March 12, 



1898. 



GA RDENERS* MA GA ZINE. 



167 



l -^rative need of moisture at a time when no visible activity is 

 th ^ l 7n ace and this will supply a key to the inability to cultivate it if 

 !^Tiua P method of withholding a free supply of water until signs of 

 th Z lre Torrent, is adopted. An excellent figure of this species in 

 Cu 's » OrchTds of the Cape Peninsula," shows only the neck of the 

 , w But in that of D. ferruginea, which has the same peculiarity 



n^rentlv a shrivelled tuber is shown behind the plump one bearing the 

 ^nTana leaves. My previous statement that the tubers were perennial 

 ^therefore erroneous. But the interest is none the less, for the one 

 oeculiarity is as equally unusual as the other. 



To sum up then : After a warm, even hot, but moist rest an abundance 

 of water must be given during leaf growth, gradually lessening the 

 .noolv as the flowers develop, until, when they are over, only sufficient 

 U £iven to keep the tubers plump. A maximum amount of light or sun with 



Natural Fertility of Soils. 



The gardener's and farmer's aim is to bring the soil under cultivation 



up to its maximum of productiveness. This state of fertility is not 



attained by heavy manuring and digging, but rather by a knowledge of 



the composition of the soil, the requirements of the plants to be grown 



upon it, and the influence certain manures will have upon both. With 



such soils as resemble that formed from the red sandstone rocks met 

 with in the vicinity of Kelsall, in Cheshire, the cultivation of garden and 

 farm crops is made easy, as it is naturally rich in the necessary con- 

 stituents of plant food. Of course the constant drain of phosphates and 

 nitrogen from the soil by crops necessitates frequent applications of 

 manures containing these ingredients, but not so much phosphorus and 

 nitrogen will be required to maintain the balance of healthy growths on 



IS given iu is-ccp tuv^ luuvi- r r- »- — ~- "* ~ v , iimugcn win uc icljuiicu iu iiiaiiiuuii mc uaiaiiL.c ui ncauujr giuwma 



a buoyant atmospheie always are doubtless equally essential as an open such a mediumj as on some of a less natU rally fertile character. Besides 

 porous soil. The greatest deterrents would seem to be * s ™^ being a loam of the best quality chemically, it is also physically one 



*i «nt a a.w ic adapted to the utilisation of the cheaper forms of manures, and easily 



tilled. Instead of bone meal, superphosphate, fish guano, 'and other 

 forms of costly phosphatic manures, basic slag serves the purpose of 

 supplying phosphorus and lime to meet the needs of growing crops. 

 Sulphate of ammonia, mixed with one quarter of its weight of nitrate of 

 soda, or rape dust, put on and ploughed or dug in in early autumn, will 



phere, and stagnation at the roots, except perhaps with D. barbata, which 

 is onlv a foot or two above standing water for a greater part of the year. 



Cape Town. 



J. W 



Notes on Roses. 



I was much interested in the article upon the parentage of roses v P a g e keep up a supply of the indispensable nitrogen. Both cereals, grasses, 

 in). Like Mr. Williamson, I would be pleased to know the parentage and roots are abundantly yielded by all the land for miles around Kelsall, 

 of many of our most popular roses; but this is somewhat difficult to and gardening is made a simple process, 

 discover, for until quite recently few raisers took the trouble to carefully 

 and systematically cross the varieties. I am rather surprised at two 

 statements in the article. Ulrich Brunner is not of German origin, but 

 was sent out by M. A. Levet in 1881. Doubtless the German name led 

 to confusion. Then the remark that Charles Lefebvre lacks " quality and 

 strength of perfume " is rather startling. To my fancy it is one of the 

 very sweetest scented roses we have ; and that this was the general 

 opinion of the Catalogue Committee of the National Rose Society is fully 

 proved, for they added the remark, " one of the best roses grown ; very 

 fragrant." We find a certain perfume in several of our dark hybrid 

 perpetuals that rivals the best of the old damask roses ; Alfred Dumesnil, 

 Due de Montpensier, General Jacqueminot, Mons. E. Y. Teas, Lord 

 Macaulay, Harrison Weir, Earl of DuflTerin, Maurice Bernardin, Pierre 

 Xotting, A. K. Williams, Captain Hayward, and Red Dragon are a dozen 

 which occur to me as I write. 



