September i7» l8 98. 



GARDENERS' 



MAGAZINE. 



Work for the We 



COOL ORCHIDS. 



Cool orchids that have been grown in pits or garden frames during the summer 

 months should now be removed to their winter quarters, as the nights are 

 becoming chilly ; before removing them let the house in which they are to pass 

 the winter be thoroughly cleansed, washing the glass inside and out, and thus 

 enabling the plants to have all the light possible to ensure both substance and 

 strength in the growths now in progress. The plants should also be sponged and 

 arranged so that each will have its share of light. Plants of Odontoglossum 

 crispum that were potted last month are now rooting freely from the base of the 

 young growths, but great judgment must still be exercised in watering, as 

 the compost though appearing dry on the surface is often sufficiently moist under- 

 neath ; repotting should be pushed on with, if not already finished, as I do not 

 advise disturbing plants any later than the end of this month. Lycastes are now 

 forming their bulbs and rooting freely, and therefore should receive a good supply 

 of water at the root until the bulbs are made up. Anguloas are fast making up 

 their bulbs, and should also receive a liberal supply of water until these are com - 

 pleted, after which a much less supply will suffice. The pleiones should now have 

 less water given at the root, as these have now about completed their growth for 

 this season ; the leaves, being partially decayed, will soon fall off. Care must, 

 however, be taken not to allow the plants to become dust-dry until the flowering 

 period is over. 



Bletia hyacinthina that has been standing outside during the summer must 

 now be brought in, and placed in a dry cool position in which to pass the winter. 

 Disa grandiflora and other species of Disa, having finished flowering, will now be 

 sending up new growths from the sides of the old flower spikes ; therefore, the 

 repotting of these should be attended to, the present time being the most suitable 

 for this operation. Well-drained pots or pans should be used, placing a layer of clean 

 moss over the drainage, and prepare a compost consisting of three parts roughly 

 broken peat to one of good fibrous loam, with a little chopped moss and coarse 

 silver sand added ; a few small lumps of sandstone and charcoal may be mixed in, 

 as these help to keep the soil from becoming sour. After repotting is completed a 

 good soaking of water is required to settle the compost ; but after this only sufficient 

 will be needed to keep it just moist. The plants must now be placed out of 

 reach of frost, but the coolest possible position should be given them ; thus a place 

 may be found for them on a shelf near the glass close to the ventilators at the 

 coolest end of the odontoglossum house. Keep a sharp look-out for thrips and 

 ©een Hy the latter being almost sure to put in an appearance now.— E. Shill, 

 New Hall Hey Gardens. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



tf,J l ' E f Con 1 tin 1 ued ^ y We f her has made {t difficult to establish newly-planted 



£ vnS CU i y Cn . d ! Ve and lettUCe ' but where the Potion was taken to shade 

 ^ young plants until new roots were formed, these will have made some head- 



» L< rn US th l S0ll > s D * come so dr 7 as to be almost unworkable. As soon 



~* fof 



£ 2 thiS, * P £ SC m k S ° me Undl the folia g e has tecomZ thoroughly 



:h m'o' vet ^ £ 0 " M , be h * °P en shed " When Wel1 ripened, 



, we? We hiv, iHVT dOCS ^ hem 5° harm if left ^disturbed «« they become 



*S5 in the lis? Th Cm s " b J e * ed u to 32 deg. of frost, and they have not 

 «cu m me least. The varieties of the Brown ainh* f,,™, u 



spring cabbage, 

 established before 



long 



5 should & St ° riDg . ° f potatos wiU now be an 



served lor spring 

 important item, 



v y as it has U»~r>' r — v ~ ,"* , Witn «s the crop is not so 



I* frorts in M*v seasons '. as haulm was cut down by the 



r„... vanetles> however, have done marvellously 



well r -a'-- May ' A fc 



Evincible was \Zttr ' g m , shape / and of fi «t-class quality. Sutton's 

 Pound fronT wMcMhe EES S * *^J™*«»1 enormous crops. The 



J"H roots 5£L^j?ZZ?A a ?° Wn with earl y ^P 5 ' as 



Awdd I* --^d to n or great dem - a ? d ,n the ^ s Pri°g- Winter spinach 



The raE « Wble by being supplied with 



I he rainfall with us is but little more than half the average, 



tM portion of the day P *™*grt about 8o degrees in the shade for a 



*e fST 11 ^ rt ing , mushr . oom beds fo < win ter. With 



? Peat, and so des^ov it P T, T g be d T wkh care > or the heat will be 

 « wi^c * j uestroy it. it has been a eood t imp <-,f u (o t~ t u j._ 



Plenty of 



moisture. 



