December 28, 1882. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 595 
fertiliser given about twice a week when the plants are showing 
flower to be very beneficial. With us our plants have been in 
flower since the beginning of November, and will be very 
attractive for some time yet.—W. K. 
A SPECIMEN CHRYSANTHEMUM. 
ALTHOUGH Chrysanthemum shows are visited by thousands of 
persons who become familiar with the wonderful examples of cul¬ 
ture that are staged, yet, nevertheless, by far the larger proportion 
of our readers have not had an opportunity of seeing these brilliant 
autumn tournaments, and some of them, as we know, have a 
suspicion that the descriptions of the blooms and plants are some¬ 
times a little exaggerated. A photograph, however, does not ex¬ 
aggerate, and the engraving shows a dwarf-trained plant, one 
of others equally good, in a group at the late Kingston Show. 
The engraving represents as truly as a figure can do one of the 
magnificent specimens exhibited by Mr. C. Beckett, gardener to 
T. H. Bryant, Esq., Glencairn, Surbiton Hill, and we are pleased 
to add a few particulars of a group which reflected the highest 
credit on the exhibitor. 
The three largest plants each measured 21 feet in circumference, 
and most of the other specimens 15 feet. When staged they pre¬ 
sented one sheet of bloom CO feet by 20 feet, filling the entire end 
of the hall. Mr. Bryant’s gardener has obligingly furnished us 
with an outline of his treatment, which is as follows :—“ I insert 
the cuttings in December, and as soon as rooted keep them grow- 
ing freely, and without a moment’s check, till they are finished, 
supplying them with stimulants as needed. They are stopped 
periodically until the middle of July, and are then permitted to 
form and develope their flowmrs. These directions are very 
general, but very much depends on the judgment of the cultivator 
and his devotion to his profession. To be successful with any 
plant it needs constant attention early and late, the slightest neg¬ 
lect being fatal to success. I would add that special care must 
be exercised to keep the plants free from the many pests that 
Fig. 102.—SrECIMEN ClIUTSANTIIEMUiX. 
are ever ready to attack them. I am proud to say that Mr. 
Bryant received the commands of H.R.H. Duke of Albany, and 
that I had the honour of taking the three largest and two smaller 
plants to Claremont. The Duke and Duchess expressed them¬ 
selves very much pleased at having had the opportunity of seeing 
them, saying “ they had never seen finer.” 
We have only to add that both Mr. Bryant and his gardener 
have good reason to be proud of such specimens. The plant being 
“tilted” the pot is necessarily hidden. 
We regret that we have not space this week for an excellent 
paper on Chrysanthemum culture which was read at a meeting of 
the Wimbledon Gardeners’ Society, and by request of the members 
sent to us for publication. It will appear in an early issue. We 
are obliged also to defer the publication of notes in answer to 
“ J. L.” on page 556. 
BORDERS FOR HARDY FRUIT TREES. 
At the commencement of my previous notes on fruit borders 
(page 541), I proposed writing a second paper on the subject, 
which I now offer. What I shall attempt to demonstrate is that 
we do not do justice to our hardy fruit trees ; in fact, in the 
matter of borders we go as much to one extreme as we do in 
the opposite direction when we form excessively large borders for 
house-cultivated fruits. 
It is true every walled-in kitchen garden is provided with so- 
called fruit borders, but in how many cases do the trees have 
anything like the full benefit of them ? In reality the choicest 
fruits do not receive as fair treatment as ordinary orchard trees, 
owing in this case to the shape of the trees or other causes hin¬ 
dering the digging and heavy cropping the borders devoted to the 
wall-trained trees have constantly to undergo. To all appear¬ 
ances in most gardens the vegetables and not the fruit trees are 
of primary consideration. Neither are gardeners altogether to be 
blamed for this, as they are bound to produce continuous and 
heavy crops of vegetables and small fruits from a comparatively 
small space of ground. As a consequence not only are the 
borders immediately in front of the trees closely dug and cropped, 
but the space at the foot of the walls is also utilised ; at the same 
time, if gardeners must persist in this close cropping, they can at 
