200 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 12, 1878. 
this time onwards. Weak liquid manure may be given them 
with beneficial results, and nothing appears to suit them better 
than very stale manure water that has been exposed all the 
winter, to which may be added a small quantity of soot. 
Never allow them to become dry after this; and as the spike 
grows it will require supporting. The best and neatest mode 
of doing this is to bend some wire about 3 inches at one end, 
then bend it again about 14 inch, thus— iL haying a straight 
upright piece about 18 inches long, which must be carefully 
placed inside the bells, the spike being / neatly tied to the 
wire. The wire may be made secure at the bottom by driving 
a notched stick tightly by the side of it, and securing both 
together with strong matting ; in this way the trusses will 
travel for miles without the least injury, and the supports are 
scarcely visible. Should the wire be too long for the truss it 
can be easily shortened with a pair of wire-cutters at the last 
minute. 
It is always an advantage and adds greatly to the symmetry 
and beauty of the spikes to dress them. With a couple of 
small smooth sticks or iyory points of the size of a cedar pencil 
the uppermost pips are lifted up, and so on until the whole 
mass are raised. The curl of the pips is generally sufficient to 
support each other. 
At the London shows double spikes are excluded in some 
classes ; but it is folly to try and exclude fasciated spikes, 
for all the best trusses are more or less fasciated and some 
particularly so. Most exhibitors plunge the 6-inch pots in 
which Hyacinths are grown inside larger pots, the surface of 
both being covered over with fresh green moss, which adds 
greatly to the good appearance of the plants on the exhibition 
table. 
Tulips require much the same soil and treatment as Hyacinths, 
only that some decayed horse droppings may be advantageously 
incorporated with the soil in the place of the cow manure. 
Place three or four bulbs in 6-inch pots, and when the flowers 
commence opening a slack ligature should be tied round each 
bloom to prevent it fully opening. Five or six varieties are 
all that are required to be grown for exhibition ; and White 
Pottebakker will be found the most useful white; Vermillon 
Brilliant the best scarlet ; Keyzers-kroon. a large showy scarlet 
and yellow: Proserpine, rosy crimson, the finest Tulip grown 
of its colour; Van der Neer, rich violet; and Fabiola, white 
striped with red—J. W. MooRMAN. 
NECTARINES. 
By many the Nectarine is considered the richest and most 
agreeable fruit in cultivation; still, the Nectarine is by no 
means plentiful or even common, for in large gardens usually 
it is not so numerously grown as the Peach, and in many small 
gardens where afew Peach trees are cultivated the Nectarine 
is not to be found. This is a mistake, and Iam sure everyone 
would prove it to be so did they grow a few Nectarine trees. 
In all points of culture they are no more difficult to manage 
than Peaches, and I consider both of these fruits as easily 
cultivated as Plums, Apricots, or any other stone fruits. 
Although Nectarines do tolerably well with us out of doors, 
our position being sheltered, they might not succeed so well 
everywhere ; but there is no danger of failure with them 
under glass, and they do admirably in unheated houses. I am 
sure it would pay anyone handsomely to put up a light glass 
structure without any heating appliances and plant it wholly 
with Nectarines, and in favourable localities and in sheltered 
positions a number of trees might always be planted out of 
doors against south walls. According to our experience they 
are a more profitable and certain crop in such positions than 
Apricots. 
In starting Nectarines either under glass or in the open air 
a beginning should be made with two important things—yiz., 
new soil or properly prepared borders, and healthy young 
trees. Nectarines will always thrive admirably in soil which 
produces good Grapes, but there is less manure required. 
Good drainage is very essential to the well-being of the Necta- 
rine, and tothis too much attention cannot be paid. Two feet 
is quite deep enough for the border, and where the ground is 
naturally damp it may be raised half this depth above the 
level. When planted against open walls the border may be 
made from 8 to 12 feet in width. When planted in lean-to 
houses with trees in front and others against the back wall the 
whole interior of the house should be border. In addition to 
the bottom drainage it is a good plan to place a little mound 
of broken bricks as a station for each tree. As to loam, that 
of a moderately heavy yellow description suits well, and with 
this we generally mix a good quantity of old lime rubbish, 
charcoal, and burnt refuse of any kind, adding more or less as 
the soil is open or retentive. At first no manure should be 
mixed with the soil, but a few bones broken small act bene- 
ficially. In after years a slight top-dressing of half-decayed 
cow manure may be forked into the surface of the border as 
it is seen it is necessary. 
