IRISH GARDENING. 



67 



Lachenalias. 



A CORRESPONDENT asks for information respect- 

 ing; riifht culture and treatment of these plants, and 

 vvefeel that we cannot do better than g-ive an extract 

 from a paper on " Lachenalias" read before the Royal 

 Horticultural Societ}- of Eiig^land by Mr. F. W. Moore in 

 the year 1891.* The Lachenalias (Cape Cowslip or 

 Leopard Lily) are bulbous greenhouse plants belonging- 

 to the Lily family and hiiving' their home in South Africa. 

 The leav'es are often spotted with purple, while the flowers 

 have a wide rang^e in colour — white, yellow, red, purple, 

 blue, violet or g'reen. Mr. Moore's advice as to culture 

 is as follows : — 



"Time of Potting. — Pot as soon as the leaves die 

 down ; pot before the new roots appear ; pot when the 

 new roots have somewhat grown. I cannot imag^ine 

 any thinking- practical g-rower seriously giving- such 

 advice as to pot when the roots had begun to grow. 

 The young roots are very delicate, white in colour, vin- 

 branched, and easily broken. When once injured they 

 die back to the base, and do not branch above the injiued 

 part. This I proved by potting- some bulbs which had 

 already made roots, and turning them out after some 

 time. The old roots were all dead, and new roots were 

 growing from the necks of the bulbs. I find the middle 

 of August to be the best time to pot, and my plants are 

 invjiriably potted betw-een August 10 and 20, the latter 

 date being rather too late. However, I find that the 

 time of flowering is not altered by potting in June, July, or 

 August, the after-treatment in each case being the same. 



" Potting Material. — The material in which 

 Lachenalias are grown must be rich. The compost I 

 have used with most success is two parts of loam, one 

 part of leaf-mould, one half-part of decayed manure, to 

 which I add some fertiliser such as fish-potash guano, 

 the effect of which I think is to intensify the colour of 

 the flowers. The material is prepared in the spring, and 

 well turned over three or four times before it is used. I 

 use 7-inch pots for the strong-growing sorts, and put 

 from eight to fifteen bulbs in each pot — eight of L. 

 pendula and fifteen of Z. tricolor. It is necessary to sort 

 the bulbs well, keeping the stronger bulbs to themselves 

 and weaker bulbs to themselves, as when mixed Ihey 

 sc">metimes flower irregularly. The strong bulbs flower 

 earlier than the weaker. Basket culture may also be re- 

 sorted to with advantage. In fact they grow rather 

 better in baskets than in pots ; the foliage is stronger, 

 and so are the flower-spikes. The effect produced by a 

 basket of Lachenalias with forty to fifty flower-spikes all 

 open together is very fine, and such an eff"ect can be 

 secured without much trouble. The finest Lachenalias 

 Nelsofii I ever saw was sent to me by the Rev. Theodore 

 Marsh from a basket. He informed me that when 

 carefully tended these baskets need not be disturbed 

 for three or four years ; but I have always re-made them 

 each year. The same soil does for baskets as for pots. 

 The baskets should, however, be lined with sphagnum 

 before putting the soil into them. 



" General Treatment. — When the bulbs have been 

 potted they are well watered, and the pots are pvit in a 

 light, airy house on a shelf near the light. The glass is not 

 muff"ed or in any way shaded. The ventilators are kept 

 open day and night until the middle of September, when 

 they are closed on cold nights. As the soil gets dr}' the 

 pots are again watered, and so treated until the leaves 

 appear in the course of a few weeks, after which the soil 

 should never be allowed to get quite dry. Watering 

 must be carefully attended to, as the roots decay if the 

 soil be too w-et, such species as L. glaucina and L. 

 orchioides being much more sensitive than L. tricolor or 

 L. Nelsotii. The temperature in the house should not be 

 allowed to fall below 45 deg. Fahrenheit, and plenty of 

 *" Journal 0/ the Roynl Horttculimal Society . Vol. XIIL 



air should at all times be given. Should the day be dull 

 or cold a little heat is turned on when the ventilators are 

 opened, as a cold draft is less injurious than a damp, 

 stagnant atmosphere. So treated they will commence 

 to flower early in December, and at present several 

 species are still in flower. As the plants come into 

 flower they are fed with liquid manure once weekly, and 

 this is continued until the leaves die down. Much of next 

 gear's success depends on this being carefully attended 

 to. When the plants have finished flowering they are 

 replaced on the shelf, and about May they are placed in 

 a frame with southern exposure, and carefully attended 

 to until they go to rest. The decayed leaves are then 

 removed, the ashes in the bottom of the frame and around 

 the pots well damped ; the sashes are shut down, and 

 remain so until potting time in August." 



5^^* C^^ ^^^ 



Notes and Abstracts. 



By G. O. SHERRARD. 



ARCHES, PILLARS, and PERGOLAS. Walter P. 

 Wright. Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society. 

 Vol. xxxiii. Part. I. — These structures are best 

 foimed of larch wood. In the case of pergolas the poles 

 might be eleven feet in length, and sunk three feet in the 

 ground, the wood being unpeeled, and the portions below 

 ground having- been previously treated with coal tar or 

 creosote. A suitable distaiice apart for the upright poles 

 would be eight feet, and they are usually connected by 

 horizontal poles, and these by cross poles of lighter 

 weight. Six-inch material could be used for the uprights, 

 and three-inch or four-inch for the cross poles. Mr. 

 Wright strongly recommends pillars clothed with cle- 

 matis or other creepers as ornamental fejitures in the 

 flower garden. Yov growing on arches he recommends 

 the following roses amongst others : — Crimson Rambler, 

 Euphrosine, and Carmine Pillar. For pillars — Felicite- 

 Perpetue, Rampant, Dundee Rambler, Hiawatha, Lady 

 Gay, and Kathleen. For pergolas the above roses are 

 all suitable ; also Stella, Chestnut Hybrid, and Ards 

 Rover. The best clematises for these structures are 

 Miss Bateman, The Queen, and Fair Rosamond. Other 

 plants suitable for covering pergolas are Ceanothus, 

 Kerria, Honeysuckle and Jasmine. 



The Japanese Dwarf Trees : Their Cultivation in 

 Japan and Their Use and Treatment in Europe. M. 

 Albert Maumerne. Journal of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society. Vol. xxxiii. Part I. — In a most interesting 

 article, with numerous illustrations, M. Maumerne de- 

 scribes the art of dwarfing forest trees as practised by 

 the Japanese. This art, it appears, is part of the educa- 

 tion of the Japanese gentry. It is their aim to repi-oduce 

 in the trees grown in pots the appearance which the 

 same trees would have when growing naturally in dif- 

 ferent situations. Not only must the trees be extremely 

 dwarf, but they must show the effects of the wind and 

 the weather in their trunks and branches. The treat- 

 ment by which the Japanese obtain these effects may be 

 described as a systematic starvation and continual 

 pinching and training of the tops with corresponding 

 prunmg of the roots. The trees which submit most 

 readily to this treatment are the pines and conifers gen- 

 erally. Thuya obtusa and its varieties, Finns deiisi/lora, 

 p. Mass .)iiana, P. Thunbergii and P. niacrophylla 

 are frequently used ; also Juniperus rigida, J. recurva 

 and others. For their cultivation in Europe the 

 author recommends that these trees should be grown 

 for the most part in the open air, and only brought in to 

 decorate rooms during occasional periods. They re- 

 quire vigorous pruning in spring and constant pinching 

 during the summer, and they must never be given too 

 much root room. 



