April 27, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



285 



out. In justice to one of the best early Straw- 

 berries, I should like to state that my experience 

 differs entirely from Mr. Branson's. I layered 

 1,200 plants of this variety during the third 

 week of June, of which 500 were potted in 6-inch 

 pots in the third week in July, the remainder 

 being planted out in August. After potting, the 

 plants were placed on an ash path in full sun- 

 ehine, where they remained until the early part of 

 November, when they were stored in cold frames 

 and batches placed in heat as required for forcing. 

 Each plant is carrying eight or nine good berries, 

 and those planted out promise well. Thos. 

 Beeson, Headley Park Gardens, Epsom. 



1 have forced Strawberries in pots for 



many years, and have never had a failure with 

 them. To be successful, the runners should never 

 be obtained from " blind " plants, although these 

 furnish the strongest layers. My practice has 

 been to devote a bed specially for obtaining the 

 runners, which are layered in small " 60 " pots, 

 keeping them well supplied with water. As soon 

 as the pots are well filled with roots, the runners 

 may be severed from the parent plants. In the 

 meantime, prepare a good heap of soil, obtained 

 from an old pasture, and mix with, it a little 

 mortar rubble, say about one part in ten. Pot 

 firmly, allowing sufficient room in the pot for 

 watering One crock at the bottom of the re- 

 ceptacle is sufficient for drainage purposes, plac- 

 ing a little rough soil over it to allow the water 

 to pass away freely, sprinkling a little soot 

 amongst the drainage to prevent worms from 

 gaining an entrance. The best method of storing 

 them during the winter is to place the pots on 

 their sides in a layer of ashes, arranging succes- 

 sive layers in ashes until the heap is about 3 feet 

 high. Stored in this manner, they will not 

 occupy much space, whilst rains will not make 

 the soil in a water-logged condition. Thomas 

 Godfrey, 25, Darley Road, Wandsworth Com- 

 mon, S. W. 



Birds and Fruit Buds. — In reply to Mr. 



Smith (see p. 265), I have been troubled in the 

 same way with birds, and as he says the gun is 

 the only remedy. Last year I removed some 

 espalier Apple trees which were occupying valu- 

 able room. I planted them against a bare 

 part of a north wall. They are now covered 

 with blossom and promise to set a heavy crop 

 of fruit. A simple but useful bird scare is to 

 boil some Beetroot, pull the skins off and stick 

 feathers around the roots ; these scares make 

 even the blackbird shiver. W. A. M., Cool fin, 

 Banagher, Irelarid. 



Late Dessert Apples. — There are numerous 

 varieties of late dessert Apples, but after Cox's 

 Orange Pippin is finished at the end of Febru- 

 ary (this season it extended until the end of 

 March), it is hard to tell which is the best- 

 flavoured variety. I have always considered 

 Adams's Pearmain to be well to the front, the 

 fruits being at their best condition in March, 

 and if my selection was restricted to three des- 

 sert Apples, I should choose James Grieve, Cox's 

 Orange Pippin, and Adams's Pearmain. J. G., 

 Littlecote. [Some excellent fruits of Adams's 

 Pearmain and Newtown Pippin accompanied 

 this note. — Eds.] 



Border Phloxes (see p. 233).— The method 

 of propagating the Phlcx from cuttings and culti- 

 vating the plants with single stems has never 

 caught on, probably because the decorative value 

 of the plant, as compared with those with several 

 stems, is not great. Some varieties may be in- 

 creased by means of root cuttings, a method I 

 have used to increase a new variety w T hich was 

 required in large numbers. It is also possible to 

 increase them by means of eyes, by cutting the 

 flowering stems ^into short lengths, and treating 

 them in the same manner as other herbaceous 

 plants that bear propagating in a like manner. 

 But, for ordinary decorative purposes, division 

 is the simple: t method of propagation, and gives 

 e< ally good results in a shorter time than any 

 other method of increase. The modern Phlox is 

 °t less decorative value than those grown pre- 

 vious to the advent of Eclaireur, which, if I 

 a m not mistaken, was the forerunner of the 

 sorts now common. Of still less value are the 



v l ui Vanetles > and if W€ would obtain a reallv 

 valuable type, hybridists must go back and 



breed from the old paniculata, or, better still, 



P- alba. Mr. Forbes, of Hawick, informs me 



^nere is ye t another variety of this Phlox, but, 



so far, I have not seen it, nor do I know where 

 it is to be obtained. I grow a large number of 

 the white form, and consider it to be one of the 

 foremost decorative hardy plants. It is tall (a 

 desirable quality in a Phlox), stately, free flower- 

 ing, and, when w T ell grown and properly ar- 

 ranged, always attracts attention. The name 

 shows that the inflorescence is paniculate, and, 

 in that respect, it is the superior of the squat- 

 headed habit of the modern varieties. B. P. 

