

SG 



THE GARDENERS 1 CHRONICLE. 



[January 20, 1912 



Papilo, Epidemlrum fragrant, and another 

 species being in bloom- The next house contained 

 a selection of the choicer forms of Cattley^ and 

 Laelio-Cattleya— G. Fabia alba, (X ^Iaggie 

 Raphael alba, C. Dietrichiaaa, C% Empress 

 Frederick, CL Adula, C Ir Ladio- rttleya 

 Cappei with three spikes. L.-C, Golden Oriole, 

 L.-C. Artemis, L.-C, Ariadne. These and several 

 unnamed crosses were specially good. Plants of 

 Cattle ya Trianae and C. Schroder© were well 

 furnished with flowering growths. C, citrina 

 grows strongly and flowers well in these gardens, 

 the specimens having been there for seven or 

 eight years. Another house contained healthy 

 plants of Odontioda, including O. Charles worthii, 

 O. Cecilia, O. Zephyra, O. Cooksoniae, and O. 

 Bradshawise, together with thriving specimens of 

 other kinds, such as Epidendrurn vitellinum, 

 Odontotrlossum grande and others of its section. 

 Particularly striking was a fine plant of 0. 

 Williamsianum, which, after bearing two strong 

 spikes from one pseudo-bulb, has two new 



growth . When the proposed new houses are built, 



it is contemplated connecting all the plant 

 houses by a corridor. Although the summer was 

 so excessively warm the Orchids appeared to 

 have suffered less from the heat than did some of 



the outdoor plants. For example, Saxifraga 



umbrosa (London Pride) employed as an edging 

 around one of the beds was killed by the heat 

 and drought, and some of the plants on the rock- 

 garden also perished. A very old Wistaria 

 sinensis, with stem from 1 foot to 2 feet 

 thick, clothes one side of the commodious .tone- 

 built residence, making a fine show in its season. 



J. B. 



SWEET PEA DISEASE. 



Before entering on the subject of Sweet Pea 



disease, I should like briefly to d( ribe the 

 Milt of my attempt to grow Sweet Peas during 



the past season. 



The seed was sown in pots in the autumn of 

 1910, and the pots were kept in a cold frame all 

 the winter. At the end of March the seedlings 

 were planted on well trenched and manured 

 ground, the first flowers appearing early in 

 June. By the middle of the same month the 

 first signs of disease were evident, and by the 

 end of July the whole crop had been spoiled, 

 pulled up, and burnt, and the ground occupied 

 by Lettuce. 



A disheartening experience indeed ! At one 

 time I made it my boast that I could cut Sweet 

 Peas well into October, but in recent years the 

 flowering period lias steadily decreased, the 

 present year, entirely barren of result, being the 

 crowning disappointment. 



It may be admitted that the extreme heat 

 between mid-June and early August was partly 

 accountable for the very general failure of Sweet 

 Peas all over the country; but it is a fact that 

 the Sweet Pea farms in Essex were a blaze of 

 colour at the latter end of July, in spite of the 

 prolonged drought, so that some cause other than 

 the weather must be responsible for the wide- 

 spread failure of the plant. 



In every district, in the south especially, ama- 

 teur and professional gardeners alike, found 

 their plants wither and die, the immediate cause 

 being well known in most cases — a disease 

 commonly called the "streak." In case there 

 are some who are unacquainted with this 

 disease, it may be well to describe its 

 effects. In former years it has seemed to start 

 from the base of the plant, and work up the 

 haulm in the form of brown streaks. The tops 

 became twisted and distorted, the flowers be- 

 came mottled, and opened badly. The plants 

 would often linger in this condition right through 

 the season ; and on some occasions it has been 

 possible, by cutting away the diseased growth, 

 to induce the production of fresh laterals. 



This year, however, the disease struck the 

 plants in all directions. The foliage, in many 



instances, showed yellow marblings, the tops 

 became limp, and brown lines appeared to run 

 downwards. The disease was not confined to 

 any particular variety; Arthur Unwin, Mrs. 

 Breadmore, Elsie Herbert, Gladys Burt, Mrs. 

 Hallam, Elfrida Pearson, and other pale 

 shades succumbed early. They were fol- 

 lowed by the paler selfs, such as Master- 

 piece, Countess Spencer, Clara Curtis, and Etta 



Dyke, and the last to be attacked arere the 

 deeper selfs, John Ingman, Nubian, and Sun- 

 proof Crimson. The size of the plants seemed 

 to be immaterial, those 4 feet or 5 feet in height 

 collapsing as quickly as small ones, and a haulm 

 an inch in width was ruined as quickly as one 

 of half that size. Even the removal of the 

 affected plants did not check the spread of the 

 disease, and weak applications of potassium 

 permanganate at the roots, and spraying with 

 permanganate were alike unavailing. I believe, 

 however, that these remedies would have been 

 effective if they had been applied sufficiently 

 early, and in heavier quantifies. 



For the last eight years at least I have carried 

 on unavailing warfare against the disease. I 

 have planted Sweet Peas on heavy clay soil, on 

 a chalky hillside, on loam, both binding and 

 sandy, in districts as widely apart as Kent and 

 Shropshire; but I have never found the plants 

 entirely free of the pest. Even planting in 



virgin soil is no safeguard. I have known plants 



grown therein to be as diseased as those on 

 ground that has been occupied by Sweet Peas 

 for years. The serious part of the matter is 

 that the disease is steadily increasing year by 

 year, and many even of the most enthusiastic 

 growers are almost inclined to discontinue the 

 cultivation of the Sweet Pea altogether ; indeed, 

 one well-known grower has for several years 



ceased to grow them. 



