MISCELLANEOUS.

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 1986, 6 March 1890, Page 9

MISCELLANEOUS.

The season has been bo mild in England that quantities of violets were at the end of December growing in the .open near Sittingbourne. Cherry trees wore budding in the same locality, while at Bredgan .another, village in the vicinity of ' Sittiogbourne, a field of poppies was in full bloom. Apple Grafts on Old Pear Trees.-— Mr Gladstone recently drew attention to a fact whhh deserves to be well known, It is that pear trees, when they become old and past bearing, may be BUCoeßsfully grafted with scions of apple trees, and thus made to yield apples. Recent experiments in this direction have been very encouraging. Soot Water,— A good liquid- manure for fruit treeß, &c, is Boot water. Place four bushels of soot in a cask and add 60gal of water. Stir well, and repeat until the soot is thoroughly mixed. A quart of the stuff so formed may be added to sgalof water for watering fruit trees, strawberries, &o. The whole must be well stirred up before use. Guano may be used at the rate of loz to Igal of water, and it only needs placingin the water and stirring up when used,— Horticultural Times.

To Have Oallas Bloom Successively.— The following directions from the Ladies' Home Companion may be relied upon to produce the result if carefully followed :-" A calla flower with its stem should be promptly removed as soon as it begins to fade. Cut the stem low, being careful not to injure tho young bud, which you will find starting up clone to the old stem. By this means three flowers will sometimes be successively produced upon a single Btem. The first, of course, is the largest and finest flower of the fchre.e, though the others are often well developed. When blooming, water freely with warm water, adding a few drops of spirits of ammonia once or twice a week to en courage a strong growth." Forcing Oroouses.— Our experience of crocuses (says a writer in Amateur Gardening) is that they are not particularly well adapted for forcing into bloom early. Still there may be a few readers whose experience differs ; and, further, there may be some who would like to grow a few for blooming early ; if so, the present is a good time to Bee about BtartiDg. We have found it advisable to grow them in rather small pots, placing, say, five bulb? in a 4Jin pot. The pots should be well drained, and filled to within 2in of the rim with a light sandy soil, Then place the hilbs in posiliou and fill in with soil, making the whole quite firm. Water, and place in a frame or outdoors, and cover the pots a few inob.es deep with ashes or cocoanufe fibre. When the bulbs have made an inch or so of growth remove them to the greenhouse for a few days,, and eventually place them in a good heat to force them into bloom, During the time the plants are in heat abundance of water should be given ; but it is useless trying to force crocuses, or for that matter any kind of bulbs into bloom unless they are well rooted. Weeds.—" Weeds," says a writer in Social Science, " are plants in the wrong place. They all probably have their right places and their use somewhere in Nature's economy, though these are sometimes hard to appreciate. The

most of them may serve to keep some deaolate Bpot from being entirely bare, and the decay of their repeated generations furnishes mould to the ground, and may in time make it fit to bear something better. They all, too, have elements of beauty, and these will reveal themselves to every one who diligently searches for them. Even the most forbidding are revealed under microscopic inspection as objects of rare beauty. Many of them, if they were not weeds, would be prized as ohoioe flowers, and some of them have been suoh.

Chrysanthemums.— -The taste for chrysanthemums still continues to increase, and gardeners have become bo skilful in cultivating them that there is hardly a month in the year when it is not possible to obtain these beautiful flowers, Lady Lytton, for instance, ha 3 chrysanthemums all the year round. They are her favourite flowers, and Mr Kipling, her gardener at Knebworth, has succeeded in girdling the year with them. Whether Lady Lytton is at the Embassy at Paris, or whether she is in England, she has a hamperful of chrysanthemums Bent to her regularly every week. This year being the centenary of the introduction of the chrysanthemum into Europe, celebrations are being organised at Edinburgh, Toulouse, Ghent, and other centres of floricultural aotivity. The Royal Horticultural Society has arranged for an historical display at Ohiswiok on November 5 and 6, and a conference, at whioh the leading authorities on chrysanthemums will take part, The chrysanthemum show in the Temple Gardens are being visited daily by large numbers of people. The variety of shades of this flower is increasing so rapidly that a special oategoryof colours is needed to particularise them ; but whatever the names may do, the flowers Bpeak for themselves, and well merit, a viait during the next week or so.