454 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[October 20 



Mr. Le Maitee said they had been talking abont 

 standard trees, but did the same remarks apply to 

 wall trees ? 



Mr. Shirley Hibberd, in reply, said he was 

 pleased to see that the general concurrence of 

 opinion was with him. The trees at Cardiff Castle 

 were very interesting, as illustrating this question. 

 He did not say anything about wall trees, because 

 he considered one subject enough at a time ; but he 

 would say — give wall trees plenty of room, and do not 

 stunt the shoots. In conclusion, he moved a vote 

 of thanks to Dr. Hogg for presiding. 



Rev. W. Wilks, Secretary, Royal Horticultural 

 Society, proposed a vote of thanks to the readers of 

 papers. 



Mr. Paul returned thanks for the readers, and said 

 he had seen many barren trees made fruitful and 

 many fruitful trees made barren by the pruning 

 knife. They could not, however, do without pruning. 

 It wasjnjudicious pruning that should stand con- 

 demned. It would not do for the idea to get abroad 

 that they were of opinion that there was no necessity 

 for pruning, as such a wrong impression might lead to 

 "eriouB consequences. 



The proceedings were adjourned till Thursdiy. 



NATIONAL CHRYSANTHEMUM 

 SOCIETY. 



October 16th. — A General Meeting of members of 

 this Society took place at Anderton's Hotel, Fleet 

 Street, on Monday evening, the 15th inst. Mr. E. 

 Sanderson, President, in the chair. The Hon. Sec, 

 Mr. W. Holmes, reported that the Midland Railway 

 Company had offered to convey exhibits to and from 

 the provincial show at Sheffield on November 16 

 and following day, at a single fare, provided the 

 exhibits remained until the close of the show. Also 

 that they were willing to reserve one or two saloon 

 carriages, if a sufficient party going] from London 

 justified them in doing so. The Hon. Sec. also re- 

 ported that he bad paid the sum of £70, prizes 

 awarded at the September show at the Royal 

 Aquarium, and said he thought it would be neces- 

 sary to modify the classes for Dahlias. A hearty 

 vote of thanks was passed to those who acted as 

 stewards on that occasion. Mr. Harman Payne, the 

 chairman of the Catalogue Revision Committee re- 

 ported that their labours as revisers had come to 

 an end. 



The following resolution was then moved by the 

 Hon. Secretary, seconded by Mr. Geo. Stevens, and 

 carried by acclamation : — " That the members of the 

 National Chrysanthemum Society desire to place on 

 record their high appreciation of the valuable work 

 accomplished by those who prepared and published 

 the edition of the National Chrysanthemum Society's 

 Catalogue for 1888. To each of those who consti- 

 tuted the specially selected committee, and who 

 prepared reports on the several sections, the members 

 give their sincere thanks, and especially to. the 

 Revision -Committee, who received these reports, 

 revised and tabulated them. Purther, that a Silver 

 Medal of the Society, duly and suitably engraved, 

 be presented to Messrs. Lewis Castle, C. Harman 

 Payne, and George Gordon, in recognition of the 

 admirable result of their painstaking and arduous 

 work ; also that a copy of this resolution be entered 

 upon the minutes, and a lithographed copy be pre- 

 pared and furnished to each member of the com- 

 mittee." The Hon. Secretary also proposed a reso- 

 lution for the appointment of a permanent Catalogue 

 Committee, to take such notes as may be necessary 

 with a view to revision of the Catalogue at a future 

 time, and that such committee consist of Messrs. 

 Payne, Castle, and Gordon. 



Fruits Under Glass, 



Peaches. — Where fruit is hanging on the trees in 

 late houses give as much sunlight as possible, so as 

 to impart flavour ; a little artificial heat will prove 

 of great service, as well as of benefit to the formation 

 of the fruit buds. While applying heat give venti- 

 lation in moderation, and shut up with dry sun-heat 

 when it call be secured. 



Succession-houses. — Trees in these, when thinned 

 of all old bearing wood and freely syringed, should 

 be watered at the roots if this be found necesefary, 

 and the foliage allowed to fall naturally. 



