304 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[May 4, 1912. 



each. The tuberous-rooted Begonias, so resplen- 

 dent at most of the summer shows, will contri- 

 bute some of the. most brilliant colouring ever 

 seen. There are three entries in a class in which 

 each exhibit can claim an area of 2§0 square feet. 



Streptocarpuses — a race of greenhouse plants 

 which has come into special notice during re- 

 cent years — have attracted four entries in a 

 class for exhibits occupying 200 square feet each. 



In no division, however, is there more reason 

 for satisfaction than in that for Alpine plants 

 and rockeries. Nine entries appear in the class 

 for Alpine plants arranged in spaces of 100 

 square feet, a,nd seven entries in another compe- 

 tition for exhibits occupying 50 square feet. 

 There will be 14 or more great rockeries con 

 structed in the open garden, 7 in a class for 

 rockeries of 600 square feet each, and 7 in a 

 competition where the space is limited to 400 



square feet. 

 In the cut-flower section, Sweet Peas will 



figure largely, although most of the flowers will 

 have been grown under glass, in order to be 

 ready for the early date. There are 14 entries 

 in a competition for the " Sherwood " Cup for 

 groups of Sweet Peas in spaces of 12 feet by 

 3 feet, and 8 competitors for Messrs. Dobbie's 

 cup, in spaces of 6 feet by 3 feet. Four exhibi- 

 tors will compete in a class for new Sweet Peas 

 introduced to commerce since September, 1910. 



BOY SCOUTS AND VETERAN SOLDIERS. 



Arrangements will be made for employing Boy 

 Scouts as messengers, especially on the first day 

 of the exhibition, May 22, when the finding! of 

 the 75 sections of the jury will be communicated 

 to the commissariat immediately each class is 

 adjudicated upon. All members of the jury are 



asked to be present at the Exhibition at 

 7.30 a.m., and it is expected that most of the 

 judging will be completed before 11 o'clock a.m. 

 Veteran soldiers in uniform, from the Chelsea 

 Hospital, will be employed as attendants, and 

 ambulance corps will be furnished by the St. 

 John's Ambulance Society. Indeed, all will be 

 done that is possible not only to provide against 

 accidents, but to secure the comfort of 

 the visitors to this great exhibition. B. Hooper 

 Pearson, Hon. Press Secretary. 



HOME CORRESPONDENCE. 



esign 



plinth; around its base, in fifth century cha- 



runs 



speech of Hippolytos, which has a special bear- 

 ing on the matter of the competition, for, being 

 translated, it reads : "My lady, I have twined 

 and brought you this garland from the unhar- 

 vested meadow " (which neither scythe nor herd 

 has ever ravaged). No stipulation is made as to 

 method of display, whether in pots or out of pots, 

 in rockwork or unadorned. 



(The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for 

 the opinions expressed by correspondents,) 



Pot Strawberries. — Mr. Godfrey (p. 5285) 

 states that the best method of wintering Straw- 

 berries is to lay the pots on their sides. Why did 

 he not say one of the best methods ? When high 

 winds prevail during the winter, does not Mr. 

 Godfrey find that the soil in the pots dries up, 

 and what method does he then adopt of watering 

 them ? If they are placed in a cold frame there 

 is no fear of the soil becoming water-logged. 

 Probably his method is the best to adopt if frames 

 are not available. W. H. Kent. 



Frost and the Fruit Crops. — With refer- 

 ence to Mr. W. E. Bear's enquiry on p. 285, 

 I may say that 4°, 2° and 4° of frost in 

 this district on April 10, 11 and 12 



to the 



re- 

 blos- 



on April 10, 

 spectively caused much injury 

 soms of both Plums and Pears. The crops of 

 Plums of the varieties Golden Transparent, 

 Nouvelle de Dorelle, Kirke's Anna Spiith, Bryan- 

 ston Gage, Coe's Golden Drop and Jefferson have 

 been almost entirely destroyed, also Pears Marie 



» 



"FARRER" CUP FOR ROCK PLANTS. 



The cup illustrated in fig. 152 has been presented 

 by Mr. Reginald Farrer to the Council of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society for competition in 

 an open class at the fortnightly meeting of the 

 Society on June 4. It will be awarded for six 

 new or rare dwarf rock plants, naturally about 

 9 inches in height; not fewer than six nor more 

 than twelve specimens of each. New colour forms 

 of well-known plants are admissible, but double 

 flowers are excluded. Variety, novelty, interest, 

 and correctness of name will be considered before 

 size of specimens. It is not essential that all, or 

 even more than one plant, of any species should 

 be in bloom. Every exhibitor must attach a card 

 stating in print or in very clear writing the history 

 of each set of plants, and observation remarks 

 such as ease or difficulty of cultivation, suitable 

 soil, positions and uses, methods of propagation, 

 and peculiarities. The cup is copied from an old h{ s 



Fig. 152. — mr. farrer's cup for 



ROCK PLANTS. 



Louise D'Uccle, Beurre Clairgeau, Doyenne du 

 Cornice, Catillac, Vicar of Winkfield, Verulam, 

 Fondante du Cornice and Louise Bonne of Jersey. 

 The trees are all bush trained : many varieties of 

 both Plums and Pears, including some of those 

 named, are comparatively uninjured on walls. 

 Gooseberries and Currants (red, black and white) 

 have also escaped injury. The garden faces 

 north-east, and is situated about 12 miles from 

 the sea-coast as the crow flies. D. Wilmshurst, 

 East-well Park Gardens, Ash ford, Kent. 



