October 11, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



287 



protection until the blooming is past, when they may be 

 taken up with balls, if the foliage is fresh, and planted 

 again in a similar situation, placing them the same depth in 

 the soil, giving a good watering, and shading from hot sun 

 for three or four days, after which remove the shading, and 

 discontinue watering, when they will ripen their growth, 

 and be little the worse of the removal. In most seasons, 

 however, the foliage will be so far advanced as to allow of 

 their being taken up by the first week in June, it being in- 

 jurious to the roots to allow them to remain in the soil after 

 the foliage exhibits a yellow hue. The bulbs should not be 

 allowed to remain long in the ground after flowering, but 

 should be taken up and dried before the foliage is quite 

 gone. The most suitable time to plant is the first fortnight 

 in November, and they may be planted up to January, but 

 the later they are put in the later will be the bloom in the 

 spring, and as this interferes with the planting of the sum- 

 mer occupants of the beds, early planting is advisable. 



{To be. continued). G. Abbey. 



MT OBCHAED-HOUSE.— i\ T o. 11. 



The season of the year is at hand for remodelling our 

 orchard-houses ; for replacing such trees as, from any cause, 

 we do not wish to retain ; for classifying varieties, and 

 adapting them to those portions of the house which their 

 habits seem to require ,- and for removing such sorts as, 

 after having been tested and found naturally free-growing 

 and prolific, we may desire in future to grow on some warm 

 wall. 



About this latter portion of the subject I shall have a few 

 suggestions to offer to my brother amateurs, chiefly because 

 it constitutes my best experience. It is now about ten 

 years since, having carefully studied the cordon system on 

 the continent under Dubreuil, and tried it on the open 

 wall in various ways, I adapted it, with the important modi- 

 fication of the summer pruning-in of the shoots, to the exi- 

 gencies of the orchard-house. After some years' further 

 trial the system (chiefly represented by diagonal cordons), 

 being successful, the results were published in I860 in a small 

 work. Since that period in a certain number of orchard- 

 houses in this island and in England the system has been 

 adopted for the back walls. Among these none have been 

 so successfully worked as the well-built house at Grange 

 Lodge, in this island, under the able management of Mr. 

 Pethers. On the diagonal cordons of the back wall this 

 season were grown some of the very finest possible fruit. 

 Two other houses on this plan in the island show remark- 

 able signs of fruit for next year. But this is not the place 

 to allude to this matter further than as far as it bears on 

 the point mentioned above — namely, the removal of trees to 

 the open wall, which, I contend, is greatly facilitated by the 

 adoption of these flat diagonal cordons. 



Headers of this journal may remember a part of the 

 orchard-house controversy, where one excellent authority 

 predicts the universal adoption of the system for Pears. I 

 have myself no doubt on this subject, having for ten years 

 very successfully grown Peaches, Pears, Plums, Cherries, 

 and Apples side by side in this way, as is well known. Nay, 

 I believe that the very choicest fruit can best be grown in 

 this fashion. I should suggest, then, to my brother ama- 

 teurs that, if they wish to thin out then - stock of trees in 

 their houses, planting them out against a good warm wall 

 would be easy in this way. If they had cordon trees trained 

 as mine are, diagonally, at intervals of 3 feet against the 

 back wall, nothing would be easier than to plant them 

 against an open south wall in the same fashion. Care only 

 would be required that foreright shoots, which in-doors 

 bear well away from the wall, should not be allowed to grow 

 too far out, if in the open air, simply because they thus lose 

 the warmth of the wall. A skilful gardener, however, would 

 avoid this error ; and I have seen this year two thousand 

 Peaches grown in a friend's garden on trees trained in a 

 simil ar manner. As to other fruits, especially Pears, they 

 bear wonderfully as diagonal cordons. On one of our south 

 walls (about 12 feet high), are seen Plums, Cherries, and 

 Pears growing side by side. "We can begin our wall with a 

 May Cherry, and end it with a winter Pear. Apples of the 

 best kinds are splendid in this fashion, though not equal to 



those grown in an orchard-house. This year in these islands 

 Apples have done well under glass. But to return to the 

 point. I mean that any one desirous of thinning out his 

 orchard-house would be best enabled to do so if he grew his 

 trees in this shape, so that if he chose they might be re- 

 moved to the open wall, for it is evident that a bush tree 

 is unfit to be planted against a wall. It requires to be cut 

 down and much altered, besides losing a year's fruit. Some 

 trees there are which do better ; but generally, if the tree 

 be a fine open bush, well-rounded and equal, as it should be, 

 it is then very ill adapted for a wall tree. 