The average gardener, professional as well as 



amateur, has very little opportunity for ac- 

 quiring scientific knowledge on the subject of 

 fungous diseases. He is forced to go for as- 

 sistance to the specialist, from whom he has 

 obtained much valuable aid. Science, however, 

 has done very little towards the elucidation of 

 the nature and cure of the disease under review, 

 the most important discoveries in this direction 

 having been by a nurseryman, a gentleman who 

 combines scientific research with practical hor- 

 ticulture. I first became acquainted with the 

 disease myself about eight years ago. It ap- 

 peared, I remember, in an American novelty 

 named " Florence Morse/' a carmine-tinted 

 variety. " Florence Morse " is now extinct, 

 having never enjoyed great popularity : with me 

 it sported several rogues, one or two of which I 

 saved. However, as these were later wiped 

 out by disease, I concluded that the spores or 

 mycelium must have been carried over in the 

 seed— a theory which, though ridiculed at the 

 time, has. later, received a considerable amount 

 of credence. 



When the " streak " first appeared among my 

 plants, I set to work to investigate the matter. 

 I sent several plants away for examination, and 

 received a similar report to that given by the 

 special sub-committee of the N.S.P.S. in their 

 Annual for this year. I accepted the report, 

 with a certain reserve. 



It has occurred to me, and I have no rea- 

 son to doubt, that one main cause of the 

 trouble probably lies in conditions of culture. 

 In the early days of Sweet Peas, before they 

 became as popular as at present, the flowering 

 season was very short. In order to increase 

 the period of bloom, the supply of manure was 

 increased, the plants fed with increasing amounts 

 of nitrogenous manures, till finally, owing prob- 

 ably, in great measure, to this forcing treatment, 

 the disease made its appearance. 



In America, where the Sweet Pea attained to 

 popularity some years before we took it up, the 

 experience of growers was the same. It became 

 the custom there to form trenches, on the manure 



sandwich system, the result of which was that 

 the Sweet Pea constantly fell a victim to the 

 attacks of "blight," and many growers, '.n dis- 

 gust, gave up its cultivation altogether. 



It was just at this period — when the Rev. W. 

 T. Hutchins was trying to enlighten his con- 

 temporaries on the subject of the fallacy of the 

 trench system — that we British began to take up 

 in earnest the cultivation of the Sweet Pea. 

 Those who, recalling the exhibits of the show in 

 1900, compare them with those of this year, 

 will realise how the pace has been forced. I do 

 not wish to deny that we ought to try and attain 

 perfection in every plant we cultivate ; but out 

 raged Nature will, sooner or later, take her re- 

 venge. Many growers will teli you that the 

 Sweet Pea of the present day has not so strong a 

 constitution as that of a few years ago ; this, 

 however, is not the case. It is true that some 

 varieties are much stronger than others, but this 

 has alwavs been so. W. 



(To be continued.) 



AUTUMN FLOWERS IN THE SOUTH-WEST. 



In my last article on summer flowers (Vol. L, 

 p. 389) I stated that Nerine flexuosa alba had not 

 bloomed. N. Fothergillii major blossomed well in 

 September, N. Bowdenii perfected a dozen bloom- 

 spikes in October, and N. flexuosa alba eventually 

 bloomed, but did not reach its best until the 

 middle of November. In this species, unlike the 

 others which flower when leafless, the leaves are 

 quite green at the time cf the production cf 

 flowers. On a visit to Messrs. Veitch's nursery at 

 Exeter, towards the end of November, I found 

 an enormous specimen of Buddleia Colvilei, 

 about 20 feet high and as much in diameter, 

 bearing many clusters of perfect flowers. I have 

 never met with this shrub as an autumn flowerer 

 before. I was told that it had withstood 24° 

 of frost without being harmed, so it is evidently 

 hardier than is supposed. In September the 

 Lion's Tail (Leonotis Leonurus) was a splendid 

 sight, a large bush 6 feet high against a wall 

 being a blaze of orange-scarlet, some of the 

 whorls being as much as 17 inches in circum- 

 ference. As I mentioned in my previous article, 



Taosonia mixta quitensis commenced to flower 

 in June, and from that date until the present 

 time it has bloomed continuously, there being a 

 few flowers and buds still on the plant and num- 

 bers of large seed-pods. If we have severe 

 weather it may go badly with the plant ; 

 for it has grown to such a height, having 

 entirely covered wire netting 2 feet 6 inche3 

 high on the top of a 12-foot wall, that it will be 

 impossible to protect it. and in the severe winter 

 five years ago Mr. Howard Fox's large plant, 

 that almost covered his house at Falmouth, was 

 killed to the ground. However, up to the pre 

 sent our severest frost has been 2°. Witsenia 

 corymbosa flowered fairly well, perfecting 12 

 flower-cluster-, but did not approach its display 

 of four years ago, when it bore 55 flower-racemes, 

 each carrying from 50 to 60 blossoms, and was an 

 exceedingly pretty sight when in full bloom. It 

 is now held to be an Aristea, but is far superior 

 to Aristea Eeklonii, also grown in this garden, 

 its flowers being considerably larger, nearly an 

 inch across, and remaining open the whole day, 

 whereas those of the Aristea generally close 

 about two o'clock and are borne far less pro- 

 fusely. Aristea Eeklonii flowered in June, but 

 Witsenia corymbosa did not bloom this year 

 until October. The first flowers of Iris stylosa 

 were picked on October 31, and since then num- 

 bers have been cut, though as yet they have not 

 been produced in great profusion. Iris cretensi 

 has also borne a few flowers. The pretty little 

 Shamrock Pea (Parochetus communis) com- 

 menced to expand its pale-blue, pea-like blossoms 

 in September, but was not at its best until the 

 close of October and early in November, when its 



