GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



number will be fixed at no distant date. Possibly seven would be a 

 suitable number, but there is room for some difference upon this point, 



• • .1* 1111 



™d our present object is simply to give expression to the views held by the interest crated by the remarkably „ ne variety submitte 



3 considerable number as to the desirability of taking such steps as will Committee by Messrs. T. Rivers and Son on Tuesday last, 



prevent the staeine of the large bunches which some exhibitors consider lar e est . S]ze j P lea * in f m colour, and richly flavoured. The 



r c 86 • is indicated by the fact that pot trees, started in the. 



essential to success at competitive gatherings. 



New Late Peach. -The i ntroduction of a new peach of^hVr" ~~" 



and ripening late in the season is an event of sufficient im hl gnest quai^ 



the interest created by the remarkably fi ne variety submitted tTH ' V U " y 

 Committee by Messrs. T. Rivers and Son on Tuesdav h«t tu , I S - F «* 



viast The fruits are of th t 



Wl 



Gardeners' Magazine Rose Number, as we announced in our last 



issue, will be published on the 9th inst., and the list of contributors given in our 

 advertisement pages is a sufficient proof that the contents will be o. exceptional 

 interest to rosarians, and, indeed, to the general body of horticulturists. In 

 addition to the black and white illustrations, we shall present with the issue a 

 coloured plate of the beautiful new rose Queen Mab. 



The Rose Season.— The abnormally low temperature that was experienced 

 in May and during the greater part of June has made its mark upon the roses as 

 well as upon the stone fruits, but in a different manner. In the case of the latter tta> iwa 

 the crop has been materially reduced, but with the roses the effect of the unfavour- P arent 



muiv^v. „j — ^ r au«iea m tne forcing house in n y 



ith Cardinal and Early Rivers nectarines, are now ripening their CCCmb * 

 ruit of the two nectarines was gathered in April and May Th" h™!*' Whlle lhc 

 las been named Thomas Rivers, and has the 'c ___ ?™*>me peach 



producing 



worthy of the distinguished name it bears. It is described as 

 crops, and ripening perfectly in an unheated structure. 



A New Hybrid Tea Rose.— The new hybrid tea rose exhV^ 

 Messrs. Paul and Son at Westminster on Tuesday, under the name of t ^ 

 one of the most interesting additions that has yet been made to the ° 



George Paul informs us that it was raised from a cross effected between' one 



able climatic conditions has been to greatly retard the expansion of the flowers. 



The development rf the buds h^ ind^d, been so stow that in gardens where to the °/™ on Gl ™ e d « ^jon The variety is of vigorous ££T 



roses are largely grown the blooms can only be numbered by dozens, instead of some of * e BJ° wt J s ha J in g obtained a length of twenty-five feet, and the flowe 



Mr. 



°ne of the 

 bearing 

 bearing 

 inclined 



hundreds ; and in the case of the commercial establishments, the lateness of the 

 season can hardly fail to make a material difference in the returns, as the demand 

 for cut roses for decoration is necessarily more brisk during the London season 

 than after its close. The early exhibitions, as shown by our reports, have suffered 

 from the comparative scarcity of blooms, and the prospects of the mid-season and 

 late shows are giving rise to considerable speculation on the part of those who take 

 a keen interest in the competitive aspects of rose culture. Especially is much 

 interest evinced at the time of writing in the National Rose Society's metropolitan 

 exhibition at the Crystal Palace on Saturday, the 22nd inst., and its prospects 

 depend wholly upon the climatic conditions that obtain during the two or three 



are semi -double, about four inches in diameter, and of a rich cream colour w 

 delicate buff tint. Una is deserving of attention for its beauty, and is of much 

 interest in indicating the possibilities of rose hybridisation. 



Sicily Fruit Trade.— Fruits form the most important of the foreign expat 

 trade in Sicily, which is now in a very depressed condition. The unsatisfactory 

 state of the fruit trade may, in the opinion of the British Vice-Consul at Messina 

 be attributed principally to three causes, which are likely from their very 

 nature to continue to operate unfavourably in checking the fruit exportation 

 of Sicily unless removed or neutralised by more liberal regulations, new outlets 

 and sounder principles of trade. They are, first, the recent excessive protective 



days immediately preceding the date. It is extremely difficult to forecast them duties decreed by the Government of the United States, against the importation 

 with any considerable degree of accuracy. Should the weather be sunny and of lemons and oranges from abroad. Secondly, the somewhat sudden stoppage of 

 warm, the exhibition has the promise of being of large extent and high quality, for advances on the price of the fruit on the part of foreign purchasers to Sicilian 



vendors, a system which, however plausible, became in practice such a fruitful 

 source of dishonest dealing, that, taught by dearly bought experience, the 

 repeatedly victimised British and Am erican firms have at last resolutely declined 



the slowly-swelling buds are remarkable for their size and solidity. On the other 

 hand, should the temperature continue low, some exhibitors from the midland and 

 northern counties may not be able to put in an appearance, while others will be 



unable to enter in so many classes as they have done in previous years. While to deal with other than well-known 



there is room for some doubt as to the extent of the Crystal Palace, there is none advances. Thirdly, the extension of the orange and lemon plantations of CaB 

 as to the quality of the blooms that will be staged, for both dark and light varieties fornia, Florida, Mexico, and Jamaica, not to mention those of the British colonies 

 have the promise of attaining a high degree of development. Roses should be of Queensland and Victoria. These facts are more than sufficient to account for 

 exceptionally well shown during the following week, and the National Rose the decline of the Sicilian fruit market, and hence the consequent falling-off in 



expec: 



Society's northern exhibition on the 13th inst. should be the finest of the northern 

 gatherings of late years. 



