250 



JOUSNAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( October 2, 1873. 



we kill the cjueens, and thereby destroy a nest indirectly. I 

 would remind all gardeners to burn all they discover. To 

 obtain the nest as perfect as possible, I roll up a piece of brown 

 paper about C inches long and tie both ends with a piece of 

 twine, I then melt some roll sulphur in an old frying-pan or 

 any old tin, and then put the paper in the liquid until it is 

 satui'ated ; the fuse is then ready. Go after all the wasps are 

 in (which will not be before it is dark), find the entrance to 

 the nest, light the fuse, place it in the hole, and blow with a 

 pair of bellows untU it is entirely burned, after which you may 

 safely dig the nest out. — James R. Pocock, Bromborouijh Hall, 

 Clicshirc. 



BUSH AND PYRAMID FRUIT TREES. 



Ant observer of fruit-tree growth can attest, and not a few, 

 I dare say, can add a testimony of costly disappointment in 

 their hope of fruitful bush and pyramid trees of lasting fertility 

 aud health. Every fruit tree — dwarf, graft, pinch, prune, or lift 

 as you please — has its own inherent constitution, and will grow 

 wood and fruit after its own natural aptitude and kind, subject 

 only to moderate restriction of form or symmetry, or become a 

 barren, scabbed, stunted scarecrow. Be the stem a dwarf of 

 but a few inches or feet, as of bush aud pyramid, still an ex- 

 pansion of branches, twigs, and foliage must be attained, ap- 

 proaching or equalling the head of the standard, else any per- 

 manent success is hopeless. I say so, the cordon system of 

 growth, horizontal, oblique, and vertical alike notwithstand- 

 ing, as lawyers say, for such a system induces but a morbid 

 precocity of temporary duration, and results in decay, involving 

 removal and renewal of stock in succession. Premature fruit- 

 fulness is acquired certainly by art, but Nature ultimately 

 resumes her sway or death ensues. " Soon ripe, soon rotten," 

 is an adage old as true. — S. 



[So totally at variance with our own reasoning, observations, 

 and experience, are the foregoing theoretical conclusions, and 

 so important is it to be assured as to the merits or demerits of 

 dwarf fruit trees, that we sent our correspondent's letter to one 

 of the best of fruit cultivators, and the following are his ob- 

 servations : — 



" Anyone reading the above observations would be led to 

 believe that bush and pyramid-trained trees are worthless to 

 plant in a garden, and that Mr. Thomas Rivers and other 

 eminent cultivators have made a mistake in recommending 

 them. When the soil is suitable, and the garden of large size, 

 I would plant the largest proportion of Pears aud Apples on 

 the Pear and Crab stock, because I find the best fruit is pro- 

 duced on trees grafted on the above stocks. But all gardens 

 are not large, and mauy of them are composed of soQ very un- 

 suitable for growing fruit trees. Let your correspondent fancy 

 a garden like that at Loxford Hall. When I undertook the 

 charge of these gardens ten years ago, tliere were at least two 

 hundred fruit trees in every stage of canker and decay, and on 

 examining the soil I found it to he very light and sandy, 

 ranging in depth from to IS inches over a bed of sand and 

 gravel. I saw that young Apple trees had been planted on the 

 Crab stock, and that many of them were severely cankered, 

 especially the Ribston Pippin. Well, what was I to do? We 

 must, if possible, have Apples, Pears, Plums, and Cherries. 

 Borders were marked out about 7 or 8 feet wide, the ground 

 was trenched to the gravel, and where the soil was very shallow 

 as much as a foot of gravel was taken out. Some clayey 

 loam was added to the soil in trenching, and in planting the 

 pyramid aud bush trees (Cherries on the Cerasus Mahaleb, 

 Pears on the Quince, and Apples on the Paradise stocks), fresh 

 loam was placed around the roots. Some of the trees have 

 been lifted once, and others twice, aud on referring to my 

 book the last time they were lifted was in 1865. My object in 

 lifting the roots was to spread them out near the surface of 

 the soil to prevent their going downwards into the gravel. I 

 soon found, however, that this was unnecessary, as roots both 

 of Apples and Pears were emitted quite close to the surface of 

 the soil, and that by covering the surface of the ground over 

 thinly with rotted manure, the soil was soon matted with roots 

 close to the surface. This would not have been the case if the 

 Pear and Crab stocks had been used. Well, then, as to 

 longevity, I believe that the trees will keep in good health for 

 half a century. They are now in full bearing, loaded this 

 year from base to summit with fine fruit, and canker is un- 

 known ; and should ' S.' or any of your correspondents be 

 able to come to Ilford, thpy can see such sorts as Blenheim 

 Orange or Pippin studded with fruit ; the trees, only six years 



planted, are 7 feet high and 8 feet across. These are on the 

 Paradise. Horizontal cordons I have not tried, nor wiU they 

 ever become so useful as the bush and pyramid form. But 

 where space is limited I can strongly recommend upright and 

 obliiiue cordon Pear trees on the Quince planted on walls. I 

 may also add that there are some varieties of Pears which do 

 not thrive on the Quince, but, on the other hand, there are some 

 which produce fruit larger in size and of better quality from 

 this stock." — J. DoDGLis.j 



HISTORY OF CLEOPATRA BEDDING GERANIUM. 