Mr. Bear may congratulate himself on 



crop escaping so * lightly. Here, on the 



borders of Wiltshire and Berkshire, we experi- 

 ence much more frost than is usual in the north 

 of Scotland, and at about the dates mentioned 

 by your correspondent we had frosts varyin 

 from 8 U to 11°, although slight frosts occurre 

 for three weeks. Considerable damage has been 

 done to the fruit crops hereabouts ; those of 

 Pears, Plums and Cherries are badly injured, 

 and in the case of unprotected trees quite spoiled. 

 Trees on walls, although protected with double 

 netting, have more than half the crop ruined ; 

 Pears on walls with glass copings protected with 

 a double layer of netting were also frozen; 



Gooseberries and Currants escaped, except at 

 the top of the bushes. Peaches and Nectarines 

 were, fortunately, a little past flowering, but the 

 continued cold winds may still affect them, as 

 in the case of Apricots, which flowered well this 

 year. Pears in this neighbourhood blossomed 

 better than for many years past; Plums and 

 Cherries also flowered freely, but Apples, and 

 especially old trees, are not so full of blossom as 

 usual, and a few of the earliest flowers of these 

 are blackened as the result of frost when they 

 were in the bud state. This garden, in addition 

 to sloping to the north, is quite unprotected from 

 the north and east, hence the crops usually suffer 

 damage at this time of the year. J. G. Littlecote, 

 Hu n gerford, Berkshire. 



The following are the gross readings 



of the thermometer in these gardens for April 

 and the last week in March : — March 28, 7° ; 30, 

 2° ; April 1, 12° ; 2, 5° ; 3, 3° ; 6, 6° 5 8, 3° ; 9, 5° ;. 

 10, 17° ; 11, 19° ; 12, 8° ; 13, 6° ; 14, 9 U ; 15, 13° ; 

 16, 8° ; 17, 13° ; 18, 11° ; 19, 9° ; 20, 7° ; 21, 9° ; 

 22, 6° ; 23, 1° ; 24, 6° 5 25, 6° ; 26, 6° ; 27, nil ; 

 28, 15°. The greatest frost occurred on the night 

 of April 19, when the thermograph in the screen 

 registered a period of nine hours below the freez- 

 ing point. I am afraid the Apple and Plum crops 

 are ruined. Most of the Apple blossom is falling 

 without opening, and Pears on a south 

 wall are spoiled, the fruits being frozen, 

 although blinds were employed. Gooseberry and 

 Currant crops are not injured much, although 

 the fruits of Gooseberries are quite dark on one 

 side. The rainfall here for this past 36 days has 

 only amounted to .15 of an inch. /; Sherlock, 

 Fowley Gardens, Liphook, Hampshire. 



Red Spider on Vines (see p. 256). — Mr. 

 Molyneux is to be congratulated on again bring- 

 ing to the notice of growers, and, what is more, 

 suggesting a remedy for, that worst of all vine 

 pests, red spider. If the present dry weather con- 

 tinues the pest will soon be largely in evidence, 

 and I have no doubt but that the simple remedy 

 Mr. Molyneux recommends will be tried by very 

 many of your readers. I believe I am the corre- 

 spondent referred to, with regard to the vines 

 being the sole- occupants of the Grape house, and 

 I am quite in agreement with Mr. Molyneux as 

 to the impossibility of this procedure in the 

 majority of gardens. If I remember rightly, 1 

 permed the note in answer to a correspondent in 

 a preceding issue, who appeared to imply 

 negligence on the part of gardeners, who were 

 troubled with red spider. Accordmg to his 

 article one had only to keep the house saturated 

 with water to ensure the vines being immune* 

 from attack. Gardeners know from experience 

 that, given a dry summer, water alone will not 

 prevent red spider from gaining a footing on 

 vines. Such statements very often cause con- 

 siderable annoyance to gardeners, and it was to 

 destroy the impression that red spider necessarily 

 means negligence on the part of the gardener 

 that my previous note was written. M. Sargent, 

 Bockshaw. 



Early Sweet Peas.— During a recent visit 

 to Mr. C. W. Breadmore's Nursery, at Colden 

 Common, I found two large glasshouses hllea 

 with most healthy plants of Sweet Peas. Men 

 lofty span-roofed house contained 1,000 plants 

 down the centre, planted in deeply-prepared 

 trenches. In height the plants ranged from o to 

 7 feet, and the stems were extra stout, carrying 

 luxuriant foliage, thus giving an indication ot 

 the wealth of blossom that will follow. Alreao> 

 thsre were open flowers. None but the very oes 

 varieties are included, and all are ot tne 

 " Spencer " type. Large blocks of certain sorts 

 were on trial. Among prominent varieties 1 

 noted Nubian, chocolate maroon ; the newer bora 

 Curzon, which is a much improved Mem* 

 Christie; Elsie Herbert, Maud Holmes. M**.^- 

 Breadmore, Aggie Elder, a promising nej 

 colour in Sweet Peas, which is best described as 

 a Geranium red ; Freda, the best of all www 

 flowered varieties ; Princess Mary, electric wue. 

 The* wings rich blue, but standard wtn • 

 tinge of bronze; Dazzler, Marjone , Lmzi , 

 Senator Soencer. Charles Foster, Mrs. 

 Hallam 



R. 



Spencer, 



, salmon pink; Melba, Ma^^F-rj 



George Herbert and the delicately-tinted pin* 



Jris which originated in these nurst-~- t 

 of the flower stems already measure 20 mc 

 long. E. M. 



Many 



