June 22, 1907. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
425 
TREES AND SHRUBS. 
1940. Name and Treatment of Shrub. 
Can you tell me the name of the enclosed 
shrub and what treatment it requires? Does 
it require any pruning, and what is the best 
time to do it? Any information would be 
thankfully received. (T. S. Woodhouse, 
Norfolk.) 
The shrub was Philadelphus coronarius, 
which may be grown with ease in any good 
garden soil that has been well prepared and 
is naturally well drained. Regulation of 
the bushes would be a better term than prun¬ 
ing, and this may be done in the summer 
time, say after the bushes have finished 
flowering. Stems that are becoming verv 
lengthy and straggling may be cut back to 
bring the bush into better form. Dead 
wood should, of course, always be cut out, 
and where the bushes happen to be crowded, 
thin out a number of the weaker shoots as 
well as those that are badly placed. You 
will thus see it is a matter of regulation, so 
as to admit ligfit and air to ripen the wood 
and prepare it for next year’s flowering. 
This regulation should be carried out every 
year, thereby reducing such work to a 
minimum. Never allow the bushes to get 
overgrown, either crowding one another or 
producing too many shoots for their proper 
development. 
VEGETABLES. 
1941. Transplanted Beans Dying. 
I transplanted some Runner Beans from 
boxes to the open ground when they were 
about 3 in. high. The plants then looked 
very healthy "and were carefully trans¬ 
planted, but now many of them appear to 
be slowly dying. What should you think 
is the cause of this? The soil is poor. 
(Alpha, Guildford.) 
Without some evidence as to the cause 
taken on the spot, we can only surmise in a 
general way and give you hints as to what 
may be the cause of the-Beans dying. For 
instance, stugs or snails or woodlice, or 
even wireworm, might be gnawing at the 
stems just at the surface of the ground or 
immediately under. On the other hand, 
you may have had a frosty night to do 
them some damage. The soil in which they 
were planted out might be too dry owing 
to the vicinity of a wall which may have 
warded off the showers as they have fallen 
owing to the prevailing winds. On the 
other hand, what is more likely is that the 
plants have had too much wet with little or 
no sunshine owing to the situation being 
shaded by walls or trees. Scarlet Runners 
or Beans have a good store of energy in their 
large seed leaves, and if the other condi¬ 
tions are suitable, they would make a fair 
amount of growth, no matter how poor the 
soil might happen to be. Whether they 
would ultimately fruit well in such a poor 
soil is quite another point. We should 
advise you to examine the plants, moving 
away the soil with the fingers to see if the 
stems have been gnawed or otherwise. Cats 
sometimes destroy the leaves of recently- 
planted Beans and other plants. 
1942. Poor Asparagus. 
I would be glad if you would suggest 
what I could do to improve the quality of 
my Asparagus. It is coming up plentifully, 
but the grass is very poor and thin. The 
seed was sown two years ago, and I took 
great care in the preparation of the beds. 
What artificial manure should I apply in 
order to improve the quality? (J. S., 
Middlesex.) 
You cannot expect Asparagus to be suffi¬ 
ciently strong in two years to be fit for 
cutting. It should just be in. that condi¬ 
tion ready to transplant from the seed bed 
to a recently-prepared bed in the month of 
April. It is just possible that your plants 
are too crowded to permit of growing strong. 
If they are too crowded a good plan would 
be to pull out some of them, giving them 
at least 6 in. from plant to plant, and if 
12 in., so much the better. During the 
forthcoming winter we should advise you 
to make up a fresh bed, improving the soil 
by leaves and well rotted manure to the 
extent necessary. Very heavy soils are 
not favourable to the growth of the Aspara¬ 
gus, and in that case it would be necessary 
to remove it and fill up the bed with good 
soil obtained from another source. If it 
is light and friable, it can be improved 
by trenching 2 ft. deep and manuring it, but 
if heavy clay, it would have to be dealt with 
as above mentioned. Then in April, when 
the young plants are beginning to shoot, 
dig them up and plant them in rows 12 in. 
from plant to plant and iS in. from row to 
row. This will give them room to produce 
tall stems, and in proportion to their size, 
so will the crowns be for next year, that is, 
after they have made a year’s growth in 
this new bed. They should be sufficiently 
strong in the following spring to give you 
some crowns for cutting. The two points 
are good soil and plenty of room for the 
plants to grow. In the meantime you can 
encourage them to grow by thinning as 
above stated, and watering them with a 
solution of 5 oz. of nitrate of soda to the 
gallon of water. If the soil is at all dr}', 
give a watering of clean water first, and 
then apply the nitrate of soda solution by 
means of the rosed watering pot. A sprink¬ 
ling of salt previous to watering would 
also be of some assistance to the Asparagus. 
1943. Cucumbers under Glass. 
Having a small heated glasshouse and 
being ambitious of growing Cucumbers to 
cut fiext winter or early in spring, I should 
esteem it a favour if you will advise me 
how to go to work. I mean to devote the 
house entirely to the cultivation of Cucum¬ 
bers. What are fhe best to grow and how 
much heat should I require? (Amateur, 
Middlesex.) 
