JOURNAL OF HORTICULTDBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ January 2, 18f 8. 



uaual way in the foUoning spring. I let tbem all grow until 

 the shoots are a foot hi(;,h — about Jane — I then soil them up 

 like a Potato ridge. In November I take the whole root up, 

 and divide the plant. I have thus three or four Manetti Roses 

 from one stool. By this means one can propagate many Roses 

 iu a small space. 1 have never yet heard of any other person 

 practising this system. I find it to answer well. — -Henkt 

 Tatlok, Fcncotc, Bedale. 



THE GLADIOLUS AND ITS CULTURE. 



The Gladiolus has long been a favourite flower with me, and 

 when I first grew it, G. insignis, one of the hardiest of the 

 tribe, was treated here as an exotic. 



Had the melancholy but valuable communication of " D.", 

 of Deal appeared in November, 18CC, instead of 1867, I should 

 have had a cordial fellow feeling with him, for iu that year my 

 Gladioli were wretched. This year, with the exception of 

 Brenchleyeusis, not one of which has flowered, they have, with 

 the same treatment, in the same place, and in soil of exactly 

 the same nature, done remaikably well. 



"D.'s" experience in ISti? is similar to mine of 18C6. In 

 that cold year many of the Gladioli never hloomed at all with 

 me ; and others, especially John Waterer, Madame Pereire, and 

 Madame Leseble, after blooming well, immediately began to 

 show signs of premature decay in the foliage, and when the roots 

 ■were taken up, they were black, shrivelled, and dead. The 

 bulbs of Clemence and Keine Victoria had so many black spots 

 that I almost gave them up, lut to afford them a chance they 

 were planted this year, and produced fine spikes of flowers, and 

 made good roots, without a black spot upon them. Another 

 grower near, who in 18GG was very successful, has this year 

 been equally unfortunate. Can any of your more scientific 

 readers sujjgest the reason, or better still, a remedy ? 



Possibly my way of treating Gladioli may interest some of 

 your readers. I do not like them in beds. The Tulip, the 

 Ranunculus, and many other lovely flowers, are eminently 

 fitted for beds. I do not think the Gladiolus is. The borders 

 surrounding my little flower garden are raised, and broken-up 

 with pieces of limestone, with spaces of varving size between 

 each stone. These spaces are now filled wiih double Tulips 

 and Hyacinths in pots. As soon as their bloom is over, the 

 bulbs are taken up, put away to ripen, and their places refilled 

 with fresh compost, a little dung being placed about 10 or 

 12 inches below. The Gladioli, which have been reared as will 

 be afterwards described, are put out of their pots into the vacant 

 spaces. I use very much the same compost as for the 1 ilium — 

 rotten turf or fresh soil, and as 1 obtain it from strong land, I 

 add one-third of a mixture of sand, charcoal, and cocoa-nut 

 fibre, sometimes a little peat. 



The beet and most valuable kinds I always plant in 6iDeh 

 pots, one in each, about the end of March. They are then 

 placed in a frame with gentleheat. alongside half-hai-dy annuals, 

 and plenty of air given. By the time the blooming of the 

 Tulips is over, or soon afterwards, the Gladioli are about 

 G inches high and ready to plant-out. The bulb in the ground 

 is covered with i inches of soil, and as the leaves grow they are 

 moulded-iip with an inch or two of sand, or sandy loom. In dry 

 weather plenty of water is given, and, perhaps, oijce a-week 

 liquid manure. In one case I found a top-dressing of soot 

 useful. I hod a large, flat, indented bulb of Shnkspeare. When 

 its leaves appeared they were of an unhealthy whitish green 

 colour. I feared, and 1 was not alone in my fear, that I should 

 lose it. I placed at different times a litile soot round the plant, 

 and boon had the gratiticatiou of seeing it recover a healthy 

 hue. It bloomed and produced two good bulbs. 



I wish I could ascertain the best time for planting in the 

 oi>eu ground. An enthusiastic grower, whose method I give 

 afterwards, plants in February, and his flowers do well. M. 

 Souchet recommends later planting. I had last November some 

 T6ty small bulbs which I did not care to store; they were planted 

 iu the border, a little protection given, and covered with a 

 hand-glass. They all stood the winter, and some of them 

 bloomed well and made fair bulbs. 



I have found the flowers much improved by shading. I use 

 a cylindrical case, 9 inches in diameter, and 2-1 inches long, of 

 the ordinary 24-inch galvanised wire ; this is fastened firmly 

 to a stake, and covered with thin muslin. The flower is safe 

 from wind, rain, and sun, and its colours are both more vivid 

 and more perfect. 



