May 25, 1907. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
357 
COLD FRAMES. 
1856. Silvery-Leaved Begonias. 
I have some small Begonias, the leaves 
I of which are of a silvery tint and the stems 
;covered with minute hair-like growths. Will 
you tell me what sort they are if the de¬ 
scription is good enough? I shall be much 
obliged if you will also say when they re¬ 
quire repotting and a suitable compost to 
use. I have only a cold frame. What 
treatment shall I give them after flowering? 
I (Uncertain, Essex). 
We are uncertain as to what Begonia it 
might be because there is such a large num¬ 
ber of them in cultivation, and some of them 
which are more or less silvery may have 
small leaves, while others produce large 
. leaves. The treatment required for the dif¬ 
ferent kinds varies to some extent, so that 
your best plan would be to send us a healthy‘ 
and sound leaf when you can spare it. The 
kind may be grown purely for the sake of 
its leaves, and not for its flowers, so that 
it all depends on the type as to what treat¬ 
ment it should have. The repotting and 
after treatment would also depend upon the 
sort. Very few Begonias can be kept in a 
cold frame during winter. You might be 
able to keep them in the dwelling house, but 
we cannot specify anything particular until 
'you send us a leaf. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
1857. Nicotiana Sanderae. 
I should be glad if you would publish 
the address of a seedsman where I could 
purchase a few plants of Nicotiana San¬ 
derae mentioned in The Gardening World 
of May 4th. (R. Sims, London, S.W.). 
No doubt a good man}' of the nurserymen 
who give attention to bedding plants would 
have a stock of N. Sanderae to supply their 
customers. Looking at the lists of bedding 
plants to hand, we find that you can obtain 
them by the dozen or hundred from Messrs. 
Dobbie and Co., Rothesay,-or from Messrs. 
Dicksons, The Nurseries, Chester. Small 
numbers would, of course, be sent on by 
parcel post and you will have to consult 
them about prices, as that will depend 
largely upon the number you require. 
185 8. Lifting Daffodils. 
Would you inform me when I may lift 
Daffodil bulbs, as I want to bed out the 
border with summer flowers? What should 
I do in order to keep them for autumn plant¬ 
ing? (Devonian, Plymouth). 
The best plan is to leave the Daffodils in 
the beds until you are obliged to lift them 
in order to get in the summer flowers. That 
1 would be at the end of this month or the 
beginning of June. Lift them carefully 
with all their roots and lay them rather 
thickly in shallow trenches of soil in some 
shaded part of the garden. Tread the soil 
firmly about them and leave them there till 
the foliage dies down naturally. When the 
leaves are perfectly withered you can lift 
the bulbs and allow them to dry in a shed 
or in some shady situation. Then clean the 
bulbs and place each variety in a box or pot 
according to number, and store them in a 
cool; dry place till planting time in autumn. 
If you have any reason to suspect the pre¬ 
sence of rats or mice about your establish¬ 
ment you should cover the pots or boxes to 
prevent them getting into the same. They 
eat some of the bulbs and sometimes mix 
them up indiscriminately if their presence 
is not noticed. 
1859. Treatment of Spanish Iris. 
Should I treat Spanish Iris bulbs in the 
same manner after flowering as in the case 
of Daffodils? I also want the ground they 
are on. (Devonian, Plymouth). 
The Spanish Iris cannot be so advanced 
at bedding out time as the Daffodils, and 
we think it would be detrimental to have to 
lift them while in full growth. No doubt, 
they flower somewhat earlier with you than 
they would in the London district, but we 
should not believe in treating Spanish Irises 
like Daffodils. We should prefer to plant 
them where they could remain till the 
foliage dies down naturally. There is an¬ 
other plan, however, namely, to plant them 
moderately thickly in autumn and at the 
beginning of April to sow some choice an¬ 
nual over the ground amongst the plants, 
so that when the foliage of the Iris has died 
down these annuals will be growing and 
ready to take their place. The blue Pha- 
celia campanularia, Larkspurs, Godetias, 
Linurn grandiflorum, or other hardy annuals 
of that class may be employed in this way. 
If you must lift the Irises, then we should 
advise you to plant them in a reserve part 
of the garden, watering the ground about 
them so as to encourage the growth of the 
leaves till the bulbs plump up, and the fo¬ 
liage finally decays, when you can clean and 
store them. 
1860. Sweet Peas for August Bank 
Holiday. 
Will you be good enough to inform me 
as to whether I should be able to get show 
blooms from Sweet Peas sown now in the 
open by August Bank Holiday, or should I 
have to start them in heat? (David S. 
Jones, Surrey). 
Our experience is that Sweet Peas do not 
succeed well unless sown in pots early, or 
in March in the open ground. Even in or¬ 
dinary seasons in the neighbourhood of Lon¬ 
don they do not get properly established be¬ 
fore the heat sets in and never do so after¬ 
wards. Our experience is chiefly derived 
from sowing in light soils. If the natural 
soil of your district still remains in the 
garden, possibly you would have a better 
chance of success. We do not think that 
sowing them in heat would give the Peas 
any better chance than to sow them in the 
open ground. If your soil is light, we 
think you have very little chance of success 
in obtaining good exhibition blooms. In 
any case it is largely a question of the size 
of your garden, the amount of sun and air 
it gets, and the nature of the soil. You 
could, therefore, try it by way of experi¬ 
ment, though we have not very great hope 
of success from May sowings. 
