734 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



November 12, 1898 



I 



silvery pink ; Secretaire Rivoire, a Japanese with long drooping florets, colour 

 pale canary yellow shaded bronze ; Madame Bertet, pure white tinted flesh colour, 

 are all fairly good. Among others from the same source of special merit may be 

 counted monster blooms of such varieties as Dr. Liebert, globular and deep, colour 

 bright rosy mauve with silvery reverse ; Australian Gold, Madame Carnot, the 

 curious green Madame Ed. Roger, Le Grand Dragon, a fine new golden yellow of 

 this season ; Madame Couvat de Terrail, a big spreading Japanese of a pale pink, 

 passing to white ; Madame Madeleine Expulson, a new white ; Melusine, Tatiana, 

 Antoinette ; Sita, white streaked purple ; M. Chenon de Leche, Werther, and 

 one or two more. 



Well-known standard sorts are also found in good examples of Mrs C. Harman 

 Payne, very large and bright in colour, and in its two sports, M. Louis Remy and 

 Mrs. G. W. Palmer. Madame Rozain is a grand incurving pink Japanese, not a 

 modern one, but still of some value. There are some good blooms of Viviand 

 Morel, Etoile de Lyon, Phoebus, and others from various Continental raisers other 

 than M. Calvat. 



Home-grown and miscellaneous varieties are seen to advantage in Col. W. B. 

 Smith, Modesto, Edith Tabor, a beautiful colour and finely formed ; Ella Curtis, 

 very large ; Lady Ridgeway, Lady Isabel, pale silvery pink ; Robert Powell, Sim- 

 plicity, and Joseph Chamberlain ; while several of the recent sports from varieties 

 of acknowledged merit are represented by excellent blooms of Lady Hanham, 

 Charles Davis, G. J. Warren, and the paler but nevertheless beautiful variety, 

 Mrs. W. Mease. Mr. Hugh Crawford is a very striking deeply built flower of 

 canary yellow, and Mrs. G. Carpenter, bright rosy mauve, is another. 



Illustrative of the value of the chrysanthemum as an outdoor border plant we 

 found in full flower several plants of such free flowering early sorts as Roi des 

 Precoces, Harvest Home, Madame Eulalie Morel, Ivy Stark, M. Dupuis, G. 

 Wermig, Mdlle. Marie Massl, Ambroise Thomas, O. J. Quintus, and others, very 

 valuable for such a purpose and for cutting. 



WORK 



Week 



COOL ORCHIDS. 



Onions for Autumn Sowing. 



I OBSERVE that "A. D." omits one point in his recent note, viz., that 

 the best strains of summer or Spanish onions are the best and the 

 longest keeping to sow at any season, and that they are also hardier than 

 the Tripoli and other onions usually sown in the autumn. Possibly the 

 hardiness is structural rather than constitutional. Thick or bull-necked 

 onions seldom winter so soundly and well as those with small and 

 delicate necks. The flesh of most spring onions is also harder and 

 firmer, and more impervious and insensible to climatal influences than the 

 larger, softer Italians, Tripolis, &c. There is yet another point in favour 

 of sowing spring rather than the so-called autumn onions for the winter, 

 the quality of the onion is better, and reaches to the high level of the best 

 onions sown in February. For a good many years our onion sowing, 

 weather and seed bed permitting, has been forwarded by a full month, 

 the first of February being substituted for the first of March. 



The sound keeping of onions is more a matter of perfect harvesting 

 and cool storing than of dates of sowing. It may seem a long cry from 

 July or August to February or March as favourable times to sow onions 

 in the open. But with perfect tilth and culture, and a good selection of 

 varieties, good useful onions may be grown at either season. Autumnal 



A — m. _ A — a ■ 



sowing, however, has this additional recommendation, it proves a perfect 

 antidote to the greatest scourge of the onion in many gardens — the onion 

 maggot. The practice of autumn sowing onions baulks the onion flies of 

 their sweet and savoury nests on the crown of the bulblets for their 

 eggs. There will be no flies about at that season to lay eggs, nor eggs to 

 lay, nor suitable nests on the young onions to receive them, there can be 

 no resulting maggots. And this freedom from the sore pest of maggots 

 among our onions is the crowning victory and reward of our autumnal 

 sowing of our main crops and best selections of onions. These will 

 become general when growers learn that all onions are alike hardy, and 

 should there be a difference it is in favour of those with smallest necks 

 and hardest flesh. 



