FOR ORCHARD HOUSES 35 



CHAPTER VII 

 APPLES AND PEARS FOR ORCHARD HOUSES 



EVEN in favoured localities, the best cultivators are some- 

 times baffled by violent changes of climate, which destroy 

 the crops of Pears on outside walls. After reviewing such 

 trees in a severe spring, it is refreshing to open the 

 doors of the cool orchard houses, and witness health, 

 vigour, and beauty of the foliage, with heavy crops of 

 fruit on the pot trees, and thousands of thinnings on 

 the ground, removed by the gardener at the first general 

 oversight. If this is so in the South, how much more 

 could be said in favour of orchard houses in the colder 

 Midlands and the North ? As a hobby, pot trees are 

 most interesting and delightful, first in their perfect 

 blossom, then the gradual development of the fruit, and 

 the succession of perfectly ripened examples of Plums, 

 Peaches, Nectarines, Apples, and Pears a season reaching 

 from the month of June until November, when the houses 

 can be cleared for Chrysanthemums, to be refilled again 

 after Christmas with the pot trees. 



Pot-grown trees insure a crop in any district, or when 

 bad weather obtains at the time of flowering, and it is 

 the best method of growing fruit of the largest size and 

 of striking appearance, with fully developed colour and 

 flavour. 



The orchard house need not be an expensive structure. 



