Jime 13, 1 872. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



475 



year's supply are to be taken from the bedding-out Pelar- 

 goniums, the plants vrould be quite disfigured. I have always 

 nearly two thousand cuttings taken every year in August and 

 the beginning of September ; some of the cuttings are put in 

 single pots, others three or four in a pot. The latter are jiotted- 

 off in March, and malsie fine plants by the thii-d week of May, 

 when we generally begin bedding-out. — A Lady Gakdenee. 



THE COMINa PEACH SEASON. 

 It needs no prophet now to forecast our fruit prospects, 

 wliich may be taken as below the average, though there are 

 some exceptions. Who could guess during the brilliant sun- 

 shine of April that a May of cold drenching rains mingled 

 with fierce hail showers was shortly to follow ? Of course, 

 vegetation, stimulated unwontedly, received a severe shock. 

 Such heavy downpours are most prejudicial to the setting of 

 the pollen, washing it completely away. There are some en- 

 thusiastic enough to admire a damp atmosphere iu-doors, even 

 during the blooming period, or, at least, who advocate a gentle 

 syringing at this time ; but my own faith is very weak, and I 

 prefer a diy sunny atmosphere and a brisk breeze for all kinds 

 of fruit trees. 



Of the advantages of motion among the petals and foliage 

 I am the more convinced, because this season, from careless- 

 ness, our orchard-house trees did not receive then- usual 

 shaking to set the flowers, and though the crop is good, there 

 were certainly less blooms set, and less to thin-out afterwards. 

 The best plan is to have a stoutish pole, long enough to reach 

 anywhere, vrrap some soft material round the end, and then, 

 once a-day, to rap gently over evei-y yai-d of branch and tree 

 during the time the pollen is ready to act. As syringing is 

 out of the question at this time, the trees, especially if potted, 

 should have abundance of water and a free ch'culatiou of air, 

 shutting up rather earlier to increase the heat ; thus, with 

 ordinary weather, all goes well. When a gale of wind prevails 

 we must open to leeward only, or, when cold rain falls, a httle 

 fire heat would be most useful. Pots should be turned round 

 to the sun, exposing all parts in succession, and the trees be 

 gently swayed by the hand. These may appear trivial matters, 

 but they are not really so if we wish to have fine regular crops, 

 and these of first-rate quaUty. 



As regards the unfortunate Peach trees on the wall, I never 

 saw them look worse. Hardly a Peach set ; of leaves there is 

 absolutely none, those first appearing being now, when not 

 pulled off (which they should be), curled and dampiug-off. 

 Even under protecting canvas they seem httle better. The 

 incessant heavy downpour and the coldness of the nights have 

 penetrated through tiffanies and similar materials like so 

 ' many cobwebs. Even under glass in many places the ther- 

 mometer descended too low for safety. Pears and Plums ai'e 

 but a scanty crop, and Apples are not first-rate. The weather, 

 however, has improved, but who can guess ? 



As is evident, where situation and skilful care have been com- 

 bined, there are splendid exceptions, but is it not certain that 

 our heavily-di'iveu fruit trees, both under glass and on the 

 open wall, are rendered so unnecessarily weak by overcropping 

 that they have but a feeble chance? What are the trees 

 which bear at present the most heavily but such as did not 

 bear at all last year, or else some very vigorous young ones ? 

 Their stored-up strength has told during the time of trial, of 

 course. The more I converse with the visitors who come here, 

 many having houses and good gardens at home, the more I 

 am convinced that the rate of production expected is un- 

 reasonable. I have tested their opinions freely, and our ideas 

 do not coincide on this important point. I always thin-out 

 largely, and always have the same average crop ; but if I 

 adopted the convictions of most I have seen, I should not ex- 

 pect anything this season. "ttTien a tree is given me it is quite 

 exhausted already, though young; neither is the quality of 

 the fruit at all what it should be. With the exception of that 

 grown to exhibit, and where there is no unreasonable demand 

 on the gardener, certainly the amount is more looked to than 

 the quaUty. It is true we live in a fast age, and young trees 

 are readily bought ; but unless the established trees have an 

 occasional year of rest — and where is this to be found ? — at 

 the present rate of production they must fail, and that hap- 

 IJens not so unfrequently of late as to make the matter one to 

 be despised, especially whenever such a spring occurs as the 

 present one. 