The next best shape to the flat diagonal is the vertical 

 cordon, which shape is common enough in nurseries now. 

 By cutting away one side of this vertical tree it can be 

 adapted for a wall. If so, plant it as a diagonal cordon at 

 an angle of 45°, if in a bearing state, free growing, and 

 healthy ; but if exhausted by bearing, or weak, or a maiden 

 tree, then plant it at an angle of 75° till it lay hold of the 

 soil, and begin to thrive; then lower it to 45°. It thus 

 assumes the natural angle of most branches ; Nature points 

 this out, and experience demonstrates that this angle is 

 the most proper to produce fruit. A vertical branch is apt 

 to grow too strongly, and the sap to accumulate at the 

 upper portions, leaving the lower ones gradually bare. If 

 brought down to the horizontal line the vertical shoots will 

 absorb the sap, and become unduly strong, while the ex- 

 tremities of the leaders will dwindle away. 



I confess to being quite a bigot in favour of these diagonal 

 cordon trees. They are easy to manage, do not grow ram- 

 pantly as some think, they cover the wall very soon, you 

 can have a great variety of sorts, they come sooner into 

 bearing, any particular tree is easy to protect, being grown 

 in such a small space they require no lifting, nor root' 

 pruning; even in the house, as far as I can see, if dissatisfied 

 with the tree it is easy to remove it, and there is no un- 

 pleasant blank space left on your best walls foryears ; and 

 as to fertility, there is nothing to compare with it, space for 

 space. Any further suggestions required I shall be happy 

 to communicate ; but it seems simple enough. 



At present few Peaches remain in the house, only three 

 sorts in all; but this is an error to be remedied. Thomas's 

 Late, an American, is only about 8 inches round as yet, and: 

 colouring well. It is a delicious late Peach, in shape ke 

 Early York, and well worthy of trial in lean-to houses 

 against the wall. The next to ripen, at the end of the 

 month, will be Tardive (TEspagne. This Peach it is very 

 difficult to ripen well in the south unless the season be 

 favourable. When thoroughly well grown in the hou se it 

 looks like a waxen Peach, and is continually taken for such 

 if exhibited. This is one of the triumphs of the house. These 

 yellow Peaches, though not so valuable for the market, if 

 early (so the dealers say), when late become then very 

 useful. For dessert they are very fine, their colour by con- 

 trast with other fruits makes them very telling. Baldwin s 

 Late, is only half grown at present. Being in a pot, and 

 not in a very good place, it has not a good chance to colour 

 well. There are seven Peaches on the bush, and these are 

 not to be ripe till November. By that time most of the 

 leaves of the other trees will be fallen. These three varieties 

 are good sorts. Out of doors they would be simply ridicu- 

 lous failures. 



We have planted early Potatoes between the potted trees, 

 and in the spare borders. Not requiring the housefor win- 

 tering anything, nor for Chrysanthemums, nor finding any- 

 thing, except early Potatoes and Strawberries, worth the 

 trouble of growing, we have always planted Potatoes in this 

 way — not that it adds to the beauty of the house in winter; 

 quite the contrary, but these are valuable things to produce 



As to the sorts planted. Early Handsworth is really a 

 very good sort for these houses or for frames ; it is large, 

 and can thus be dug up comparatively early, and the 

 haulm is naturally short, which is a very valuable quality for 

 Potatoes under glass. Planted on the 1st of October, we 

 dug up some weighing six to the pound, which were ready 

 by the 25th of March, and realised lod. per pound then. 

 Carter's Early Champion Kidneys are also a good sort to 

 plant, because early Kidney Potatoes always realise more 

 when sold for some reason or other. We have this year 

 planted both sorts, and also some French varieties common 

 here. It is best, however, not to look too long at our houses 



