572 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
PRIZE LETTER COMPETITION. 
Readers are invited to contribute to this 
column short letters discussing any gar¬ 
dening subject. 
Letters should not exceed ijo words each 
in length, and must be written on one 
side of the paper only. 
Two Prizes of 2S. 6d. each will be 
awarded each week for the two Letters' 
which the Editor considers to be the best. 
Rose Cuttings. 
A novel method of striking a Rose cut¬ 
ting, either in the cool house or the 
garden, is to slide a 5 in. pot down the 
shoot selected, then half sever the stem 
below a joint. Let this joint be half way 
up the pot, afterwards filling the pot with 
sandy soil, with crocks for drainage at 
the bottom. Always choose a well- 
ripened shoot; one that has flowered will 
do. The pot should be staked so that it 
cannot move about, or the cutting cannot 
form roots. The soil in the pot should 
be kept moist by watering, never allowing 
it to become too dry. When the cutting 
has taken root it should be cut off alto¬ 
gether and potted up, using turfy loam 
and a little leaf mould. Gloire de Dijon, 
Marechal Neil, and most climbers pro¬ 
pagate very well by this method. 
Joseph Floyd. 
Westhoughton. 
Canker on Apple Trees. 
The primary cause of this is, undoubt¬ 
edly, a deficiency in the soil of those 
constituents which are absolutely essen¬ 
tial to maintain the trees in perfect 
health. Their ash contains nearly 30 per 
cent, of soda, and 15 of potash. If the soil 
is deficient in these it should be liberally 
dressed in late autumn and early spring 
with the following mixture : —10 lbs. each 
nitrate of potash and superphosphate, 
5 lbs. nitrate of soda, 2 lbs. sulphate of 
iron, and 4 lbs. sulphate of lime. It 
should be applied as a top-dressing at the 
rate of 8 oz. to the square yard. Five 
years ago 80 trees, badly cankered, and 
intended to be grubbed up, were, and 
have since been treated as above. They 
were effectually cured, are now in perfect 
health, and bear yearly abundant crops. 
Pomona. 
Gloucester. 
Slugs and Celery. 
Some of your readers may be puzzling 
their brains to know how to keep slugs 
and other pests away from their Celery, 
as it is quite earthing-up time with the 
earlier rows. The best thing I can find, 
and I have made several experiments, is 
to tie brown paper round the plant and 
then put about a tablespoonful of freshly 
slaked lime on the top and shake the 
plant well so that it falls down well in 
between all the leaves and kills all the 
slugs that may happen to be overlooked. 
Afterwards give a good sprinkling up and 
down both sides of the rows outside the 
paper. I have tried this plan for several 
years, and have always found the Celery 
beautifully clear and crisp, and free from 
all the pests that the plant is subject to. 
B. Mitson. 
Port Talbot. 
Cactus-flowered Geraniums. 
Among greenhouse Geraniums this is a 
new race, and quite a novelty. The 
flowers imitate the Cactus Dahlia on a 
miniature scale. The petals of the 
flowers are cut up quite narrow, and are 
all generally twisted. I have them in 
their young state, and they appear to be 
rooted easily, requiring the same treat¬ 
ment that is applied to the ordinary 
Geranium. They are very free flowering, 
and their light graceful appearance com¬ 
mend them for small glasses. Being so 
very different from other flowers, the 
Cactus Geranium commands attention, 
and is sure to be grown by many who like 
new things in the greenhouse. There are 
a dozen varieties, covering a good selec¬ 
tion of colour, such as Snow Queen, Rose 
Queen, Salmon Queen, and Scarlet King. 
A. V. M. 
Wishaw. 
Ringing and Notching. 
