260 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In the middle of September all the trees are moved out on to a 

 spare plot of ground, where they stand until potting, and thus 

 the year's cycle is finished. 



We keep three times as many Plums in pots as we can accom- 

 modate in the house. One-third we take into the house for 

 blooming ; the others are plunged in a spot sheltered from the east 

 wind and from the morning sun, and when their fruit is three- 

 fourths grown that of the first third in the house is ripe, and the 

 one set of trees come out and their places are occupied by half of 

 the others, and in this way three gatherings of Plums are ob- 

 tained. But there are very few Plums to my mind worth this 

 trouble, excepting the various Gages. 



I am often asked by people who see the trees laden with fruit, 

 ''Can they go on bearing like this year after year?" "Well, 

 mine have done so for six years, and look as if they were good 

 for four years more at least, and no one need grudge renewing 

 them every eight or ten years. The one difficulty is to prevent 

 them getting "leggy" — a difficulty I confess I have not yet 

 entirely mastered. 



Another thing often asked is, "Is the flavour as good as that 

 of open-air fruit ? " And here I find it so difficult to make 

 people understand that whether in-doors or out different varieties 

 possess different degrees of flavour, and that we grow different 

 varieties for the different excellences each one possesses. Alexander 

 and Waterloo we grow for their earliness, for without them we 

 should not have, as we had this very year, Peaches ripe on the 

 12th day of June, and their flavour is good ; but we do not ex- 

 pect it to be as super-excellent as Alexandra Noblesse, which 

 under similar treatment ripens only in August. There is no 

 denying, again, that some of the latest Peaches, which under 

 similar treatment ripen in September, are somewhat coarse- 

 grained, and had I my choice I would rather have Barrington, 

 Crimson Galande, or Royal George from a wall than Sea Eagle or 

 Princess of Wales, or even the Nectarine Peach, from the house ; 

 but having no wall there is no choice. But bearing these things 

 in mind, and comparing the same varieties only, I should say the 

 house-grown fruit is at least equal in flavour and superior in 

 nieltingness to that grown in the open. 



I subjoin a list of the varieties I have grown. 



