October  24,  1895. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
395 
serve  to  dwarf  other  products  when  these  products  are  also  abnormally 
large,  and  thus  we  are  on  the  horns  of  a  dilemma,  for  either,  as  a  matter 
of  consistency,  we  must  condemn  the  unduly  large  Onions  or  require 
huge  dimensions  in  all  the  other  products.  My  preference  is  for  Onions 
in  collections  that  are  of  average  analogy  in  size  to  the  other  products, 
none  of  which  should  be  staged  large,  and  that  bulbs  not  exceeding 
16  ozs.  in  weight,  but  all  the  same  very  solid,  round,  clean,  and  hand¬ 
some,  are  in  such  cases  fully  large  enough. 
In  Onion  classes  it  would  be  just  as  well  to  put  a  rule  in  the  autumn 
shows  separate  classes  for  spring  and  winter  Onions,  but  to  have  classes 
for  bulbs  from  seed  sown  outdoors  where  grown,  and  from  seed  sown 
under  glass,  the  plants  being  put  out  in  the  spring.  We  should  in 
that  way  deal  more  fairly  with  good  bulbs  grown  as  an  ordinary 
spring-sown  crop,  and  as  raised  under  more  artificial  conditions.  The 
trade  recognise  the  value  of  these  huge  be  lbs,  such  as  are  commented 
on,  for  seed  stocks,  as  they  give  in  their  progeny,  even  for  ordinary 
culture,  finer  results  in  bulb  production  than  are  usually  obtained  from 
smaller  bulbs.  That  is  a  matter  of  consequence,  and  also  of  benefit  to 
Onion  growers  generally. 
Mr.  Bowerman  tells  of  a  Scottish  correspondent  who,  learning  of 
the  fine  bulbs  at  Banbury,  wrote  asking  that  four  of  the  finest  bulbs 
might  be  sent  him  per  post,  just  to  enable  him  to  see  what  the  sample 
was  like,  and  he  would  return  them.  It  need  hardly  be  said  this  bold 
request  was  respectfully  declined.  It  was  odd  that  just  about  that  time 
a  local  Scotch  competition  was  being  held,  at  which  four  bulbs  were 
needed.  Comment  is  superfluous. 
As  giant  bulbs  of  the  Ailsa  Craig  variety  have  often  been  referred 
to  as  watery  and  soon  decaying,  I  wish  to  mention  that  having  been 
given  a  fine  bulb  last  winter  to  use  for  sample  purposes  when  lecturing 
on  roots,  I  had  no  diflSculty  in  keeping  it  till  the  end  of  March,  when  it 
was  planted  and  gave  me  a  crop  of  seed.  This  I  propose  presently  to 
give  to  some  allotment  holders  in  very  small  quantities. — A.  D. 
SEASONABLE  NOTES  ON  FLORISTS’  FLOWERS. 
The  month  of  October  is  always  a  busy  one  for  the  florist.  The  high 
winds,  cold  nights,  and  continual  moisture  not  only  desolate  the  garden, 
but  make  one  feel  anxious  as  to  its  prospects  for  the  ensuing  year,  and 
to  consider  best  how  one  can  preserve  the  favourites  during  the  coming 
winter.  It  is,  therefore,  necessary  now  to  make  preparations  for  that 
purpose  ;  hence  these  notes  may  not  be  without  their  use  to  some  of 
your  readers. 
Auriculas. 
Although  it  is  perfectly  true  that  there  is  not  much  difficulty  in 
growing  the  Auricula  there  are  comparatively  few  who  venture  on  the 
cultivation  of  the  choice  show  varieties.  A  considerable  stimulus  has 
been  given  to  their  growth  during  the  last  few  years  in  the  South  of 
England,  but  I  yet  fail  to  see  any  such  enthusiasm  as  gathered  around 
them  in  my  earlier  days,  and  I  doubt  whether  those  who  grow  them  for 
sale  find  it  a  profitable  business.  There  is  no  difficulty,  as  I  have  already 
said,  in  growing  them  provided  you  attend  to  certain  points  in  their 
cultivation.  One  of  these  is  their  proper  housing  for  the  winter.  For¬ 
merly  this  was  done  in  garden  frames,  but  of  late  years  these  have 
given  place  to  either  pits  or  low  spanned-roof  houses.  Two  points  have 
to  be  considered  before  placing  them  in  their  winter  quarters  ;  first  of 
all  that  the  drainage  has  not  been  disturbed,  and  secondly  that  they  are 
free  from  aphis.  Sometimes  small  worms  get  into  the  compost  and 
disturb  the  drainage,  and  where  there  are  any  symptoms  of  this  the 
pot  should  be  turned  up  on  the  hand,  the  intruder  ejected,  and  the 
drainage  of  the  pot  re-arranged.  Any  aphis  on  the  foliage,  which  has 
probably  increased  during  this  late  warm  September,  should  be  brushed 
off.  With  regard  to  the  woolly  aphis  we  have  recovered  from  the  scare 
it  gave  us  a  few  years  ago  ;  but  where  it  is  found  round  the  collar  of 
the  plant  it  ought  to  be  removed.  A  great  desideratum  for  their  winter 
quarters  is  that  they  should  be  free  from  drip.  This  is  more  hurtful 
even  now  than  in  the  summer,  because  so  much  air  cannot  be  given  to 
the  plants.  When  the  plants  have  all  been  looked  over,  the  dead  leaves 
pulled  off  and  the  surface  lightly  stirred,  and  the  plants  placed  in  posi¬ 
tion,  it  may  be  desirable  to  give  them  a  slight  fumigation  of  tobacco. 
