312 



CASSELL'S POPULAK GARDENING. 



of the new wood and foliage forms one of the test 

 safe-guards against shanking, while the crop from 

 vines so trained is greater than that produced by a 

 series of vines occupying the same space. The ex- 

 tension system is well adapted to large, lofty span- 

 roofed houses running from south to north, as the 

 vines can be planted at either end, and trained hori- 

 zontally under the ridge. Those leaders should be 

 shortened back at each pruning to four feet for one 

 pair of arms or rods, which will run down to the 

 eaves, and to eight feet for two pairs of rods where 

 rapid growth is desirable. These rods, in their turn, 

 should be shortened back to any given length, when 

 the buds left on the young wood must be thinned 

 out, and the fruit-bearing laterals cut back to a 

 single eye, exactly the same as advised in close spur 

 pruning. So long as the vine has room to extend, 

 the bunches from the young wood run to a very 

 large size, and the berries of the Hamburgh swell up 

 much better than they do on vines under repression. 

 Moreover, all the arms being taken from the main 

 horizontal rod, which occupies the highest part of 

 the house, to the eaves, the sap is checked in its 

 downward course, and the strength of the growths is 

 equalised. It is scarcely necessary to say that exten- 

 sion training is not favourable to early forcing, as 

 the roots cannot be so readily warmed and protected 

 through the winter months ; but for mid-season and 

 autumn crops, it offers one of the most simple 

 methods of growing first-class grapes. There is, 

 however, no rule without exception ; as the famous 

 old vines at Cole-Orton, which kept the veteran 

 grower and exhibitor, Mr. Henderson, so many 

 years to the front, were grown upon the extension 

 principle; but instead of cutting back to a single 

 eye, he always pruned to a prominent bud, and laid 

 in as much wood as would keep every part of the 

 trellis furnished with foliage. A vine which fills 

 the early house at Eastnor Castle is trained and 

 pruned upon the Cole-Orton principle. It has been 

 forced for early grapes without intermission for 

 thirty-five years, and still produces excellent fruit. 

 The vines at Cole-Orton are on the coal measures ; 

 the roots of the vine at Eastnor have the run of 

 external and internal borders, and are under con- 

 trol. 



THE FLOWER GAEDEN. 



By William Wildsmith. 



SUCCULENT BEDDING. 



UNDER the heading of Succulent Beds we class 

 not only the cultivation in beds of all kinds ci' 

 plants having thick fleshy leaves and stems, such as 

 Agaves and Echeverias, but also the many varieties 



of Sedums and other mossy or "tufty" growing 

 plants, which harmonise with the quaintness of ap- 

 pearance of the great bulk of succulents when ar- 

 ranged in conjunction with them. That these are a 

 very desirable class of plants to cultivate for summer 

 bedding, may be gathered from the admiration and 

 praise they excite among the crowds that surround 

 arrangements of them in the London parks. This 

 class of admirers may not always be the best judges 

 as to taste ; but still arrangements that afford such 

 pleasure to the multitude are worthy of adoption on 

 that gTound alone. But there are other reasons for 

 the extended culture of this class of plants as summer 

 bedders, not the least being their immunity from 

 injury by storms and rain. They are also effective 

 immediately after they are planted, and their quiet 

 beauty greatly enhances the general effect of every 

 other style of planting in the same garden. They 

 also do well under the shade of trees or hedges, 

 w^here other plants would dwindle and die, and yet 

 they will bear the full sunshine with impunit}'. 

 All these are surely good reasons why they deserve 

 to bo used more largely than they are. Such ob- 

 jections as formal, artificial, " cockle- shell-like," 

 have been urged against their use; but tliis is a 

 matter that rests entirely in the hands of those who 

 arrange them, for they are just as amenable to the 

 producing of informal and hai^monious mixtures as 

 are any other class of bedding plants. 



Having named reasons why they should be used, 

 we must, however, add that on no account should 

 ordinary bedding-out plants, such as Pelargoniums 

 and Ageratums, be mixed up in the same bed with 

 them. Altemantheras are about the nearest approach 

 as to mixtures that should be made. These look 

 fairly well as ground- works for the taller succulents, 

 but there are so many dwarf hardy plants so much 

 more suitable, that there is no necessity to use even 

 these. 



Arrangements. — The most pleasing way of 

 arrangement is that of a large circular bed, begin- 

 ning from the centre, with a tall plant of Yucca 

 aloefolia variegata ; then three plants of the tree 

 Sempervivum arhoreum ; then six plants of the tree 

 Sempervivum phylloides : then six plants of Sem- 

 pervivum arboreum variegatam, alternated with six 

 plants of Sempervivum Canariense ; the next circle 

 being nine plants of Echeieria metallica, and nine 

 of Sempervivum Haworthii, also alternated ; the 

 outer line next the edging being twelve plants of 

 Echeveria glauca metallica, and the same number of 

 Echeveria farinosa ; the outer edging being ^Semjo^;- 

 vivum calcareum and Echeveria secunda glauca ; the 

 central portion of the bed being clothed wdth the 

 flowering mauve- coloured Mesemhryanthemum con- 



