290 



JOUBXAIi OF HOBTICtTLTUBB AND COTTAGE GABDENBB. 



( April 15, 187S. 



improve the quality of flowers as well as tnm their attention 

 to foliage.— C. P. P. 



NOTES FKOM MY GAKDEN IN 1874. 



GLADIOLUS. 



" It is a long time," was the burden of a recent note, " since 

 you have given us anything about the Gladiolus in the Journal." 

 Well, it is : time runs on, many things crop up, and one 

 forgets how long it is since one has written. Moreover, there 

 is not now a great deal to say ; and what I have to write may 

 perhaps as well be written under this heading as under any 

 other. And yet I am more perplexed than ever as to what to 

 say about it. I believe it to be the most disappointing and 

 perplexing flower we have to do with. I never had finer- look- 

 ing beds for some months, never finer blooms, and yet at the 

 time of lifting never more disease. " Hold I " I hear someone 

 say ; " don't discourage people and frighten them out of grow- 

 ing them." To this I cannot subscribe. Truth must be told, 

 and no suppression of facts can be justifiable when we are 

 writing on the merits or demerits of a flower. It is impossible 

 to praise too highly the beauty, the variety of its colouring, 

 and the grandeur of appearance of the Gladiolus. But all this 

 must be weighted by its fatal facility to disease ; and I know 

 of more than one grower who says, " Tear after year I deter- 

 mine to give it up, and yet notwithstanding my losses I cannot 

 quite make up my mind to do so." 



I had last year as usual three beds containing about four 

 hundred bulbs. These were from the following sources : l,The 

 most considerable quantity my own saving ; 2, a goodly number 

 of imported bulbs ; 3, a few of Mr. Kelway's highest-priced 

 roots ; and 4, a few from my friend Mr. Banks. Amongst the 

 French roots were the set of eighteen sent out by M. Souchet, 

 and of these I found the following to be the best : — 



De Michel. — -A large and very long spike ; rose slightly veined 

 with lilac, and the throat lined with dark carmine. 



Le Vesuvc. — A magnificent colour, fiery red, large and bril- 

 liant, evidently of the Meyerbeer type. I look upon this as a 

 grand flower, although my friend Mr. Banks says that Meyer- 

 beer wiU be a more lasting flower. 



il/i<ri;/o.— Another very fine spike ; cherry red, light centre, 

 all the petals lined with white, with large white spot on the 

 lower petals. A grand variety. 



Psyche. — Very large spike of light satiny rose ; lower petals 

 darker rose. This variety was considered by M. Souchet the 

 best of the year, but it is not so to our English taste. 



These were the best four. Of the others I rather liked 

 Sirene, a fine spike, hght salmon rose ; Ambroiee Verschaffelt, 

 light rose, flamed red. Albion and L'Uniqne Violet never did 

 anything ; indeed the latter never appeared above ground. 

 Merveille was fine but not remarkable, and of the others I can 

 give no very good account. From Mr. Kelway I had Victory, 

 Lady Bridport, Medina, and Ball of Fire, and am sorry to say 

 I was disappointed in them. There must be something in his 

 way of growing them, for I had seen them very fine with him ; 

 with me they were the reverse of that. 



In former years I had advocated the use of charcoal, con- 

 sidering that it might act as a preventive of disease. I regret 

 to say that such an idea has been entirely dispelled by the 

 experience of the past year. In my three beds I had some 

 treated with charcoal and others with sand, but I found no 

 difference in the attacks of the disease. The English-raised 

 seedlings were attacked by it, although it is stated by some 

 that they are of a hardier constitution. In fact it is one of 

 those mysterious disorders about which we are entirely in the 

 dark. I saw it last year everywhere. My friend Mr. Banks 

 BuSered most severely. I saw it extensively in Somersetshire, 

 and a little of it at Fontainebleau, while Lord Hawke wrote to 

 me that he felt thoroughly disheartened by its prevalence in 

 his best beds. No vegetable physiologists seem to be able to 

 tell us what it is and what its remedy is any more than they 

 can about the Potato disease. Indeed the thought has struck 

 me whether they may not be analogous ; and if so, may it not 

 be that as unquestionably the autumn rains have in some 

 mysterious way to do with the prevalence of the disease 

 amongst the one, they may not have also in the other ? We 

 cannot Uft our Gladioluses early as we can our Potatoes, but 

 it might be worth while to try on a small scale whether the 

 covering of a bed, and so preventing it receiving the autumn 

 rains, might preserve the bulbs from disease. The fact that 

 the French growers do not suffer so much from it would rather 

 bear this out. Their autumns — autumns in which the rich pro- 



duce of their vineyards are gathered in — must be, and indeed 

 we know are, much drier than ours. At any rate it might be 

 woith consideration, and on a small scale I shall try the expe- 

 riment this year ; for while it would be hopeless for the man 

 who grows his tens of thousands of bulbs to attempt anything 

 of this kind, the amateur who is obliged to be satisfied, as I 

 am, with a few hundreds, may well try to do something to 

 save his most valuable bulbs at least from destruction. 