1861. Carnations with Spotted Leaves. 
You were good enough to give us some 
advice about our Carnations last year. 
Again, we are anxious as to some of our 
plants. I am enclosing some leaves for you 
to look at. They are picked from the base 
of the plants. New leaves look healthy 
enough. We are anxious lest the trouble 
is rust. The Cloves are chiefly affected. 
(I. M. Ward, Essex). 
We have examined the leaves you sent us, 
but fail to find any rust upon them. Some 
of the markings might be due to puncture 
by insects while they were tender last au¬ 
tumn. There is also some evidence of their 
being affected by Bacteriosis, but usually 
the plants grow out of this if not in a very 
unhealthy condition. We presume your Car¬ 
nations are grown in the open garden. In 
such case you have no control over them, but 
the soil is too rich and the winter too change¬ 
able for Carnations to be altogether happy 
during winter. If they succeeded in com¬ 
ing through the winter without being killed 
the chances are that they will recover with 
the better light and rising temperature. If 
only the bottom leaves are spotted we should 
not be much concerned about it, as that must 
have happened months ago. The Clove is 
fairly hardy, but its large sappy leaves are 
liable to mishap. 
1862. Early Chrysanthemums in Pots. 
I have two Chrysanthemums in pots. 
Could you give me any information as to 
growing the same in pots for exhibition ? 
Should they be pinched ? The Chrysanthe¬ 
mums are yellow and earl}'. (Reader of 
‘CAN.,’’ Haddington). 
It is now late to think of pinching 
early flowering Chrysanthemums if you 
want to get them into bloom as early 
as possible. Pinching of this class of 
Chrysanthemum is only necessary to get bush 
plants, and if you have been allowing them 
to grow leggy all this time it is a mistake. 
You could have pinched them, indeed, when 
4 in. high, and that would have inclined 
them to throw out several shoots. Then be¬ 
fore this time you could have pinched them 
again to make them bushy. As it is you 
can only pinch them once now, if necessary 
to get bushy plants, otherwise they \yill be 
very late in coming into bloom. If these 
had been put out of doors some time in 
March or early in April no pinching would 
have been required, as they make bushy 
plants quite naturally. In pots it is some¬ 
what different. If they are leggy pinch 
them at once and then let them grow at 
their leisure. 
VEGETABLES. 
1863. Tomatos Growing like Grapes. 
Will you please say what is the name of 
the Tomato which grows like Grapes about 
the size of Plums? I cannot get them about 
here. (William Parr, Essex). 
Tomatos, such as you name, are not gener¬ 
ally popular nor generally useful, so that 
you cannot expect to find them in the or¬ 
dinary market. There are, however, plenty 
of Tomatos with fruits not only about the 
size of Plums, but also as small as Goose¬ 
berries, Cherries or even Red Currants. 
Sutton’s Dessert and Cluster would have 
fruits about the size of Plums and are use¬ 
ful for dessert as well as ornamental pur¬ 
poses. Cascade has produced as many as 
seventy fruits on a bunch in a private gar¬ 
den. Miniature is a still smaller Tomato 
with fruits about the size of Cherries. These 
last two can be used for table decorations 
as well as for dessert. Y'ou can get seeds 
of either of them or possibly plants from 
Messrs. Sutton and Sons, Reading. 
1864. Sowing Peas for Exhibition. 
Will you be so kind as to tell me when to 
sow Alderman Peas and also Gladstone Peas 
for exhibition, and say which are best ? Our 
show is in the middle of August. (Reader 
of “ G.W.,” Haddington). 
You are now too late to sow these main 
crop Peas for exhibition, as you cannot ex¬ 
pect to get them in good form unless you 
sow them about sixteen or eighteen weeks 
before the exhibition. At this late period of 
the year possibly sixteen weeks would be 
sufficient. Eighteen weeks previous to the 
exhibition would have necessitated you sow¬ 
ing them on April 15th, but in any case you 
could scarcely expect to get them sufficiently 
advanced now as they ought to have been 
sown at least by the end of April. Both of 
the varieties you name are good exhibition 
Peas, and possibly Alderman would be the 
finer of the two, though if you grew them 
both well you would have a good chance of 
success. 
1865. Marrow Bed. 
Will you kindly tell me in your next 
issue of The Gardening World how to 
make up a Marrow bed? Should it be made 
where it gets the most sun ? (Learner, 
Middlesex). 
A Vegetable Marrow bed should be made 
up in an open and sunny position as they 
require all the sunshine to firm their tissues 
and encourage them to grow well. The bed 
itself may consist of a heap of manure or 
even leaves in a decaying state with a good 
amount of rich loamy soil mixed with manure 
on the top. Fermenting manure would sup¬ 
ply bottom heat and enable these subjects to 
make good growth at the roots in the early 
