522 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 8, 1881. 
plant them at once where they are wanted to grow, and we have 
very seldom any more trouble with them. The best time for this 
operation is November or December. It may be grown in pots 
and trained balloon-shape, or in any other form the grower may 
wish. The soil I have found it thrive in best is a light turfy loam, 
say three parts loam, one part river sand, and one part leaf soil. 
“ I may add that I have seen this plant flourishing in front of a 
farm house, where no preparation had been made for it whatever, 
but just planted in the natural soil, which was light and gravelly.” 
ABUTILONS ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 
There are no plants which will flower with more certainty all 
the year round than Abutilons. There is not a week in the year 
in which we do not gather their blooms, and little or no extra 
care or attention is devoted to them to insure thi3. So long as 
they can be kept growing they continue blooming, and this is a 
simple matter. In summer they will flower freely out of doors 
or in a cold frame, and now they only need enough heat to keep 
them growing and flowering. It is also an advantage to have 
them near the glass, as this makes the wood short-j'ointed and 
lloriferous. At the end of a Pine house we have two planted out 
for the winter, and they are more useful than any we have had. 
Handfuls of blooms are gathered weekly, and unopened buds are 
on them by the score. The blooms can be gathered singly and 
used in this way in small glasses, or sometimes the point of a 
shoot with upwards of a dozen open flowers can be taken. Al¬ 
though the blooms are all of similar shape the colours are varied. 
J. Muir. 
SUCCESSFUL CULTURE OF PEARS IN POTS. 
It is a popular though erroneous impression that fruit in the 
south-west of England and Wales will grow “anyhow.” That 
there are favoured districts in this division cannot be denied, but 
to assert all alike are exceptionally well adapted for open-air 
fruit culture is decidedly a mistake. For instance, at Bridgend, 
Glamorganshire, it is useless to attempt open-air culture of the 
Pear : at least, such is the case in the gardens at Ewenny Priory, 
the residence of Col. T. Picton Tuberville. This has led to the 
adoption of pot culture under glass, with the result of splendid 
crops of fruit very superior to those obtained in the generality of 
gardens from trees on walls. The fruit are not merely superior 
with regard to size, brightness, and clearness, but the quality is of 
the best description ; Beurre Diel and Duchesse d’Angouleme, 
for instance, proving delicious. Added to this good crops are in¬ 
variably secured, the only cost beyond original outlay on unheated 
houses being for manual labour, water being required in great 
quantities in the growing season, oftentimes at the rate of four 
waterings per day. 
Two houses are devoted to the Tears, one a span-roof running 
north to south, the other a lean-to with a southern aspect. In 
both houses in order to insure well-balanced specimens, even 
crops, and thorough ripening of fruit and growth, it is found 
necessary to turn them frequently. Almost every day, in fact, 
they receive this attention. By this it will be obvious the roots 
are necessarily confined to the pots, and, as a consequence, require 
unlimited supplies of water, varied with liquid manure when in 
full growth. How well Mr. Hawkins, the gardener in charge, 
attends to this may be gathered from the fact of a tree of 
Doyenne du Comice perfecting six dozen fruit, another of Beurre 
Diel four dozen, of Duchesse d’Angouleme from seven to eight 
dozen, of Pitmaston Duchess four dozen, and proportionately 
heavy crops were borne by trees of Durondeau, Beurre Superfin, 
Beurrb Esperen, Marie Louise, and Brockworth Park, the fruit in 
each instance being remarkably fine, many weighing a pound. 
Some of the best were recently much admired at a meeting of 
the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington ; and again 
at the Bristol Fruit and Chrysanthemum Show, where they would 
have secured first honours but for over-ripeness. Every autumn 
the trees are repotted, the ball of roots being reduced so as to 
admit of repotting into the same sized pots, these varying from 
12 to 15 inches in diameter. Rich loamy soil is employed, and 
the trees are wintered where grown, the precaution being taken 
of covering the pots with rough litter to prevent injury by severe 
frosts.—W. I. 
Christmas Requisites.— The time is fast approaching when plants 
and flowers for decorative purposes will be wanted in abundance. 
Gardeners who have to supply the above generally prejjare by having 
the foliage and flowers in the best possible condition. Many bulbs, 
Primulas, Cinerarias, Calceolarias, and Cyclamens, will be very accept¬ 
able, also with the flowers of Chrysanthemums, and a few blooms of 
the Gloire de Dijon Rose, which still keeps expanding its fragrant 
flowers. There seems to be a plentiful supply of Holly berries this 
season in many places. Vegetables, too, are as much in demand as 
flowers at Christmas. Forced vegetables of many kinds are prepared ; 
and as new Potatoes are one of the principal dishes for Christmas or 
New Year’s day they will require a great deal of attention. If the 
weather continues mild it will be much in favour of the advancement 
of such crops.—A Northerner. 
