446 



JOUENAL OF HORTICTJLTTJEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ December 8, 1863, 



sixteen trees would be sufficient for the back wall — eight 

 riders and eight dwarfs. Trees can be trained about 7 feet 

 up from the front close to the glass without shading the 

 back wall, and here twelve Peaches and Plums, dwarf-trained 

 trees, in equal proportions, have been planted. Here are 

 eight riders at 10s. 6d. each, and twenty dwarfs at 73. 6d. 

 each, which amount to a few shillings under X12 for fiirnish- 

 ing the house ou the planting-out and trellis-training system. 

 First-class trees can be bought at the prices quoted, and I 

 always find that they beai- a few fruits the same year they 

 are planted ; and some of the riders which I planted last 

 December are now covering more than 50 square feet of 

 surface, so that with them and the dwarfs the wall is almost 

 completely covered. 



Suppose that, instead of this lean-to, it were an orchard- 

 house 67 J by 22 feet, it would require about 120 trees in 

 pots to furnish it, which at 5s. amount to ^630 — a sum 

 sufficient to furnish and heat the house with hot water on 

 the rival system. Perhaps trees in pots could be purchased 

 for less than 5s. ; so could the trained trees in the other case, 

 but in both cases they would be less or inferior. 



In the lean-to house referred to there is a training surface 

 of more than 2000 square feet fully exposed to the sun, which, 

 the advocates of the pot-system being judges, is the best 

 possible position for producing fine fruit. True, it may be 

 termed an unnatural mode of training the branches, but not 

 more so than that to which the roots are subject in the 

 other case, to say nothing of the incessant pinching to which 

 they are, no doubt, very properly subjected. The house in 

 question is so ventilated that a ft-ee cm-rent of air can be 

 made to play on every leaf, and when desirable a shower of 

 rain in summer can be allowed to fall on the whole of the 

 back wall. The most extraordinary house of Peaches on 

 this principle which I have ever seen is at Dalkeith Park. 

 The Pears in pots at the same place are, no doubt, fine in 

 theu- way, but I never heard that any one was astonished 

 with them, while plenty have so expressed themselves with 

 regard to the Peaches, which have been transformed in a few 

 years from a waU of indifferent trees into the style with 

 which plenty are now familiar, and all by a mere covering 

 of glass. 



With regard to the labour and attention rendered neces- 

 sary by these two modes of producing fi-uit, I would simply 

 appeal to all gardeners who have had any experience in the 

 matter, or who are, from thefr intimate knowledge of ma- 

 naging any other plants in pots, capable of drawing a pretty 

 correct estimate, and I feel certain they wiU have no diffi- 

 culty in deciding in favour of the planting-out system. I 

 would not for a moment detract from the correct impressions 

 which have been conveyed of the pleasiu'cs attending the 

 management of fruit trees in pots : far from it. It would, 

 indeed, be difficult to overestimate i:ileasing hours which 

 miglit be enjoyed by any who had a fancy for so spending 

 their time and money. But, then, taste is so varied that 

 while one may derive pleasing recreation from watching and 

 tending a Peach tree in a pot, another might reap the same 

 enjoyment from a fruit tree managed in any other way. 

 On the other hand, there is no necessity why a Peach- 

 house, or a house of mixed fruits trained fan-fashion, should 

 be the stale monotonous thing that it is sometimes repre- 

 sented. There is the back wall a sheet of blossom or fi-uit, 

 the front trellis is the same. Underneath on the floor there 

 may be all sorts of plants that delight in a cool airy house 

 and partial shade. In our own house here, for instance, there 

 were in spring eight thousand Geraniums in pots a perfect 

 sheet of various shades of blossom, from white to crimson ; 

 and elevated above these, on pots turned upside down, there 

 were specimen plants to take off the even surface. AU 

 summer, and particulaa-ly autumn up tiU the end of No- 

 vember, it was the favourite resort of the family and their 

 visitors. There was a bed of Geraniums 8 feet wide along 

 the whole length, with a specimen Statice profusa in every 

 other light, and on each side of the Statice was a specimen 

 of Centaurea ragusina. The edging next the path was of 

 Centam-ea, Lobelia speciosa, and Coleus Verschafl'elti mixed, 

 and the efl'ect was reaUy splendid. 