From the first great care should be exercised in pruning and 
training. The pruning is never a heavy undertaking, as in 
summer the shoots should be laid in and tied to the trellis or 
wall, cutting out weak growths and shortening back any that 
are straggling from the others. When this is attended to in 
proper time little or no pruning is necessary in winter, and 
when any is wanted it is simply doing the same thing as was 
done, or should have been done, in summer. The foliage must 
also be kept clean at all times. A good border, healthy root- 
action, and abundance of water during the growing season 
will do more than anything else to ward-off all kinds of 
insects. 
Nectarines will bear forcing quietly like Peaches, and by 
this means they may be had ripe in May or early in June. 
Lord Napier, Elruge, and Hardwicke are the best for coming in 
early ; Violette Hative and Pitmaston Orange next, and New- 
ington late. These are the principal if not all the best Necta- 
Tines in cultivation—A KITCHEN GARDENER. 
AUTUMN ROSES—A DAY AT CHESHUNT. 
A DAY spent at one of the principal courts of the queen of 
flowers must always be a red-letter day in my life, and a few 
days since I was privileged to spend a long day with that 
ardent and excellent rosarian Mr. George Paul. I went there 
for the express purpose of finding out what Roses bloom most 
freely in autumn, and a better place I could not have chosen. 
The day was dull and showery and the Roses had suffered 
much from the unseasonable weather we have had of late, yet 
many of them were blooming so very freely that 1 was enabled 
to form a good judgment as to the autumnal varieties. To my 
great delight I found Mr. Paul at home, and was most heartily 
welcomed by him. After examining the home nursery and 
refreshing me when weary he kindly drove me to his High- 
beach nursery. This is distant six miles from Cheshunt, and 
is on the fringe of Epping Forest. I shall hope hereafter to 
give you a description of this lovely place, for the description 
of the home nursery will occupy enough of your space for one 
week ; but I cannot quit the subject without remarking that I 
never saw a more lovely place, and that I could hardly believe 
I was within fifteen miles of CharingjCross, so rural and retired 
was the situation. 
Mr. Paul’s Roses are worked on all sorts of stocks—on the 
Briar, the Manetti, the seedling Briar, and a new stock I know 
nothing of called the De la Grefferie. It is, I believe, an old 
China Rose. 
To give your readers some idea of the numbers cultivated at 
Cheshunt, on one piece there are fiye acres of standard Roses, 
four acres of Manetti, and three of seedling Briars. The plants 
were splendid in growth. On one Manetti I counted twelve 
shoots, and on a standard Rose ten. In another field there 
were four acres of Manetti and three acres of standards for 
next year. The budding for this year was nearly finished, and 
boys were busily engaged removing the cotton strapping. This 
was a novel practice tome. I had been accustomed to see the 
cotton left on till the following spring. Mr. Paul, however, 
wants it removed as soon as possible so that the bud may 
become ripe, and certainly the practice seemed to answer, 
Another most excellent plan adopted here is to bud the same 
sorts on Manetti and Briar opposite to one another, so that a 
visitor going down the walks would see the same Rose on each 
stock, and could observe its growth and judge for himself 
which stock suited the particular variety best. We went care- 
fully through the seedlings and new Roses. Iwas very gratified 
at finding most of Mr. Paul’s own Roses were good autumnals. 
I saw one or two unnamed seedlings which promise very well. 
One very like Madame Charles Crapelet struck me very fayour- 
ably, and another from Charles Lefebyre was very good. It is 
at present so like that variety that Mr. Paul hesitates to send 
it out; he will therefore keep it at home another year. Of 
named seedlings as yet not sent out, one named after one of 
the Editors of this Journal pleased me much. Dr. Hogg is 
perhaps the bluest Rose in cultivation. Partaking somewhat 
of Pierre Notting in colour and Louis Van Houtte in form, I 