BRENTHAM PARK, STIRLING. 
In these days of steam-driven machinery, steam navigation) 
steam locomotion, and telegraphic despatches we should not) 
perhaps, be surprised at the rapidity with which mansions appear* 
Landscapes are created, even, and great gardens suddenly spring 
into existence. The evidence that yearly the number of fortune- 
possessing individuals increases may be seen in every town, 
despite the assertion of those who think the country is “ going to 
the dogs and nowhere is it more evident than in the vicinity 
of the famous northern town, around which are Scotland’s most 
glorious battlefields. Tourists visit the battlefields and sing enthu¬ 
siastically “ Scots whahae but gardeners seek such gardens as the 
famous Fernfield, Bridge of Allan, where Dr. Paterson grows such 
fine Orchids, or the now-famed Brentham Park ; and instead of 
howling ancient battle cries out of tune or to no tune, clutch their 
note-book and pencil as an aid to memories somewhat treacherous. 
At least this is what we did when last we visited the town of 
Stirling, and of the notes then taken we now make use. 
Brentham Park is one of the new establishments to which we 
referred. Beautifully situated, it commands a splendid view of 
the Forth in all its river-windings down to where it broadens into 
the noble Firth bearing the same name. With a grand country 
on each side, the hills of Fife and the Lothians in the eastern 
distance, and the picturesque, half ancient half modern town of 
Stirling, with its high-perched castle to the left, the Wallace 
monument behind in the foreground, the bare-growing Ochils in 
the background to the right and the distant Grampians to the 
left, and the aforenamed battlefields all around. All this is well 
worth seeing. But as we walk from the town we are more par¬ 
ticularly struck with the grand old Elms, centuries old, which 
line the roadway and turn it into an avenue of which any town 
might well be proud. 
Brentham Park, although quite modern, is a fine building, and, 
unlike many new places, is surrounded with very fine trees. The 
house is reached by means of a fine drive, not very long but well 
kept, and enriched with young and thriving specimens of shrubs 
and hardy Conifers. The building is one of the best in the vicinity 
of Stirling, and attached to it is a fine conservatory, at once har¬ 
monising with the architecture and yet favourable for the growth 
of the plants employed for furnishing it. Among others we noticed 
in it fine robust specimens of Lapagerias, red and white. The rest 
of the houses are situated in the kitchen garden a short distance 
from the mansion. The first we entered was a Peach house. Peaches 
covered the back wall and half of the roof; in the centre of the 
house were a number of healthy Pear and Plum trees in pots. 
The fruit from these was mostly gathered, but, judging from the 
health of the trees, we could well believe that the crops both from 
the Peaches and the others had been good. The next division was 
also devoted to Peaches and Nectarines, and as this is used for a 
late house we had an opportunity of judging what Brentham 
Park could produce in the way of Peaches, and finer fruit we 
have never seen. The trees, too, were extremely clean and 
healthy ; not a spider, not a thrips, not a green fly to be seen. 
We asked Mr. Macleod what means he took to keep his trees so 
clean and healthy. He pointed to a hose attached to a pipe. 
Once we saw, in an Edinburgh nursery, a man clearing scale 
from plants by simply laying them on a clean floor and scouring 
oil the insects by subjecting them to a thin stream of water as it 
issued from the nozzle of a hose affixed to pipes where the pres¬ 
sure was high. Remembering this, we asked no further expla¬ 
nation. “And how do you get the fruit to such a marvellous 
size ? ” was our next question. “ By spreading a little guano 
over the borders every time they are watered, and letting them 
have plenty of it,” was the answer; and, he added, “keeping 
them clean and allowing them to bear plenty of foliage.” 
On the way to the Orchid houses we passed through three 
vineries all with good crops of good serviceable fruit; then we 
enter what was once an ordinary plant stove, now it is an East 
Indian Orchid house. Most of the plants were not yet very large, 
but all showed .that they have been judiciously cared for. Some 
fine Phalrenopses were in exuberant health. Vandas, Aerides, Sac- 
colabiums, and Dendrobiums were in great numbers, extremely 
clean and healthy, although the house is too wide and the plants 
rather crowded. In the departments devoted to Lielias, Cattleyas, 
and other Orchidaceous plants were many rare and fine speci- 
