July 13, I 9 ° 7 - 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
477 
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 pape, 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. 
1994. Rooting Genista. 
Several times I have tried to strike cut¬ 
tings of the Genista, and although they 
looked well for a time, they eventually turned 
yellow and died away. If there is any other 
way I should be glad to know. I have only 
a greenhouse. (Thos. Portway, Essex.) 
The correct name of the plant you men¬ 
tion is Cytisus fragrans. The cuttings of 
this plant are somewhat difficult to root, and 
should be selected when getting fairly firm, 
otherwise they are liable to damp off during 
the long period they require’ to produce 
roots. However, seeing that you have been 
unsuccessful by this means, you might try 
layering. It is somewhat awkward to get 
the shoots of a pot plant down into other 
pots to layer them, but by a little scheming 
you can contrive to manage this easily. Get 
a broad piece of beard on which to stand the 
pot, and if the pots into which you layer 
the shoots are too low, you can raise them 
on bricks. The reason that we advise plac¬ 
ing the whole arrangement on a board is 
that you can lift them without disturbing 
them if need be to make other arrangements 
in the house. You can commence by select¬ 
ing a position in the greenhouse that will 
not be much in the way. The plants should, 
however, be near the glass and not shaded in 
any way, otherwise they would not make sat¬ 
isfactory growth during the time necessary 
to get roots on the layers. The soil in the 
small pots should be rather light, consisting 
of equal portions of loam and leaf-mould or 
peat, with plenty of sand. Cut the shoots 
on the under side in the same way that you 
would Carnations, and peg them into the 
small pots, putting the peg over the cut so 
as to keep it open. Keep the soil in these 
small pots constantly moist, but not sodden, 
until you feel certain roots are produced. 
This can be ascertained by turning out the 
contents of a pot on your hand occasionally 
to see if the roots are coming through the 
soil. 
1995. Hydrangea not Flowering. 
T have two plants of Hydrangea, which 
flowered well last year, but show no signs of 
doing so this season. I cut them well back 
in spring to a good bud when re-potting. 
Does the Hydrangea flower every year, or 
how can I get flowers every year? (Hydran¬ 
gea, Wilts.) 
We presume you mean the common Hy¬ 
drangea which does not flower when the 
shoots have been cut back. Flowers of this 
plant always come from ‘he terminal bud. 
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 ma-ihed. 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. 
For this reason the plant is not a success 
when planted in the open or in districts 
where the points of the shoots are liable to 
get killed back with frost. If your plants 
were small last year and only flowering 
shoots upon them, the chances are that you 
would get no flowers this year unless the 
plants bloomed early and you could get good 
growth into them again before the end of Sep¬ 
tember. This can be done by cutting back 
the flower stem to a good bud after it fades 
and encouraging the plant to commence 
growing again. With this object in view, 
it could be put into heat so as to give it a 
good start, and if it commences growing a 
greenhouse temperature would be sufficient. 
While growth is being made, weak liquid 
manure would encourage vigorous growth 
and if you get large plump buds by the end 
of September, you are certain of flowers next 
year. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
1996. Leaves of the White Lily Browned. 
I have a little round bed of common white 
Lilies, which have been planted some years, 
and which you will see from the enclosed 
photo did well last summer. However, this 
year they are quite a failure, the lower 
leaves and stems turning brown and having 
a withered appearance. Then many of the 
flower heads fell down and upon examina¬ 
tion I found the stems hollow and in some 
cases partly cut through. A family of snails 
was among them (of which, and slugs, we 
have had a perfect plague). I removed these 
pests and placed some soot on the roots, but 
the mischief was done and the Lilies ruined. 
Will you kindly tell me if the snails alone 
were the cause of the mischief, or if the 
cold winds have injured the flowers? Even 
last year the leaves of some of the plants 
turned brown, though they were constantly 
watered. In the little bed they are very 
close together. Is this a mistake? Thank¬ 
ing you in anticipation for your kind advice. 
(Vera, Surrey.) 
