PINE-A1TLES FROM SUCKERS. 
327 
The Queen grows a handsome bed of Tulips, 
presented to the Queen Dowager, while Queen 
of England, but the bed is capable of great 
improvement, and it is to be hoped such an 
example will be made. The new gardens at 
Frogmore would be worthy of a first-rate col- 
lection, and there should not be wanting the 
means of making it so. When we consider 
the thousands of pounds that have been ex- 
pended on that garden, and the fact that for 
many years — nay, we may say centuries — that 
the Dutch beat us in Tulips ; and, moreover, 
that the encouragement given by various 
societies, excited an emulation which has re- 
sulted in our beating the whole world in that 
splendid flower, there should be a kind of 
national feeling with regard to it. There does 
not seem to be anything unreasonable in a wish 
that the management of the Royal Gardens 
should take it up as a point of national import- 
ance. Mr. Ingram, the gardener at Frog- 
more, had the care of the bed in the Castle 
Gardens, and whether it be still grown there, 
or in the new establishment, we may be per- 
mitted to hint, that it would not be derogatory 
to either, to improve the bed by the addition 
of all the flowers raised in England, that may 
be fairly placed among the best of their day. 
It contributed in no small amount to the suc- 
cess of English growers, when the late Queen, 
now Queen Dowager, thought it worthy of her 
Royal bounty, to give a ten guinea plate an- 
nually to a Tulip Show in the neighbourhood 
of Bushy ; and we feel quite assured that her 
present Majesty, upon a proper application, 
would continue that encouragement. Nor is 
it at all too much to expect, that it would sti- 
mulate the rising generation, the young cul- 
tivators of the Tulip, to great exertions to keep 
the English Tulip-growers in advance of the 
Hollanders. Besides this, we feel confident, 
that if it were once seen that Tulips were 
grown in collections as well as they could be 
grown at the Royal Gardens, it would induce 
many of the nobility and gentry to take up the 
subject, and enrich their grounds with a bed 
worthy of their several establishments. These 
things are well worthy the consideration of 
whoever may happen, at this time, to have 
the superintendence and control of the gardens 
at Windsor and Frogmore; for, whenever the 
national pride is excited to rival foreigners, it 
is by no means too much'to look for counte- 
nance from the Crown ; more particularly as, 
when her late Majesty, now Queen Dowager, 
had done. so much, by a donation of 10Z. , for the 
honour of winning which so many competed. 
PINE-APPLES FROM SUCKERS. 
It is the ordinary practice to remove the 
suckers from Pine plants as soon as they are 
large enough. To strike them, grow them up 
to a proper size, disroot them, repot them 
again, and grow them up to fruit, all of which 
takes mostly eighteen months. It has been, 
however, recommended of late, and, among 
others, we believe, by Mr. Hamilton, whose 
treatise on the Pine and Cucumber has been 
some time before the public, to leave the 
suckers on the old roots, to plant them down 
low enough to have the base of the sucker 
under the surface, and to grow them on as 
fast as they can be grown without disturbing 
the old root at all. We have seen this system 
in practice, and so far as the experiments were 
tried in one establishment, it answered per- 
fectly. When it happened that there were 
two suckers on a plant, one took the lead a 
little; but, in general, though one fruit pre- 
ceded the other a trifle, both the fruits were 
as fine as that had been from the parent plant. 
When there happened to be but one sucker, 
the plant advanced more rapidly, and the fruit 
came earlier; but so far as experience went in 
this establishment, the period of fruiting was 
hastened variously from three to six months, 
which is the greatest object in the growth of a 
fruit that has to be kept in high temperature. 
If the firing of a house full of pines could be 
saved for three to six months, it. would form 
no small difference in the item of coals - r and 
the saving of labour is not much less import- 
ant. The first consideration, then, is, when the 
fruit is cut, to get a deeper, larger pot; put in 
the plant, without disturbing the roots, some 
such depth as will place the base of the sucker 
under the soil, the object of which is, that it 
may strike root, as well as derive nourishment 
from the parent; treat it then in all respects 
as you would other plants, growing it as fast 
as you can. The bloom will rise long before 
it would had it been taken off to strike; and 
though the roots from the sucker may fill the 
pot, it is not the more to be detached, from 
the parent on that account. Let them grow 
together until the fruit is fit to cut, and, if other 
suckers rise, treat them the same. All the 
time that a. sucker is striking root, and getting, 
root sufficient to carry on its growth, is en- 
tirely saved; and in families where fruit of all' 
sizes and seasons are acceptable, it is of the 
greatest possible advantage. If the sucker is- 
not sunk down below the soil, so as to strike 
root, the fruit comes smaller; but if it be sunk, 
it continues growing well from the nourish- 
ment afforded by the parent all the while it is 
striking and making root, which is two or 
three months always, and sometimes more 
than three or four. The plan is being adopted 
now in most places when there is a strong 
healthy sucker on the plant. Where they are 
weak, they want the noui'ishment of the parent 
more, not less, and it should be adopted when 
size and season are no object. 