Occasionally, weai'ied ^ith the evident disappointment of 

 visitors, I have allowed the fruit on some ill-fated victim to 



remain but very little thiimed, and have seen at once that 

 such was the expected proportion. One gentleman brought 

 his gardener with him, and triumphantly stopped before a 

 Passe Cohnar Pear tree, having about three hundred Peai's on 

 it, it having been forgotten at the thinning. Now the tree 

 could only bear either fifty Pears, but such as I would not 

 wish to eat, or twenty-five, which would be very good indeed. 

 Another tree, having 170 Pears on it, was reduced to twenty ; 

 but my visitors strongly condemned this ! There is no doubt 

 whatever in my mind that after a year or two of such produc- 

 tion the foliage would become small, the tree liable to injury 

 from cold or insects, and the extensions dwindle, whUe the 

 fruit would rapidly lose its juicy character and colour. 



" I don't think you have quite so much fruit in the orchard 

 houses as last year," many say; to which I reply, with 

 humility, turning up the fohage, that there is aU over the 

 houses at least one fine Peach per square foot, and even more 

 on some trees, and I do not think this a bad crop for a be- 

 ginner like myself. 



Those who know the least are amateurs with two or three 

 seasons of experience. Such are very decided indeed in their 

 ideas. But let us not be mistaken. There is a considerable 

 amount of knowledge now prevalent, and orchard houses are 

 common enough everywhere, and possessed by many who 

 have a real love for fruit culture, who are sure of ultunate 

 results by patience. To such and others I would say, If your 

 fmit crop be not an average one this season, is it entu-ely be- 

 cause of the cold spring ? and have not your trees by over- 

 cropping been so weakened that they have succumbed at once 

 to what they might have resisted, at least partially, had their 

 constitution been more vigorous ? The matter is worth con- 

 sideration. — T. C. BKfinAUT. 



ECCENTEICITIES OP PLANTS. 



The subject of the variations in the colours of flowers is one 

 on which I should like some of the readers of the .Journal who 

 may have devoted theh attention to this peouharity or eccen- 

 tricity to enlighten me ; in the meantime I shall here briefly 

 record one or two examples which have come imder my im- 

 mediate notice. 



In the first place, I had a small Hyacinth in a glass this 

 season ; it should have been a single blue, but instead of coming 

 in a decorous manner, its blossoms, or the tips of each of the 

 segments of the bells, were dark green, leaving only the base 

 blue. Aboiit a week ago I was shown by a friend a spike of a 

 single Hyacinth in which each flower was splashed with blue 

 and pink ; two other spikes which grew upon the same bulb 

 were respectively wholly blue and wholly pink. What the 

 colour should have been I could not ascertain. 



In my own London garden another remarkable variation has 

 been going on for several years with the root of a Daisy, and 

 I shall describe it, as it may not be uninteresting to your 

 readers. In 1868 my next-door neighbour presented me with 

 a root in full bloom of the Double Crimson Daisy, at the same 

 time remarking that it was a disgi'ace to me that I did not 

 grow some of these plants amongst my early spring flowers. 

 I may here remark that from that time no other Daisy haS' 

 been in my garden, and now mark the metamorphoses this 

 single plant has passed through. In the spring of 1869, in- 

 stead of double crimson flowers coming upon my Daisy roots, 

 they were all single white ones, not quite so single as those 

 we find in the meadows, but nearly so. This Daisy is a gre.at 

 pet of my wife, and the pecuharity of the change which had 

 taken place in its blooms induced us both to retain it, when, 

 lo ! in the spring of 1870 the same plant produced semi- 

 double white flowers, having, in addition, round the base a 

 quantity of little floral buds, for min g what is popularly known 

 as a hen-and-chickens flower. This change, as may be sup- 

 posed, exoited our curiosity, the plant became immensely 

 popular, and we eagerly watched for the first flowers in the 

 spring of 1871 to see what novelty was in store for us. We' 

 were rewarded with large and beautifully double pure white 

 blooms, each floret being tipped with rosy-pink, reminding 

 one of a fine Pompon Chrysanthemum. In the autumn of 

 1871 the plant had formed a large clump, and I divided it into 

 many pieces, and tins year I have plants with double pm-e 

 white flowers — flowers that resemble those of last year, as well 

 as single blooms, and, in a few instances, some flowers in which 

 the florets are tipped vnth deep red. These are the nearest 

 approach to the state iu which I originally received it, and yet 

 on the same plant I get occasional flowers resembling our wild 



