158 



THE GARD ENERS' CHR NI CL E 



ARCH 



SCOTLAND. 



SWEET TEA CULTURE. 



Mr. John Grigor, head gardener, Seapark, 

 Forres, Elginshire, gave a lecture before the mem- 

 bers of the North of Scotland Horticultural and 

 Arboricultural Association on the 21st ult. Mr. 

 Grigor said that sandy soil suited Sweet Peas 



very well, although the plants might remain 



longer in bloom in heavy soils. It was essential, 

 said the lecturer, to procure fresh soil or turf 

 each year to fill the trenches, the turf being 

 stacked for a month or two before use. Some 

 growers dig the trenches to a depth of 5 or 6 feet, 

 1 others to a depth of 3 feet. For his own 

 part, he did not think anything was to be gained 

 by deep trenching. He had proved that, and 

 the trenches he made were 18 inches wide and 

 18 inches deep. Mr. Grigor then referred to the 

 preparation of the soil which was put into the 

 trenches, and said the best time for sowing seed 

 to produce exhibition flowers was early spring. 

 The composition of soil which he most favoured, 

 and had found highly successful, was two 

 parts fibrous soil, one part each of sand and 

 manure from a spent Mushroom bed, with a few 

 handfuls of charcoal. The strongest plants were 

 obtained from seed sown in boxes. By the second 

 week of March he had his plants transferred to a 

 cold frame. The first week of April was a good 

 time to start planting. 



FORESTRY. 



RAISING CONIFERS FROM SEEDS. 



Mr. J. Ferguson, Forester, Gregynog, Mont- 

 gomeryshire, in a note on Raising Exotic Conifers 

 from Seed, published in the Transactions of the 

 Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, gives the 

 following table showing the approximate percent- 



ages of germination, 



and the time 



take 



m to 



germinate after sowing on May 1 : — 











T3 



2°c 







« c 



2 43 9 



c_ : - 



When 



= Oj to 



^* ^^ — 



cp cies. 



Collected. 



Germi 

 aft 



So vir 



o c - 



u <U S 







tilths. 





Chamascyparis nootkatensis 



1st week of Oct. 



13 



days 



75 



,, Lawsoniana 



»» 



24 



80 



Cuprt ssus macrocarpa ... 



» ? 



2S 



20 



ryp:omeria japonica 



3rd week o e Sept. 



24 



10 



Weiiingionia giguitea 



1st wtek cf f>ct« 



18 



3ft 



Aquaria iuibricata 



3rd week of Sept. 



60 



75 



Abies nobilis 



1st week of Oct. 



60 



70 



f , granais 



„ Nordmanniana 



»» 



49 



85 



*> 



24 



40 



„ Pinsipo 



3rd week of Sept. 



30 



60 



I'inus excelsa 



1st we a k of Occ. 



18 



50 



Thuj « m j an tea 



End of Oct. 



30 



50 



Cedrus Libani _ ... 



»» 



24 



25 



1 



The cones were collected during dry weather, 

 from trees ranging in height from 50 to 100 feet. 

 They were placed in trays put into a frame on 

 shelves close to the glass, and opened in a few 

 warm, sunny days. 



The seeds were sown in the beginning of May 

 in boxes of sandy loam with a layer of cinders 

 in the bottom, and were placed in cold frames on 

 shelves, the surface of the soil in the boxes being 

 about 9 inches below the glass. The frames were 

 kept closed, except on hot, sunny days, when a 

 little ventilation was afforded and the soil was 

 watered. After germination, the seedlings were 

 gradually hardened off, and by the end of July 

 the lights were removed from the frames. The 

 seedlings were left in the frames all the winter, 

 being protected by mats during severe frost. In 

 the late spring they were pricked out into lines 

 in the nursery. There were practically no losses, 

 except a few of the Wellingtonias which damped 

 off in the autumn. 



In most cases one box of each kind was sown. 

 The box of Cupressus macrocarpa made a won- 

 derful growth in the first season, the plants 

 ranging from 9 inches to 1 foot in height, and 



when two years old they were over 2 feet in 

 height. The box of C. nootkatensis, which was 

 sown in the first week of October, did not ger- 

 minate until 12 months afterwards. Its slow 

 germination must be kept in mind when propa- 

 gating this species. 