Now, for an amateur or any one fond of display of this 

 sort, a house managed thus is surely calculated to give a 

 greater amount of pleasure, and I fancy both the flowers 

 ;uid fruit could be produced with about the same labour 



required for a house fuU of fruit in pots. At present there 

 are fifteen thousand Geraniums in the house, which are 

 more or less in flower, and a more delightful promenade is 

 scarcely conceivable in a house from which a full crop of 

 excellent fruit can be obtained. With regard to the diffi- 

 culties which lie in the way of a beginner, as to learning the 

 different points belonging to the two systems, I would have 

 no fear in finding gardeners who would teach a novice how 

 to manage planted-out and fan-trained trees as soon as any 

 one could reveal to him all the outs and ins of the pot- 

 system. The labour and skill required in the former case is 

 certainly not more than that which is indispensable in the 

 latter. 



It may be asserted that fruit trees, when planted in borders 

 under glass, make rampant and unfruitful wood, and no 

 doubt under improper management such wiU be the case. 

 But this is an evil which can be prevented and remedied in 

 cases where it may occur ; and however much can be said in 

 favour of pot-culture, it is not right to single out cases of mis- 

 management as disparagements to the planting-out system. 

 By all means let both methods have fair play and no favour, 

 and their faults should be as faithfully written on theu- faces " 

 as their merits. To use an old Scotch proverb, " Our sins 

 and debts on this score are often mair than we think." The 

 old method of roots in borders and heads on trelUses may 

 yield less pleasure and labour, but it has the merit which 

 nine out of every ten will fii-st consider — namely, that of 

 yielding more and finer fruit. D. Thomson. 



VISITS TO GAUDENS PUBLIC AND PEIVATE. 



MK. ward's, the ROSERY, IPSWICH. 



" A PROPHET hath no honom- in his own country," thought 

 I, as on a very muggy morning this last November, after 

 four and twenty hours soaking rain, I set out to inquire my 

 way to find the world-known raiser of John Hopper. " You 

 bees looking for parson Ward," says one, " he as lives next 

 the hospital." "No, I be'ant!" in as broad Suffolk as I 

 could muster ; " it 's Mister Ward, a nurseryman." " Doan't 

 know." After many fruitless attempts I lighted on one 

 somewhat more knowing than his predecessors. " Ah ! it 's 

 he as lives at California." Well. I hadn't seven-leagued 

 boots or Nadar's Geant, and so I couldn't veutui-e on the 

 diggings. Then it was explained to me that this was a 

 suburb of Ijiswich, and that in that direction I should find 

 my man. Well, despite of dirt and mud, of which Ipswich 

 seems to have a very fair proportion, I set off for Calii'ornia, 

 which I found was on a tolerably good eminence ; and after 

 sundry inquiries and bafflings I came at last in front of 

 a very modest unpretending-looking house, with a green- 

 house close to it, which a board announced to me wjis Mr. 

 AVard's Rosei-y. It was, I am bound to say, as unlikely a 

 place to find anything of rosarian interest as any that I know 

 of, and yet a most notable instance of how little we are to 

 judge by appearances ; for here in this wild blustering hill, 

 with its poor stony soU, there is going on a series of operations 

 which will, I hope, if its owner is spared, yet produce some- 

 thing worth looking at, as they have ali-eady produced one 

 of the very best (next to Devouiensis the best) of English- 

 raised Roses. 



To grow Roses is one thing ; to raise Roses is another — 

 not to raise them at haphazard, as om- worthy French neigh- 

 bours do, but to raise them on scientific principles, to care- 

 fully select such sorts as are likely to hybridise well, and 

 to produce desu-able results. Now this, Mr. Wai-d has ah-eady 

 done ; and it is no slight encouragement to raisers of reaUy 

 good Roses to know what he has done with John Hopper-. 

 In the twelve mouths from October 1st, 1802, when he tii'st 

 sent it out, to October, ls03, he has sold GOOO plants and 

 upwards. He kindly showed me his book, in which every 

 order was entered, and, more than this, order upon order 

 which he had not been able to execute owing to his stock 

 being completely run out. When we recollect that this 

 involves a receipt of some four or five hundi-ed poimds, it 

 shows what may be done by a judicious hybridiser, for this 

 is no chance work. Mi-. Ward knows thoroughly well what 

 he is about, for Roses have not been his first love. He 

 lived formerlv with Mr. Chater. of Saffron Walden ; and it 

 was when Mr. Ward wa.g his foreman, and, I believe, the 