My friend referred to before pursues quite a different plan. 



He grows his Gladiolus in a bed. The soil of his garden is very 

 strong ; he takes it out 3 feet deep, then throws in turf 4 inches 

 thick, next a layer of cow dung that has been well turned over 

 in winter, then rotten turf and loamy or sandy soil. On this 

 he plants the bulbs in cocoa-nut fibre, and covers with 4 or 

 5 inches of loam. I do not agree with this. I cannot see oj 

 what use the manure 18 inches below the bulbs can be ; the 

 rootlets never seem to penetrate more than G inches. I must, 

 however, admit he has splendid flowers. 



Added is a list of the varieties we consider best here, and 

 that bloom well with us. Those marked with an asterisk (•) 

 are best. 



White. — *Shakspeare, •Princess Mary of Cambridge, clear 

 flower, but petals rather pointed; *Reine Victoria, Marie Du- 

 mortier, ^Madame Leseble, and Madame Pereire. 



Lilac. — 'Imperatrice Eugfcnie, •Belle Gabrielle, *Madam8 

 Furtado, and 'Madame Vilmorin. 



Hose. — "Dr. Lindley, Madame Basseville, Princess Clothilde, 

 Charles Dickens, and 'Penelope, flesh. 



Cerise— Florian, Le Poussin, Lennf, *Duo de Malakoff, 

 *Madame De Sevignfi, and 'John Waterer. 



iiVd. — Achille, *Meyerbeer, Napoleon III., *Prince of Wales, 

 *James Veitch. 'Marechal Valliant (very fine), 'Sir William 

 Hooker, and *Fulton. 



This is not written' under the opinion that the treatment 

 here mentioned is the best, but in the hope of inducing those 

 who have been much engaged in the culture of the Gladiolus 

 to detail their experience, and to enumerate the varieties they 

 deem the most choice, and the best worth growing by those 

 who, having only small gardens, wish for the most select 

 kinds. — B., Darlington. 



WHAT IS A CORDON? 



In the course of the discussion which has recently been going 

 on about French and English Gardening, the term cordon 

 has been so frequently used, and in a sense so indefinite and 

 vague, that a few words on the subject may not at present be 

 unseasonable The English equivalent of cordon is a line, 

 and hence the French use the term in many different ways. 

 It is employed to signify a line, cord, or rope. It signifies also 

 the rim of a piece of money, the ribbon round a hat, and the 

 ribbon of the Legion of Honour is also called a cordon. 



In the early part of last century, when geometric figures 

 were then, as they are now, so much in vogue in gardens, the 

 strips of grass between the beds were called cordons; but this 

 is the only sense in which it has been used in French gardening 

 till of late years, when the term was applied to the branches of 

 the Vine pruned on the 'i'homery or spur system, which were 

 also called cordons. It is about five and twenty years ago that 

 M. Du Breuil introduced the word to express certain modes of 

 training, which we have called " the spur system," in contra- 

 distincnon to " the laying-in sys-teui " of pruning, because of 

 its being in a continuous line, or like a rope. He defines cor- 

 dons as " the primary ramifications of the stem, and which 

 are generally simple," and in his work he speaks of many 

 forms of cordons, using the word generically, and not specifi- 

 cally ; as, for instance, the " cordon horizontal simple," which 

 is exactly the foim of the letter T ; the cordon oblique, which is 

 a simple branch trained obliquely at an angle of 45° against a 

 wall or espalier instead of horizintally ; and ihe cvrdonver- 

 tical. which is also a simple branch trained perpendicularly. 



During the difcut-sion above alluded to, one of the disputants 

 Used the term cordon in a very limited sense, conveying the 

 idea that it referred only to the cordon simple manner in which 

 Apples and Peais are trained to form edgings to garden walks, 

 and to clothe tne bases of walls ; and a considerable amount 

 of misapprehension has arisen as to what a cordon is, from 

 this specific use of the term. Cordon tiaining in its general 

 sense means simply a tree with all its branches, no matter 

 how many, coming "directly from the stem, and all close-pruned 

 so as to preserve them perfectly simple. Thus, Du Breuil calls 

 our horizontal mode of training the Pear in successive tiers of 

 cordons, " palmette cordim." Mr. Brebaut, in his admirable 

 little work on cordon training, defines the system as " a cer- 

 tain number of leading branches carried out, and on them 

 spurs are developed, so that the branches look somewhat lik« 

 twisted cables or chains." 



Cordon, therefore, means not any particular form of trained 

 tree, but rather a particular mode t.f pruning fruit trees, by 

 which any branch or number of branches acquire the form of a 



