October 31, 1867. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



327 



rain if it is much expoBed, and the weather is stormy. Merri- 

 mao (Carter), is of a pretty colour without the rosy tint of Lord 

 Palmerston, but its truss is small, and it is a very slow grower. 

 Beaton's I'et I call a magenta crimson, but it has the upper 

 petals scarlet. The colour is pretty, and the truss large, but it 

 is uncertain as a bloomer. Miss I'artitt is quite superseded by 

 Amy Hogg, which is of the same colour; and Mrs. Vernon grows 

 3 feet hinh in the poorest soil. Lady Cullum and I'remier are 

 not worth cultivating, though the colour of the latter when it 

 does bloom is pretty. 



ZONALS. 



Scarlet. 



Eclipse, t. p. 



Scarletina ^ ,j, ^; 



TiUar of Beauty. ) 



•Victor Emmanuel, t. r. 



Vivid, p. 

 •Cottage Maid, t. p. 



ijpitfiro, h. p. 



MEDIUM. 



•Rubens Improved, h. p. | •Eleanor, t. p. 



•Commander-in-Chief, v. t. r. | 



DWABP. 



•Crystal Palace Scarlet, t. r. | Tom Thumb, t. r. 



Crimson. 



•Black Dwarf, h. r. 



Salinou. 



I Indian Yellow, h. p. 



•Lucius, h. p. 

 Woodwardiana, h. p. 



•Duchess, h. r. 

 Rose of England ( 

 Unique), t. r. 



Rose. 



*Trentham Rose, t. p. 

 Cerise Princess Lichteustein, h. p. 

 Gem of Roses, h. p. 



Jinsy Pin!;. 

 Helen Lindsay, t., very poor I Mrs. 'Whitty, t., very poor 

 soil. I soil. 



Ccn'si!. 



•Amy Hogg, h. r. 



Fink. 



•Brookfieia Pink, t. p. 

 •Christine, t. p. 



•Mrs. W. Paul, h. p. 

 Eve, h. p. 



U-ltite 



♦Madame Vaucher, t. p. | Snowball, t. p. 



Of the Scarlet Zjuals that I h'lve tried, I consider Victor 

 Emmanuel as by far the finest. Its truss is enormous and of 

 the most dazzling scarlet. Were it not for the comparative 

 dilliculty of keeping it through the winter it would be superior 

 to any of the Nosegays, as the flowers are remarkably well 

 shaped. Vivid is of the same class, but decidedly inferior. 

 Cottage Maid is only worth growing for its dark-zoned leaves. 

 The three medium-sized Scarlet kinds are all good, and so 

 different that each deserves to bo grown. Rubens Improved 

 is a very free-bloomer, of a peculiar colour, being rather a pure 

 light red than a scarlet. I liad a bed of it (the plants plunged 

 in live-inch pots), that was extremely brilliant the whole sum- 

 mer. Commander-in-Chief, which I have under the name of 

 Kingshuryana, is a well-known and excellent old sort of par- 

 ticularly good habit and pretty leaf, but it is very tender. 

 Eleanor has a plain dark green leaf, which sets off the flowers 

 admirably. Crystal Palace Scarlet is very like Tom Thumb, 

 but superior in size of truss. 



The only Crimson variety I have fairly tried is Black Dwarf, 

 which is magnificent. Its habit is first-rate, and there is a 

 depth and richness in the colour of its blooms which make it 

 one of the very finest Pelargoniums I have ever seen. 



Lucius is a very free bloomer with enormous trusses of fairly 

 large flowers, an excellent bedder, which neither of the other 

 two Salmon varieties is. 



Duchess is another first-class bedder with very large trusses 

 and a fine dark-zoned leaf. Trentham Rose is too well known 

 to require description, but, old as it is, I do not know its 

 equal as an effective bedder where the soil is not too rich. The 

 soft green of the leaf sets off the flowers to perfection. The 

 Pelargonium I have under the name of Rose of England, I 

 believe to be the old Cerise Unique. It is a very free-bloomer, 

 with numerous small trusses of well-formed flowers, has a good 

 compact habit, and a leaf and white stalk like Commander-in- 

 Chief. 



I can see no difference between Helen Lindsay and Mrs. 