U. T. F. 



Migration of the Landrail.— One of the most remarkable things about 



the landrail is, observes the Saturday Review* its extraordinary instinct or 

 passion for migration. Whence comes to it that overpowering desire which, 

 twice in the year, impels it, weak-winged though it is, to change its quarters, to 

 range during our English springtime as far north as the bleak and frozen shores 

 of arctic Greenland, to descend in the fall of the year away south into Africa, 

 and eastward into Asia, reaching in its return migration countries so distant and 

 so widely sundered as Natal and Afghanistan ? At present — in spite of theories 

 and surmises — we have no satisfactory reason offered to us for the wonderful 

 migration— recurring steadily, persistently, and unfailingly, year after year— of a 

 bird like the landiail, whose weak wings and strongly-developed legs plainly 

 attest the fact that its natural powers of progression lie far more in walking and 

 running than in flying. The extent of the migration of the landrail, although not 

 yet perfectly ascertained, is reasonably well known. In its northern passage it 

 reaches, during April and May, England, Scotland, Ireland, the Hebrides, the 

 Orkney and Shetland Islands, the far Faroes, nay even such solitary and remote 

 Atlantic rocks as the lonely islet of St. Kilda. It is well known in North 

 Europe, resorting in its spring passage to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. 

 But, beyond even these great migrations, there is established the fact that this 

 feeble-winged creature, which in September seems scarcely capable of flapping 

 heavily for thirty paces before the gunner, can and does summon up powers of 

 flight sufficient to carry it across stormy and trackless seas as far north as Green- 

 land, and as far north-west as the Bermudas and the eastern shores of North 

 America. Wonderful as are the (acts and records of migration, the case of the 

 homely landrail is certainly one of the most remarkable among the instances of 

 this overpowering instinct. Quitting our British fields towards the beginning of 

 October, the landrail seeks light, warmth, and a fresh variety of food southward 

 and eastward over a sufficiently wide expanse of country. Touching here and 

 there— as it does in its spring migration— various countries in the south of Europe, 

 it proceeds to take up its winter quarters in North Africa, Palestine, and Asia 

 Minor, penetrating eastward certainly as far as Afghanistan. Beyond Afghanistan 

 Us range seems limited, only one instance of the occurrence of the landrail having 

 been recorded in India. In its African migration it is manifest that, although not 

 yet identified m the central part of the Continent, it does pass southward right 

 through the heart of the country. The well-known naturalist, Mr. T. Ayres, iden- 

 tified many specimens years ago in Natal, and its presence there is well known. 

 Curiously enough, only a single specimen has been recorded in the Cape Colony. 



Owing to the continued mildness of the season very little fire-heat has been 

 required up to the present, and only on very few occasions has the outside tern 

 perature been below 45 degrees by night ; therefore the ventilators have been inf 

 constant use, admitting abundance of fresh air both night and day. This o 

 course, has been much in favour of the occupants of the cool houses, as thev 

 have a great dislike to fire-heat or a close atmosphere, and under such favourable 

 conditions the plants have had a splendid opportunity afforded them to make 

 strong and healthy growths, which will greatly assist them to pass through the 

 winter months. At the time of writing we are experiencing some very dull, wet 

 weather, yet very mild, therefore very little damping down is required. On the 

 first appearance of thrip, green or black fly the houses should be fumigated on 

 two successive evenings with X L All " vaporiser. The black fly we find more 

 troublesome than the green, this usually attacking the flower spikes as they issue 

 from the axils ' of the leaves. Keep a sharp look-out also for slugs and small 

 snails, and set traps for them, using pieces of potato, lettuce leaves, beans, &c. 

 They should be also carefully sought for at night with the lamp. I fancy slugs 

 are more voracious at this season than at any other, and they play sad havoc 

 among the tender roots and flower spikes. With regard to the flower spikes, I 

 think there is no better plan than to place a little cotton wool round the base of 

 the spike as soon as it makes its appearance. With valuable plants it is as well 

 to adopt the plan of placing them on an inverted pot stood in a saucer filled 

 with water, and even then it is necessary to watch the plants narrowly for a few 

 weeks at first to see that no slugs have been imprisoned in the fortress, as they 

 cannot pass the moat either way. 



