Juno 7, 1877. J 



JOURNAIi OS HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



423 



' toy trees." But I do not oftU " a cordon Peach tree with 

 150 fruits on it, and leaves as large as those of the Laurel," a 

 " toy tree." Snoh a tree demands a nobler name. Toy trees 

 there are in plenty, miserable distorted Apples and Pears 

 which are not worthy of the name of trees at all. It were well 

 if these pigmies had been called by their right names years 

 ago, and disappointment would have been spared to many 

 who have wasted time and space in attempting the cnltivatiou 

 of these crippled monstrosities. 



Bat to the orchard house. These structures, like miniature 

 trees, have been abused, and like the trees have failed. When 

 rightly constructed and reasonably managed orchard houses 

 seldom fail. They are the best of all aids for securing crops 

 of such tender and delicious fruits as Peaches and Nectarines. 

 When these houses are well managed, even when no means of 

 artificially heating them are afforded, the trees in them are as 

 certain to bear as are Peaches on walls when protected with glass 

 and proper attention is given to them. 



Many instances of both success and failure have come under 

 my notice in the cultivation of trees under glass. Some people 

 have a dread of unhealed orchard houses. Why ? Because they 

 are in a measure compelled to make them do that which they 

 ought not to be expected to do. Too often a gardener having 

 an orchard house is at his wit's end to find shelter for thousands 

 of bedding plants. These are placed in the house, and it is 

 kept close on their account at a time when that closeness is 

 prejudicial to the trees. Not many years ago I saw a fine wall 

 of Peaches ruined from that cause, and I have observed that 

 it is not at all uncommon to protect the trees too much during 

 the earliest days of spring when glass coverings are provided. 

 The object of growers of fruit in unhealed houses should be 

 to retard the opening of the blossom to the utmost period 

 possible, and then the crop is nearly always safe. My reason 

 for that assertion is, that a large unhealed house which has 

 heen " under my eye " for twenty years has never failed to 

 produce a bountiful supply of fruit. 



Insects. — Another primary source of failure must be attri- 

 butable to insects. If these are allowed to gain the ascendancy 

 in the spring we have no right to expect fruit in the summer. 

 I dislike killing insects, and never do kill them if I can avoid it. 

 I kD0T7 of a less cruel and far more safe method than that. 

 Quassia water, soft soap, and soot water will prevent a tree 

 becoming weakly by insect ravages if — and here is the essence 

 of the mallei- — if the solution is applied in time. I never yet 

 knew a man who was " great" at killing insects who was a 

 great grower of either plants or fruit. Those who are really 

 successful do not wait to kill insects, they prevent them. Who- 

 ever caught any insects on Mr. .James's Calceolarias, Mr. 

 Turner's Pelargoniums, Mr. Paul's Roses, Mr. Hunter's Pines, 

 Mr. Lane's Vines, Mr. Miles's Cherries, and, I ask it boldly, 

 Mr. Hodgson's Peaches ? Such men have no time to lose in 

 killing insects. They fumigate and syringe just before instead 

 of just after the insects appear. I know nothing more import- 

 ant in gardening mailers than adopting timely measures for 

 the prevention of insects. It is far preftrable to kiUing them, 

 more easy, economical, and effectual. Retard the expanding 

 blossoms in unhealed orchard houses and prevent insects ap- 

 pearing, and it will be rare that " bad houses " and " bad 

 seasons " will be held hanging on the lips of a disappointed 

 man. 



But when and how must prevention begin ? is a question I 

 will anticipate. I know something of the dispositions of 

 Journal readers by previous failures on my part to write plainly, 

 and having had to write to explain what I ought to have said 

 at the first. Pleasure is no doubt derived from your pages, 

 but useful practical information is your aim and mine — some- 

 thing not to " look at " merely, but to " work from." That is 

 the main object. I will therefore endeavour to make the sub- 

 ject of the prevention of insects in orchard houses sufficiently 

 plain to " work from." 



We will presume the trees were made perfectly clean in 

 winter, not dirty with a daubing of clay, &o., but clean by 

 strong soft soap and water or " Gishurat," and that the sur- 

 face soil was renewed, and it was clean too. Now let spring 

 arrive. Watch for the first swelling of the buds. On the 

 very first signs of growth prepare the insect antidote, and not 

 only prepare it but apply it. Place a peck of soot in a coarse 

 sack and suspend it in a tub full of water, say thirty or forty 

 gallons. Let it remain for a week or ten days, then remove it 

 and throw in a few lumps of fresh quicklime. Skim off the 

 surface scum and a liquid will remain as " clear as sherry." 

