424 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. r November 9 , uss. 
and this is easy enough, neither great cultural skill being 
needed, nor valuable space under glass occupied in wintering 
the plants. When old Fuchsias are planted out they simply 
need potting in the autumn, keeping moderately dry so that 
they will shed their leaves, then placing under the stage of a 
cool house or even in a shed where they will be safe from frost. 
In the spring they need pruning, just starting into growth 
gentry, then planting out again at the beginning of summer, 
and they grow and flower until the approach of winter. Such 
is the simple routine of managing these popular plants for out¬ 
door decoration, and it may be said that they grow far more 
healthily and flower more profusely than when allowed to be 
dried, parched, drawn, and insect-eaten under glass, which is 
the fate of thousands of plants every year. 
Now Ceanothuses for beds require the precise treatment as 
above summarised for Fuchsias, and therefore their preserva¬ 
tion and culture are within the means of the majority whose 
duty or pleasure it is to render flower gardens and pleasure 
grounds attractive during the summer and autumn months. 
It was on the Continent where I first saw Ceanothuses grown 
as bushes both in pots and planted out, and their floriferous 
character rendered them far more effective than Veronicas. 
But it may be reasonably urged that, although they may suc¬ 
ceed well there, it does not follow that they will be amenable 
to the same treatment in this country, and give equally satis¬ 
factory results. But experience has proved that they grow and 
flower quite as well in English as in Belgian and French gar¬ 
dens ; at least I have never seen finer examples than those 
which many others have also seen this year growing in one of 
the large beds at Chiswick, and it follows that if they grow so 
well there and flower so profusely, that they will succeed just 
as well under the same treatment in a thousand other British 
gardens. A large bed of these plants, perhaps 15 feet long 
and 7 or 8 wide, was certainly the most distinct and attractive 
of all the beds in the garden during September and October. 
It w T as quite a mass—not a formal heavy mass of pale blue, 
but an elegant waving group of thousands of fine racemes. 
In some of the London parks attempts are made every year 
to grow in bush form the good old greenhouse wall and pillar 
plant Plumbago capensis ; but although it is amenable to this 
method of culture, as a rule the results are far from being 
satisfactory. If the same space were devoted to Ceanothuses 
treated as above indicated a far better display would be pro¬ 
duced, and a distinct effect imparted to the groups of orna¬ 
mental plants that are there so admirably represented. 
While there are several varieties of Ceanothuses suitable for 
growing as bushes either in pots or planted out, many of them 
closely resemble each other, and therefore only four of the 
very best and most distinct that have come under my notice 
shall be named, as these will be quite sufficient to start with 
by those who may desire to try this method of culture. They 
aie Gloire de Versailles for the centres of large beds, also 
equally suitable for low walls, for which purpose it is the finest 
variety ; Gloire de Vaite, dwarfer, very free and fine. Both 
these are blue. The best pink variety is Marie Simon, and the 
best white nivens. I have seen these flowering freely in 5-inch 
pots. 
Ceanothuses may be rapidly increased from cuttings, as the 
young shoots, not too soft, strike as freely as Heliotropes or 
Verbenas, and under the same treatment. It would be well to 
grow the plants in pots the first season in a light house at first, 
then in a cool frame, then plunging them in ashes in a sunny 
position out of doors ; in fact, giving them the same general 
treatment as Chrysanthemums. They would thus ripen their 
growths, and afterwards the simple routine above sketched for 
Fuchsias would suffice for all further requirements. 
Such plants as those blue varieties that have been flowering 
so profusely in the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden would 
be most valuable for conservatory decoration in late autumn 
and early winter, and would contrast effectively both in habit 
and colour with Chrysanthemums.—J. W. 
Ants Eating Grapes. —We have millions of small ants, which 
feed upon the late Grapes or any other ripe fruit. Can any of your 
readers state how to extirpate them ? I have put treacle in jam pots 
and caught several, but there are so many that it seems like trying to 
empty the Thames to get rid of them in that way. Is there any 
poison that would attract them that I could mix with treacle ? 