609 







NT 



peach culti 

 g in spring 



im„ . u plots as tht* i r. j r „ L11UC wneei manure 



$**?°» will Be made in , ^ ''r^, f ° r , the 8 round bein g so dry but little 

 ^.therefore it is 3,? C'!"" g - ^ low-lymg places we may soon expect 



us on the wa?ch P h P r p * h ™% re 8 ist «ed two degrees here, 



ne watch—H. C. Prinsep, Buxted Park Gardens. 



fc »« time the, FRUITS UNDER ° LASS - 



2d ^ nn ' lhe Wles^Sc^^JSlZS?^! 01 ¥ cIeared <* their fruits 



ventilated o h To f 1 " P«ht and day should be given, 



over those vend ate d t it ° ned P nnci P le of hiding lights have a grea 



ffi^ f r rfthe t«*s £^^^ the most in,- 



«• S?n °- 11 W0 «^l be a „S h.. ? m C heaVy ni § ht dews which fall in 

 WCS^P Peach and nelSL , l ° f r ° WerS ' and tend to th e health of 

 .;• com f , 1(:te esponue" t h 0 !• n f"!? "N* an d easily-worked 



^ 5m2i hl r the W the trees win 14 Tf ^ ^ dev sed . a "d the more nearly 

 5^0^ ^ o^lTfc ! L P 'f Sent >*! *«? should 7 



^^Uj the conmw/^L!P ow i h . to "P 611 tooroughlv. but I neirW Im« 



of the 



can be co 

 which is 1 



this is by reading 'the° 1,7,^.',"*' " uc TL"*" 17 reailse now common an evil 

 and which w3b7m,^™T U f q ueri f s . w hich appear on the matter every year, 



to the «U^ 1 toSS^? e,ied *■ nU ^ bCr if Sl i ffiCien - 1 atteDti ° n W ^ e P aid 

 present and fr™ „ , a PP roac hing dryness at any time of the year. The 



whok veaJlr n? T ° nWards Until the end of autumn » is the best seJon if the 

 recently and^ I SS? 8 ^ Dti ^ This subject has been treated 



shSTni in « l^ D 1 allu, l e to k M f r f min dcr that no time nor opportunity 



necessity 



nature ^of The S'll ^ ''■ given that ' and a sufficient d «Pth of soil, the 



E^n,w» ! P J ° l1 matters but lk tle, and peaches can be as well grown in anv 



L g °° d gi ? den S0il * in the ™*t elaborately made borders g Y 

 pleases even fi^ much a PP recia tcd for dessert, for their appearance 



ThTfruits If tS tf f °n r m - ay °°l ^ equal to that of tfa ose gonrbefore. 

 shnnld Z„& a ¥n re fuUy "P e ' wiU kee P wel1 in a cool, dry room : they 



have beS ffcklv if 'f"^ pkced We " a P Mt from each oth " * boxes which 

 naye been thickly hned with cotton wool or the softest of wood wool, over either 



or oiled paper, and on this the 

 a fortniir Th SeleCtl °f aDd handling Wil1 then extend the season for ten days or 



fee fie Wy • ^ P 630 ^ 3 I J eVe , r had WCre ke P l after S athe » n g & an 



fi?vn,n Z f i*"^. SOl i nci and P leasing to the eye for weeks, but the 

 nhw t fK ° rated sadI 7 ln the meanwhile, and unless required for a special 

 SL- ♦ P V S , D0t . t0 ^ commended. Where the young stock of pines is 

 insufficient no delay should be permitted in potting up more suckers to meet the 

 requirements, as operations of this kind are best suspended through the winter, 

 mere is still time to give earlier suckers now in small pots a shift into those a size 

 or two larger, but avoid anything like over-potting at this season.— J. C. Tallack, 

 Liver mere Park Gardens. ' 



T 



O 



That fungus tribe is at work again. Years ago its emissaries rotted the potato ; 

 then they ruined the vines ; now they have attacked the olive. Nothing is sacred 

 from these aggressive organisms ; they are here, there, and everywhere— in the 

 grain plants and the vegetables ; blighting the corn, blistering the tea leaves, and 

 even corrupting the bulbs of Japanese lilies. 



