44 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[Januaky 20, 1912 



HARDY FLOWER BORDER. 



HOLLYHOCKS AND CALCEOLARIAS. 



I sowed a quantity of Holly} ck seeds as soon 

 as th« were rip*-, and the seedlings have re- 

 cently been potted. They will require larger pots 

 in the beginning of February, and, meanwhile, 



they need to be kept growing actively to obtain 

 strong plants for flowering. Where large plants 



of the stronger-growing Calceolarias are required 

 for the flower-garden, either as pillar or standard 



plants, it is imperative that they shall also be 

 kept glowing actively. Calceolarias seem to grow 

 just as well in a somewhat low temperature as in 



a higher one, but they need abundant root- 

 room to enable the shoots to grow tall and 

 strong. Call Jarias still in cutting boxes in 

 frames or elsewhere should be potted without 

 delay in pots 4 inches in diameter-, and Later into 

 thers 6 or 7 inches in diameter. For ordinary, 

 low-growing specimens, the tips of the shoots 

 should be pinched off and the plants allowed to 

 remain in the boxes for another six or eight 

 weeks. B. 



HOME CORRESPONDENCE 



(The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for 

 the opinions expressed by correspondents.) 



Snow in the Midlands.— A heavy fall of 

 snow occurred at Birmingham to-day. It com- 

 menced about 8 a.m., and continued through- 

 out the day. At 5 p.m. the snow was 9 inches 

 deep on the lawn in these gardens. -Many 

 trees and shrubs, including Rhododendrons, 

 Bud d lei as, Laburnums, Coluteas and Conifers. 



are badly damaged. T. Humphrey*, Botanical 

 Gardens, Bdgbaston, January 17. 



Cypripediums at Oakwood Gardens, 

 Crayford. — I am sending you two photographs 

 taken in our Cypripedium house durin 

 Christmas week, showing how well adapted 

 are the varieties of C. insigne for pro- 

 ducing a display of bloom during the 

 winter months. We have about three dozen 

 specimen plants carrying in all nearly 800 

 blooms. The plants have made a grand show for 

 the past six weeks or two months. I am sending 

 you at the same time a few blooms for the 

 Editors' table. A. Tomalin, Oakwood Gardens, 

 Crayford. [Some excellent flowers of Cypripe- 

 dium insigne accompanied the note. The photo- 

 graphs were unsuitable for reproduction. — Eds.] 



The Colouring of Apples. — I read with 

 interest your correspondent's remarks respecting 

 the colouring of Apples (see vol. 1., p. 447). I 

 have been particularly impressed this sea- 

 son at the continued colouring of Apples 

 in my fruit-room since they were gathered, 

 especially in the following sorts: Adams's 

 Pearmain, Margil, Annie Elizabeth, Beauty 

 of Kent, Newton Wonder, and Normanton 

 Wonder. These are naturally highly -coloured 

 varieties, but with me they frequently lack this 

 quality for various reasons. I have been in the 

 habit of top-dressing my fruit trees with wood 

 ashes, and this fact leads me to fully concur with 

 Rev. Bernard Hall that the colouring is largely 

 due to potash in the soil. The increased bright 

 colouring which has taken place in the Apples 

 above mentioned while in the fruit-room, I think, 

 goes to show that internal influences have much to 

 do with the colouring. Probably the long, hot 

 summer did its part also. Thos. Oldham, Stough- 

 tcn Grange, Leicester. 



• Although climatic conditions have con- 

 siderable influence on the maturing of fruits in 

 general in the open, it seems to me it is only 

 11 one rung in the ladder " in assisting to bring 

 fruits to perfection. My experience is that much 

 depends on the soil constituents in which the 

 trees are growing, with regard to size, colour 

 and flavour of the fruits. I was for several years 

 in charge of a garden which was composed of a 

 cold, clayey loam, and I lifted the fruit trees, 

 which were mostly in bush shape, root-pruned 

 them, and mixed with the soil old mortar rubble, 

 ashes from the garden fire and basic slag, the 

 work extendi*!: over two or three winters. There 

 were two or three trees of Worcester Pearmain, 



and these were not all done in one season. The 



fruits from the trees that had not been lifted 

 were practically green, with scarcely a tinge of 

 red, whereas those from the trees attended to 

 were brilliantly red. This may partly explain the 

 reason why pot trees, well grown and artificially 

 fed, can be relied upon to produce fruits superior 

 to those grown in the open. .4. E. T. R., 

 Leicester. 



