528 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Jane 26, 1885. 
a Double-blossomed Apple, which originated as a bud-sport on a tree 
producing ordinary single flowers. It is very double, as much so as a 
Rose, and is about 2 inches in diameter, white, with a rosy tinge in the 
centre. It is to be hoped that our correspondent will keep a look-out for 
this another year, and if it is reproduced he should propagate the spray 
by grafting, so as to secure its permanency. It was in this way that the 
Scarlet Golden Pippin was obtained. There is a form of Pyrus spectabilis 
which frequently comes semi-double in the flowers, but this is quite dis¬ 
tinct from that. 
- The eighth autumn Show of Chrysanthemums, fruit, and vege¬ 
tables in connection with the Canterbury Gardeners’ Society will 
be held at the Foresters’ Hall on November 13th and 14th. Special 
prizes will be offered, open to Kent. Mr. Fricker is the Secretary. 
- A correspondent writes to us :—“ I have been for some time 
jn the neighbourhood of Limerick, and have paid a visit to GlenstAL, 
Sib Croker Barrington’s beautiful domain, where the display of 
Rhododendrons of every shade and tint is truly magnificent, and the many 
beautiful shrubs and Conifers quite surprising. Araucarias are quite 
60 feet high, and hranching to the very ground. I was much struck by 
a mass of Azalea pontica, fully 10 feet high. This beautiful place is well 
worthy of a visit.” 
- Calley’s Polish Stain for Wood, which is made by the 
Torbay Paint Company, is the best thing of the kind we have met with 
It acts not only as a stain, but as a varnish combined. We have tried 
both the pale and the dark oak colours applied to ordinary deal, and the 
effect is very good on such fancy articles as young ladies delight in 
decorating, such as milking stools, screens, and ornamental brackets. But 
though we have only seen them used for such purposes as we have 
indicated, we find that these stains are equally applicable to floors and all 
other kinds of woodwork, finishing the surface with a fine polish, and not 
with a dead colour, as some stains do, and which require to be polished 
afterwards. The floor polish of the same company is very effectual in 
producing a fine polish on stained floors, a small quantity being sufficient 
for the purpose. 
-The Summer Show of the Winchester Horticultural 
Society will be held on July 16th. A well-arranged schedule is pro¬ 
vided, and good prizes ofEered for plants, cut Roses, fruit, and table deco¬ 
rations. The chief prizes are £10 for twelve stove and greenhouse 
plants, £4 for forty-eight Roses, and £2 for six dishes of fruit. Messrs. 
Porter and Colson are the Honorary Secretaries. 
- Mr. Owen, Castle Hill, Maidenhead, sends us two extremely 
fine blooms of Fuchsia General Gordon, which he states are from a 
plant in a 60-size pot. The corollas are 1^ inch long, the petals very 
broad, and of a fine purple hue, veined with scarlet at the base ; the 
calyx is of a fine bright scarlet colour, the lobes strongly reflexed. The 
plant is said to be of good habit, free in growth and flowering, and there¬ 
fore must be a very useful variety. 
- The same correspondent states that he has several Chrysan¬ 
themums in Flower, including “ a new Japanese variety named 
Coquette de Castille, also Mdlle. Melanie Fabre, M. Viviana Morel, 
colour silvery lilac, with broad petals. The plant is growing in a 48-pot 
expanding four blooms. In addition to the above I have the following 
another, by which food could be at the command of the Vines at the time 
when they most needed assistance to swell and perfect their berries during 
the colouring process. 
There is no comparison between the Grapes grown on Vines confined 
to the pots in which they were grown and those from Vines placed in 
14-inch pots when their shoots have advanced from 2 to 8 inches in 
length. I have grown Vines, produced under exactly the same conditions, 
on both systems side by side, and those potted were so much superior 
both in colour, size of berry, and flavour, as well as in the appearance of 
the Vines, that it would have been impossible for any outsider to have 
realised that they were Vines of the same size, age, and strength at the 
beginning of the season. This is not the only advantage gained by the 
system of potting young Vines as I recommended in these pages some 
years ago ; those forced in the pots in which they are grown are useless 
after the fruit has been cut, while those repotted are capable of yielding a 
better crop of fruit the second than the first year. The former for the 
supply of a crop of Grapes entails considerable labour in the raising and 
growing of a batch of Vines annually. Vines raised annually from eyes 
for forcing cannot be ripened and rested so early in the season to allow of 
an early start like those potted and forced again the second year. This 
does not even exhaust the resources of these Vines, for they will carry a 
very creditable crop the third year. I have never retained them in the 
large pots for the third crop, but a friend who has adopted this system 
has done so, and his Vines are showing well again this year. Last season 
they were bearing their second crop, and the produce was decidedly the 
finest I have ever seen produced on Vines in pots. 