The Early House will require attention now. If it 

 be not already done all internal cleansing and paint- 

 ing should be done, and all rough snags and wounds 

 cut smooth with the knife, so that the earth may 

 close properly over them. In pruning remove all 

 such of the old bearing wood as can be spared, and 

 that which was left from the summer pruning ; any 

 very gross shoots of this season's growth may also be 

 cut out. As a rule, I do not favour the shortening 

 back of bearing wood on Peach and Nectarine trees, 

 but if one side of the tree is likely to outgrow the other 

 it becomes a necessity for the proper balance of the 

 tree. Wash the shoots with a soft brush and warm 

 water, in which some soit soap and a few handfulls 

 of flowers of sulphurs have been dissolved. When 

 all has been thoroughly cleansed fasten the shoots to 

 the trellis, allowing the shoots plenty of room to 

 swell. Shoots from 5 to 7 inches apart will be quite 

 close enough. Prick up the surface of the border 

 and remove all the soil down to the roots. Dust the 

 border over with a good dressing of Thomson's 

 Manure and resurface with loam, lime rubbish, and 

 charred wood ashes ; place a few inches of horse- 

 droppings on the top, and give a good soaking of 

 tepid water. The outside border should also be 

 covered with 14 to 15 inches of dry leaves, and 

 thatched with straw. 



Fiffs. — The early plants in pots or tubs should now 

 be placed under protection, and the pruning seen to 

 at once. If ripe Figs are expected in April, the 

 plants will require to be started next month. In 

 pruning remove all the weakly shoots which were 

 left at the summer's pruning. The strong shoots 

 should be but as little as possible ; rather bend them 

 down and depend on heavy cropping and summer 

 pinching to reduce any grossness of shoots from all 

 the snags and wounds, so as to afford but little 

 hiding-places for insects ; then well wash the wood 

 several times over with hot water, soft-soap, and 

 petroleum. If not already done, let the house 

 they are intended to occupy be well scrubbed 

 and painted if necessary. Wash the walls with 

 hot lime and flowers of sulphur. W. M. Baillie, 

 Luton Hoo. 



DISBUDDING ROSES. 



As " Wild Rose " does not seem to think it worth 

 while to comment further on the question of dis- 

 budding Roses, the temptation to risk breaking a 

 lance againat " Rosa's " protest on p. 38, is 

 irresistible. 



"Rosa" leads off with a gibe against the exhibitors 

 for their insufficient taste, and then proceeds to refer 

 to " over full-blown Roses, however beautiful, &c." 

 Does " Rosa " reallv consider " over full-blown 

 Roses " at all beautiful ? Such is certainly not the 

 opinion of exhibitors. Perhaps the meaning of the 

 word taste requires definition; for, after all, is 

 Marechal Niel so old that he is to be mocked as 

 " virtually " (why virtually ?) a bald-head ? 



" Why, indeed," says Rosa, " should the amateur 

 who grows his Roses for their beauty in the 

 garden or in the house, . pinch out their side 

 buds ? " It is quite easy to imagine that 

 " the rustle of their opening buds " was loud 

 enough to prevent " Rosa " from hearing the Rose's 

 obvious answer to this question, which is simply, 

 that otherwise the amateur would fail in his alleged 

 object, as his Roses would never attain their highest 

 beauty either in the garden or anywhere else. 



When Roses are not disbudded they are never 

 seen in character, that is to say, they lack colour, 

 depth, substance, and frequently form. This, of 

 course, does not apply to what may be termed cluster 

 or bud Roses, but it does apply most emphatically 

 to '.the majority of hybrid perpetuals and to many 

 Teas. To take a solitary instance from each class, 

 few amateurs who have never disbudded La Prance 

 have any conception of the richness and depth of 

 colour that may be obtained in that variety when the 

 flower-buds are well thinned out, and of the hardly 

 more than semi-doubleness of Madame de Watteville 

 when the myriad buds are all left on, growers who 

 have made the experiment of blooming that lovely 

 Rose without disbudding are only too well aware. 

