May 4, 1907. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
309 
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. 
17 82. Sweet Peas. 
I have Sweet Peas in 5m. and gin. pots 
and about yin. to Sin. high. Would these 
succeed trained up the front glass of a cold 
I slight heat from oil on cold nights) green¬ 
house? (Dorice, Surrey.) 
There is no reason why your Sweet-Peas 
should not succeed in a greenhouse, but there 
is no necessity for talking about heat being 
necessary for Sweet Peas. Indeed, under 
glass it will be necessary to keep the house 
as cool and airy as possible by admitting air 
by the top and bottom ventilators during the 
day at least. This will help to prevent them 
from getting long jointed and drawn stems. 
You will require some support or other, and 
under the circumstances possibly some neat 
stakes would be as good as anything. You 
should tie each Pea singly to a stake, unless, 
indeed, von have them more or less crowded, 
when, of course, they will cling to one an¬ 
other and a few ties here and there might 
suffice. 
1783. Gerbera and Other Plants in 
Pots. 
Please send me cultural directions for 
growing Gerbera Jamesoni in pots (raised 
from seed this year), Michaelmas Daisies 
and Christmas Rose, mentioning kind of 
soil, size of pot to flower in, and if in 
greenhouse or outside. (Dorice, Surrey.) 
Good fibrous soil should be the chief con¬ 
stituent of a compost to grow Gerbera Jame¬ 
soni. It should, however, be tempered by 
putting one part of leaf mould and one part 
of sand to three parts of fibrous loam. Make 
sure that the drainage is good. Only small 
sized pots will be required, repotting into 
larger sizes when this becomes necessary. 
Any good compost will serve to grow the 
Michaelmas Daisy, and if you employ a 
compost similar to that already described it 
will be sufficient. The Gerbera may be 
flowered in 60 or 48 size pots. Small plants 
of Michaelmas Daisy may be flowered in 4S 
size pots, provided you raise them from cut¬ 
tings struck in April or May. That would 
mean small plants to commence with, and 
whe" first potted off singly 2in. pots would 
.rite large enough, and the plan is to 
Keep shifting them into larger sizes when the 
roots begin to ramble outside the soil. In 
the case of strong growing species, or if 
your plants are already of some size, it 
would be necessary to give them 6in. pots at 
least to flower in. It all depends upon the 
size of the plant. We fancy you would suc¬ 
ceed best with Christmas Roses in a half 
shady situation in the open garden. They 
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. 
can, however, be grown, in pots, and you 
might use 6in. pots for the very smallest 
plants and 8in. pots for larger ones. The 
soil already recommended would be sufficient 
with a little less sand in it, and some well 
decayed cow manure well mixed with the 
compost. The first two plants may be grown 
in the open air during summer, but the Ger¬ 
bera had best be put in a greenhouse for the 
winter. We think, however, that if you in¬ 
tend growing it in pots you should keep it 
in the greenhouse summer and winter. If 
you resolve to grow the Christmas Rose in 
pots it should make its growth in the open 
air, standing the pots on ashes in a well 
lighted situation, but shaded from direct 
sunshine. 
1784. Schizanthus in Pots. 
How many Schizanthus wisetonensis 
should be grown in a 5m. pot? (Dorice, 
Surrey.) 
You can only grow one plant of Schizan¬ 
thus in a 5in. pot if yon succeed in growing 
it properly. The best plan is to sow seeds 
in a pan or pot and after they have made a 
rough leaf or two you should transplant 
them info boxes to make ain. of growth. 
After this you might pot them off singly 
in 2in. pots. Keep growing them in a frame 
or greenhouse until the roots are getting well 
through the soil, but not interlacing. Shift 
into larger sizes until they reach the 5m. 
pot in which theyr should flower. When this 
last pet has become well; filled with roots 
large supplies of water will be necessary. 