 Mr. Ferguson states 



that 



although 



some 



foresters prefer to keep seeds that lie dormant 

 until the second year in sand pits for 18 months, 

 and then to sow them in March, April or May, 

 according to the species, he prefers to sow C. 

 nootkatensis in the spring after it is collected, as 

 he finds that the seeds then give a larger per- 

 centage of plants than they do if sown in the 

 second spring. C. nootkatensis is also easily 

 raised from slips or cuttings, which root readily 

 if placed in a well-drained sandy loam in early 

 spring or in autumn. 

 From a specimen of C. nootkatensis, 51 feet high, 



Mr. Ferguson gathered 1£ lb. of good clean seed ; 

 from one of A. nobilis, 90 feet in height, 7£ lbs. 

 of cleaned seed ; whilst a tree of Araucaria im- 

 bricata, 30 feet in height, yielded 8 lbs. of seeds. 



HOME CORRESPONDENCE 



(The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for 

 the opinions expressed by correspondents.) 



Spraying for Bio Bud. — I have been much 

 interested by the correspondence on this sub- 

 ject. Much might be said in favour of both spray- 

 ing and picking off the buds. I prefer the latter 

 method myself, one of my reasons being that, if 

 we spray to-day and it comes on to rain to- 

 morrow, most of the spray fluid is washed off. 

 and we only kill the mites that are reached 

 by the fluid at the time of spraying. As 

 the mites are continuously emerging from open- 

 ing buds, it must be difficult to destroy them by 

 that means, but if the buds are picked* off before 

 the period of migration, I think this ought 

 to prove the better plan. The worst part of 

 the matter, in my opinion, is in connection 

 with people who let their bushes become 

 badly infected and the mites to be carried 

 to the bushes of people who do their best 

 to keep them clean. Mr. Pearson is quite right 

 in his assumption that the mites are carried by 

 bees. I have found them on the legs of bees and 

 on other insects, and the time when the bees are 

 visiting the flowers is the principal period of the 

 migration of the mites. Mr. Pearson is not quite 

 right in assuming that the mites stand on their 

 heads. I have watched them very many times ; 

 they have a sort of clasping apparatus on the pos- 

 terior end of the body, by which they can stick on 

 to almost any substance" and place themselves at 

 almost any angle, and by this means they place 

 themselves vertically and wave their feet and legs 

 in the air as if to catch some means of transit, 

 and no doubt they are carried by various sorts of 

 living organisms. We have numerous allot- 

 ments in this district, in which were growing 

 10 or 15 years ago large numbers of Black 

 Currant bushes ; but, whilst taking a walk the 

 other day I noticed the greater portion had 

 vanished, due to the mite, and this in a great 

 measure through neglect. If you tell people 

 omething about the life history of the mite, they 

 take it to be a sort of fairy tale and do not trouble 

 to remove the buds, which is not difficult in 

 private gardens. I take a great interest in 

 microscopic insects and their photography, but I 

 have not yet been able to get what I consider a 

 really good picture of the Currant-bud mite. 

 A. G. Blakey, The Gardens, Hohnwood, Red- 

 ditch 



Perpetual - flowering Carnations.— I 



was much interested in the notes (see p. 133) on 

 the newer varieties of perpetual -flowering Car- 

 nations, and I quite agree with Mr. Usher that 

 Lady Alington shows signs of its constitution 

 haying been weakened by over-propagation. 

 With me the cutting* have come terribly slow 

 and are stunted in appearance, although the stock 

 plants appear healthy. Amongst the newer 

 Carnations grown here Mrs. C. F. Raphael is 

 probably the best. Countess of Onslow, a lovely 

 shade of light heliotrope over a bright rose 

 ground, was also good, and proved as free and 

 persistent in flowering in mid-winter as Enchant- 



ress or Britannia, 

 favour of Rex? 



May I also 



say a word in 

 With me this has been far 

 superior to Regina; it is a better colour, with 

 perfect calyx, and the plant is a more profitable 

 bloomer. Fire Glow is also a gem, and is a 

 colour which is showing amongst this season's 

 novelties somewhat, but I do not know if any 

 will prove to have such good, all-round qualities 

 as Fire Glow. Fairmount 



flower, by 

 but the 



huge 



is a deep helio- 



far the biggest 



constitution and 



to be somewhat 



trope, a 

 of its colour, 

 habit of the plant seems 

 weak. Duchess of Devonshire and Countess of 

 Lathom, both dark crimsons, were disappointing 

 here this year, and I trust they will do better 

 in the coming season. Gloriosa is by far our best 

 new pink, and has undoubtedly come to stay. 

