68o 



GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



October 2 2, ^ 



The Grapes at Chiswick are very fine this ' 



berry, quality, and general finish, and Z ^"^ZZt £ « 

 by Fellows of the Royal Horticultural Sociefv f nr at. o °!, g ^ eran y. r ecogni S ed 



means of the masses. Unenumerated fruits continue to be received in 



increased quantities, the imports amounting to 328,793 bushels, against -—7, 1 — => — » — seems to be generall 



251,154 and 157,224 bushels respectively in the corresponding month of Fellows of the Royal Horticultural Society, for, Mr. S. T. Wright^n? 08 " 

 the two preceding years. There has been a similar increase in the imports orders are plentiful, and it is not likely that many bunches will smil° rmS 

 of the first nine months of these three years, and it is of interest to " f nf '- - ■ • p ' 



observe that the value of the imports for the nine months ending with 

 September last closely approached three-quarters of a million sterling. 



r — ■ --■ ~ *»j lU a(. many Dunches will snoil tl' 



collection of varieties of grapes at Chiswick is extensive, and at the ™ e L t J ' 

 there are a number to select from. In the big vinery the followiL ,!! 



In the big vinery the following are rioe . 



Black Hamburgh, Black Alicante, Lady 



It is satisfactory to have evidence in the returns that the consumers were ^water. **** J glabra, Dutch Hamburgh (poVqu^G^cZr 

 less dependent during the past month upon foreign growers for their S?? f ^S m ?t fo w'. t T^' and MuSCat of Ak ™< 



Wlth Gros Guillaume to follow soon. In the long vinery Gros Maroc is to 

 ripe. In one of the small curvilinear vineries such interesting varieties as S 

 Antonio, Muscat of Hungary, Royal Ascot, and Golden Queen are ripe while Z 

 the muscat house there still remain splendid examples of Muscat of Alexandri 



fair siVprl. hut Iamtp herried bunrlipc • Can^n tr„n tut <. __ i t. . ' 



supplies of potatos than was the case last year. Last month the imports 



the value of £17,078, in the corresponding month of 1897. For the year the muscat house there still remain splendid examples of Muscat of Al rf" 1 



the imports of potatos will be heavy, as during the nine months under fair sized, but large berried bunches ; Canon Hall Muscat and BowoodT 



review we imported nearly 6,500,000 cwt., against about 2,250,000 cwt. in Foster's Seedling, almost all gone ; Mrs. Pearson, Madresfield Court, finished? 



the tWO nreviOUS Years. As regards Values, we havfi naid thk vear tiParlu the* limp this nnnrars ; Mrs. Pinrp anrl n«/1»o1„^ *U-. i-i. t ,' : _ ™ 



the two previous years. As regards values, we have paid this year nearly 

 £ r ,000,000 



& ' T ° ' — • 1 w,su "i luaurcsneia ^ourt, hnishedby 



the time this appears ; Mrs. Pince and Dodralabe, the latter a poor form of Gros 

 Colmar, and evidently left in the muscat house as a kind of "shocking example." 



Triflfo 0 **o tnotiif hi Vu P>r*re r»f i n f brevet- n f /^UJ«.-»,: 1 l. _ 



/o *rr~n*~~ vwA ju ^ nw v * aim Auy/. v/uiuiia — - — v — — — — — ~* ««u 3 c ao «, iuuu ui - snocKing example." 



show a drop both in quantity and value for September ; the quantity There are many subjects of interest at Chiswick, but the apples and pears in the 



received having been 664,376 bushels, of the value of ^72,486, as com- fruit room and the han S in g bunches of grapes in the various vineries are the chief 



nnvarl M***tt n i* r m k,^k A l«. w "Ui~U «. :„ ' / O _ O s _ . , i tLTi(\ tYlPSP: ATP Sllph fLS tO DFOVP that tVlP- <Ta rrl ^ne ora ~~ _l -i ' 



£8 . 



a large sum to pay for a month's supply of onions, which nowhere can be 

 grown to a higher degree of perfection than in this country, as witness 



during the past week 



" — t>—t> — v * B^r^ we va.nu us vineries are the chief, 



and these are such as to prove that the gardens are not quite so played out as 

 some would have us suppose. 