Where I can apply it I have found paraffin and soapsuds effectual— 
in fact, it is along time before they will attempt to go where paraffin 
has been applied ; unfortunately that cannot be used in many places. 
—J. H. W. 
APPLES, PEARS, AND STRAWBERRIES FOR THE 
NORTH. 
Perhaps it may be assumed that what is suitable for these 
northern parts will suit anywhere. I have long contended that 
the succeeding year is more depending on its predecessor for 
success than it is on either wind, rain, frost, or sunshine, and this 
year’s experience has more than ever convinced me that the 
opinion I have formed thereon is correct. With suitable weather 
this year, and bearing trees not exhausted by overcropping, with 
wood ripened and fruit buds fully developed, it will be seen that 
troubles next year will be met with a robustness that will over¬ 
come the little difficulties that may occur. To be the more im¬ 
pressed with the necessity of a sufficiency of sun heat this year to 
secure success next, it may be well to remember that the fruits we 
love to cultivate most are imported from sunnier climes ; or even 
if natives, by crossing may have been robbed of the hardy nature 
possessed when growing in natural wildness, and have so become 
unfitted for our clime. 
What I have hitherto wished to impress is the necessity of 
observing the various traits of character of the many varieties 
of our several fruits, that disappointments and losses might be less 
frequent and success more certain. Often I have grieved over the 
many evidences to be met with of gardeners neglecting to think 
sufficiently. I know of no calling where exists such scope for 
thought as in connection with the everyday experience of gar¬ 
deners. Every plant has its own peculiar characteristics, and it is 
the work of gardeners to grapple with these characteristics and to 
understand them. Pray allow me to be plain ; and if recently I 
have been more a reader than a contributor to your columns my 
silence has not been through a lack of contributions that tempted 
criticism. One gardener partly fails in growing Vines satisfac¬ 
torily ; a neighbour publishes that the water applied ought to have 
been increased by “fifty times.” This is what I term having 
“water on the brain,” when thought would have convinced that 
enough was sufficient, and all beside waste. But it was about 
hardy fruits I meant to write, though of Vines I will here take 
the opportunity of saying that to feed them sufficiently is wisdom, 
whilst to gorge them to an extent that necessitates their borders 
being washed is folly. 
Apples. —Had we had sufficient sun heat last year to perfect 
the wood and fruit buds of our outdoor trees, I believe that this 
year there has been nothing to contend with that would have 
resulted in the general barrenness experienced. We had no spring 
frosts of importance, neither the gales nor hailstorms that was 
experienced in the south of England. Standing side by side we 
had trees equally laden with blossom, whilst the one variety has 
carried crops that bent the branches to the ground, and others 
have not had a solitary fruit; and the reason I say has not been 
that one variety resisted frost better than the other, but simply 
that the one variety required less heat last year to perfect its 
fruit buds than did the other. How else are we to account for the 
barrenness of Court Pendfi Plat, which bloomed in June under 
the most favourable circumstances ? And how otheiwise are we 
to account for the very great crop that has been perfected of our 
old favourites, Cellini and Lord Suffield, and of the two varieties 
that are not so generally well known, the Ringer and Golden 
Spire ? To growers in the north of England and Scotland I say, 
Plant largely of these four, and the result will be with such seasons 
as has been those of recent years an abundant crop of first-class 
kitchen Apples. 
Pears. —Regarding Pears, of blossom here I had also an 
abundance, but on only two varieties have I had any Pears. I 
have before written of Marie Louise d’Uccle, and now, as a hardy 
companion, I have the pleasure of adding Mr. Rivers’ Fertility. 
But they, too, have singularly demonstrated not only their natural 
hardiness, but the frost that last year materially affected them in 
this. I have had a crop of Pears without a pip in the whole lot; 
and this deformity I maintain has in no way been contributed to 
by the present season, but is the result alone of last year’s sunless 
season. The freak I take as simply evidence of the extreme 
hardiness of these two varieties ; we have them with fruit buds 
only half matured setting a crop. 
Strawberries.— Of Strawberries I wish to speak of Roden’s 
Duke of Edinburgh. Some time ago I alluded to a variety that 
was uninjured by wet—this is the variety. Here it is light in 
