July 13, i 9 ° 7 - 
479 
THE GARDENING WORLD . 
The cutting you sent us is the common 
Spindle tree (Euonymus europaeus). It has 
a red berry-like fruit in the autumn, unless 
badly coloured, but when it bursts open the 
seeds are covered with a red cup and hang, 
mtside, it may be for some weeks, if not 
eaten by birds. Being a deciduous tree, 
there would be no difficulty in transplanting 
it after the leaves have fallen, say early in 
November or earlier if the soil is quite moist. 
Lift it with as good roots as possible, only 
cutting back any long straggling ones. If 
you plant this under the trees already men¬ 
tioned it will bear cutting so that it could 
be kept down to a bush about three or four 
feet high, and yet produce its fruits. If 
any tap root was present, that may be cut 
back, as it is of little service to such a small 
tree. Do not allow the roots to get dried 
up until you have planted the tree and again 
covered the roots with soil. 
2005. Honeysuckle Dying. 
■Can you tell me the reason why Honey¬ 
suckle climbing up a porch suddenly fades 
and dies away after growing fast? I ap¬ 
plied some liquid fertiliser when in this 
state, and it has not improved. (Honey¬ 
suckle, Surrey.) 
Without further evidence taken on the spot 
it would be hazardous to be certain as to 
what is the cause of the plant dying. You 
do not state whether it has been established 
some time, or was recently planted. The 
suggestions that we should make are that 
the stem has been broken somewhere near 
the ground, or in the case of an established 
plant, the roots may have got into unsuit¬ 
able soil and have died. It often happens 
that a tree or bush has a certain amount of 
energy in spring to make a good fresh 
growth, and then suddenly dies away, but 
this simply means that when this energy is 
expended in making fresh growth and the 
roots are unable to supply the necessary 
moisture, then the leaves fade and later on 
the stem likewise. No fertiliser is of any 
service whatever if a plant suddenly droops 
in the manner you state, because it is prac¬ 
tically already dead, whatever the cause. In 
the autumn, if the plant is still living, you 
should dig it up for the purpose of improv¬ 
ing the constitution of the soil. Dig it out 
to the depth of 2 1 ft. and as wide. Then 
put in some brickbats Jlor drainage, with 
some turves on the top. If the plant is still 
alive, re-plant it, or else get a fresh plant. 
In filling up the hole, use good soil, con¬ 
sisting of loam and leaf-mould, if the na¬ 
tural soil is bad. If not bad, a little fresh 
material will help it, but the digging of the 
hole is all-important, as it enables the 
climber to get a good start in life. Too fre¬ 
quently, climbers and other plants are put 
into small holes without any preparation of 
the soil, and the young roots cannot pene¬ 
trate it. 
VEGETABLES. 
2006. Storing Onions. 
Last year for some unknown reason my 
store of Opions got soft and rotten a very 
short time after I had taken them in. As I 
have a fine lot coming on, I should be glad 
if you would tell me the best way to store 
them. Perhaps you can suggest what caused 
the last lot to go off so soon, as previous 
crops stored in the same way held good 
right into the spring. I lay them on the 
wooden floor of an outhouse, the boards 
being covered wiith a layer of sand. (K. W., 
Wilts.) 
We do not quite see the object of placing 
sand over the wooden floor before storing 
the Onions, as it would help in a measure 
to absorb the moisture from the Onions and 
then to give it off again at an unsuitable 
time, when the atmosphere is already satu¬ 
rated in autumn. More than likely, how¬ 
ever, your Onions were not properly dried 
before storing' them. A good plan is to pull 
them after they are ripe, leaving them lying 
upon the ground with the roots uppermost. 
After a time they may be taken under cover 
if the weather is wet, but this should be 
something of the nature of a shed which is 
open at the sides so as to allow the wind to 
blow through. Another very good method is 
to tie them up in bunches by the withered 
leaves and hang them up on pegs in 
the shed, or by any other contriv¬ 
ance you like. This allows a free 
play of air about them, a matter of 
some importance. Another reason why the 
Onions rotted is that the bulbs may have 
been! badly eaten by the Onion maggot, 
which often happens, and the Onions in this 
condition rot early because the maggots 
cause open sores, through which moisture is 
absorbed. The dry skin of the Onion is the 
best protective covering for the Onions, and 
if the bulb is bored by the maggot, it would 
lead to early decay. We should lay them 
on the bare wooden floor in a shallow layer 
and keep them as dry as possible. 
2007. Mushrooms in a Shed. 
In my back garden there is a small lean- 
to shed facing north. Could I utilise this 
for the cultivation of Mushrooms, and if so, 
how should I proceed, and when would be 
the best time to begin operations ? The shed 
is only about 9 ft. by 9 ft. (Fungus, Swin¬ 
don.) 