Water  should  be  given  sparingly,  although  the  soil  should  not  be 
allowed  to  become  dust  dry.  Air  should  be  given  on  all  possible 
occasions. 
Carnations  and  Picotees. 
As  far  as  my  observation  goes  the  layering  of  these  has  succeeded 
well,  the  August  rains  having  given  them  a  good  start  ;  the  splendid 
September  weather  was  also  favourable  to  them,  although  it  necessitated 
watering.  It  will  now  be  time  to  finish  taking  off  the  layers,  for  where 
the  collection  is  large  this  has  been  some  time  in  operation.  I  think  it 
is  far  wiser  to  keep  them  in  pots  during  the  winter  than  to  trust  them 
to  the  open  bed.  In  some  cases  and  during  some  winters  they  may  do 
well,  but  their  safety  is  better  secured  by  potting.  A  great  change  has 
taken  place  with  regard  to  these  flowers,  the  beautiful  strain  of  hybridised 
.seed  which  Mr.  Martin  R.  Smith  has  so  generously  distributed  having 
given  such  general  satisfaction  that  I  imagine  that  the  Carnation  will 
follow  in  the  wake  of  the  Calceolaria,  Cineraria,  and  Begonia,  and  be 
mainly  grown  as  seedlings.  The  truth  is  that  many  of  these  flowers 
raised  from  this  seed  are  as  correct  in  the  florist  point  of  view  as  the 
named  varieties,  while  many  have  such  long  pods  that  they  open  with¬ 
out  bursting.  When  the  plants  ha\e  been  potted  they  should  be  placed 
under  cover  and  carefully  watched  that  the  damp  does  not  affect  them  ; 
they  should,  therefore,  be  sparingly  watered,  and  not  at  all  over  the 
foliage.  With  this  treatment,  and  air  given  to  them  on  all  suitable 
occasions,  they  will  keep  well  until  the  spring. 
Gladiolus. 
It  will  soon  be  time  for  lifting  the  bulbs  of  the  Gandavensis  section  p 
it  has  been  a  curious  season  for  them.  The  ground  was  in  very  good 
order  for  planting,  and  although  it  is  true  in  general  that  a  dry  season 
suits  them  better  than  a  wet  one,  I  think  the  long  drought  was  not  as 
favourable  to  them  as  might  have  been  expected.  The  foliage  began  to 
look  yellow  towards  the  end  of  July,  but  considerably  improved  under 
the  influence  of  the  August  rains,  and  September  was,  I  hope,  favourable 
to  the  ripening  of  the  corms.  How  they  will  fare  after  these  heavy 
October  rains  I  am  anxious  to  find  out.  I  fear,  beautiful  as  this  flower 
is,  it  is  never  likely  to  become  popular.  There  are  no  amateur  growers 
that  have  not  given  it  up  after  a  few  years’ trial.  This  autumn  there 
was  not  a  single  amateur  exhibit ;  in  fact,  there  was  no  competition 
invited  anywhere  about  London.  When  the  offering  of  a  prize  for  a 
collection  would  bring  together  a  stand  of  141  spikes,  it  is  not  likely 
that  the  authorities  will  do  much  to  encourage  a  stand  of  twelve  or 
twenty-four,  especially  as  it  would  only  bring  two  or  three  exhibitors; 
The  corms  should  be  carefully  dried,  and  then  either  laid  out  on  shelves 
or  put  into  paper  bags,  the  former  I  think  the  preferable  plan.  I  always 
write  the  name  of  the  bulb  on  it,  so  that  if  by  any  chance  it  gets  dis¬ 
placed  no  confusion  arises.  Those  who  are  anxious  to  keep  up  their 
collections  must  save  the  spawn,  as  it  is  called,  which  cluster  around  the 
parent  bulbs. 
Tulips. 
