482 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 19, 1884. 
cester, and although they did well last spring, or—that is, in 1883, 
we did not try to crop them to the utmost then, but this season they 
have been bearing fully. Half a dozen were placed in an out-of-the- 
way corner in a Pine house in January last, and here they flowered 
freely, set a capital crop, and swelled to our satisfaction. Some 
of the little Nectarine trees growing in a 10-inch pot produced as 
many as seventy well-developed fruits, and we found them all most 
acceptable. 
This plan of introducing a few pot trees in order to secure early 
fruit is a capital one, and should be generally practised by all who 
have no special early Peach house. It is quite a simple arrange¬ 
ment placing pot trees in the corners of warm houses in spring, as 
with a little care they will succeed in such situations perhaps beyond 
expectations. Early in spring, when the flowers are open, they 
require to be brushed over daily, then insects must be kept down with 
the syringe ; but the most important of all is to keep the plants well 
watered at the roots. There must be no fluctuation in this. Once too 
dry is ruinous, as it checks growth, and not unfrequently causes the 
fruit to fall ; but it is easy enough to keep the soil and roots moist 
by watering from once to three or four times a day, according to the 
heat and aridity experienced. When the fruits are newly formed 
they should not be hurried on by stimulants, but as soon as they 
have formed their stones liquid manure may be applied every 
alternate day, and a change of food is beneficial. Sometimes we 
water ours from the cow manure tank, then they have a little guano, 
and all such is given in a weak diluted sta‘e. 
As soon as the fruit has been gathered attention must not cease ; 
on the contrary, it is just at this time that they must be well attended 
to, that a good crop may follow next year. In bringing the trees 
from a warm house they should be gradually hardened until they 
can be finally placed in the open air in July. Then they should be 
in a sunny position, with the pots plunged to the rims in ashes, and 
water must be given freely whenever it is required.—K. G. 
NOTES FROM MY GARDEN IN 1883. 
HERBACEOUS BORDERS AND ROCKERY. 
There is nothing in my garden that gives me a greater amount of 
pleasure than do those portions devoted to hardy plants, for the pleasure 
is not that of a few weeks, but lasts throughout the entire season. From 
early spring to late autumn there is always something to be seen, some¬ 
thing to admire ; and as I can recall the time when, following the stream, 
I used my space and time for the collection of bedding plants, and 
gazed for many months on empty beds, where now I have always 
something, if not in flower, at any rate green, and fresh, and promising 
some future enjoyment, I can appreciate the change which has taken 
place in this style of gardening during the past few years ; and while 
there may be danger in running, as we are so apt to do, into extremes 
in England, yet has the change been of immense benefit to gardening, 
and an especial boon to those who only possess small gardens. 
We were wont to regard the Snowdrop as the earliest harbinger of 
spring ; but long ere the Snowdrop had opened, beautiful clumps of 
Cyclamen vernum and Atkinsii rejoiced our eyes with their pretty 
dooms and foliage. By-the-by, is it certain that Atkinsii is anything 
more than a variation ? Mr. Atkins of Painswick (lately deceased) crossed 
vernum with persicum, and hence obtained this variety ; but may it not 
have been, as in many instances, that the crossing failed ? I cannot 
trace a shade of persicum in it, and as that is not hardy, which certainly 
Atkinsii is, it gives colour to the notion that Nature was more powerful 
than the hybiidiser. Then immediately after that came that very fine 
Saowdrop, Galanthus Elwesii, far superior to the common Snowdrop of 
our gardens in the size of its flowers, and, as far as my experience goes, 
earlier. With this also were associated Crocus Imperati and a few 
others. Hepaticas are with me a failure, why I do not know ; but even 
.EL angulosa has not done well, and its blooms have been invariably 
eaten off by slugs before they are fully developed. Then came at 
nearly the same time delightful clumps of the lovely Chionodoxa 
Lucilhe. I cannot understand anyone thinking lightly of this lovely 
gem if they succeed in growing it. Every year seems with me to 
increase its value. At first it had only two or three flowers on a stem, 
now it is to be seen with seven, and a friend informs me that he has 
had one with eleven on it ; then, as the smallest bulb blooms, as each 
clump increases in size the blooms are more numerous. Beds of it are 
very beautiful, and I do not think it is any disparagement to the older 
Scilla siberica to say that it rivals if not excels it. 
I am not sufficiently affected by the Daffodil mania to go into ecstacies 
over them. They are doubtless very beautiful, and add a great charm 
to our early flowers, but as to going in for a collection of them as a 
collection I do not see it quite yet. In the little paddock in front of 
my house the common double Daffodil has established itself, and various 
patches of it in the Lenten season have a very pretty effect. I notice 
each year an increase in the number of clump". How does this arise? 
Being meadow it is never disturbed, and consequently as the clumps 
are some distance from one another I do not quite understand how this 
increase is effected. Narcissus minor I have found to be a great 
favourite with slugs, and unless carefully watched none of the blooms 
escapes their ravages. I have a few of the incomparabilis section, and 
some of the Leedsii seedlings, but with that exception I have not much 
in the way of variety. Perhaps I may this year increase my number. 
