252 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
[ September 16, 1888. 
original spoit came from that Mr. Eastwood speaks about I shall maintain 
this claim. Mr. Eistwood’s description of his form resembles mine with 
the exception of the general habit of the plant.—H. Mitchell. 
BROOME LEASOE, NEAR LICHFIELD. 
Broome Leasoe is a commodious and modern mansion, and is the 
residence of C. H. Inge, Esq. It is built of red brick, and situated on 
a gentle eminence, and is sheltered and protected from the blighting 
effects of the east winds by the beautiful woods of Fisherwick—once a 
well-appointed establishment of a former Lord Donegal. 
Mr. Inge is an enthusiastic amateur gardener, and therefore is very fond 
of his garden, although it is neither very pretentious nor extensive, yet it is 
one of tbe best stocked and best managed private gardens to be seen. 
When I state that Mr. Inge and his lady manage the garden, with the 
assistance of their general factotum, who does the heavy, rough, and 
general work, between them, your readers will not expect anything very 
sensational ; but I venture to say that any intelligent visitor will find 
something both instructive and interesting. 
At the front of tbe residence are large beds filled with Calceolarias. 
These are grown sturdily through the winter and spring, and when 
planted out, arranged so as to shelter each other to some extent from the 
scorching rays of the sun, and for sturdiness and fioriferousness they 
are all that could be desired. I have an idea, and eleven consecutive 
years’ practice has strengthened the idea, that if shrubby Calceolarias are 
grown hardily and sturdily from cuttings to planting time, and are then 
planted so c'ose, either to each other or to their neighbours in the 
flower beds, such as Pelargoniums, as to very Dearly touch, that they are 
not apt to “ go off ” like they do when plant-d very thinly, or as isolated 
specimens, and I think the reason is because the sun’s rays do not directly 
reach the lower part of the stem, or collar, of the plant, and also the 
ground is kept more uniformly moist by the natural shade afforded. 
Next to the Calceolaria beds are others filled with Carnations, one a rich 
pink in colour, much deeper than is usual. Mr. Inge thinks the deeper 
colour is owing to the nature of the soil, for when young plants have been 
planted elsewhere they have assumed a lighter shade of pink, and similar 
to a beautiful variety we have in these gardens. 
A large bed is devoted to choice hardy Rhododendrons and single 
Dahlias. The latter are very good varieties, and they seed here quite 
freely. Last year the ground about was covered with thousands of self- 
sown seedlings, and probably it wou'd have been the case this year, hut 
the surface of the soil appears to have been more frequently disturbed. 
There are a few to be seen here and there that have escaped the fork and 
hoe, and tbey are now showing flower. I think it is rather unusual, is it 
not? In tbe herbaceous borders are a few old-fashioned flowers and 
flowering shrubs, such as Genista prmcox, Spiraea filipendula, Salvia patens, 
Bergamot, Plox setacea, Campanulas, &c. 
In the warm greenhouse or stove is a very good plant of Allamanda 
Schotti trained on the roof, and flowering most profusely. Close to it is 
a Tomato plant grown on the extension system—the variety is apparently 
Hathaway’s Excelsior—and thi3 has borne, and is bearing, as heavy a 
crop of good fruit as anyone would wish to see. I have frequently grown 
this variety on the extension system, and also on the single rod system, 
but I have always had by far the best results from the former system ; 
but perhaps my comparative failure with the latter way is my fault, and 
not the fault of the system. I could not help admiring the beautiful 
“ colour effect” produced by the rich yellow of the Allamanda and the 
cornelian red of the ripe Tomatoes. Close by are several nice plants of 
Dendrobium nobile, which have made excellent growth and are now 
ripening up their pseudo-bulbs. They will produce a nice lot of flowers 
next spring if all goes on well. Under the shade of the Allamanda is a 
magnificent specimen of the Golden Fern, Gymnogramma chrysophylla. 
Mr. Inge says it is a seedling; if so, he is to be congratulated on the 
possession of such a first-rate variety. 
The greenhouse contains tbe useful occupants of such a structure, but 
there are several things that are not usually found now in any but botanic 
gardens. For example, there are several varieties of the almost perpetual 
flowering Pelargonium echinatum from the Cape. These are charming 
flowers, and lend themselves to such a variety of purposes. Then close 
by are several plants of the old Diosma fragrans; farther away in a 
sunny position are five or six Phyllocacti and a Melocactus. 