I am disposed to think that mulching ia more serviceable 

 than I once thought it was; and at Mr. Kelway's I saw the 

 beds very thickly coated with manure, and we all know what 

 spikes he is able to produce. 



We have now but one exhibition where we may hope to see 

 them properly represented in the metropolis — that to be held 

 at the Alexandra Park by the Metropolitan Floral Society in 

 the latter part of August. The Crystal Palace is too late 

 except for monster growers like Mr. Kelway, and the miserable 

 amount of the prizes at South Kensington will preclude ama- 

 teurs from competing. I hope, then, at the Alexandra Park, 

 where a large sum is offered for them, there will be a good 

 competition and a grand display. — D., Deal. 



PEARS. 



Mt experience is that Pears vary very much according to 

 soil, climate, and the kind of stock on which they are grafted. 

 Some which are excellent on the Quince are worthless on the 

 Pear stock, and vice ver.'ia. They also vary much according to 

 the season. Some sorts do best in a dry season, others in a 

 wet one ; so that a Pear which may be first-rate one year will 

 be only second or third-rate another year. This last year, for 

 instance, I found the following sorts, which are usually ex- 

 cellent, were only second-rate — Fondante d'Automne, Beurrii 

 Bachelier, Josephine de Malines, and Easter Beurn', which 

 last was very much spotted ; whereas the season evidently 

 suited other varieties — e.g., Conseiller de la Cour, Baronne de 

 Mello, Doyenne du Comice, Winter Nelis, and Bergamotte 

 Esperen, which last is only just over. 



Last year I fruited just sixty varieties of Pear. Of these there 

 are only five now remaining in the fruit-room — Catillac, t've- 

 dale's St. Germain, Verulam, Beurrfi de Eance, and Bezi Mai. 

 This last was sent out as an eating Pear, and perhaps it may 

 prove eatable once in half a century ; but it is a very good 

 bearer and an excellent stewing Pear, and will keep till July, 

 or even longer if required; but out of these sixty varieties, to 

 my mind there was no question as to the one which was first 

 in excellence. It was a Pear which came to me from France, 

 with the label partially obliterated ; it was the " Fondante de 

 C ." So far I could make it out, but no further, and accord- 

 ingly I called it Fondante de Comice; but I do not see a Pear 

 of that name on any list, and the Pear itself answered to the 

 description both in appearance and season of the " Fondante 

 de Charneu," with its six alias names in Dr. Hogg's " Fruit 

 Manual," page 291. It is a variety which, as far as I can ascer- 

 tain, is unknown in this district, but perhaps some of your 

 correspondents from other parts can give some information 

 about it. This last season it was certainly the best of my 

 sixty varieties, and I think the best Pear I ever met with. 



As I sometimes see inquiries about " fruit-rooms," my ex- 

 perience on this point may be of use to some of your readers. 

 I had a small wooden barn about 14 by 10 feet. I had it lined 

 with half-inch deal boards, and filled the space between the two 

 boardings (about 6 inches) with s.iwdust. This has answered 

 very well, and the thermometer was never below freezing point 

 in the coldest nights of last winter, and the fruit has kept 

 perfectly well till now. — William Lea, DroiticicI'. 



TEOPiEOLUM CANARIENSE. 



This useful and very pretty climber, growing to the height 

 of from 10 to 12 feet, and producing hundreds of canary-yellow 

 flowers, being a half-hardy annual, requires to be raised from 

 seed under glass. The most successful way is to sow the seed 

 from the middle of March to the present time in pots, pans, or 

 boxes. When large enough the seedlings may be potted off 

 into pots varying in size from 3 to inches. Three plants 

 might with advantage be put into 6inch pots, trained on stakes, 

 and gradually hardened off in any cold frame or other pro- 

 tection, when they may be planted out in many suitable ways. 

 They may be trained on pillars, porches, or any kind of fancy 

 wood or wire frames. 



Last summer I saw a very good effect produced with this 



