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CASSELL'S POPULAR GAEDENING. 



from that recommended for Queens ; but they will 

 require a little more room after the heds have been 

 renovated in the autumn, and the Cayennes all 

 through their treatment will take more water and 

 atmospheric moisture than would he good for Queens 

 and Jamaicas. Having elevated all the plants well 

 up to the light, they must have as much water and 

 moisture as will keep them steadily progressing 

 through the winter. To secure this, the bottom heat 

 should range from 75" in November to 80" by the 

 end of January, and that of the house from 60" at 

 night to 70" by day. To economise fire and husband 

 moisture, so very important in the maintenance of 

 a humid, growing atmosphere, the covering must not 

 be neglected. 



In twelve months from the time the suckers were 

 potted, they will be large enough for fruiting ; but 

 as this cannot be secured without a spring growth, 

 give more top and bottom heat through the early 

 months, followed by a decided check to the Jamaicas 

 in June, and a little drier treatment to the Cayennes ; 

 nearly all the plants will be ready to throw up from 

 July to the end of September. 



It invariably happens that the selection of a given 

 number of suckers for a special purpose leaves a 

 weaker set behind, and as they will require more 

 time than the first lot to grow into a fruiting state, 

 the one-shift system is not so well adapted to their 

 culture. Many of these plants having been raised 

 from dormant buds and gills of the preceding spring, 

 the pots in which they are wintered will not exceed 

 five inches in diameter; and, although the top and 

 bottom heats have been favourable to constant pro- 

 gress, the pots used for the February shift cannot 

 well exceed eight inches in diameter. In these, 

 constantly plunged in a brisk bottom heat of 80", 

 with their heads close to the glass in the span-roof 

 pit, they soon fill the small stratum of soil with roots, 

 and are fit for the final shift into ten to eleven-inch 

 pots, which are quite large enough for winter-fruiting 

 Cayennes and Jamaicas, by the end of April. The 

 object being to grow this set of plants from the 

 sucker to the fruit without a check, a close, compact 

 pit, with full command of top and bottom heat, must 

 be available, otherwise the attempt to sw^ell the fruit 

 through the winter months will end in disappoint- 

 ment, and the entire loss of a number of plants, to 

 which a great deal of time and patience has been de- 

 voted. Unless the young practitioner has a fair stock 

 of plants to fall back upon, his attempt at starting- 

 Pines after September should be confined to a few 

 Jamaicas and Caringtons at first, as there is no diffi- 

 culty in obtaining suckers of these varieties, and 

 they can be induced to swell otf excellent fi-uit in 

 nine-inch pots, provided they are well fed when water 

 in winter is required. 



From the foregoing remarks on winter Pines, it 

 will be seen that the only way in which their man- 

 agement differs from that of summer fruiters consists 

 in the maintenance of conditions, as regards heat and 

 moisture, favourable to steady growth through the 

 winter months, when Queens are in a comparative 

 state of rest. 



The Open-bed System. — We are indebted 

 to Mr. Mills, at one time gardener at Gunnersbury, 

 for bringing into prominence the planting -out 

 system (as it is generally called), and there are a 

 few places in this country where it is now prac- 

 tised, the most successful being the Royal Gar- 

 dens, Frogmore, where, as in other large estab- 

 lishments, the Queens and tender varieties are still 

 gi'own in pots. The Smooth-leaved Cayenne, which 

 seems to do the best, can be grown to great perfection 

 on this principle, but not better than a number of 

 advocates of the pot system can produce them ; and 

 as plants in pots are easily moved from place to place, 

 either to be pushed forward or retarded, cultivators 

 having limited space at command will find that the 

 planting-out system is not the best for giving a con- 

 tinuous and steady supply of ripe fruit. The usual 

 method of growing the Smooth-leaved Cayenne out 

 of pots is over hot- water pipes placed in chambers or 

 di-y nibble. The tank system is not so well adapted, 

 as the moisture constantly rising from the open 

 gutters in course of time affects the soil, and the 

 roots do not seem to take hold of the lower stratum, 

 which, under ordinary conditions, is considered the 

 best. At Frogmoie bottom heat is obtained from a 

 bed of fermenting Oak-leaves, the best of all mediums 

 for forcing vigorous growth ; and it is, doubtless, 

 to the use of this material in an immense decaying 

 body that the wonderful luxuriance and colour of the 

 plants must be attributed. The suckers, as may be 

 supposed, are large and good when they are taken off 

 and planted over the beds of rich fermenting leaves 

 in the sucker-pit. In due course they are removed 

 to the succession or fruiting-pit with large forks, 

 where they are placed in rows from two to three feet 

 apart, and earthed up with large, rough, turfy pieces 

 of loam and peat, leaving them standing in ridges a 

 foot or so in height. 



"WTien passing through the gardens at Gunnersbury 

 many years ago, the process of shifting the succession 

 plants forward from one pit to another was going on. 

 Large flakes of half-decayed leaA^es were hanging 

 from the roots, which, despite the greatest care, natu- 

 rally received a check, and were thus predisposed 

 to form their embryo fruit, apparently simulta- 

 neously, judging from the equal size of the Pines 

 then swelling off in another house. Since that time 

 the planting-out system has made some progress ; 