Lycaste Skinneri, and its variety alba, having now matured their growths, 

 will soon begin to show their flower spikes, these being produced from the base of 

 pseudo-bulbs ; from the time the spikes appear a much less supply of water will 

 be needed, taking care, however, not to allow the plants to become dry and cause 

 the pseudo-bulbs to shrivel. L. cruenta, L. aromatica, Anguloa Clowesi, and 

 A, Ruckeri should also be kept pretty dry at the root, and given the driest position 

 in the house. A pretty little cool-house orchid is Coelogyne ocellata ; the spikes, 

 which appear in the young growths, do not produce flowers until the bulbs are 

 matured, this event taking place at the present season, and from now up to the 

 time root action begins again very little water will be sufficient for its needs ; the 

 same remarks apply to C. Schilleriana, which has also finished up its pseudo- 

 bulbs, but this species does not flower until next spring, when it produces its 

 flowers and foliage simultaneously. C cristata, having now completed growth, 

 will only require sufficient water to keep the bulbs from shrivelling ; a cool, dry 

 greenhouse, with the temperature as low as 45 degrees, will suit it during winter, 

 and in such a temperature very little water indeed is needed. The sweet-scented 

 Trichosma suavis, having passed out of flower, is now starting into growth, and if 

 repotting is required it should now be attended to ; the ordinary orchid^ cjmpost 

 will suffice over good drainage. Very little water is needed for some time, only 

 keeping the material just moist until root action becomes brisk, — E. Skill, New 

 Hall Hey Gardens. 



CONSERVATORY AND GREENHOUSE. 



For the next few weeks chrysanthemums will prove the main feature in the 

 conservatory and also provide cut flowers ; but, serviceable as they are now, they 

 are a great deal more so later on, that is, during the latter part of the year and 

 the beginning of January. At that season most gardeners have an extra demand 

 f r plants and flowers, and by having a hundred or so to fall back upon it saves 

 the forced bulbs, poinsettias, and the like ; even the latest varieties of chrysan- 

 themums are liable to be past their best at the period named, when the right buds 

 were not selected or the plants have not been carefully retarded. To ensure a 

 good late display it would be wise to examine the stock of plants at once, and 

 draw out all which promise to be backward, standing them in a cool, airy vinery 

 or peach house, where only just sufficient warmth need be turned on at night to 

 ward off frost. Where individual plants are likely to be required for room decora 

 tion tbey should be arranged thinly, so as to preserve as much of the lower foliage 

 as possible, without which they will not prove serviceable. Where space is 

 limited and cut bloom is the desideratum, then the plants may be packed much 

 closer together, and, though they may lose leaves, the quality of the bloom is not 

 greatly reduced, and, of course, a larger quantity is obtained. We find it best to 

 < evote a few plants of each variety and place them by themselves for the supply 

 «»f cut bloom. The whole plant can then be cut down if necessary, and the stool 

 removed to a cold frame at once, which is far better than cutting over the wnoie 

 collection daily for what cut flowers are required. Now is the season to see tnai 

 the different varieties are properly named, affording new labels where 

 so that they can be easily recognised when the time arrives for taking the cul ™P" 

 Some are naturally shy in producing these at the time it is desired to take men , 

 therefore the old plants should not be destroyed until they are secured ; on inc 

 other hand, of those which show cuttings freely only a few plants neeacc 

 reserved. Cold pits are the best places for cut-down plants ; they can be W™*** 

 near the glass, and the lights can be entirely removed during mild weainc , 

 double mats, of course, being at hand for covering the glass during hard irosis. 



The earliest bulbs, such as Roman hyacinths and I^^^c^IIfS^-X 

 now be sufficiently rooted— where potting was done early in beptemuc 

 placing in gentle heat, when they would produce flowers in a week or . , 

 foliage of each of these should be well up, even with the slight protection < 31 a c £ 

 frame, where all the early bulbs should now be stored. There 15 M *™^4 

 getting the varieties named to flower in November providing they J*J ei 

 and not placed in a brisk heat at once. Time is saved by bnn S ing .^ e ro ve I 

 gradually, and the substance and keeping properties of the Howers ar e p ^ 

 thereby. When brought direct from the outside plunging bed of JJg fesuU . 

 placed in a temperature, perhaps, of 70 degrees, the change is too su aw 

 ing in many of the bulbs coming blind, when of course they are W ^ 

 of each variety should be uncovered, and arranged in cold [frames .near * ftcn 

 The young growth then becomes inured to the light, and »v« *c cn 

 given by exposing the growth which has grown up through jne pmot b ^ ^ 

 several inches and become blanched. When they reach the JW >7£ fry* of 



-i v » u;«vmuu *n — — 



arranging in glares. The same remarks apply to freesias 



unless 



itable for 



Id always 



occupy a shelf near the roof, and if a moderately warm house car, ^ w 

 they commence to Bower both increased substance and F*""" 16 .;* loSCt humid 

 the bloom, which is not the case when they have to devei op m 

 forcing pit. The stock of forcing shrubs, such as thorns, lilacs, ac«u ^jy 

 and rhododendrons, should be arranged in a sheltered spot, stanaint, r- 