A minute fungus has been discovered which attacks the fruit of the olive, and 

 produces a small round spot on the berry, which results in its destruction. It 

 appeared nine years ago in Italy ; in 1891 it had also infected the South of France ; 

 and no doubt, before long, will invade other countries, though as yet Spain and 

 Tunis are said to have been spared. The outlook is a gloomy one, for anything 

 like a permanent failure in the olive crop would mean ruin to many agriculturists, 

 and the destruction of a profitable industry. Some few years ago the area of land 

 devoted to olive culture in Italy alone was given as two and a-quartcr million 

 acres, and the total production of olive oil as some ninety millions of gallons. 

 This would make a respectable lake. If all were poured into one reservoir it 

 would have to be four hundred yards square and ten feet deep. Other vegetable 

 oils there are, but none of them equal, for dietary purposes, to mans old friend— 

 the olive, though some of them, on the 14 cheap and nasty " principle, have been 

 too often used of late years by the adulterator to spoil the flavour of the genuine 

 article. One of these goes by the name of Gingelie, the product of a plant called 

 Sesamum indicum, which is largely exported from India, and, amongst other 

 places, to France and Italy. Another is cotton-seed oil, which has now become 

 a very important product, and of this, at the beginning of the present decade, 

 over three hundred and fourteen thousand tons were brought to our own country 

 alone, most of it coming from Egypt. 



But a certain sentiment attaches itself to the produce of the olive tree, which 

 not even the discovery of a substitute, or the most successful result of synthetic 

 chemistry, would entirely replace. It is such an old-time memory — " Wine that 

 maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to give him a cheerful countenance ! " The 

 vine and the olive go so very far back in human history. We hear of the latter in 

 the first consecration ceremony, when the fugitive Patriarch poured oil on the rude 

 stone which he reared on the hillside at Bethel. It figures again and again in 

 Hebrew history, in the anointing of priest and king, as a symbol of honour or of 

 prosperity. It was just as familiar in Greece and in Rome as it was in Palestine, 

 and is among Southern nations at the present day— nay, probably was then in 

 more general use, because the substitutes were fewer. There was good and bad 

 then as Horace knew well ; and the athletes of old set as much store on simple 

 oil as their successors would do on the more pungent liniments of modern times. 

 Centuries we might almost say milleniums, of cultivation have vastly improved 

 the fruit ' The home of the plant is Syria and the adjacent region of Asia. There 

 the olive grows wild, as we incidentally learn from the well-known simile of 

 grafting the result of cultivation on the original stock. In that condition it is a 

 B » * L...J. ru„« o ihmh. and thornv. With cultivation it attains a 



small tree, hardly more tnan a uuuu, r "*T y " 



greater size, not only in fruit, but also m bole and branch, beco 

 thirty feet in height. » also loses 



an effect of culture which has, sa> 



ihl Standard, Sen noted in beings at the top >( the animal kingdom 



At what date the olive was introduced into European regions we du . — 

 It flourishes all about the Mediterranean ; but though the tree can exist in the 

 l!h?Fn<rUnd under favourable conditions, our climate is too severe for It to do 

 ^J^S^mSm^S New World by the Spaniards, and in some parts 

 SirJS" now cultivated in Australia. Apart from its commercial 



Die natural beauty. Where it is grown 

 r for its foliage or grace of form ; but 

 lillside it is really handsome. Those 



who have seen the group of 01a ouvc irec* on the way from Monte Carlo to Men- 

 wno nave seen me ^ ^ thcif meed Q f pra ise . an d there is something very 



attractive in the grey, f^^^J^f^ SS ^ thC ^ ° f 



a w. — 



cannot be said eithi 

 ;row freely on the 

 U r»f nld olive trees 



tone will not refuse the 



the Eastern Riviera or rise a 



ruins 



«t Hampton Court.— These fine border flowers constitute 

 to m^ ^SxmjnA now not the least of the floral attractions offered in these 



popular gardens " 



The majority are of a fine double strain, but some are single. 



™ ~„ Kb* thf singles best, but as a rule they do not give the massive spike the 

 Very many the singles De , y the insidious fungus, but as 



i do. Of course, iu y . , . of t!***Mm the 



SspTr S? 



margins the broad terrace walk, an 

 it. The trardens are verv beautiful 



^e e «3 of threes ^ - 

 ^ applied with watir !n ,1c See that the borders are 



1(d their cV T'one ^riT^SS WheD ^ treeS 



one ot the greatest errors that 



many ot them are ramt. — r- 

 hollyhocks line the long fast border that 



they get some shade no doubt they like ... 



now, the bedding being very diversely arranged from what has 

 Z ~ 1 r«nlt is to encourage visits from all classes in gr 



give desired stimulus to Iheir culture B ener Jly. -A. D. 



