7 5 ° 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
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¬ 
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 
fiat 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. 
irrrrrrrrrrrrrrr* 
STOVE AND GREENHOUSE. 
2378. Use for Cold Greenhouse. 
I have a greenhouse 14ft. by 7ft., south 
aspect, and a staging aft. 6in. high with 
nine Sunlight soap boxes placed on it. In 
the summer I grow Tomatos. Can you tell 
me what use I could put it to now or in the 
eanly spring? (T. D., Berks.) 
You could grow bulbs to flower in early 
and .late spring. lit is not too late to pot 
them, but they would have come along better 
if you had potted them about the beginning 
of October. For instance, you could grow 
Hyacinths, Narcissi, Tulips and various 
other bulbs, which would be out of bloom 
before you require the house for Tomatos, 
unless you commence very early. Even then, 
if you do not raise the Tomatos j'ourself 
the house could be emptied in time for the 
Tomatos. These bulbs are hardy and re¬ 
quire no artificial heat, so that it would be 
a mistake to have them in the house when 
that is warm enough for Tomatos. You do 
not let us know if it is heated or not, as 
that would give a clue to the earliiness you 
could raise Tomatos, but possibly you buy 
the plants. We have selected the bulbs for 
variety of colour. For Hyacinths, we should 
recommend King of the Blues, Gertrude, 
Roi des Beiges, Grand Maitre, Grand 
Blanch, and Robert Steiger. In the way of 
Daffodils or Narcissi there is a very exten¬ 
sive list, but a splendid half-dozen are Em¬ 
press, Emperor, Golden Spur, Obvallaris, 
Victoria, and Barii conspicuus. Fine early 
flowering Tulips are Cottage Maid, Chryso- 
lora, Keizerskroon, Pottebakker White, and 
Proserpine, and a splendid May flowering 
one is Gesneriana major. Other choice 
bulbs are Chionodoxa Lucilae, C.L. sarden- 
sis, single and double Snowdrops, Scilla 
sibirica, and Fritillaria Meleagris. If you 
like other flowering plants easy to raise you 
could sow East Lothian Stocks in July and 
grow them in pots, so as to be able to bloom 
them in winter or early spring. A cold 
frame would be the most suitable place to 
rear them in until your greenhouse is clear 
of Tomatos. Wallflowers may be sown in 
the open ground in May, transplanted to 
give them space to grow and potted up some 
time in autumn. These will flower either in 
autumn or more likely in spring, even 
though the greenhouse may be unheated. 
2379. Rooting a Shrub. 
Enclosed is a leaf of a plant. Will you 
kindly furnish the name? I have also put 
two cuttings in which were layered in pots 
from it but not rooted. Some of the leaves 
are turning yellow. The leaf enclosed is 
from one. I notice in the Readers’ Competi¬ 
tion one writer, on November 2nd, recom¬ 
mends lime and matches for milky, sappy 
cuttings for dipping the heels in. (Gar¬ 
dener, Blackpool.) 
The leaf you sent is Ficus elastica or 
India Rubber Pliant. To strike cuttings it 
requires a stove temperature and a propa¬ 
gating case in that stove. You can, how¬ 
ever, root it by a much easier and safer 
method. We have no experience of limeand 
matches for milky cuttings, although they 
may prove serviceable. The'plan we recom¬ 
mend is to push your knife right through 
the stem you wish to propagate, cutting the 
stem a short way down the middle. Then to 
keep this slit open push in a peg of wood. 
Get some sphagnum moss and tie a handful 
over this out which you have made. Keep 
the moss moist until roots are coming 
through it freely, when you can cut off the 
shoot as a rooted plant and pot it up. This 
could be done in spring, when you will have 
more heat and when the light is better than 
at present. With a little heat, however, it 
could have been done during September. By 
putting It in your heated greenhouse you 
could commence as early as February or be¬ 
ginning of March. 
2380. Cuttings of Begonia Gloire de 
Lorraine. 
Will you kindly let me know if cuttings 
of Gloire de Lorraine Begonia can be taken 
and put in now in order to have young 
plants for spring? (Amateur, Scotland.) 
If you have a propagating case and keep 
up a bottom heat at 65 deg,s. to 70 degs. you 
would be able to root cuttings of this Be¬ 
gonia, but if you wait till February they 
will root much more easily because the light 
will be better by that time, and the plants 
will naturally be more inclined to grow. 
