228 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICDLTCBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ September 14, 1876. 



stored. The roots are extremely tender, and a few degrees of 

 rfrost will kill them. ThiB must be strictly guarded against at 

 all times. When Gladioli roots are lifted from the ground the 

 stem when cut should be left about a foot long. The label of 

 each one may be tied to the stem, and they may then be tied 

 together in bunches of about a dozen and hung up in a dry 

 •room or Bhed ; they may also be laid out on a shelf in the 

 same kind of place. 



Hollyhocks do not require so much protection. If planted 

 in a cold frame when their stems are cut down, and covered 

 up with sashes during severe weather, they will be found in 

 excellent condition in spring. In sheltered situations they 

 may be left outside altogether. 



Beferring to the more tender plants Caladiums are amongst 

 the worst to deal with. They should not be ripened off too 

 quickly. When the leaves begin to decay water should be given 

 when needed until the roots are leafless. During this time 

 and throughout the winter they cannot be safely preserved in a 

 "less heat than 55° or 60°. Underneath a stove stage or in 

 a corner where heat is maintained is the place for wintering 

 them. If the soil is moderately moist at the time the pots 

 are stored away they will require no more water for some 

 time, but the soil should never be allowed to become dust-dry, 

 or the roots will shrivel and lose much of their vigour for the 

 following season. Sometimes the bulbs are shaken out of the 

 soil in which they have been growing and placed in sand 

 throughout the winter, but when carefully looked after they 

 Sieep quite as well in their pots. The same remarks apply to 

 'Gloxinias and Achimenes. The latter may be kept drier with- 

 out injury in winter than most things. Gesneras may also be 

 included as requiring the same treatment as these stove sub- 

 jects. Many other roots might be named, but most of them 

 .survive the winter without any special treatment. — J. Mum. 



AUSTRALIAN GLADIOLI. 



"I saw the other day in a contemporary a notice of what had 



r been done in forcing the Gladiolus into bloom so as to give 



flowers in the months of February and March, and I should 



like to give my experience of what oan be done with them in 



another way. 



In the month of July, 1875, I received a courteous note from 

 the Messrs. Lacy of Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, Australia, 

 .saying that they had forwarded to me a collection of twelve 

 varieties of Gladioli of their own raising, which they believed 

 to be equal to any of our European varieties, and asking me to 

 try them, adding, " We hope that in 1877 you will be able 

 to give us a good report of them. We have taken the standard 

 pveseribed in your book on the Gladiolus, and think the flowers 

 are of good quality." A few days after I received the package 

 -through the politeness of the Messrs. Carter of Holbom, to 

 whom it had been forwarded, and on opening it found thirty- 

 six bulbs, some of which had already started some 2 or 3 inches. 

 I immediately potted them singly in 32's and placed them out 

 of doors, and was gratified to find in a few days that they were 

 taking root and pushing away. I allowed them to remain out 

 until the end of September, when I placed them in my green- 

 house. Here they grew until the end of February, when I 

 dried them off. New bulbs had formed, but, as might have 

 been expected, not of very large size — some about that of a 

 shilling, and the largest about half a crown. In planting my 

 beds in April I planted these small bulbs along with the others, 

 hoping they might flower, and in this I was not disappointed ; 

 nay, more, so good were they that I exhibited two in the stand 

 of twelve with which I gained the first prize at the Dover 

 Show, beating my old rival and friend Mr. Edward Banks (not 

 Baker) of Sholden. I thus managed to get two years out of 

 one, and instead of being able to report on them in 1877 as 

 Mr. Lacy expected, shall be able to do so in 1876. 



Only a few of them have as yet flowered, but of some of 

 these I can report very favourably. Sir Bedmond Barry is a 

 fine-looking spike of brilliant red colour with violet feathering. 

 Bossini is of a most peculiar colour — a sort of velvety plum ; 

 I know of no Gladiolus quite like it. Venus is a grand-looking 

 'flower, white, very large and of great substance. Aurija, not 

 -so good. Katharina, a very fine-striped and mottled flower. 

 The others have not yet flowered, and will come in with the 

 Schillers, Beatrices, Sir John Franklins, and others of home- 

 raising. There is one most desirable quality that these flowers 

 possess — at the same time that the lowest flower opens the 

 colours of the others show the whole way up, and in most of 

 ihem I have had twelve flowers open at the same time, and 



am very hopeful that another year when the bulbs have fair 

 play that I may do even better with them. — D., Deal. 