 Throw in a few handfnls of quassia chips into a pot or copper 



of water, say 3 or 4 ozs. of chips to a gallon, and boil for 

 twenty minutes. When cool mix the soot wine and the quassia 

 water and syringe the trees. Though they have no leaves and 

 no insects, never mind, syringe them and wait for the blossom 

 buds swelling, then syringe again. There will be no insects ; 

 never mind, syringe thoroughly just ae if the trees were in- 

 fested, and especially just before the blossoms expand, then 

 wait again. What for ? the blossoms setting. This may 

 occupy a fortnight or three weeks, but there will be no insects, 

 the preventive measures will have proved too powerful. After 

 the fruit is get apply the antidote weekly or as often as is re- 

 quired, in the meantime using clear water if you must follow 

 the old rule of syringing daily, which I do not believe in, and 

 your trees will be clean without having had to go through the 

 nuisance of killing insects. 



I have more to say on orchard houses, but it will " keep ;" 

 the insect question, being the more urgent, has for the pre- 

 sent occupied my spare time and your space. — A. N. G. 



ZINNIAS. 



Zinnias are amongst the oldest of onr common garden 

 annuals, the first species having been introduced into Europe 

 more than a hundred years ago ; as long ago as we can recollect 

 anything about flowers the species Z. mnltiflora was generally 

 found in most gardens. The late Mr. Breck, in alluding to it, 

 said he first became acquainted with it seventy years ago. A 

 few years subsequent to the introduction of that species another 

 was found in Mexico, and was sent to Europe in 1796. This 

 wag the Z. elegans, a much more showy and handsome plant, 

 with larger flowers, but rather coarse in general appearance. 

 In 1818 still another species was added (Z. hybrida) ; this was 

 from South America, and produced brilliant scarlet flowers, 

 and from this and the other species numerous varieties were 

 raised, comprising all the various shades of scarlet, crimson, 

 purple, orange, yellow, and white. From the time of the 

 introduction of the first species until a very recent date all i 



these varieties continued to be extensively cultivated without 

 any apparent change ; the same rather coarse, stiff, and formal 

 flower valued more for its novelty and variety than for any 

 real beauty. The flowers are all bright and very showy when 

 first expanded, but they soon begin to form seed, and the 

 central bundle of florets assume a dried appearance, while the 

 outer florets lose their colour and are anything but ornamental. 

 Such were the Zinnias some fifteen or twenty years ago, when 

 enthusiastio florists were on the look-out for varieties of every 

 kind, and carefully selected all the choicest flowers for the 

 purpose of continued improvement. A zealous French culti- 

 vator, in looking over his Zinnias, accidentally noticed a plant 

 which had a double row of petals, and with the enthusiasm of 

 the real lover of flowers, it occurred to him as a tendency to a 

 double blossom; he carefully sowed the seed, and another 

 year was well repaid by other flowers much more double, but 

 still far from perfect. He persevered, however, in selecting 

 and sowing the seed, and had his reward in the production of 

 a double Zinnia, not equal to those of the present day, but 

 very large, full, and beautiful. They are now grown almost 

 as perfect as the Dahlia, and of all the varied shades of the old 

 single varieties ; a splendid addition to our gardens. 



Within a few years another species has been added to the 

 list. This is the Z. Haageana, of smaller and more delicate 

 habit than the old kind, with flowers of a brilliant orange 

 colour. This, as well as the Z. elegans, has been the special 

 object of improvement by the German florists, and several quite 

 distinct varieties originated. Of the old class there is a very 

 dwarf double-flowered variety, growing only 12 to 15 inches 

 high, and admirable for beds, where the others grow too tall. 

 Another variety is the Z. elegans tagetiflora, with partially 

 quilled, in the place of expanded, petals, not so showy as the 

 others, but with a very pretty effect among other sorts. In 

 fact, all these double Zinnias are not only very showy through- 

 out all the summer and autumn, but are very pretty for cutting 

 for table bouquets. 



Their cultivation is simple. To have good plants in bloom 

 early the seeds may be sown in April or May in pots, in a 

 slight bottom heat, and as soon as large enough potted-off 

 singly or planted in boxes until the weather will answer for re- 

 moving them into the open garden. They look well in beds or 

 groups, and in this way form a showy mass, contrasting well 

 with similar beds of Asters. They are also fine as scattered 

 specimens in the border. The soil should be rich, as they are 

 free bloomers and require good treatment to secure free, large, 