The  time  for  planting  these  bulbs  is  close  at  hand  ;  the  early  varieties 
may  be  planted  at  once,  but  the  true  florist  varieties  in  about  a  month’s 
time.  I  fear  that  the  attempt  to  popularise  this  grand  flower  in  the 
south  will  fail  ;  indeed,  one  hardly  knows  now  where  to  And  an  amateur 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  London. 
I  have  not  dealt  with  Chrysanthemums  because  there  are  other  and 
more  experienced  bands  who  at  this  time,  when  the  flowers  are  so 
much  in  evidence,  will  give  their  experience  in  the  pages  of  the  JournaL 
while  Roses  can  hardly  be  called  florist  flowers,  and  may  well  claim  a 
separate  notice. — D.,  Beal. 
FERNS  IN  THE  WINTER. 
Everyone  interested  in  the  culture  of  plants  of  any  kind  is  agreed 
that  as  the  season  advances  the  care  which  plants  of  all  sorts  require 
now  is  greater  than  at  any  other  time  of  the  year.  It  is  well  known 
and  easily  understood  that  when  a  plant,  whatever  may  be  its  nature,  is 
in  full  vegetation  its  health  is  not  so  easily  affected  by  lack  of  constant 
attention  as  it  is  when  in  a  dormant  state.  But,  notwithstanding  the 
truth  of  the  above  statement,  it  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  in 
trying  to  avoid  one  evil  it  frequently  happens  that  one  falls  into 
another,  the  results  of  which,  if  not  so  glaring,  and  consequently  not  so 
easily  detected,  are  quite  as  bad  and  as  detrimental  to  the  health  of  the 
plant  which  is  affected  by  it. 
Many  plants  during  the  winter  require  to  have  their  roots  kept  com¬ 
paratively  dry,  but  though  an  excellent  rule  as  applied  to  the  generality 
of  plants  this,  however,  has  some  serious  exceptions.  One  of  the  most 
prominent  of  these  exceptions  is  in  regard  to  Ferns,  either  cultivated 
in  the  stove  or  in  the  greenhouse,  or  grown  in  frames  or  even  outside. 
The  advice  consisting  in  keeping  Ferns  dry  at  the  roots  during  the 
winter,  frequently  tendered  by  people  professing  to  be  well  acquainted 
with  all  the  requirements  of  these  plants,  is  a  most  injurious  and  per¬ 
fectly  erroneous  notion,  as  is  amply  shown  by  the  ways  of  Nature.  If 
anyone  will  only  take  the  trouble  to  observe  the  treatment  to  which 
most  if  not  all  Ferns  are  subjected  in  their  natural  stations,  he  cannot 
fail  to  be  convinced  that  many  cases  of  failure  in  the  culture  of  these 
plants  are  traceable  to  dry  winter  treatment. 
Taking  as  an  example  our  own  British  Ferns,  we  notice  that  one  and 
all  of  tnem  receive  a  much  greater  amount  of  moisture  during  the 
winter,  their  resting  season,  than  while  under  the  influence  of  summer 
heat  and  drought  when  in  full  growth.  It  is  not  only  those  generally 
dwarf-growing  kinds,  such  as  the  Scale  Fern  (Ceterach  officinarum), 
Asplenium  trichomanes,  the  Wall  Rue  (Asplenium  Ruta  muraria),  or 
the  Downy  and  Alpine  Woodsias,  all  of  which  are  found  growing  natu¬ 
rally  on  rocky  and  exposed  places,  or  on  walls,  which  during  the  summer 
when  their  vegetation  is  active,  receive  a  great  deal  less  water  at  the 
roots  than  during  the  winter  ;  but  also  all  the  stronger  growing  kinds 
which  naturally  thrive  under  the  shadow  of  the  hedges  or  under  the 
shade  of  the  trees.  In  such  positions  the  Ferns  during  the  summer  are 
kept  comparatively  dry,  for  the  simple  reason  that  whatever  rain  comes 
down  can  hardly  reach  them  on  account  of  the  protection  of  the  foliage 
above. 
Ordinary  showers  only  make  the  atmosphere  surrounding  them 
more  humid,  but  do  not  penetrate  through  the  foliage  of  the  trees  under 
which  our  Polypodies,  soma  of  our  Spleenworts  (Aspleniums),  or  the 
Bladder  Ferns  (Cystopteris),  and  others  grow  so  luxuriantly,  and  the 
same  may  also  be  applied  to  the  hedgerows  by  the  side  of  which  that 
which,  for  some  reason  or  other,  is  erroneously  called  now  the  French 
Fern  (Asplenium  Adiantum  nigrum)  and  the  Hard  Fern  (Blechnum 
spicant)  generally  grow.  These,  no  doubt,  to  a  certain  extent  benefit 
by  the  general  moisture  of  the  atmosphere  thus  occasionally  produced 