 Brotherston, Tyninghame, Gardens. 



Abnormal Development of Cones on 

 Young Larch.— Several notes on the effect of 

 the dry summer of 1911 upon trees have appeared 

 in the Gardeners' Chronicle during the past few 

 weeks, but these have chiefly related to the 

 fatal or injurious effect of the drought upon com- 

 paratively old trees in England, where the con- 

 ditions as regards heat and deficiency in the rain- 

 fall were quite abnormal. In Ireland, drought, 

 in the strict sense of the word, scarcely occurred 

 at any time. At Avondale, Go. Wicklow, with 

 an average rainfall of about 40 inches, the fol- 

 lowing were the records during the six months — 

 May to October : — 



Rainfall. 



Rainy 



May ... 



June . . . 

 July . . . 



August 



September 



October 



« ■ * 



1.45 inches 



2.13 



2.84 



2.56 



3.13 



5.67 



>> 



>> 



>9 



'J 



. . . 



7 

 12 

 12 

 14 

 13 

 19 



With the exception of May, not one of the months 

 I have mentioned showed a marked deficiency in 

 either rainfall of rainy days, and the growth of 

 trees in general was not affected to any appreci- 

 able extent, although a severe night frost on 

 June 15 did great damage to tender species in 

 frosty hollows. This spring, however, young Larch 

 plantations, planted chiefly in the years 1905-8, 

 are showing an extraordinary development of 

 cones, and many trees, seen from a distance of 

 50 yards or so, present quite a crimson hue. But 

 some trees again are practically free from cones, 

 whilst those in plantations 20 years of age and 

 upwards in the neighbourhood do not appear to 

 be carrying a larger cone crop than is usual in a 

 good seed year. The extent of this abnormal 

 development of cones may be judged from the 

 following examples, none of which exhibits a 

 stunted or starved condition, as is usually the 

 case when young trees produce a large quantity 



of fruit. 



Lencth of Number 



Total height. leading shoot. 



1. _ 4 feet 6 inches ... 7 inches 



2. 5 „ 6 „ ... 8 



3. 7 , „ ... 17 



4. 7 „ 6 „ ... 15 



5. 6 ,, 8 ,, ... 20 



6. 6 .,9 „ ... 22 



7. 5 „ 6 „ ... 13 



7> 



f> 



of Cones. 



... 280 



... 268 



... 550 



... 902 



... 317 



• ■ • ZoO 



... 194 



All the above, together with hundreds of other 

 trees in a similar condition, are growing on 

 deep, fairly fresh loam, overlying schist, the sur- 

 face between the trees being more or less grass- 

 covered. Probably the grass appropriated most 

 of the moisture, and little or none reached the 

 stratum in which the tree roots were growing.- 

 A. C. Forbes. 



Daphne indica (see p. 215). -I was much 

 interested in Mr. Fitzherbert's remarks on 

 Daphne indica. I have not seen the plant grow- 

 ing in the open, but in a garden where I was 

 employed some five years ago we had plants of D. 

 indica and its varietv rubra growing in narrow 

 borders on both sides of a cool, narrow, span- 

 roofed house, or corridor, where it was thickly 

 trained to wires covering the sides up to the 

 roof We also had a large batch of plants in 

 5-inch and 6-inch pots. These grew and flowered 

 well, but the planted-out specimens were re- 

 markably free-flowering and free of growth. The 

 fragrance cf the flowers of both plants is very 

 pleasing. All the plants were on their own roots, 

 and had been grown from cuttings. If grown 

 in a mixture of sand, peat and loam, watered 

 carefully, afforded occasional weak applications 

 of liquid cow-manure : spraved lightly during 

 their period of growth, and kept as cool as pos- 

 sible shading them from bright sunshine, the 

 plants will thrive and flower freely throughout 

 the winter and spring. H. Strudwick, Raynham 

 Hall Gardens, Norfolk. 