My friend’s practice differs slightly from the system I detailed, and as 
I consider it an improvement I will give it for the benefit of those who 
are compelled to grow a few early Grapes in pots. After the Vines have 
borne their first crop of fruit in large pots, and have ripened their wood 
and are pruned, they are turned out of their pots and supplied with fresh 
clean drainage, and over this some fresh compost is placed, thus elevating 
the surface of the ball higher in [the pot, which allows a little soil to he 
placed all round the ball. This is repeated after the second season, bring¬ 
ing the surface of the hall level with the rim of the pot. A rim is formed 
round the side, with portions of turf to allow of a good supply of water 
being given. It will be seen that instead of top-dressing, the fresh compost 
is placed at the base and round the sides of the ball, a little of the old 
soil being carefully removed where practicable. 
The above system is a good one, and may be practised by all with 
success where it is not convenient to plant out the Vines in a small 
prepared border about 18 or 20 inches in width. It may be mentioned, 
for the benefit of those that have not yet practised the potting system, 
that careful watering is needed for some time, until their roots are active 
and working freely in the fresh compost. The planting-out system is 
decidedly better than growing the Vines in pots of a large size. If raised 
in pots the Vines should be planted out in a green state, or any time 
during their ripening period while the foliage is fresh and the roots active, 
so that they become established, or partially so, before they go to rest. 
Under these circumstances they start freely, and there is not so much fear 
of the soil becoming dry. Some that were grown in pots fruited the first 
year in 14-inch size, and then planted out in a prepared border the following 
season when they had 1 foot of growth upon them, have carried four good 
crops of early Grapes. Three Vines only have been retained for the 
purpose of testing them farther, and they are this season showing greater 
vigour and the prospect of a better crop than during the past two years. 
This clearly shows that the system of raising Vines in pots annually— 
which to have them in good condition for forcing gives unspeakable 
trouble, for they require constant attention during the whole season to 
have them ripe early and in the most satisfactory condition for forcing 
early—will before very long be regarded as a system of the past, for it is 
by no means the easiest and most economical plan that can be practised of 
obtaining an early crop of Grapes. The system by which an early crop 
can be obtained with a minimum of labour and care shall be detaile 1 in, 
a future issue for the benefit of others.— Wm. Bardney. 
ERICA CAVENDISHIANA. 
varieties in bloom and bud:—George Glenny, Isodore Feral, Carmen, 
Lawrence, Lyon, Garnet, Belle Paule, Baron de Prailly, Peter the Great, 
Etoile Toulousaine, Flamme du Punch, M. Tarin, and Brunetti.” 
YOUNG VINES FOR EARLY FORCING. 
The old system of growing Vines from eyes and forcing them in the 
10 or 12-inch pots in which they were grown will, I venture to predict, 
soon become obsolete. Many, however, still cling resolutely to this old 
practice, and vigorously condemn any innovation as unreliable. Long 
before I had the responsibility of producing a crop of early Grapes from 
Vines in pots I failed to see the force of clinging to a practice that had 
nothing to recommend it but labour, care, and uncertainty. 
After a Vine has been twelve months, or nearly so in a pot, and has 
filled it with a mass of roots, it exhausts the soil of its fertility and 
becomes dependent for future sustenance upon food supplied. That the 
soil was considered exhausted is proved by the fact that one of the 
essentials of this old system was large quantities of liquid manure after 
the roots once commenced activity, This system of feeding was, and is, 
carried on with unceasing regularity until the berries commence colouring, 
when it must be discontinued, or insipid flavourless Grapes will be the 
result. Whether this system of feeding is complete must be left to its 
advocates to prove ; its incompleteness led me to abandon it and adopt 
One of the most useful of all the Heaths is Erica Cavendishiana r 
and none makes a more effective exhibition plant than this free-growing 
and floriferous hybrid. Visitors to the chief London and provincial shows 
during the summer months are accustomed to seeing large and handsome 
specimens of it, but probably the best that has ever been staged is that of 
which an illustration is given in fig. 126, a reproduction from a photo¬ 
graph of the wonderful plant with which Mr. Cypher of Cheltenham has 
gained so many honours. Twice at Regent’s Park this year, at Man¬ 
chester, and several other places it has been most prominent amongst the 
other fine examples of culture from the same establishment, and it has 
awakened the admiration of all plant-growers. The specimen is very 
evenly developed, over 6 feet high and as much in diameter, in perfect 
health, and covered with large brightly coloured flowers ; not a fault 
could be found with it, for unlike many large specimens, it was as fresh 
as a three or four-year-old plant. This is one of the distinguishing 
characters of all Mr. Cypher’s plants, and is ensured by a liberal system 
of culture resulting in a vigorous clean growth, such as is always so 
pleasing. 
Comparatively few are aware that this Heath is a hybrid, and one of 
