18 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



Januabt 6, 1912. 



exhibition. It is understood that Sir Trevor 

 Lawrence, Bart., president of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, will invite the jury, 

 etc., to luncheon at Burford Lodge, Dork- 

 ing/ and similar hospitality will be ex- 

 tended on another day at Gunnersbury 

 Park, by Leopold de Rothschild, E^sq. A 

 full-dress banquet appears to be a promi- 

 nent item, and it is believed the official lun- 

 cheon to the judges, etc., wiU take place 

 on the opening day in the Great Ha;ll of 

 the Royal Hospital— at least so rumour 



says. 



Much more might be written concernmg 

 the great horticultural event of this year, 

 but here is enough to indicate its great- 

 ness, and it may be hoped, to increase the 

 desire that in every sense the function shall 

 be worthy of the British nation, and particu- 

 larly worthy of our horticultural traditions. 

 What is wanted, it seemis to me, is a great 

 scheme of advertisement, to be started im- 

 mediately, and in such a fashion that 

 everyone w^ho has the slightest interest in 

 gardeners and gardening shall ^'talk up" 

 the exhibition. C. 



OBITUARY. 



MRS. WILKINSON. 



We regret to record the death of Mrs. 

 Wilkinson, the wife of Mr. Wilkinson, of 

 the Tyntesfield Gardens, Bristol, which oc- 

 curred at Tyntesfield on December 27. Mr. 

 Wilkinson has our deepest sympathy in the 

 loss he has sustained. 



The sad news reaches us just as we go to 

 press of the death on January 2, of Mr. 

 William Deal, Brooklands, Kelvedon. The 

 deceased gentleman was a well-known nur- 

 seryman and seed grower, and of late years 

 had ranked among our leading sweet pea 

 growers. We understand that his son, Mr. 

 Bertrand W. Deal, will carry on the busi- 

 ness. To him and the other members of 

 the family we tender sincere sympathy in 

 their bereavement. 



METEOROLOGICAL 



OBSERVATIONS. 



TA KEN IN THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL 

 SOOIBTT'S GARDENS AT WISLET. SURRKT. 



H«i£rlit above 8<»-level. 150 f«»t. 



Datb, 



1911. 



December 24 



TO 



December 30, 



m 



Tbupkratttrb or thi 



Air. 



At 9 a.m. 



Dec 



99 



II 



l> 

 f I 



24— Sunday , 



25— Monday 



26— Tuesday 



27— Wedneiday., 



28— Tkursday .... 



i 9— Friday 



30— Saturday 



hr. m. 



1 36 



1 42 



2 0 



0 6 



Dry 

 Bulb. 



51 

 41 

 40 

 38 

 48 

 47 

 47 



"Wet 

 Bulb. 



deg. 



50 

 39 

 39 

 37 

 48 

 4d 

 46 



Means 



(toUl) 

 5 24 



4 



43 



High- 

 est , 



deg. 

 52 

 44 

 50 

 48 



51 

 49 

 51 



Night 



Low • 

 est. 



d«Gr. 



30 

 40 

 39 



37 



47 

 46 



49 



39 



Date, 





TsaiPERATURE OF 



THE Soil 

 At 9 A.1I. 



Ct % 



m o 



^ 2 • 



1911. 



December 24 



TO 



Deckmber 30. 



•< 



" S 2 



w 5 ? 



■ 





At 

 1 ft. 

 d«ep. 



At 



2 ft. 

 deep. 



At 



4 ft. 



deep. 



„ 26— Moaday 



„ 26 -Tweftday 



„ i7— Wednesday . 



„ S?*— Thursday .... 



„ 30 Saturday .... 



imp. 



0'i7 



n ^^^^^^^^ 



0'2*J 

 (►'16 

 trace 



0-01 



dr^. 



43 



4L 

 42 

 42 

 44 

 4> 



de«r. 



4*i 

 43 



43 

 43 

 43 

 43 

 44 



deg. 



46 

 46 

 46 

 46 

 46 

 46 



deg. 



2o 



31 

 30 



28 

 41 



42 



Means 



(tr)tal) 



0-^6 



! 42 



43 



46 



32 



ANSWERS TO 



CORRESPONDENTS. 



E/ditorial Ccmmunioatione should be addree&ed to the 

 Editor of the Gardekers' Magazine, 148 and 14©, 

 Alderagate Street, E.G. 



Secretaries of horticultural eocieties are invited to 

 ftend early notiiioation of forthcoming exhibitionfi 

 and meetings, and are requested to advise ue con- 

 cerning changee of dates. 



Specinienfi of plants, flowere, and fruits for naming 

 or opinion should be sent to the Editor of the 

 Gardeners* Magazine, Endsleigh," Priory Park. 

 Kew, Surrey, and as early in the week a-s poesible. 

 All parcels inust be suflioiently prepaid. 



The Editor will be glad to receive photographs of 

 gardens, plants, flowers, trees, fruits, etc., for 

 reproduction in the Gardeners' Magazine. He will 

 alflo be greatly obliged by oorrefipondente 6«nding 

 early intimation of interesting looal events relating 

 to horticulture. In sending newspapers containing 

 matter to which they wish to draw attention oor- 

 respondents are requested to distinctly mark th# 

 paragraph. 