Rogue Wallflowers. — It is customary to 

 pull these up and throw them away ; but the 

 following will show that they have an unex- 

 pected value. The peculiarity of the flowers is 

 well known, and described by'the late Dr. M. T. 

 Masters in his work on Teratology. He has 

 figured it under the name of Cheiranthus Cheiri 

 var. gynantherus (p. 306, fig. 163, 164). There is 

 a calyx, but no, or very rudimentary, corolla, 

 and the six stamens are represented by carpels, 

 open or closed, but more or less coherent. Then 

 there is a normal, central pistil as well. A 

 rogue^ happened to appear in my garden in 

 Leamington. I pollinated half of it with grains 

 taken from a golden-yellow sort. The other half 

 received the pollen from a crimson variety. All 

 the pods set seed, but not in great abundance. 

 Most came from the central pod, but a smaller 

 quantity was formed by the staminate carpels. 

 Sir. Wright kindly undertook to raise plants at 

 the R.H.S. gardens at Wisley. Not a single 

 rogue appeared, but, on the contrary, they were 

 most floriferous, bearing extra fine flowers ; some 

 of them are 1^ inches across ; the yellow ones 

 being " pinked " on the margins. A few of 

 the reds were striped with yellow. Mr. A. 

 Sutton informs) us that he finds this is the case 

 after a cold north-east wind. Mr. Chittenden 

 corroborated this observation. George Henslow. 



Magnolia salicifolia (see p. 222). — I enclose 

 a flower from a small plant of Magnolia salici- 

 folia which is flowering here. The plant is only 

 slightly sheltered, and is growing against the 

 wall of the house. Thos. L. Bailey, Mendtll 

 Gardens, Bromborough, Cheshire. 



Frost and the Fruit Crops.— It would be 

 very interesting to learn from readers in different 

 parts of the country the extreme of frost recorded 

 by them in the week before last, and the result 

 in damage to different kinds of fruit. On my 

 own farm, near the south cgast, and only -about 

 five miles from the sea as the crow flies, no more 

 than 4° of frost were registered on the night 

 of April 11, the coldest April night here. This 

 was sufficient to destroy almost entirely the blos- 

 soms on a few trees of Coe's Golden Drop Plum 

 in a 1ow t and sheltered corner of a field. Or possibly 

 the freezing was more severe in that corner than 

 on about the same level where the lower of two 

 registering thermometers was placed. There was 

 no ceitain injury to other Plums in the same 

 field, even on an equally low level, though 

 several varieties were in full blossom at the 

 time. This field faces the south-east. In another 

 field facing north-west, Victoria Plum blossom 

 was thinned severely, not being protected by 

 foliage, and Early Prolific blossom was cut in 

 the lower part of the field, but not in the upper 

 half. Monarch, Czar, and Pond's Seedling were 



not injured. Coe's Golden Drop and Greengage 

 on a higher level, where the frost did not exceed 

 3°, were not injured ; nor were Pears, Cherries 

 or Gooseberries in the same home orchard, though 

 a little damage was done to Red Currants. Black 

 Currants were not harmed, except a few of the 

 smallest blossom buds (none expanded at the 

 time) in a low and sheltered corner of one field. 

 Early Potatos, Peas, Lettuces, and other vege- 

 tables and flowers were uninjured. William E. 

 Bear, Hailsham. 



(SHtttnarg. 



Mr- Jonathan Smith, market gardener, 

 Sipson, Middlesex, died on the 20th inst. at his 

 residence, Wall Garden Cottage, Sipson, in the 

 78th year of his age. Members of Mr. Smith's 

 family have, for generations, been engaged in the 

 farming and market gardening industry, and it is 

 stated that deceased's father, who held a farm at 

 Harmondsworth, was the first to send washed 

 Turnips to Covent Garden Market. 



SCHEDULE RECEIVED. 



Dulwich Chrysanthemum Horticultural Society.— 



The seventh summer show of this society will be held on 

 Thursday, July 18, at St. B: rnabas Parish Hall, Dulwich 

 Village. The Chrys*nthc mi.m show will be held on No- 

 vember 6 and 7, at the Baths, Goo-e Green. Two challenge 

 shields ai e offered for competition— one in the professionals' 

 and one in the amateurs* classes, and wili be awarded to 

 the competitors winning the greatest value in prizes in 

 these sections at the summer and autumn shows combined. 