The numerous points of view from 



which Southern Grower with praiseworthy de- 

 tail inquires (p. 447, vol. 1.) into the problem 

 of the colouring of Apples appears to leave the 

 main issue, somewhat obscured. That issue 

 was, in the first instance, my noticing the 

 said discu ion in the horticultural Press as to 

 causes of contrasts in colouration in successive 

 seasons. On reflecting on these causes of irregu- 

 larity in the succession of annual fruit shows 

 reported upon some occasions as rather green and 

 on others as well coloured, I felt prompted to 

 look up the records of the weather preceding the 

 shows. In the result this examination seemed 



to prove that the incidence of a fair amount of 

 rain falling opportunely in the course of a month 

 or two before the show produced a well- coloured 

 show, where dry weather left the show rather 

 green. Previously a greater faith in the action 

 of sunshine alone was prevalent. That rain 

 would act thus favourably on colouration did of 

 course not preclude the need of sunshine. That 

 rain and sunshine alternating would therefore 

 constitute the ideal influences for colouration of 

 fruit was of course taken for granted and was 

 not a postulate requiring to be laboured in my 

 present reference to an incident happening at a 

 distant period. It throws a little additional 

 light upon my conclusions when I state that on 

 the occasion of a show peculiarly "green" dur- 

 ing those years there was one highly-coloured 

 exhibit of many sorts of Apples from the 

 King's Acre Nurseries, Hereford. On inquiry 

 respecting the cause of the difference the 

 owner told me that he had the best- 

 fruit g trees in his nursery regularly sprinkled 

 with water from the hose and that he 

 felt convinced that the treatment accounted 

 for the difference between his exhibit and 

 others. The cause of my writing to the 

 Agricultural Gazette recently on this subject, in 

 the first instance, is distinctly pointed out and 

 therefore justified by Southern Grower, who, 

 moreover, adds that he agrees with my 

 criticism so challenged in that well4uiown 

 weekly. As to my suggested explanation, 

 South < rn Grower thinks it a curious one, and 

 proceeds to analyse my deductions and to doubt 

 their applicability. Yet we are taught to believe 

 that nitrates supplied to vegetation make chiefly 

 for the development of leaf and branch and that 

 they promote sappiness, which is inimical to 

 the setting of fruit buds. On vegetables such 

 effect is, of course, even more striking. Thus, if 

 it is at the expense of the fruit crop in one 

 sense, the diverted energy of the tree, on the 

 arrest of the action of nitrates, may well be 

 assumed to allow maturation to supervene of 

 both fruit and bud, and this would find expres- 

 sion in the colouration of the fruit. The safest 

 attitude is doubtless to assume that opportune- 

 ness of alternation of sunshine and rain is the 

 cause of all the preferential issues involved. A 

 parallel to these influences here discussed may be 

 adduced by considering the consequences of root- 

 pruning. The curtailment of roots throws energy 

 from branch formation into the development ol 

 fruit buds on hitherto poorly-fruiting trees prone 

 to making over-sappy growth. Reduction 

 of roots acts on lines parallel to the re- 

 duction of the excessive supply of nitrogen to 

 roots, and both these parallel influences stimu- 

 late fruit production." In reference to this 

 significant influence of root-pruning I am re- 

 minded of another incident in my own experi- 

 ence. As records of the incidence of horticul- 

 tural methods are, moreover, interesting to 

 numerous readers, I may state that before I ever 

 heard of the principle of root pruning as an ex- 

 pedient for the promotion of crops, I had in the 

 course of my amateur practices from disappoint- 

 ment at results, from paucity of crops, applied 

 for advice to a nurseryman" who had supplied 

 many trees to my garden. He sent his fruit-fore- 

 man, with the result that advice was ten- 

 dered me to attach brickbats, in proportion to 

 strength of leads and laterals, to all main 

 growths tending upwards, so as to depress them, 



with a view of arresting their flow of sap, half- 

 way to the tips, and thereby induce fruit bud 

 formation. My garden looked as if furnished 