Along with these I have dotted over the border clumps of Hyacinths 
in mixed colours. As I each year grew some sixty or seventy of imported 
bulbs, these are then planted in the borders, and I have very often very 
fine blooms, and are very gay. There is in my Bose border a clump 
all the produce of one bulb, which was planted there some eight or ten 
years ago, and this year it had nine trusses, and many of them of good 
size. After these have passed away clumps of Narcissus poeticus and 
Gesneriana Tulips make the border look pretty, but there is then a 
little gap, when the Aquilegias of various kinds, hybrids and others, 
come into flower, and Papaver orientale shows its brilliant blooms : then 
again all looks gay. In the end of June and onwards some grand clumps 
of Liliums begin to develope themselves—testaccum, dalmaticum, incom- 
parabile, and Sappho ; pomponium, the old Orange Lily, the grand old 
Tiger, Szovitzianum, Batemannise, Michauxi, and others, until we come to 
L. speciosum and auratum ; and then when the grand spikes of Del¬ 
phiniums from 6 to 7 feet high develope themselves how grandly gay the 
garden is ! I always plant out a few of the coloured-leaved Pelargoniums, 
so that they fill up the gaps formed by the bulbs which have lost their 
foliage. And so on through Pyrethrums single and double, single Dahlias, 
&c., we have a succession of gay and fragrant blooms, for I cannot 
do without the old-fashioned Sweet Pea, Lavender, and Mignonette. 
Most of the plants that I have named and many others will flourish in 
almost any garden, with the exception of Lilies, whose culture on such 
soil as the London clay is almost hopeless. I must not omit to mention 
some plants which are rarely seen amongst us, but of which I had four 
years ago half a dozen bulbs from Messrs. Souilliard & Brunelet of Fon- 
tainbleau, the successors of Mons. Souchet—the hardy varieties of 
Amaryllis vittata, one of which threw up a fine spike of bloom last year, 
and which I sent to the Floral Committee of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, but, unfortunately, the letter I sent with it miscarried, and so no 
notice was taken of it. They stood through the two severe winters of 
1880 and 1881, so I reasonably conclude they are hardy, in the south-east 
of England at any rate. They are very showy, and certainly deserving 
of more consideration than they seem to have received as yet. 
My small rockery has been a great delight to me, especially duriDg 
the early months of the year, and the following did very well:—Ramon- 
dia pyrenaica has spread and made quite a little colony for itself, and 
flowered exceedingly well. It is so very pretty that those who have 
even the smallest rockeries should try it. It likes heat, which I cannot 
well give it, quite a shady position, but even in my too sunny position it 
has done well. Saxifraga oppositifolia, which I had oftentimes tried to 
establish, but in vain, has at last done well, and promises to make a good 
clump, and as it is one of the earliest flowering plants we have, it is 
satisfactory to be able at last to get it to do well. In May, when large 
clumps of Aubrietia (Ingram’s variety), Iberis coriacea, one of the 
very whitest flowers we have; Phlox verna and setacea, the pink Rock 
Roses, and the yellow Potentilla were in flower at one time, it was as 
pretty a piece of colouring on a small scale as we would desire to see. 
Another plant about which I had some doubts as to its flowering was the 
Himalayan Androsace sarmentosa, but it has redeemed its character and 
bloomed from every rosette, while it is spreading widely. It is exces¬ 
sively pretty in all its stages, whether in its pretty Saxifrage-like rosettes 
in winter (when it is better to place a glass over it), or in spring when it 
sends up its pretty little pink flowers. My clump of Cypripedium spec- 
table has again increased. It flowered very freely, and evidently likes 
its position, which is not, however, so moist as I should like for it. 
CEthionema grandiflora did very well, and was full of bloom ; but for 
some reason or other my Trilliums have not flourished. I must endeavour 
again to try them, for I think T. grandiflorum one of the prettiest spring 
flowers that we have. 
I have not by any means exhausted the number of the plants which 
have given me so much pleasure in the herbaceous border and the 
rockery, and it is astonishing what a number of different species we may 
grow in a small garden if one is content with a single clump of them, 
and how much pleasure one may derive from the beginning to the end 
of the season. Happily the taste is widely increasing, and there is not 
much need now to encourage people to try to grow them ; and while we 
encourage the old-fashioned flowers of our forefathers, let us not forget 
that the zeal and energy of our nurserymen have added numbers of 
beautiful plants of which they knew nothing.—D., Deal. 
PRUNING ROSES. 
Somebody has sent me this day (June 12th), the Journal of Hovti' 
culture dated May 1st. I expected one dated June 12th, and did no^ 
discover the ancient date until I had read it through, but was rather 
puzzled that there should be a letter about pruning Roses so late in the 
season. The letter is signed “ A. C.” I, like “ A. C.,” am an advocate 
for early pruning, but not quite so early as he commences. In our lati¬ 
tude and longitude 1 reckon March 7th about the right day to begin. I 
did so this year, and about the middle of April the buds were looking 
plump, and some had started into shoots about 2 or 3 inches loDg. Then 
came the frost, and about the end of May I found the tops of the pruned 
branches looked miserable; the leading shoot killed outright, and the 
buds below, instead of breaking into strong shoots, breaking out in frizzled 
bunches. I have had to prune them all again down to the first strong- 
growing healthy shoots, and my blooms I reckon will have been retarded 
a week or ten days. A Bedfordshire friend (perhaps the best Rose-grower 
in Bedfordshire) called on me a few days ago, and rejoiced to say that he 
had not pruned a single plant in his garden before the disastrous frosts 