 It has been frequently urged as an objection against 

 La France in the cut state that the flowers so soon 

 assume a faded lilac tint ; but if the flowers are 



vigorously disbudded the colour becomes so intensi- 

 fied that the objection no longer holds good. 



As for " Rosa's " appeal to the fair sex to decide 

 between Roses disbudded or otherwise, it is per- 

 fectly certain and well known that the ladies, to a 

 man (if the Hibernicism may be pardoned) invariably 

 vote for the exhibitor's handsome blooms. It is not 

 a matter of opinion, but of well known fact, that, 

 however many gardens there may be in a neighbour- 

 hood where Roses are never disbudded, it will not be 

 to them, if there be a single exhibitor's garden 

 within reach, that when Rose blooms are wanted, the 

 ladies will go ; they know well enough how much 

 richer will be the colouring of the exhibitor's flowers, 

 and, more important still, how much longer they will 

 last in water than blooms surrounded by buds, whose 

 sole effect is to make the truss top-heavy and un- 

 manageable in any vase arrangement. 



Even on the score of beauty these surrounding 

 buds are frequently, in the case of hybrid perpetuals, 

 indefensible ; for the buds of many varieties are 

 eminently ungainly, both in form and texture, and 

 they nearly always afford lodgment to aphides and 

 mildew — neither very pleasant adjuncts to a lady's 

 flower. Again, in some varieties the surrounding 

 buds are so close to the central axis that they are 

 quite concealed from view by the central flower when 

 it is expanded, and in other varieties their peduncles 

 are so long that the buds stand up beside and 

 (especially in wet weather) frequently disfigure the 

 outer petals of the bloom they surround. In the 

 case of such varieties, moreover, these buds are some- 

 times the means of actually precluding the succes- 

 sional bloom they are alleged to ensure, for they 

 prevent the full expansion of the main bloom, whose 

 petals consequently rot without falling, and as the 

 side buds attempt to develope are the cause of their 

 disfigurement or failure to open. After all, tha 

 "procession of bloom" supposed to be provided by 

 the side buds is not so very long, since the buds 

 do not open one after another, as in many 

 other plants, but as soon as the central bloom 

 has been disposed of, t the surrounding three or five 

 buds proceed to expand as best they can all together, 

 and the crowded bunch of little flowers produces no 

 greater effect of colour in the garden than would one 

 bloom with opportunity to develope. 



To say that " we hear more complaints every year 

 of the shortness of the Rose season " is to make a 

 statement impossible of substantiation ; but it is not 

 by allowing Rose trees to carry more blooms than 

 they can properly develope that the blossoming time 

 in the Rose garden has been and is being annually 

 extended, but by the increased cultivation of so-called 

 summer and single Roses, which bloom so early, and 

 add almost a month at the beginning of the Rose 

 time ; by the far more general planting of the Teas 

 that flower early and late, and add to the season at 

 both ends, and by the increasingly perpetual charac- 

 ter obtained in recent novelties. 



That rose-blooms look best, in the majority of 

 cases at any rate, upon their parent branch, is a con- 

 tention that few will oppose ; but to insist that no 

 Rose can ever look it's best unless surrounded by 

 side buds is entirely beside the point, since it assumes 

 that all Roses have many-flowered trusses which, of 

 course, is not the case. Not a few varieties produce, 

 under ordinary circumstances, solitary flowers, not- 

 ably all the Baroness Rothschild group and Gloire 

 Lyonnaise, Roses which presumably " Rosa " will 

 hardly consider unattractive. 



However charming Gerrard Lewis' verses may be, 

 they clearly show that he was not a practical rosa- 

 rian, or he would never have propounded such a 

 fallacy as that a Rose bloom will last " long summer 

 days " upon the plant, though only a few hours in 

 the cut state. While no hybrid perpetual will last 

 through more than one hot July day it is notorious 

 that by cutting a bloom in the early morning its 

 greatest beauty will so be longer preserved than by 

 any other means. Browning was undoubtedly a 

 closer observer ; that he knew well enough that a 

 burning July day was the term of a "red red Rose's " 

 life, and that its beauty was too fleeting for any 