" Orchid Culture w is the title of a small treatise issued by the Leeds 

 Westminster Orchid Company, in which the several details that must have attention are dealt 



with. These details include the temperature, heating, ventilation, and shading cf 

 orchid houses, and the potting, watering, and resting of the plants. The several 



The Orchid Houses at Kew, at least those to which the public were diseases to which orchids are subject are also referred to. 



admitted, have been rebuilt of late, and, as previously noted in our columns, four 

 houses take the place of the original two. These are lower-roofed than the old 

 ones, and are thus better adapted to plant cultivation, while the visitor can the 

 better examine and study the specimens. The effect of the plants as now arranged is 

 scarcely so striking as formerly, but the provision of four small houses allows of 

 as many variations of temperature, whereas before the new order of things the 

 orchids had perforce to put up with either hot or cool conditions. The private 

 department attached to the T-Range has also undergone considerable alteration 



and expansion, so that there now seems to be sufficient space for our extensive f , „ A uv * * , 4 , A ^ ¥ 



onri rnmnr^^c,'^ t - if 4.' r ... £ , ^ thought on my return the dahlias must have somehow eot wrongly named. But 



and comprehensive national collection of these most interesting: plants. For many .£ ■ . . .TT V> ti 7t\ i_ i Al j u «. 



UMr(! nocf . .i^ „ r „u;j 0 ~ & a f j- r ? , now tn e weather is cooler the bright scarlet has come back, and the dull browny 



years past the orchids have suffered from overcrowding, for the number of plants ^ u , „ . , s ™ , , , / , u w 



on j e ^;«c j lm -.t i . i , , ^, tint has gone, and all is as usual. The only colour the heat seemed (to me) to suic 



and species has increased, while the space at disposal remained the same. The , u i j u t a j • ^ u • / 1 ^ 



nr : M f P ii ^ j A , , , was the salmons, and they have been very fine and intense, having a sort of glow 



private orchid houses are all connected with those open to the public by a closed a( jded to them 



The Potato Disease, in spite of the long-continued dry weather, has not 

 been so completely checked as was generally expected. The late crops in 



Effect of Drought upon Floral Colours.— The Rev. W. Wilks has 



made the following observations on the colouration of flowers of the present 

 season : All through the exceptionally hot weather of the end of July and August 

 all scarlet flowers had a tinge of dull brown in them, pink had a shade of orange, 

 yellow was very yellow, white was creamy. This was very marked— e.g., in 

 dahlias. Thus Fire King and Sunset, two ordinary bright clear scarlet flowers, 

 had a distinct dull bro.vn tint overlying and spoiling utterly the usual scarlet, so 

 much so that, having been away from home the first three weeks of the heat, I 



and covered way, an improvement likely to be appreciated by those in charge 

 quite as much as by the plants. One misses the porch-like house at the outer 

 end of the orchid houses wherein the insectivorous plants were grown, and its 



absence is rather a disadvantage, for now one has to pass out of doors from one Cornwall, Cumberland, Devon, Lancashire, Lincoln, Kent, Stafford, Norfolk, 



pair of houses to the other, instead of making the tour of all the orchid and other Nottingham, Yorkshire, and Monmouth have in very many instances been affected 

 i • A \ . . - . . . « i 



houses in the range without going out of doors. 



In Lanark and Roxburgh the pest has been found, and also in the Welsh counties 



The Drought in East Kent.— Mr. E. Hollman, Bramhope, Canterbury, of Anglesey, Glamorgan, Merioneth, and Pembroke. We 



writes : Seldom has rain been needed here more than previous to the recent rains 



the early crops, properly ripened and stored, are sprouting fast,iso that they will 



for with so little for the past three months the need for it became seriously be difficult to kee P well unless cold weather sets in. 



apparent 



many 



they require moisture, many deciduous kinds shedding their leaves prematurely, 

 and will take some time to recover. Never have I seen the stems of Jerusalem 

 artichokes with so many flower buds, the result of the hot, dry weather. When 

 visiting a neighbouring garden lately I noticed that the celery crop was almost a 

 failure, and was informed that although it had been well attended to by frequent 



wafPnW ^ i , i j , ° 1 , / — 1 increased, out not nearly as greatly in proportion as nome supplies, ouu - — 



waterings, &c the plan s had refused to grow, and would not pay for earthing clear that home ^ ^ gined ground in relation to their foreign rivals, 

 up. Xhe garden has a light subsoil. Caterpillars have done much damage in -ml -TL „ r ^ .r.„i_. u t—;—^* extraordinary 



The English Cut Flower Trade.— At the conclus ion of a most interest 



ing article on Flower Farming in England, contributed to the Journal of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society, Mr. W. E. Bear says there is no doubt that flower- 

 growing is greatly extending in this country, and that competition among home 

 growers is becoming more and more severe. Foreign ^supplies of flowers have 

 increased, but not nearly as greatly in proportion as home supplies, and it seems 



v *Vn»<. t j • _«i„4-:^« f/-» tViAir fnreipn rivals, 



The garden has a light subsoil. Caterpillars have done much damage in 



many places, almost stripping cauliflowers, sprouts, Sec. The frosts of September 



27 and 29, which cut marrows, dahlias, &c, remind us that the time for planting 



fruit trees, &c, is close at hand, and how much we need rain for this most 



important work, for, although we may water, who can do this part of the work 

 like Nature? 