UNHEALTHY GOOSBBEERY TREES.— 

 R. F., B-erkri : You have not been correctly 

 advised as to the caiise of th-e unsatisfactory 

 condition of your gooseberry bushes. Tliey 

 are not suffering from a light attack of 

 American gooseberry mildew, but the shoots 

 were severely injured by aphis during the 

 pa.st c>ummer. The tops of the shoots present 

 much the same appearance as the same parts 

 of shoots that have been infected by mildew, 

 but if you closely examine them you will 

 hnd that the surface has turned biro^vn, 

 whereas American mildew infected shoots 

 have a brown covering which conis:sts 

 of the spawn of the fungus bearing the 

 fruit receptacles and can be readily removed. 

 We advise you to cut out all the weakly 

 shoots of last year, and to prune the others 

 far enough back to remove the whole of 

 the aphis-injured wood and burn the prun- 

 ings. A moderate dressing of partly de- 

 cayed manure may be applied during the 

 next few weeko with much advantage. As 

 the soil rests^ upon gravel it is not surpris- 

 ing the growth should have been so checked 

 by the drought during the summer as to 

 have become a prey to green fly. 



H. B., Yorkshire : 

 obtained bv 



BIG ONIONS.— K. 



Large onions that are 



the seed under glass 

 bringing the young 



pots in cold frames, 



the 



sowing: 

 early in the year, 

 plants along in 

 a nd bed ding the m 

 far from worth- 

 Whether 



out m tlie spring, are 



less for culinary purposes. Whether they 

 would be more vsuitable for the purposes for 

 w^hich you require them than those of 

 mediuin size, such as you have hitherto had, 

 can only be determined by yourself. The 

 keeping properties of onions depend in a 

 large measure upon the bulb-:; having been 

 properly ripened, and those rai.-.cd from seed 

 sown under glass reach maturity hevieral 

 weeks in advance oi those obtained from 

 sowings made in the open beds. Hence they 

 keep well. and. a:- a proof thereof, we would 

 mention that \\e have had bulbs weighing 

 between two and three pounds that were 

 ripened in August and were perfectly sound 

 in Ay)ril. Under ordinary eiilture you would 

 not obtain onions of so large size, 



ANNUALS FOR THE ROCK GARDEN.— 

 W. W. H., Herts: It is necessary to exercise 

 considerable care in the cultivation of an- 

 nuals in the rock garden because of the 

 ri.-k of their overrunning the smaller-grow- 

 ing alpines, or of their flowers being too 

 strong in colour to harmonise with the more 

 delicate hues of the flowers of the Alps. As 

 your rockery has been recently formed, and 

 you are desirous of deferring the comple- 

 tion of the planting of perennials until 

 early in the autumn, you might in the spring 

 use a LOW annuals for filling spaces. 

 Among tlu' annuals tliat occur to us as use- 

 ful for a rockery are Alyssum minimum, 

 dwarf in growth, and bearing a profusion 

 of sweet-scented white flowers ; Calindrinia 

 grandiflora, a rather free-growing plant 

 that should l>e planted on a rather broad 

 ledge where it will be fully exposed to the 

 sun, the flowers are rose-coloured; Dimor- 

 photheca aurantiaca, a free-branching 

 plant, attaining a height of about twelve 

 inches and bearing freelv and continuouslv 



throughout the summer elegant flowers of 

 a brilliant orange hue, should have a 

 sunny position; Inopsidium acaule^ a com- 

 pact growing plant, bearing purplisli 

 flowers; and Phacelia campunularia, a hand- 

 some species of rather dwarf growth^ and 

 producing a profusion of brilliant blue 



flowers. 



CALADIUM CORMS.— J. S., Yorkshire: 

 As we have stated in our answers to corre- 

 spondents on several occasions, the best way 

 of wintering these corms is to leave them un- 

 disturbed in the pots in which they were 

 grown the previous season, and place the 

 pots in the plant stove or other structure in 

 which a temperature of about 65 degrees is 

 maintained. The proper time for shaking 

 them out of the old soil will depend upon 

 the period at which you wish to start the] 

 into growth, but they should not be dis- 

 turbed for some weeks hence. 



MUSSEL SCALE. — Young Gardener, 

 Essex: Tlie pear trees from which you send 

 us shoots are badly infested with mussel 

 scale (Aspidestus conchiformis), and we 

 would strongly adviee you to take steps to 

 eradicate the pest. This scale is not only 

 injurious to the trees, but the insects spread 

 over the fruits in the course of the summer, 

 and give them a more or less objectionable 



U nde r the old me t h 0 ds of 



at- 



appearance. 



procedure, it has not been a very easy 

 ter to eradicate the pest, especially in the 

 case of old trees, but with the aid of the 

 caustic winter wash, prepared in accordance 

 with the formula recommended by Mr. Spen- 

 cer Pickering, there is no great difficulty in 

 clearing the trees of it. To make ten gallons 

 of wash, take iron sulphate ^Ib., libe ^Ib., 

 caustic soda 21b., paraffin 5 pints, and water 

 to make ten gallons. To prepare the wash, 

 dissolve the iron sulphate in about nine gal- 

 lons of water, slake the lime with a small 

 quantity of water, and sufficient to convert 

 it into a milk of lime, strain this through 

 a coarse sacking, and add to the iron sul- 

 phate solution. Then churn the paraffin 

 into the mixture, and add the caustic soda, 

 and on this being dissolved, the wash wall be 



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