Your first requirements are a sufficient 
amount of horse manure consisting generally 
of droppings, in order to form a hotbed 
about 1 ft. in depth. This should be turned 
over a time or two to encourage fermenta¬ 
tion and allow it to cool down a bit before 
making up the bed. Make up a bed of 
manure and tread it firmly to prevent vio¬ 
lent heating. If the temperature does not 
exceed 80 degrees you can then spawn it with 
a spade. We do not expect the temperature 
to get very high, however, because although 
it is summer, the weather is cool. You can 
commence operations at once. The northern 
aspect will help to cool it and enable you to 
succeed, whereas in a close Mushroom house 
the conditions would be unfavourable and 
the Mushrooms are very liable to be attacked 
by the grubs of the fly. Cover the bed with 
a layer of soil about 15 inches thick, and 
beat this down with the back of the spade. 
You should have Mushrooms in the course 
of six weeks if successful. 
2008. Spinach going to seed. 
Can you tell me the reason of Spinach 
going to seed when only 8 inches high. The 
soil consists of chalk and clay. (Dissatis¬ 
fied, Purley, Surrey.) 
As early varieties are more likely to run 
to seed than late ones, if you prefer Spinach 
that was sown in autumn, the chances are 
that the plants had a check to their growth, 
causing them to run to seed earlier. We 
presume, however, that the seed was sown 
in spring. Taking this for granted, it is 
going to seed either because it is an early 
variety, or because the soil is poor or hard, 
or because the plants have had a check to 
growth owing to cold weather setting in after 
rather warmer weather. This is a likely 
thing to happen if the ground gets satur¬ 
ated during thunderstorms, because as a rule 
everything remains cold for some time after¬ 
wards. We presume that the clay overlies 
the chalk, in which case several of the sug¬ 
gestions we have made would apply to it, 
namely, that it is hard, or that it has been 
saturated with rain, thus giving the plants 
a temporary check, so that when they com¬ 
menced growth again they pushed up flower 
stems. We should advise you in future to 
lighten the clay soil by a judicious admix¬ 
ture of leaf-mould and chalk with the clay, 
to improve its texture. 
2009. Potatos Blighted. 
I have a bed of Eldorado Potatos that look 
very blighted, and do not grow. All the 
old tubers are like the enclosed sample. I 
have other kinds growing in the same 
ground, and they are quite healthy and 
doing well. I shall be glad if you can tell 
me the cause. (Spenser, Whatley, Surrey.) 
The Eldorado Potato has been a very un¬ 
satisfactory variety, being of weak constitu¬ 
tion. Potatos that are grown in England, 
and those used as seed, give rather a poor 
crop, or even a very bad one, owing to 
their contracting a disease known as curl. 
Owing to the very dry weather last summer 
in the South of England, Potatos got too 
much ripened, and when used as seed, give 
poor results. Eldorado being of weak con¬ 
stitution, would suffer worse than others. 
If ycu have any particular fancy for this 
variety, you should make a point of getting 
fresh seed from another source, either in 
Scotland or Ireland, where the tubers do not 
get so much ripened. In any case a change 
of seed will be advantageous. There are 
some varieties of Potato that never give sat¬ 
isfaction on certain soils, and possibly yours 
is a case in point. In order to prove this 
you might plant a few seeds of your own 
saving and some obtained elsewhere, so as 
to compare them and see whether one set of 
seeds behaves better than another. If the 
seeds obtained from Scotland or Ireland be¬ 
have as badly as your own saving, it would 
be clear that the Eldorado was unsuited 10 
your soil. The sets that you sent us have 
not rotted away as they ought to have done, 
and their behaviour in this respect indicates 
that the tubers were too much matured last 
summer. 
2010. Tomatos and White Fly. 
I have a Tomato house, the plants in 
which are covered on their lower leaves with 
green and white fly. Will you please tell 
me whether fumigating with some nicotine 
preparation will harm either the fruit or the 
bloom? If so, what treatment do you re¬ 
commend ? Also some of the fruits here and 
there have numerous dark green spots on 
them. Can you tell me what this is, or the 
cause of it? (J. G., Lancs.) 
Possibly you may have been keeping your 
Tomato house closer than it ought to be, but 
in any case green and white fly do not re¬ 
quire much encouragement as a rule to mul¬ 
tiply on Tomatos. The best plan you can 
adopt is to fumigate the house rather lightly 
on three successive evenings at intervals of 
four days. Get to know the contents of your 
house and then use the amount of the nico¬ 
tine preparation recommended by your sun- 
driesman, or even a little less. This will 
kill the white and green fly, but as many of 
the white fly may be in the pupa condition 
on the leaves, the nicotine will not kill them 
so that you will have some hatching out 
again in the course of a few days, but by 
repeating the fumigation on three successive 
nights you should be fairly clear of the 
white fly. After that, keep your house well 
aired both at top and bottom. The fruit you 
sent us has been attacked by the Potato dis¬ 
ease, which may show itself in a worse con¬ 
dition in a few days. Fruits like this 
should be pulled off and burned to prevent 
the fungus from attacking healthy fruits. 
The dull, damp weather is the cause of this 
but if it should presently clear, and we have 
sunshine, you may not have much trouble 
with it. It is dangerous to apply fungicides 
to keep the fungus in check in the case of 
Tomatos which are to be eaten. By giving 
_ plenty of ventilation, keeping the house 
rather dry and cool, and picking off the dis¬ 
eased fruits, you may escape without much 
loss. 
2011. Concerning Cucumbers. 
In growing Cucumbers in frames would 
you not be in favour of forming a small 