Sir Edwin and Lady Saunders celebrated their golden wedding at 



Fairlawn, Wimbledon Common, on Wednesday, the 1 2th inst. Both Sir Edwin 

 and Lady Saunders were the recipients of many 11 golden " tokens of affection and 

 esteem from friends at home and abroad, and among the two hundred guests who 

 gathered to congratulate the genial President of the National Chrysanthemum 

 Society and his amiable lady were such distinguished personages as Sir Samuel 



sicians 



v.icai uittt iiuuic growers nave gainea grounu m iciauuu iu — - - ■ 

 except with respect to flowers for the growth of which foreigners have extraordinary 

 natural advantages. There is a danger of the culture of the narcissus being too 

 much expanded ; also that the chrysanthemum is produced in excess of t c 

 demand. Again, in the production of violets, the^ warm' and sunny south o 

 France has an advantage not possessed by this country, while Holland mal ° l *"£ 

 her hold upon the hyacinth and tulip trade for a similar.. reason. But whe c 

 the production of flowers as a whole is gaining ground upon the consumption or 

 not it is difficult to determine. Mr. George Monro, [of Covent Garden, whoj* 

 certainly one of the best authorities, is of opinion that supplies of cut flowers a ^ 

 " pretty nearly overdone," as indicated by the great glut that occurred in 

 summer of 1897. Prices, he says, are much lower than they used to be, an on^> 

 the best growers do well. Thus in flower-growing, as in nearly every 0 > 



Royal College of Surgeons, and Lady 



Odontological 



society; bir William White, Constructor to the Royal Navy, and Lady , 



Sir William and Miss Roberts, Sir Henry Thompson, Sir William H. Broadbent, 

 Lady Russell Reynolds, Lady and Miss White Cooper, &c. As our readers are 

 well aware, Sir Edwin has been a generous patron of horticulture ; he has been a 

 ice-Fresident of the Wimbledon and District Royal Horticultural Society almost 

 rom its institution. He became a Fellow of the Royal Botanic Society in 1853, 

 eing evicted to a seat on the Council, while as a Fellow and President of the 

 Koyai National Chrysanthemum Society he has furthered its interests by his 

 presence and generous support. In Mr. A. Newell, who has been in his service for 

 b \ , ft* Edwin Saui "lers has a most enthusiastic gardener, who 



ini eSwS c ' UPS ™ d medals wo * * Wimbledon, the Royal Aquarium, 

 wofession « J 1, u E ^ bwas born in 18 14, and for his services to the dental 

 OueeTZ 7 ^ 8 m l883 - For m ^ ye*" h « was Dental Surgeon to the 

 w thzlT ° n r ° CCaSi ° Q ° f his g° ld « wedding Her Majesty honoured him 

 w m a jetter of congratulation. We hope the veteran knight may long be spared 



career, inquiry leads to the conclusion tnac " mere is picuij ^ — - 

 In this industry, moreover, there is such a very wide scope for the exer ^ 

 superior skill, industry, and alertness, that it is not surprising to find som 

 nr* pnrrarrd i n u i._vi„ ..,«n f~ all appearance, while o.ne 3 



support 



ure. 



— - -*. b « b> _vi hi 11 uumg reniaiKauiy »™ w ~" -rr' - ho kr. ■<* i 



struggling on and hardly paying their way. To the casual looker-on, , w 

 nothing of the drudgery of the industry, flower-growing seems a deligh u ^ ^ 

 of getting a living. That it is an entrancing pursuit there is no doub ■ * fct . 

 equally true that it is a very arduous one, requiring the most careful 

 ceaseless attention, and abundant energy. 



New Park for Lee and Blackheath.-The Parks 



Committee of the London County Council have informed the Lee ice 



that they will recommend the Council to provide one-half of the p tio0 



for the Manor House Estate, so that the latter shall become a puw ^ ^ 



ground. The owners-Lord Northbrook and Lord Baring— have ^ ^ 



for the nine acres. Lord Northbrook has, however, Cojmni|tee 

 300 towards laving out the estate. We understand ^ ^ ^ DaWic 

 propose to acquire 



Goo 



property, 



ger's 