According to your evidence the damage to 
the flowers has been done by the snails alone, 
owing to the stems being cut because they 
would be unable to supply the necessary 
moisture to enable them to grow and expand. 
The browning of the leaves last }’ear and 
this was probably due to the Lily disease 
caused by a fungus named Botrytis. You 
did well t:o remove the family of snails, but 
you should also have destroyed them, other¬ 
wise they may give you trouble again. They 
have been a great pest this year in many 
gardens, owing to the plentiful moisture 
which induces them to wander about and 
select the food which suits them best. You 
would do well to examine the buds every 
evening, just before dusk, when the ground 
and foliage are getting moist with dew, be¬ 
cause then the snails will be on the prowl 
if there are still any about. If any of the 
buds dropped from stems which were not cut 
then we should suspect that the heavy thun¬ 
derstorm or heavy rain recently broke them 
down. The plentiful moisture this year has 
made watering unnecessary, and those plants 
we have seen are in very fine condition. The 
display will be good if they do not meet 
with mishaps. If they give fair satisfac¬ 
tion we should not disturb the bulbs, but if 
they turn out badly diseased, it would be 
worth while to lift them in August, when 
the stems are perfectly died down, and put 
the bulbs in a bag with some flowers of sul¬ 
phur, and shake them up. Keep them for 
a few days and give them another shake in 
the flowers of sulphur, and then plant them 
rather more widely apart on a fresh piece of 
good soil. 
1997. Plant Similar to Larkspur. 
I should be much obliged if you could in¬ 
form me through the columns of The Gar¬ 
dening World, of the name of the plant 
which bears leaves like those enclosed. I 
cannot say how long it has been here, as I 
found it on my arrival some time ago. It 
is now over 3 feet high, and bears a number 
of dark blue flower spikes, which are some¬ 
what similar to Larkspur. The foliage does 
not last very well, and soon becomes rather 
dilapidated. I am an amateur, and have 
had no instruction in gardening whatever, 
and gained all my information from the 
pages of your excellent book, and am well 
satisfied with my success, especially with 
Sweet Peas, which I have taken up for the 
first time this year. I have already picked 
a number of blooms from Dorothy Eckford, 
Countess Cadogan, Senator, etc. (J. C. 
Archbold, Middlesex.) 
The leaf you sent us is that of a perennial 
Larkspur, known as Delphinium. There are 
very numerous garden varieties, and we can¬ 
not undertake to give the garden names, be¬ 
cause it is impossible to identify florists’ 
flowers without comparing them with a 
named collection. The lower leaves are 
liable to die away, especially if crowded by 
their own stems, or by other plants. You 
should see that it occupies a position where 
it will get at least 18 inches of clear space 
around it for the sake of the foliage. We 
are glad to hear of your success with Sweet 
Peas, and to enable you to get them as good 
next year you should trench the soil and 
manure it in autumn, and if you can get a 
fresh piece of ground for the Sweet Peas, 
so much the better. 
1998. The Best Solomon’s Seal. 
Would you be kind enough to say in the 
“Enquire Y ithin ” department of The 
Gardening World, just what colour the 
flowers of Polygonatum multiflorum are? 
Our Arne 'ican species of Polygonatum have 
greenish flowers, but there is one occasion¬ 
ally found in cultivation here with cream- 
coloured flowers, only the recurved tips of 
the perianth being apple-green. It is far 
handsomer than our native species, and we 
would like to settle the matter as to name. 
The flowers are several in a cluster. (Wil¬ 
lard N. Cllte, U.S.A.) 
The flowers of the P. multiflorum are 
creamy white, as you say, with green tips, 
cylindrical or somewhat club-shaped, con¬ 
stricted or narrowed in the middle, about 
two-thirds of an inch long, and produced in 
clusters of three to five. The fruit is a 
bluish-black berry. The stems are two to 
three feet high, and as in all other species, 
the leaves are arranged in two. ranks by 
twisting at the base. It is a native of the 
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