 Whitty, and can make nothing of either of them. The flowers 

 are undoubtedly beautiful when there are any, but a soil com- 

 posed of anything richer than brickbats and lime rubbish causes 

 the plants to produce nothing but leaves. 



Amy Hogg is another magnificent variety, with an immense 

 truss, and very free blooming. 



Brookfield Pink is a sport from Trentham Rose that occurred 

 in my garden. Its flowers are of a very pure pink, paler than 

 Christine and larger ; the trusses are also considerably larger — 

 in fact, it is a very pale Trentham Rose. Mrs. W. Paul is very 

 handsome, the flowers, which are of a very pale pink, being 

 well set off by the dark leaves. The habit is also good, but it 

 is rather a shy bloomer in rich soils. Eve is very like it, but 

 inferior. 



There is no perceptible difference between Madame Vaucher 

 and Snowball, they do best when shaded from the sun by a tree, 



I have said nothing of the Variegated Pelargoniums, as I am 

 not well up in them. Flower of Spring (white edged) ; Cloth 

 of Gold (yellow) ; Mrs. Mitford (yellow) ; and Mrs. Pollock, are 

 all good in their way. Let me add a word of advice to those 

 who have but indifferent appliances for keeping their plants 

 through the winter. Never strike your cuttings of Variegated 

 Pelargoniums in the autumn. Lift and pot some old plants 

 strike cuttings in the spring as late as yon like, and plant 

 them in your kitchen garden. Lot them grow till August and 

 then pot them, when you will have an excellent lot of well- 

 established little plant that will not damp-off in the winter. — 

 A. 0. W. 



WINTERING ORCHARD-HOUSE TREES IN THE 

 OPEN AIR— VINES IN TOTS. 



In your Journal of October 17th Mr. Rivers notices a short 

 article of mine on orchard-house culture in a kindly spirit ; 

 he, however, protests against wintering Peach and Nectarine 

 trees in the open air. All I can say is that I have seen them 

 treated in that way without injury to the crop of fruit or the 

 constitution of the trees, even during such a winter as the last, 

 the crop of fruit this season being better than it was in 1866. 



Now, I reason in this way. If my neighbour, by keeping his 

 trees, with the pots plunged deeply in cocoa-nut fibre refuse, in 

 the open air from October until February, obtains as much 

 fruit and of as good quality, his practice must be as good as 

 mine ; and there is this gain from it, the house can be kept 

 gay with flowering plants during the dullest and dreariest 

 months in the year. It is for this reason that I have placed 

 the trees outside this year, and the house is now heated. I 

 have filled it with Chrysanthemums and other autumn- 

 flowering plants, so that it will answer the purpose of a conser- 

 vatory in winter and an orchard-house in summer. If I find 

 that it does not answer to treat the trees in this way, I will not 

 fail to inform Mr. Rivers through the medium of your Journal. 



It is when the flower-buds are expanding that fruit trees are 

 injured by frost in this country ; it is very seldom severe 

 enough to injure them during the winter months. I would 

 rather be guided by experience gained in this country than by 

 reading about the injury to trees from frosts in America, where 

 the cold is sometimes intense, especially in the northern states 

 and Canada. 



If those of your correspondents who have kept their orchard- 

 house trees in the open air during winter would give their 

 opinion of the practice, it would be the best way to come to 

 a definite result. I do not know the reason why my trees 

 require so much water. It may be the soil, which is of a 

 rather sandy nature, and I use this soil with a large proportion 

 of fibre in it. I have, on the recommendation of Mr. Rivers, 

 used chalk in some instances, but I did not perceive any 

 difference in either the size or quality of the fruit. 



I may repeat what I have said about the size of the pots. 

 The sizes which I shall discontinue using are Nos. 1 and 2 — 

 that is, 21 and 18-inch pots, inside measure. The sizes which 

 I consider the best are Nos. 4, 6, and 8 — being in diameter 

 14 J, 1.3, and 11 inches, inside measure. This season I have 

 turned a number of trees out of 13-inch pots, reduced the ball 

 of earth, and repotted in 14J-inch. This was done as soon as 

 the fruit was gathered, so that the trees had time to establish 

 themselves in the house before they were turned out into the 

 open air. 



As to the Vines on which I had bunches which weighed 

 about 2 lbs., I raised the plants myself from eyes in the spring 

 of 1865. They were struck in "cO-sized pots, then ^shifted 