These methods are employed for re¬ 
novating old plants, such as Crotons, 
Dracaenas, India-rubber plants, etc. A 
Dracaena stem, long and barren, is un¬ 
sightly. If the top is taken off and treated 
as a cutting this means to sacrifice its 
lower leaves, but by ringing we save these 
beautiful leaves. Take oul a ring of.bark 
half an inch wide all round the stem im¬ 
mediately below the lower leaves and 
place round this some damp moss and 
sharp sand milxed together. Tie this 
tightly around the open cut, and keep 
moist by syringing. Roots will soon be 
formed, when the stem may be severed 
and potted up, when it will make a nice 
bushy plant. To notch is to half sever 
the stem, taking out a piece of it, and 
treating in the same manner as in ring¬ 
ing. The old plant should be grown on 
for the shoots that will grow. 
Joseph Floyd. 
Westhoughton. 
Aspidistras as Stove Plants. 
Having had a good experience in grow¬ 
ing Aspidistras, I should like to give 
readers of the “G.W. ” a few simple 
hints, the result of an experiment I tried, 
which proved a great success. Aspidis¬ 
tras as a rule do not require a strong 
heat, as an intermediate house is gener¬ 
ally considered best for their culture. In 
August of last year I re-potted a number 
of plants, which had become entirely pot- 
bound; afterwards I transferred them to 
the stove house, where they have remained 
until the present time, "and I am sur¬ 
prised at the results, the variegation being 
perfect. The temperature was main¬ 
tained at 75 deg. throughout. The plants 
will be an adornment to our conservatory 
during the coming spring and summer 
August 31, 1907.' 
months. The compost I use for potting 
is as follows: One part fibrous loam, 
some good sharp river sand, mortar rubble’ 
with plenty of brick broken up very small’ 
a little fine charcoal, and some wood 
ash. Turn over these ingredients several 
times to thoroughly mix them. Water 
must be given abundantly, and when well 
established they should be fed with weak 
soot water to obtain a fine dark green 
foliage. Those who are desirous of try¬ 
ing this method will undoubtedly obtain 
good results. 
J. Nibbs. 
Henley-on-Thames. 
Vallota purpurea (Scarborough Lily). 
The Vallota is a native of South Africa, 
and is not unlike the Hippeastrum in bulb 
and leaf, but they should never be 
allowed to become perfectly dry. The 
bulbs should be potted firmly in a mixture 
of two parts of good fibrous loam, one 
part leaf mould, a little cow manure, and 
sand, in well drained pots. Repotting is 
best done in the autumn. At the same 
time the small bulbs should be separated 
from the large ones for increasing the 
stock. It is not necessary to repot them 
every year, once in three or four years 
being sufficient, in fact, they delight in 
being pot-bound. Give an abundance of 
water during active growth with frequent 
waterings of some kind of liquid manure. 
They should be kept in a greenhouse 
until about the middle of May, and then 
put out in a sunny position on a bed of 
ashes, and there allowed to remain until 
their flowering spikes appear in August. 
They can be flowered in the spring by 
placing them in gentle heat during the 
winter. There are four so-called varie¬ 
ties of V. purpurea named major, minor, 
magmfica, and eximia. 
H. Gates. 
-- 
Tradescantias. 
Commonly known under the name of 
bpiderwort, they have long been inhabi¬ 
tants of our gardens, both under glass 
and in the open border. J. Tradescant 
was a gardener to Charles I., after whom 
it was named. The varieties that are 1 
grown under glass are very useful in 
small pots to hang down from side stages 
and grow rampant in the plant stove if 
left to themselves long. There is a 
white, also a blue variety that thrives out 
of doors, but none are very showy, and 
are not of much service for cutting pur¬ 
poses. T. virginica alba is probably by 
far the best. The long flowing foliage 
adds appearance to the spike of flower 
when cut. They do not require any 
special treatment, doing well in the her¬ 
baceous border if not crowded out by 
taller competitors, which often is the case 
m these mixed herbaceous borders. Do 
not cut them down too severely after pass¬ 
ing out of flower, then a second show will 
be had towards the end of summer. 
The spikes need some kind of support, as 
they are rather heavy when the heads of 
flower are formed. 
Bicton, Devon. 
J. Mayne. 