 Miss Winnie Pryor, grown side by side with Bay 

 State, was preferred, and gave a larger percent- 

 age of blooms. Jessica, which is of a somewhat 

 similar colour, does not pay to grow, except fur 

 exhibition, and I doubt even for this. Amongst 

 varieties of earlier introduction, our best were 

 Carola, Harlequin (which gives more flowers than 

 Fire Glow, but is not so good), J. M. Crook (a 

 beauty), Regal Mauve (a lovely and distinct 

 colour), La Mode, and Lady Dainty. This last is 

 so distinct that I wonder it is not grown gener- 

 ally. Wanoka, with 2£ feet stems, also must be 

 mentioned ; these all proved to be true winter 

 bloomers, and gave a continuous supply from th^ 

 end of September until the end of February. 



Mrs. C. W. Ward, Edith Waters, Alma Ward, 

 Roseate Dawn all proved of exceptional merit, 



but bloomed in the autumn, and now that our 

 main batch shows signs of going over, these are 

 coming into full flower again 



varieties have not been with 



While these 



us here true 



bloomers, they 



winter (December and January) 



have a niche to fill and are appreciated just now, 

 when those which have been flowering freely 

 for five months are seeking a rest from their 

 labours. Those varieties that have had all their 

 blooms cut will now be grown as cool as possible 



until the first week in May, when they wiH be 

 planted out in a well-prepared border and give 

 us cut flowers for another five months. Surely 

 nothing in the garden gives a more grateful r« 

 turn for our labours than the Perpetual -flower- 

 ing Carnations. This selection is made from 

 over 70 varieties, gathered from all sources, 

 and with the idea of getting the best from each. 

 This year w r e hope to try 41 novelties in addition 

 to the varieties I have mentioned. G. C. 



Forest and Ornamental Trees in 1911- — 



The observations on this subject on p. 138 are 

 very interesting. Here, in South Hants., in a 

 variety of soils, such as strong loam over clay 

 with chalk below, in sandy soil, and in gravel, 

 the results are quite opposite to those recorded 

 in the case of Thuya gigantea (Lobbii), 

 which suffered more here than any other 

 tree evergreen or deciduous. Hundreds of 



have died. 



12 feet 



in- 



specimens up to 20 feet high 

 In several instances whole hedges 

 high have perished; in one particular 

 stance the subsoil is clay. Spruce suffered in 

 strong soil very much ; trees planted 30 years are 

 much disfigured w T ith dying branches, while some 

 more recently planted died right out. In all cases 

 the trees were growing on the flat ; on a hill of 

 chalk with a northern exposure they have not 

 suffered at all. Specimens of Retinospora 

 plumosa and Cupressus Lawsoniana 12 feet hign 

 in sandy soil over gravel succumbed. Too much 

 praise cannot be given the Corsican Pine for 

 planting in any kind of soil; here it thrives in 

 stiff soil over clay and equally well in chalk with 

 but a few inches' of soil on the surface, and with 

 a northern exposure equally well as those with ii 

 southern slope. It is infinitelv better than the 

 Scots or Austrian Pine for timber, trees 30 years 

 old making useful material for estate work. Al 

 a wind screen no tree is so good as the Austrian 

 Pine, and as a specimen it is handsome, the all- 

 round growth and dark-green colour is pleasing. 

 Larch 20 years old, growing in stiff soil, suffer*! 



much ; hundreds, 25~feet high, died 

 neux, South Hants. 



E. Moly 



SOLANUM JASMINOIDES 



This plant is hardier 



• ■— done 



than is generally supposed. A specimen has don 

 well against the south wall of the g ard * ne i 



hoilSft hAra ir\*. onma flxro. ni- filY Vf»arS. &&& ^ 



A specimen has 

 — - & — . ^ ™ lt ™U of the goners 

 house here for some five or six years, an r.^/ 

 growth reaches the roof in a luxurious not 

 blossom and foliage every season. Basil Ltw > 

 Wychnor, Staffordshire. 