Till then, however, you must not overlook 
the watering. If you are doubtful about the 
repotting you might sow about half a dozen 
seeds in a 5m. pot about the centre and re¬ 
move all the seedlings but cne, namely, the 
strongest one. Then water this carefullv, 
giving increasing supplies as it grows. We 
doubt, however, whether y'ou could grow the 
plants so well in the same pot from first to 
last, as the same soil is liable to get sour 
while the plants are small. 
1785. Eucalyptus and Other Plants. 
Will you answer in your next Gardening 
World if a Eucalyptus plant in a green¬ 
house prevents other plants from growing, 
as I have one in my house, and other things 
do not seem to grow well. (D. D., Northum¬ 
berland.) 
There must be something else the matter 
with your plants than the presence of a 
Eucalyptus if they are not succeeding. The 
only detriment to other plants that a 
Eucalyptus would have would be if it is so 
large as to obstruct the light from other 
plants. We can scarcely think this is what 
you mean, so that some other cause must be 
blamed for the want of success. We do not 
know what plants you refer to, as it may 
be owing to the *h/w temperature which has 
prevailed for some time past preventing 
growth. On the other hand, it may be due 
to some fault in culture. You will probably 
come to a proper conclusion by looking over 
the plants and thinking out for yourself 
whether the temperature has been high 
enough or whether insects or fungi are at¬ 
tacking them, or whether you have treated 
them wrong in any way. 
COLD FRAMES. 
1786. Raising Sedums from Seed. 
Kindly tell me how and when to raise 
hardy Sedums and Sempervivums from seed. 
(Dorice, Surrey.,' 
Cold frames are the best structure for rais¬ 
ing seedlings of the half-hardy succulents 
you name. If you can get seeds sow them 
at once. Make up a compost consisting of 
equal parts of loam, leaf mould, and sand, 
mixing, these ingredients thoroughly. Get 
some 5in. pots, crock them well, and place 
some moss or rough material over the 
drainage. Then fill up within ^in. of the 
rim with the compost and press it down 
equally and firmly. Sow the seeds thinly 
and water through a very fine rosed watering 
can. The seeds will not require to be 
covered. Your best plan would be to place a 
pane of glass over the pots and to keep them 
shaded till the seedlings begin to appear 
above the soil. They should then have all 
the light possible, except during the warmest 
part of the day, but ventilation should be 
freely given all day long. The seedlings 
are very tiny, but when they have made a 
rough leaf or two they should be trans¬ 
planted into other pots, seed pans, or boxes, 
about an inch apart each way. Here they 
may be allowed to grow till they make nice 
bushy plants, when you can transfer them 
to the open ground. If you cannot plant 
them out some time in August, it would be 
safer to keep them in pots in a cold frame 
till the following April. They are easy to 
raise provided you handle the tiny seedlings 
with care and not over-water them while 
still small. 
ROOM PLANTS. 
1787. Onion Plant. 
Though rather late in the day, let me 
thank you for your kindness in answering 
a letter I sent early in December of last 
year. First, I have a question regarding a 
house plant. I have an Onion Plant. What 
is the scientific name for it ? What soil is 
best for it? Mine is an old one, having 
been in the family over twenty years. It 
has this year thrown up a long stem over 2ft. 
high, but the flower buds do not seem in¬ 
clined to open. How can I accelerate mat¬ 
ters ? It is about two months since it started 
this flower stem. It is in a window facing 
south, was potted up last year in a compost 
of leaf mould and sandy garden soil. The 
pot is jin. in diameter and full of roots, 
but kept fairly moist. (C. Day, Kent.) 
There is probably nothing wrong with 
your plant. If the flower stem is green and 
fresh the flowers will, no doubt, develop by 
and bve when the weather becomes more 
genial. Some of these plants take a long 
time to send up their flowers. It is not 
necessarily a spring flowering plant, but 
will continue to “develop slowly and take a 
long time to pass through the flowering stage 
and ripen its seeds. We should not advise 
you to attempt forcing it in any way unless 
you have a greenhouse where the genial 
temperature would make it come along more 
rapidly. It probably wants fresh soil. You 
could, therefore, mix two parts of fibrous 
loam to one part of leaf mould, half part 
of well decayed - cow manure, and half part 
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