, a total of 42 ft. The length of the 
service lines depends entirely- as to whethei 
four or two are to play, if four then th« 
service lines must run to the boundary or 
either side of the middle line. If only twe 
are to play, then the service lines shoulc 
only be 27 ft. wide, and, of course, this 2; 
ft. should be in the centre of the lawn. 
NAMES OF PLANTS. 
(Ignoramus, B.) Forsy-thia suspensa.— 
(J.M.R.) 1, Rivima laevis; 2, not recognised 
3, Zaluzianskya villosa (sometimes namec 
Nycterinia africana ; 4, Epimedium rubrum 
5, Doronicum plantagineum excelsum; 6. 
