8 



GARDENING IN JAMAICA. 



To the Editor of the " Bulletin." 



Sir, 



I think it would be helpful to those among us interested in gardening if you would allow us to 

 make use of the " Bulletin" to record our gardening experiences, our successes and failures. We ama- 

 teurs might perhaps in this way help each other more than experts can help us, for the latter are apt to 

 take for granted knowledge which we do not possess, and have painfully to acquire through failures and 

 disappointments. It is easy of course to get books on gardening, but almost all these {all I have come 

 across) are suited to other conditions than ours. Take for example an admirable book entirely devoted 

 to rose culture, (a book I happen to possess among several other gardening manuals) which is most 

 simply and practically written. Now roses will grow and thrive from one end of Jamaica to the other, 

 at any elevation — or absence of elevation, — nevertheless out of the whole book I got but one hint 

 which was of any use to me for Jamaican rose-culture. This was a method by which you could pro- 

 duce a neat compact bush, well ventilated in the centre, and bearing its flowers all over the outside of 

 the bush. It was simply this, prune always to an eye pointing in the direction in which a branch is 

 desirable, and avoid inside eyes as much as possible No doubt this is very unnecessary information 

 as far as gardeners are concerned, but I am an amateur, appealing to amateurs for help and informa- 

 tion, and anxious to impart any which I myself have found of use. Following this rule in Hanover, 

 at an elevation of between 800 and 900 ft. above sea level, had quite a magical effect on my rose trees, 

 of various kinds, numbering at that time between 300 and 400. Instead of the usual long straggling 

 whip-like branches with a rose or two at their extreme ends, I succeeded in getting neat compact 

 bushes clothed with verdure and bloom almost to the ground, and free from mildew or moss in the 

 centre. But ivhen to prune is another matter, all directions on this point were useless. I had to dis- 

 cover for myself that in that moist climate, at so low an elevation, pruning should never cease, each 

 branch, as its load of roses begins to fall, should be pruned back, always mindful of the rule with 

 regard to the direction of the eye. This sounds laborious, but an hour every morning is quite sufficient 

 for the number of rose trees I have mentioned, as of course they do not all come in together ; and I 

 can fancy no easier, pleasanter, more healthful work for a lady, rising, say at 6 o'clock, during the wet 

 season, when the air is cool and fresh and the morning mists are not yet dispersed, for in those hills 

 they seldom disperse till after 7 a.m. 



With regard to bulbs and annuals, my experience (not a very wide one) is, that no imported bulbs 

 and very few annuals can be induced to flourish at the above-mentioned elevation. Of annuals, Petu- 

 nias, balsams, coreopsis, marigolds of various kinds, campanulas, and sunflowers are all I can name 

 which have been entirely successful, not of course counting the tropical annuals. But the list increases 

 in proportion to the rise in elevation, and here in the Blue Mountains, at 4,380ft. above s.a level, it 

 becomes a long one. Oar garden soil is of the most unpromising order; in one part heavy yellow 

 clay, in another whitish and dry ; everywhere so stony that the proportion of earth to stones is com- 

 paratively small Our nearest approach to a gardener is a " coffee hand" whose sole idea is to drag a 

 hoe over the surface of the garden beds, laying low both friend and foe impartially ; but so bountiful is 

 nature here that in spite of all disadvantages of soil, in spite of all incursions of devastating weeders, 

 flowers of all sorts and descriptions flourish and abound. Phlox once sown broadcast, continues to in- 

 crease and multiply and vary itself indefinitely, and the same may be said of the blue corncockles of 

 our native land ; mignionette, marigold, candy tuft and numbers of other English flowers ; they need 

 only to be thinned out and kept within bounds. Finding that a majority of the flowers belonging 

 to the temperate zone made themselves so much at home in these mountains, I have lately been expe- 

 rimenting on import bulbs from Carter's, and the Army and Navy " Auxiliary." Carter's bulbs 

 came out by post in brown paper bags filled with charcoal ; every bulb was firm and in perfect order 

 when received. The consisted of snowdrops, crocus — I mention these first because they were my only 

 failures, the crocus all came up but did not thrive or flower, the snowdrops made no sign, — hyacinths, 

 tulips, daffodils, freesia, sparaxis, blue bells and jonquils. Hyacinths, I was assured, had been tried again 

 and a»ain in various parts of Jamaica, but had never flowered, all Carter's flowered and are now throw* 

 ing out numbers of offsets. One pale lavender was particularly fine and bore the largest flowers I 

 have seen anywhere. The hyacinths from the Auxiliary arrived (I am sorry to say) in a state of rot- 

 tenness. All Carter's daffodils bloomed, some of the freesia and sparaxis are now in bloom, others in 

 bud, the jonquils and blue bells look well and flourishing, but have not yet bloomed. 



About a year ago Cannel & Sons, Swanly, Kent, sent me out some small plants of chrysauthemums 

 by post. They were all new and valuable, and the English season being so short, they begged me to 

 try whether I could succeed in getting seed from these for them, offering to send me a collection of 

 choice chrysanthemums in repayment of my trouble should I be successful. Out of the 6 plants one 

 died, killed b} a grub, the rest turned out magnificent, blowing with a profusion such as I have seldom 

 seen before — they were perfect umbrellas of bloom — but alas ! the flowers died off without seeding ; 

 the plants then threw out a perfect little forest of offsets, and I find that any cuttings broken off from 

 the old plants will root easily. Can any one tell me why when the climate and locality suit them so 

 admirubly, they give no seed ? Can any one suggest a method by which they could be induced to do 

 so ? Such as nipping off the largest portion of the buds, pruning the roots, confining the plant in a 



small pot have any of these devices been tried 1 I ask this as I am told that no chrysanthemums 



even of the commonest kind ever seed in Jamaica, however scantily they may blossom. Any infor- 

 mation on this subject will be thankfully received. 



SeliNa Heaven. 