 with Christmas-tree hangings, but beyond being 

 appropriate for the winter season the entire ex- 

 pedient proved barren. It was based on the in- 

 spiration of Shirley Hibberd, on whose advice I 

 thus acted some 40 years ago. However, among 

 my several hundred trees w r as one standard Pear 

 of the Calebasse variety, which had grown into 

 the form of a weeping Ash. The cure by brickbats 

 was therefore obviously impracticable. I solved 

 the dilemma by telling my gardener to dig a 

 trench round the tree and cut its roots so as to 

 arrest its prodigious growth. The result was 

 that 18 months after the operation an ample crop 

 was picked the first fruit produced after six 

 years from planting and furnished the first op- 

 portunity for determining the variety. Of course 

 my discovery was promptly applied throughout 

 the garden, and methods based on the results 

 have been practised ever since. II. H. 

 Raschen, Birkdale, South port, Lancashire. 



Sweet William Rust.— A remarkable ex- 

 ample of drastic treatment of plants of Sweet 

 William affected with rust came tinder my notice 

 last year. A large breadth of strong plants had 

 begun to show traces of the disease, and they 

 were heavily dusted with soot, then with sulphur, 

 and again with soot. Plants that had received 

 the soot and sulphur dressing once only had 

 reen leaves, and apparently were quite healthy, 



tit the leafage of all the plants that received 

 the second dressing of soot was burned so that 

 not a single green leaf could be seen. Ulti- 

 mately, those most burnt, possibly benefiting 

 by the dressing of soot, grew quite out of their 

 unhappy scorching, and flowered finely and pro- 

 fusely, quite equalling those plants which had 

 so well retained their foliage. D. 



Rat Catching. — Mr. Kenwood (see p. 29)doei 

 not mention the most efficacious method of catch- 

 ing rats : a good ferret and a couple of terrier 

 dogs. With these aids a clearance can soon be 

 effected, or at least the rodents can be kept within 

 manageable numbers. There is no cruelty in the 

 use of ferrets to drive them from their holes, nor 

 certainly when they come into contact with a 

 properly-trained terrier, who can discriminate 

 between rats and ferrets. It is indeed a strange 

 haunt where a ferret cannot be employed. If all 

 are not killed at the first hunt, then try again 

 within a few days. Rats do not relish a dis- 

 turbance by a ferret; they very often shift to 

 other quarters when so disturbed. E. M. 



Rose W. Allen Richardson. — The re- 

 marks of Mr. Molyneux on the great change of 

 colour observed in the blooms of this Rose (see p. 

 26) interested me, as I have observed the same 

 thing. Ten years ago a fine Rose growing here 

 carried hundreds of beautifully coloured flowers, 

 but every year since the flowers have become 

 gradually paler, until this past summer they had 

 no colour at all. Probably Rose growers on an 

 extensive scale may have something to say on 

 the matter. A. P., Cork. 



Apple Trees in Grass Land.— The majority 

 of fruit-growers will follow the method of grow- 

 ing the trees in cultivated land adopted by the 

 bulk of fruit-growers who earn their living by 

 this means. There is no trouble, however, in 

 pointing to instances of excellent results from 

 trees that are growing in grass land. I have in 

 my mind the orchards at Aldenham and Swan- 

 more. It would be difficult to find one more satis- 

 factory than that at Aldenham. The trees are 

 large, shapely, and they yield huge quantities of 

 fruit of nearly all varieties that are there in- 

 cluded ; especially Blenheim Pippin, King of 

 the Pippins, Cox's Orange Pippin and many sorts 

 of kitchen Apples. I forget how many years the 

 orchard has been down in grass, but a good many. 

 I noticed, however, that last year Mr. Beckett 

 had removed the grass from about the stems of 

 many of the trees, so that he could give the roots 

 liquid stimulants, which he applied with bene- 

 ficial results. With such a drv summer and 

 early autumn as experienced last year, this appli- 

 cation of sewage was indeed a boon to the trees. 

 Now this removal of the grass proves that at 

 Aldenham the trees were better with a partial re- 

 moval of the grass than an absolute covering of 

 the orchard. Here, at Swanmore, the orchard has 