EARLY APPLES. 



"A Northern Gabdenee" has opened a subject, not only 

 of interest but of utility, in his paper entitled " Early Apples." 

 Since turning my special attention to pomology nothing has 

 surprised me more than the indifference of so many owners 

 and cultivators of gardens to the usefulness of Apples ; not 

 that they would not be willing to declare readily that the Apple 

 is the most valuable of all hardy fruits, but they rest in this 

 — are content with the trees they have, and do not by care 

 and thought and culture make the Apple as useful as is 

 possible. I leave out of consideration for the moment the 

 great gardens, though my reasoning may apply even to them ; 

 but there are the little folks, the people with moderate incomes 

 and moderate-sized gardens, and perchance orchards beyond the 

 garden. Often useless trees are allowed to cumber the ground, 

 or trees bought at a sale with no names, and which prove 

 either indifferent sorts or more of one variety than are wanted. 

 The extreme dryness and heat of the late summer and the 

 scarcity of Apples, a scarcity caused partly by neglect in culti- 

 vation, may make gardeners more anxious to have a sufficient 

 number of trees in future. 



First, a word as to summer-eating Apples. The idea too 

 general is that such are merely " sehool-boy fruit," and no 

 doubt, as dealers well know, school boys, aye, and school girls 

 too, are great and glad consumers of Juneatings, Early Har- 

 vests, and the like ; but my experience goes to show that let 

 early Apples of this character appear at dessert and dinner 

 parties they are eaten. Later, when winter sets in, a dessert 

 dish of eating Apples is scarcely touched, the same lot of fruit 

 coming in day after day ; then the Pear is preferred, the Apple 

 being judged as hard and cold. Indeed, winter-eating Apples 

 are not seldom chosen by their looks, as a dish of handsome 

 Apples is very ornamental to a table, especially by candle 

 light. Who has not seen and admired dishes of waxy, brilliant- 

 complexioned Blenheim Oranges in a winter evening ? but un- 

 less a group of children come in at deBsert they are untouched. 

 Not so the early eating Apples ; let them only appear and be 

 known to be ripe, they are relished extremely. A gardener at a 

 great house will be deservedly popular in the school-room, the 

 young ladies' room, and dining-room, who has a good supply 

 ready of eating Apples during a hot July and August. This 

 parching summer I see the papers have been recommending 

 drinks made from Apples as both refreshing and harmless. 



" A Northern Gardener " has specified and named three 

 varieties — the Juneating, the Summer Golden Pippin, and the 

 Devonshire Qnarrenden. The first usually abundant in the 

 smaller fruit shops, the second not generally seen, the last 

 called in these parts the Sack Apple, grown everywhere in the 

 west of England, and showing its rather tawdry cheek (it is not 

 a refined-looking Apple) in every garden and orchard. These 

 three need not be all. There is the Kerry Pippin, of pleasing 

 regularity of form and good flavour, also very generally grown 

 here, and well worthy of being planted everywhere. But the 

 very best to my mind remains to be spoken of — the Irish Peach, 

 better known in the eaBt of England as the Early Crofton. 

 Here we have an Apple fulfilling all the requirements of a 

 dessert fruit. It is very beautiful, and has a flavour unsur- 

 passed. What boy does not remember — if the tree were in his 

 father's garden, or in some school-friend's father's (it's all the 

 same to a boy) — the deliciousness on a hot August day of 

 making his teeth meet in an Early Crofton, and the pleasant 

 juice that gushed into his mouth ? it was like eating and drink- 

 ing all at once. And yet in hunting through each year at the 

 fruit stand of a large and far-extending local show, I have 

 only come upon one solitary dish of this beautiful and tooth- 

 some Apple ; the Sack Apple, far its inferior in appearance 

 and flavour, being everywhere. If the dryness of the past 

 summer and the call for refreshing fruit result in planting 

 more early Apple trees it will, I am sure, be well. 



But there is another aspect of the early Apple question 

 whioh demands attention. A very hot summer, such as the 

 one we have recently passed through, causes the lesser fruits 

 to be ripe all together. I had Gooseberries, Strawberries, 

 Baspberries, and Currants, all ripe and over in a very short 

 time. It was in vain to leave a portion of Gooseberries on 

 the trees for later use, they simply dried up with the heat 

 and became hard balls, the leaves at the same time droppiug 

 from the trees. What was to be done ? Was the cook to open 