As you are only a beginner and having a 
heated glasshouse, your best plan would be 
to make up a bed of soil over the hot water 
pipes in which to plant the Cucumbers. 
There is another method, namely, by mak¬ 
ing up a hot bed of fermenting manure, but 
as this would only last for a certain time 
and be giving out just when you require 
its help, the best way would be to rely upon 
the hot water pipes to supply the heat. The 
seeds should be sown singly in thumb pots 
about the middle of August, so that the 
plants would be ready to put out in the 
beds some time early in September. Make 
up a quantity of richer soil, consisting of 
good fibrous loam, mixed with a fair pro¬ 
portion of well decayed cow manure. This 
should be made tip in little mounds about 
2 ft. apart on the top of the bed and close 
under the wires, to which you intend train¬ 
ing the stems. The temperature will still 
be good during September, and the plants 
will make good growth, but in November 
and December you may meet with some diffi¬ 
culties owing to the shortness of the day and 
the small amount of light. During that 
period you will have to keep the glass of 
the house clean by washing the outside fre¬ 
quently, to admit all the light possible. 
You should be careful to avoid over-feeding 
just about that period, but by the end of 
January it will be safe to be more liberal 
with them then. During winter you should 
maintain by means of the hot water pipes 
a minimum night temperature of 60 degrees, 
but this, with the aid of sun heat during 
the day, should enable v r ou to raise the tem¬ 
perature to 65 degrees or 70 degrees. As 
the season advances, of course, the sun will 
be of more assistance, and you can maintain 
a higher temperature with more moisture 
both at the roots and in the atmosphere. 
You should take care that the leaves do not 
ge‘ overcrowded at any time, but particu¬ 
larly when the light is poor during Novem¬ 
ber and December. The side shoots may 
be thinned out occasionally, leaving always 
some young ones to supply fruits. If you 
decide upon getting more than one variety, 
you can erryrloy Telegraph, Rochford’s 
Market and lender and True. If you de¬ 
cide to abide by one, then select the first, 
because it is easy of cultivation. 
GARDEN ENEMIES. 
1944. Grubs Eating- Lettuces and 
Cauliflower. 
Will you kindly tell me what will kill 
the enclosed grubs? They eat up all our 
Lettuces, -Cauliflowers, plants, etc. They 
live about 2 in. or 3 in. under the ground. 
We are also tormented with small pests that 
eat our flower seedlings, whether, put in 
boxes or sown in the ground. They begin 
by making a tiny round hole in the green 
leaf and gradually eat it all. A reply 
would much oblige. (R. IT. Allen, Middle¬ 
sex.) 
The caterpillars you sent us were those of 
the Heart and Dart Moth (Agrotis ex- 
clamationis). They are also known as sur¬ 
face caterpillars, from their habit of living 
just under the surface of the ground, from 
which they come out at night and destroy 
the plants. Hand picking is the best 
remedy, although it is rather a slow opera¬ 
tion. You could not apply any insecticide 
that would do them any damage under the 
soil. In the case of Cauliflowers you could 
scrape away the soil from the collar of the 
plants by means of a trowel and then put 
a layer of soot round the collar of the plant. 
This will keep away the caterpillars. Dur¬ 
ing summer and autumn it would be an 
advantage to clear away all weeds and rub¬ 
bish in the garden amougst which the moths 
could hide, as they do so and issue forth 
during the night to lay their eggs about the 
garden plants, thus extending the evil. It 
is also a good plan to deeply dig or trench 
all beds and ground for flowers and vege¬ 
tables in the autumn. Trenching is the 
more important operation, as it serves to 
bury the eggs of a great number of insect 
and other pests. It also buries slugs and 
their eggs, the pupae of moths, etc. A 
good dusting of lime on the surface would 
also help. What we have said concerning 
these surface caterpillars would also apply 
to woodlice, slugs, and other small vermin 
which you mention as eating up the seed¬ 
lings of flowers. Indeed, we cannot too 
strongly dwell upon the necessity of trench¬ 
ing where the ground is infested with these 
various enemies. Keeping the ground clean 
at all times also prevents them from secur¬ 
ing hiding places. Heaps of rubbish any¬ 
where near the flower beds should not be 
permitted, as they harbour a great variety 
of pests. It is necessary, however, to catch 
some of the culprits in order to determine 
what remedy to apply during summer, when 
trenching is out of the question. When 
you find any of the culprits you should send 
them in a small box as you did the ground 
caterpillars. The latter, we may state, as 
sume the resting stage in the soil, and you 
might, when digging or trenching, find the 
pupae cases during winter. They should, 
of course, be destroyed. 
1945. Ants on Lawns. 
Would you kindly give me your advice 
how to destroy ants cn a. lawn without hurt¬ 
ing the grass? (C. Etherixgtox. Glou¬ 
cester.) 
There are several remedies that cannot 
well be applied to lawns cn account of the 
grass, but success has sometimes been ob¬ 
tained by sprinkling guano on and around 
the nests. Air slaked lime, powdered 