Select cuttings from the base of the plant, 
as they are more likely to make good speci¬ 
mens " than cuttings taken from the top, 
which would be liable to pass into a flower¬ 
ing cond'ition instead of making good growth 
and forming the foundation of a healthy, 
large-sized plant. If you have not sufficient 
command of heat it would be better to wait 
till the beginning of March if you have 
only a limited supply of cuttings. If cut¬ 
tings are plentiful you could risk it now 
with the temperature which we advised. 
23 81. Ventilating a Greenhouse. 
I have just purchased a small greenhouse 
8ft. by 5ft., span-roofed, but I am not quite 
sure how to regulate the ventilation of it. 
November 23, 1907. 
Should it be closed right up every night 
now, and how should I manage when we get 
very foggy nights, as we have been having 
lately ? The top ventilator is open to the 
west and the side one to the east. I shall 
feel much obliged for any information on 
this subject. I shall only be burning a 
small stove in it on very cold nights just to 
keep the frost out. I am keeping Geraniums, 
etc., in it. (Leta, Surrey.) 
There is not very much object in keeping 
a greenhouse open at the present time, es¬ 
pecially during foggy nights. Indeed, a 
good plan is to open it fairly early in the 
day in fine weather and to close it again even 
early in the afternoon, before the sun is off 
it. If the temperature rises a little, then it 
will do no harm, but help to keep up the 
temperature during the night. Of course, 
on foggy days the ventilators need not be 
open at any time. Even if the fog should 
get in badly, although the doors and ven¬ 
tilators are all shut, it would sometimes be 
an advantage to light a fire in order to drive 
the fog out. As the place gets heated up a 
little chink of the ventilator should be left 
open to allow the fog and moisture to es¬ 
cape. On frosty nignts if you can raise 
the temperature to 40 degs. that will be quite 
sufficient for plants in a cold greenhouse 
that should be resting. During mild, open 
weather ventilate at the top and sides, which 
will keep the plants sturdy and serve to dry 
the interior. Under these conditions Gera¬ 
niums will not require very much water, but 
should be looked after to see that they do 
not get dust dry. 
FLOWER GARDEN . 
23.82. Name of Bulb. 
Enclosed you will find a small bulb, 
many of which I obtained in a mixed parcel. 
Can you supply -the name? (W. E. Mars- 
den, Middlesex.) 
The bulb vou enclosed was that of a 
Tulip, but we cannot tell the variety, as 
bulbs do not differ sufficiently to make sure 
about that. 
2383. Planting Lily of the Valley. 
Kindly tell me how deep to plant Lily of 
the Valley roots, and what soil, manure, 
and treatment they require. (Reader, Soms.) 
If the soil has not recently been trenched, 
we should advise you to trench it 2ft. deep 
and mix in some manure with the. soil. 
Level the ground" and then plant the Lily of 
the Valley so that the tips will just be under 
the soil. This will mean that the roots them¬ 
selves are 2in. or 3m. beneath the surface. 
Farmyard manure, if well rotted, should be 
mixed with the soil when trenching. If your 
soil is heavy horse manure would be better 
than cow manure, as it would serve to 
lighten the soil and make it more easily 
penetrated by 'the roots. On the other hand, 
if the soil is light cow manure would be the 
better of the two. Tread the soil quite firm 
about the roots, taking care, of course, not 
to tread on the crowns or pips of the Lily 
of the Valley. If you plant very small 
pieces you could, of course, firm them with 
your fingers. 
2384. Sowing Sweet Peas in Autumn. 
Having been recommended autumn sowing 
of Sweet Peas, I put mine in during the 
first week in October, and along with them 
I have also sown Gypsophiia elegans, not 
expecting them to germinate until the spring 
of next year. I was surprised to see them 
both showing growth in a month’s time. The 
Sweet Peas are now a good inch high.. Is it 
a usual thing for them to start growing so 
soon, and will they winter all right or want 
protecting in any way? (A. S. E., Yorks.) 
Both of these subjects very soon germinate 
after the seeds get in contact with moisture, 
at least if the temperature is sufficiently 
high, as it would be in October. Sweet Peas 