But to return to the parentage of roses. How varied and surprising 

 are some of the offspring from crossing two varieties to what might at 

 first have been expected. But when we look back to the grand and great 

 grand parents we find such distinct cases of atavism that we can have no 

 doubt careful hybridisation may result in some startling developments 

 and changes yet. M. Guillot stated that Gloire Lyonnaise was the result 

 of successive crossings of Madame Falcot and Baroness Rothschild. It 

 is generally accepted that Mabel Morrison and Canari were the parents 

 of Her Majesty ; that Madame Falcot and Perle des Jardins were the 

 parents of Hon. Edith Gifford — two yellows producing a white or creamy 

 blush ; at first sight these appear almost impossible departures, but if we 

 look back there is little doubt the matter might be explained. In the 

 present day we are, happily, giving more attention to fertilisation, in- 

 stead of collecting seed in the haphazard manner of the past. A list of 

 new roses for the present spring contains no less than thirty-eight that 

 have their parentage attached. When a grower has mastered some of 

 the secrets of successful hybridisation, he is naturally chary about letting 

 the general public have the benefit of his knowledge and methods. Last 

 summer, in one of my short contributions to the Gardeners' 

 Magazine, I mentioned that Maman Cochet was a seedling from Cathe- 

 rine Mermet. A leading amateur wrote me asking if I had any autho- 

 rity for this, or whether it was assumed from the habit of growth, &c. 

 Since then I have had a card from M. Scipion Cochet, stating definitely 

 that the variety was obtained from seed gathered from Catherine Mermet ; 

 but there is no mention, f nor, so far as I 'can discover, any knowledge of 

 the other parent. We are now promised a white sport from Maman 

 Lochet, under the name of White Maman Cochet, with all the good 

 qualities of that grand variety, and if the description is correct it will 

 be a great and welcome acquisition. 



The time for pruning has come round again, and we need bear in 



h 1 1 \ a ob j ects fo . r which we are Pining. No hard-and-fast rule can 

 oe laid down ; but if we prune our weak growers rather hard, and scarcely 

 use the knife among those of extra vigour, except to boldly thin out over- 

 crowded growths and old wood, there will not be much amiss. The wood 

 nas come through the winter months exceptionally sound and well 

 ripened so that unless late frosts cripple young growths, we should have 

 a grand display upon our walls and among the more tender of our 

 vigorous growing garden roses. My own roses will not be pruned until 

 frnm C tv.° 1 WCek m March > experience having proved that a later break 

 as £ ? u Cr eyeS wiI1 & eneraI1 y £ row on so fa st and free from checks 

 w ;° ^f tch U P much of that growth which was well advanced while they 

 thlZ r mant Exc ellent articles upon pruning have appeared in 



Dlain £ agCS ^ tlme to time > and some of them illustrated in such a 

 again therC Sh ° uld be n ° need t0 go fully into this sub J ect 



no v^wpli^fl Under glass seIdom looked better than at present, and are 



pests S J? en The main P° ints are to kee P such free from insect 

 helo kll I? ^P^^™ fairly regular without much ventilation, and to 



established plants with liberal doses of weak liquid manure. 



A. Piper. 



Among ornamental trees and shrubs, the holly, hemlock, spruce, 

 and in tact, all conifers, grow luxuriantly. The laurustinus, which is 

 usually met with in a dwarf twiggy state, develops here into a robust 

 shrub of something like six feet in height, with a mass of strong shoots, 

 large healthy leaves, and heads of flowers three inches across. The con- 

 spicuous feature, however, looked at from a horticultural point of view, 

 is the suitability of the soil for fruit culture. Apples, pears, and plums, 

 do exceptionally well, and damsons grow like weeds. Vines, too, are quite 

 at home, and without any coaxing, grow vigorously, and yield heavily. 

