November 22, 1883. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . 
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COMING EVENTS 
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Reading, Aylesbury, Tunbridge Wells, Taunton, and Ipswich Shows. 
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27th Sunday after Trinity. 
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Liverpool and Norton and Maldon Shows. 
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NOTES FROM THE NORTH. 
DONTOGLOSSUMS.—We have recently been 
cutting for room-decoration some very fine 
spikes of Odontoglossum Alexandra. One 
spike with two branches measured from the bulb 
to its top over 3 feet, and bore thirty-nine 
blooms each 3 inches across. Another and 
very superb variety had twenty-seven blooms on a 
spike. One had twenty-three and another twenty- 
one blooms, all fine varieties. To support these when 
placed in glasses very slender green stakes are used, to 
which the spikes are attached, for the weight of bloom 
is such that light glasses would be upset unless the spikes 
were kept almost erect. A bulb of 0. Wilckeanum (a most 
charming flower) gave two spikes, one with fifteen and the 
other with twelve of its elegant and beautifully spotted and 
barred blooms. These are plants grown in glazed pots 
filled to within 2 inches of the top with rough pieces of char¬ 
coal. Very little peat is used for potting—next to none, in 
fact; and what is used has every particle of soil taken out 
of it, and the hairy or fibry part only is used. The cone of 
sphagnum gets entirely matted with white healthy roots, and 
they hang down among the interstices of the charcoal in 
beautiful luxuriance and freshness. At one time the charcoal 
was covered with a layer of finer crocks, but this practice 
has been discontinued with marked improvement in the con¬ 
dition of the roots. The material is annually cleanly washed 
from the roots by rinsing them in a pail of water, so that 
the sphagnum is always fresh and living. There seems very 
little fear that this charming and useful Orchid will degene¬ 
rate in this country, for each year the bulbs gain in size and 
the spikes in vigour. 
Cypripedium Spicerianum.— What a charming and useful 
flower is Cypripedium Spicerianum ! The smallest morsel 
of it produces flowers, and, like C. Harrisianum and some 
others, it seems to be a perpetual bloomer, and with the heat 
of the East Indian house it grows freely. It is found that a 
very thin layer of sphagnum over plenty of rough drainage 
suits it best. Its roots cling most tenaciously to charcoal 
and the sides of the pot, indicative of the position in which it 
is said to grow in its native habitat—namely, the face of 
damp moss-covered rocks. Speaking of roots clinging to the 
sides of the pots, this may be all very desirable while the plant 
remains undisturbed; but when shifting time comes it is a 
disadvantage, for it is scarcely possible to shift this and many 
other Orchids without considerable breakage of roots. Could 
pots be invented to the which the roots would not adhere, 
but only to the charcoal lumps, the evil might be so far 
obviated. We fear glazing inside as well as outside of the 
pots would only partially accomplish this object. As to 
glazed pots for some Orchids, we find them a very great 
advantage, in as far as they never require scrubbing ; and 
in the case of all Orchids as require to be kept constantly on 
the wet side, such as Cypripediums and Odontoglossums, 
they are a decided advantage. 
Gros Colman Grape.— A recent writer pronounced Gros 
Colman Grape not fit to eat, and no doubt that is his own 
experience of it. Along with this I send you a small bunch 
of it, and leave you to tell your readers whether the above 
verdict be correct, and also what you think it might prove to 
be in flavour if allowed to hang on the Vine for two months 
longer. My employers are very fastidious, or rather choice, 
as to the varieties of Grapes placed on their table, and they 
have made me discard all but Black Hamburgh, Duke of 
Buccleuch, Muscats, and Gros Colman, and much prefer the 
last-named as submitted to you to any other ofithe late blacks 
in December and January. When treated on the cool system 
it is admitted that it is not agreeably flavoured, but when 
treated to the same temperature as those who grow first-class 
Muscats treat that Grape it has always been pronounced an 
agreeable Grape here. 
Nectarines.— Have any of your readers found that the 
Victoria Nectarine cracks in a cool orchard house in October ? 
With us it cracks so much as to quite disfigure the majority 
of the fruits. This applies to a tree with all its roots inside, 
and to another with a portion only of its roots inside. It 
bears most abundantly, as all admit. Under exactly the 
same treatment such varieties as Pine Apple, Humboldt, 
Albert Victor, Elruge, Pitmaston Orange, &c., do not crack. 
Growing side by side we find that Victoria is only eight or 
ten days later than Pine Apple, while the latter is finer in 
appearance and flavour. Humboldt is also a splendid Nec¬ 
tarine, about a week earlier than Pine Apple and of the same 
type but larger, and well worthy of all that has been said in 
its praise. With great reluctance we had to banish Lord 
Napier from cool quarters, for, excepting the one bright warm 
summer that we have had these five or six years, when it 
was grand, it was not satisfactory. 
Lady Beatrice Lambton Pine Apple.— Another year’s expe¬ 
rience of this noble-looking Pine fully confirms the high 
opinion I had formerly held of its superior quality as a 
winter Pine. About twenty fruits of it have been ripened here 
this autumn, and the very highest estimate of its flavour has 
been formed by all who have partaken of it, and I have been 
asked if it was Black Jamaica that was handed round. 
Personally I consider that Black Jamaica is the only Pine to 
be compared to this much finer-looking fruit, the flavour of 
which is superb. The juice follows the knife in a stream, 
and I know of no Pine more free from stringiness (if I may 
coin a word). It melts in the mouth like marrow. It has 
been grown to 9 lbs. here, and I consider it can be raised to 
11 lbs. One peculiarity in its successful management is that 
it requires to be kept drier at the root than any other Pine 
after it shows signs of ripening, because it is so deep or high 
a fruit, and so full of juice, that if kept moist the juice oozes 
from its base before it is ready to cut. It should also be cut 
with a green tinge upon it, and this is the stage in which all 
Pines are best flavoured in autumn and winter. 
Calanthe Veitchii.—A few years since I called attention 
to the fact that there are two, if not more, quite, distinct 
varieties of this grand Calanthe. In referring to this fact in 
a private letter to Mr. Speed of Chatsworth, he said, in 
reply, that he never knew there was more than one variety, 
and I sent him what I consider the best one, and he tells me 
this season the distinction is most marked. A similar 
correspondence with Mr. Wescott at Raby has led to the 
same result. The one most generally in cultivation has the 
middle of its bulb very much contracted, just like the waist 
of a fashionable lady. The other variety has no contraction, 
and tapers gradually from base to apex. The flower of this 
later variety is of a much deeper, and, as I consider, finer 
colour. Mr. Speed says he fancies the narrow-waisted bulb 
produces larger spikes, but I have not found it so. Several 
years since we discontinued growing the bulbs with the 
contraction because I considered the other so much ^ finer 
than it. Those who have not this deep-coloured sort should 
certainly procure it. 
Single Flowers. —Those who have a fancy for single 
flowers—and who has not ?—and want them in plenty after 
single Dahlias, yellow and white Marguerites, &c., are de- 