Cultural Developments in Vegetables.— The conversion of various 



popular roots of to-day from an utterly useless and annual form into very valuable 

 food roots and biennials by the simple process of selection and cultivation, which 

 were so interestingly pointed out by the Rev. G. Henslow in his recent lecture at 

 Chiswick, is entitled to rank amongst the most remarkable things that have 

 occurred in connection with gardening. No one wishes to depreciate the labours 



past 



past 



and future generations of consumers such splendid roots as carrots, parsnips, 

 beets, turnips, radishes, and others from wild plants that previously had no food 



value whatever. 



woody 



stemmed annual, now it is a world-wide grown succulent root, and of a biennial 

 nature. Sometimes seedling plants exhibit the original by bolting off to flower 



but these are exceptions that prove the rule of conduct. As a 



.season 



biennial, the beet, which was a perennial with a hard woody stem also, now 

 employs all its energies in the production of a massive fleshy root, and cannot 



But with this, as with all other similar roots, this 



season 



food 



seed 



annual. The potato was formerly a free seed-producing plant. Now its energies 

 are devoted to the production of tubers, latent stores of buds of a starchy nature ; 



tion of this important root. How full of interest is infor 

 we always grow and yet know so little about. 



propagat 



plant: 



American Fruit Crops.— At this season of the year there are always 



information 



in this country. Western New York is a vast fruit garden, and the crop it pro- 

 duces has much to do with the market supplies. Mr. S. D. Willard, of Ontario 

 County, N. V., writing to an American contemporary on fruit prospects, says that 

 the outlook for the fruit growers is not satisfactory. Currants promise a light crop 

 except Pres. Wilder. Gooseberries are good, with a tendency to mildew. weather. 



the number and cargoes of British shipping at this port during the year 1897. 



Culture of the Globe Artichoke is an important and ever-incretiiig 



industry in Catania, as farmers find that certain lands in the plain, which are 

 well irrigated by the Limeto Canal, give better returns than if sown with wheat. 

 Some 1,600 acres are put under such cultivation, and produce from 12,000 to 

 to 13,000 artichokes per acre, which fetch from 25s. to 30s. per 1,000, on the 

 spot, December 1 to the end of January. During this period the plants produce 

 about one-fifth of their total production, and these early artichokes are shipped of 

 to the continent of Italy and Austria, whilst the later artichokes are consumed in 

 the island, and naturally fetch lower prices. 



Rose Conference at Bath.— The conference held by the National Km 

 Society in conjunction with its southern exhibition at Bath, of which we gave a 

 full report in our issue of the 25th ult., proved a decided success, and fully justified 

 the new departure by the society. There was a good mixture of rosarians, and the 

 admirable paper by Mr. W. F. Cooling on " Rose Pruning" created much interest. 

 Mr. Cooling suggested that hybrid perpetuals should be pruned according to the 

 vigour of the varieties, the strong growers to be cut back to five or six buds, 

 and the others to the second or third bud. Garden roses, on the other hand, 

 should have but little pruning, and, in Mr. Cooling's opinion, they were at preset 

 prured much too severely. He suggested that, instead of their being pruned u 

 accordance with orthodox methods, the growths should be thinned out at the close 

 of the flowering season to allow room for the young growths to attain their full 

 development and become well ripened. In the autumn or spring the flowering 

 shoots should be bent or pegged down without being shortened or having more 

 ...an the tops taken off, as when this was done they became wreaths of roses dunng 

 the season of flowering. Mr. Pemberton expressed an opinion that the pruning of 

 roses was imperfectly understood, and said the knife was used much too freely, 

 more especially in the case of the hybrid teas. Mr. E. Mawley, Mr. W. J- Grant, 



Land on 



pro- 



ceeded briskly and was of exceptional interest. 



Lombard, Bradshaw, and some other plums are a failure ; Reine Claude and a 

 few Other sorts promise a partial crop. 



: genial 



satisfy 

 current 



last season 



Bartlett 



region 



third of a setting. Kieffer shows up best of any variety. Cherries are not equal 

 to the crop of 1897, but afford a fair showing. Apples promise well, but it is yet 

 too early to venture an opinion as to the result. The Tent caterpillar, in its 

 ravages exceeds anything he has ever known. They have for several weeks been 

 engaged m destroying its nests by a systematic weekly effort, and have handled 

 nearly 2 000 of them, while with the masses neglect has been the order of the 

 day, and the result remains to be seen. The curl leaf has worked injury to the 

 r^ch orchards beyond description, in many instances entirely defoliating the trees, 

 with a probability of greatly reducing the crop 



tory for the growers, and for the most part show an advance on the pneca 

 at the same period last year. A beginning was made about a fortnight ago 

 the lifting of the early crop, and last week potato digging became 8*** 

 Ayrshire. The later fields give promise of a good crop, and the stem o 

 potato is very much stronger than last season. The tonnage of the later 

 will, of course, depend on the weather of the next two months. Any po mm 

 who had the courage to keep potatos of last year's growth till this 

 reaping their reward in higher prices than have been current during tnc ^^ 

 The early potato sales were not affected by the potato " boycott," as co-ope* 

 bids were not refused. In fart th* A ^ * ^ 



potato 



boycott " has turned out a 



deleft 



fiasco, and even the merchants in favour of the movement at first are now 



boycott 



are 