 With such a soil examples of produce will be obtained, which lead 

 the cultivator to entertain the belief, that by his skill (?) prodigious 

 results have been brought about. When we look at a soil like the one 

 referred to, and one of an inert nature, and compare the amount of brain 

 and physical exertion required to secure satisfactory crops from both, it 

 is an easy matter to grasp the situation and see how some are handicapped 

 in the production of garden produce. A soil not only serves the purpose 

 of holding plants in their natural position, and supplying the larger portion 

 of the food they require, but it also serves as the kitchen in which the 

 food, abstracted by the plants from the soil, is cooked. The value of 

 a soil for the cultivation of any useful crop depends as much upon 

 its power to manufacture food materials for the supplying of plants, as 



its own power to yield them. Basic slag would be lost on 



contained a high percentage of organic 



containing practirS^lP? to lhc Z^en for the whole year is the "Gardening Year Book, 

 ''G*wfeneri M on thc cultivation of Flowers, Fruit, Vegetables, *c. Price is. 



Maga2lnt °ffice, 4, Ave Maria Lane, London.- [Advt.]i 



upon 



sandy soils, unless they # _ . _ . . 



matter, and a heavy one usually contains too much iron, and is im- 

 pervious to air, and consequently warmth, that manures lie a considerable 

 time in it before becoming active. For this kind of land lime is, perhaps, 

 the best thing to apply, but without some idea as to the part it plays in 

 the soil harm, as well as good, may be done. 



There is an old saying, and a true one, which every gardener and 

 farmer should know, viz., " Lime enriches the father and beggars the 

 son " Lime dissolves the organic parts of soils, and renders their con- 

 stituents available to plants. If too much lime be applied, the rams will 

 carry away into the drains the food that ought to have remained in the 

 soil lor succeeding crops, and the soil will become so poor in vegetable 

 matter that only inferior crops can be secured from it. Lime is an indis- 

 pensable constituent of all fertile soils, as it is one of the ingredients 

 necessary to plant growth. Knowing this, we also know that lime must 

 be incorporated with the soil periodically, except when dealing with 

 calcareous formations. As most of the phosphatic manures— m truth, all 

 of them— contain from a half to three fourths of their bulk of lime, every 

 time any of them are supplied to the soil we know that a certain amount 

 of lime has been supplied at the same time. By an indiscriminate use 

 of 1 me on the red sandstone loam of Kelsall its natural fertility would 

 be crippled for years ; whereas the heavy clays would suffer less although 



in a few years after the dressings would man ^declining 



productiveness 



Prize Awards and Point Value.-The granting of prizes at flower shows 

 Prize Awaras » u CO mmon practice. The chief apphca- 



on the purely^ ^^J^bUn found at CarsLlton, on the August Bank 

 tion of the method so w o» / regularly apportioned in several 



Holiday, when a sum ^^Z^bll The iuffi the schedule for 

 pnzes for ^ 1U * h °£ t next, however, recalls the fact that Carshalton 



the Shrewsbury ^ Show %JW* imitator . At the Great Shrewsbury 



ShowTwo la^cS will be judged entirely on their point value and five 

 bnow wou^c awa rded of equal money value to the point value. The 



ET IJfhl C «rSSJtive Fruit Table Class, for which is set apart thc 



« nf /J P Ordinarily this would be divided into prizes arbitrarily fixed, as 

 W vli ? 4 ih« ^ onTfour prizes being offered, they were £17 I*., £u 12s. 

 5? Here was evident great disparity, whilst the point values of 



& Vi^n Showed comparatively trifling difference. This year rather more 

 the collection s howed I * \ t ^ therefor e, be no matter of sur- 



^^Td&^iow cash prizes of trifling diversity also. Then in the 

 ? in P,l « Class-left out of the schedule last year to make room for a 



• iT^ JTi Si The average of the sum is £5, but it is probable that the awards 

 S^ a S^pSti«nSeen, range from h £ to £4 So that if the 

 SVrize winnergets less than before, the other prize winners at least get more m 

 accordance with the merits of their exhibits. Now that Shrewsbury has shown a 

 kad in this ust method of apportioning prizes, it is hoped that other societies 

 will fnllnw suit, and eventually make the principle universal. — A. D. 