Now that the Royal Horticultural Society have published 

 their list of awards on the merits of the bedding Geraniums 

 which they have proved in their trial grounds during the 

 summer of 1873, and as in that list is the name of one with 

 which I am well acquainted, I thought a word or two on its 

 history would not be unacceptable to the bedding-Gerauium- 

 loving readers of The .Joukxal of Hoeticultcke. 



In the list of pink bedding Geraniums Cleopatra is one 

 selected for special mention, and has three asterisks (equiva- 

 lent to a first-class certificate, I suppose), to her name. Cleo- 

 patra is a sport — a freak of nature, thrown off by that old 

 favourite and most profusely flowering Geranium, Trentham 

 Rose. The sporting branch was taken off some plants of it 

 growing in the flower garden of J. B. Taylor, Esq., of Radcliffe- 

 on-Trent, Notts, by his then gardener, Frederick Walker. 

 This was done in the latter part of the summer of 1865. When 

 Walker had one plant nicely in flower he showed it to the vicar 

 of Radclyfte (a very good judge of a bedding Geranium), who 

 was so struck with its good properties that he made him a 

 very fair offer for the plant, which Walker refused. He pro- 

 pagated it through the summer of 1866, and raised twenty 

 plants. A neighbouring nurseryman on seeing them offered 

 him a very good price for them, but on the advice of all his 

 brother gardeners, who all thought he might do better with it, 

 he refused it. In the spring of 1867 be passed his stock of it 

 into the hands of Mr. Samuel Barratt, of the Vicarage Nursery 

 Gardens, who has worked it and sold it largely up to the 

 present time. So extensively has it been distributed about 

 here, that no other pink Geranium is grown in anything like 

 the same quantities. In the summer of this year I strongly 

 advised my friend and neighbour Barratt to send up a plant 

 or two in bloom to the Floral Committee of the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society. He did so, but all he received for his pains 

 was a reply from some official at South Kensington saying that 

 the plants were not distinguishable from Trentham Rose, and 

 therefore not worthy of notice. He was so disgusted, and 

 naturally so, with this reply that he destroyed it. I wish he 

 had not. It would be worth while sending it to South Ken- 

 sington for them to compare it with the decision of the Floral 

 Committee on Cleopatra's performances the last two yeai'S. 



About this time Mr. Barratt put in an advertisement of it in 

 The Journal of Horticulture, thinking that when the de- 

 cision of the Floral Committee was made known he should be 

 able to do something with it, but as nothing came of it he did 

 not repeat the advertisement. In 1870 or 1871, when the 

 Eoyal Horticultural Society advertised for new varieties of 

 bedding Geraniums for trial in their grounds, I again strongly 

 advised Barratt to send up plants to the Society's garden. I 

 said I thought be might rely upon Mr. Barron's faithfulness 

 and honour, who would see that all the varieties he received, 

 by whomsoever sent, should have fan- and honest treatment ; 

 and now in the autumn of 1873, at last, Cleopatra receives her 

 patiently-earned reward. We find out, however, by one thing 

 and another, that the Royal Horticultural Society's gardeners 

 have not been idle nor slow to perceive the merits of Cleopatra, 

 for we hear that it is considered by them their best and most 

 useful pink bedder ; and this opinion not only appears to be 

 the opinion of the gardeners at South Kensington, but of Hydo 

 Park, for one of the best pink beds by Park Lane this year ia 

 Cleopatra. It was, after Mr. Pearson's Amaranth (which is a 

 perfect wonder in that line of colour — lilac purple), the best 

 pink bed there on August 19th, when I saw it. I recognised 

 it at once; and on looking at the tally and finding my judg- 

 ment confirmed, I was both struck with surprise to see it there, 

 and filled with pleasure too. I sent it some time ago to Mr. 

 R. Fish, who after this may have a word to say about it. (How 

 we miss our veteran teacher's words of wisdom !) I also sent 

 it to Mr. B. T. Fish, of Hardwicke, Bury St. Edmunds, whose 

 opinion I should also like to know. You will begin to think 

 that I have more than a professional uiterest in the success of 