In a cool unheated structure a back wall is covered in a very pleasing 
manner by an admixture of Plumbago capensis and Genista, the lavender 
blue of the Plumbago harmonising with the yellow Genista very satis¬ 
factorily. A healthy Camellia alba plena appears to be at home in one 
corner, and a Lilium lancifolium, 6 feet high, nearer the door, shows what 
a handsome plant it has been. 
The kitchen garden is thoroughly well stocked with clean health? 
fruit trees and an abundance of capital vegetables, every square inch 
being occupied with something appropriate to the position.—J. U. E. 
AMATEURS. 
I have, as an amateur, read with greatest interest for years everything 
written by “ D., Beal,” and from no contributor to the Journal of Horti¬ 
culture have I learned moie useful lessons. On page 206 he says about 
the National Rose Society, “ But I do most sincerely hope it will never 
fall into the erior of distinguishing between those who employ a regular 
gardener and those who do not. It lays the door open to much dishonesty, 
which unhappily many are too ready to practise,” &c. He being an old 
judge at shows, I should much like him to expliin clearly the above 
sentence; others besides myself do not quite unders'.anl it. He might 
find time possibly to make the subject a little cl rarer, and oblige an admirer 
of his and other readers of the Journal.— Saxobing. 
THE “U” SYSTEM OF TRAINING FRUIT TREES. 
This system I first had an opportunity of seeing this spring in the 
house of an amateur gardener. The house is devoted to Vines planted 
about 6 feet apart, and only trained two-thirds up the roof, the object 
being to have some Grapes and yet allow of sufficient light for Tomatoes 
being grown in the interior of the house, this being done so as to pay 
incidental expenses with interest on the cost of the house. Peach and 
Nectarine trees are on the back wall, and managed on the “ U ” system of 
training, that I will endeavour to describe. I confess that of all the- 
systems I have seen of training Peaches and Nectarines the “ U ” plan 
is the most simple and generally applicable. It was a case of “ falling 
in love at first sight,” and I naturally ai-ked whence the idea came. 
Tbe answer was prompt—viz , from Rivers, and it is figured in tbe 
Sawbridgeworth Catalogue of Fruits. 
“ This system,” states Mr. Rivers, “ which has found such favour with 
Continental Peach growers, is undeniably more simple and more pro¬ 
ductive than the fan-training in use in England.” This was my 
impression, and I long for an opportunity of practising it. There is 
nothing but what appears sound in the system, and though my remarks 
murt of necessity be hypothetical, I have no hesitation in advising its 
adoption with as much certainty of a successful result as had they been 
safeguarded by a lifetime of experience. If without experience of the 
*' U ” system, I am not by any means inexperienced in the upright training 
of Peach trees, and the only difference cons’sts in the “ U ” being con¬ 
fined to two branches with radiating shoots for bearing, whilst in the- 
upright the main branches can be multiplied to any extent, and each 
branch of these c rresponds to one of the “ U ” system, so that I am not 
badly fortified after all with experience ; indeed the principle is identical, 
only there is a difference in applying it. In the upright of many branches- 
we are likely to get a very unevenly balanced tree, as the depression of 
the two first shoots after heading to get the upright primaries causes the 
sap to rise most rapidly into the two uprights on opposite sides of the 
stem, and the others in consequence have varied degrees of vigour ; but by 
following the “U” system we have the sap equally disposed in two- 
uprights only, and attain to an equal vigour in both primaries. This is 
a point of great importance in training fruit trees, and is very in¬ 
differently afforded in the fan and Seymour mode of training by which the 
lower branches, being more horizontal than those filling up the centre of 
the trees or upper part of the wall or trellis, are much weaker, and in 
time get so enfeebled as to be unprofitable, very generally dying and 
leaving a large amount of unprofitable wall space. 
The “ U ” system is especially recommendable for securing a speedy 
covering of wall or trellis space (for which reason I adopted the upright 
training, using trees that had been trained as fans) and keeping it filled with 
fruitful trees. This, I am aware, can be effected by cordons, of which 
I saw good examples at Cniswick a few years ago, having it pointed out 
to me by Mr. Barron as an admirable method of training Peaches and 
Nectarines, insuring a speedy covering of the wall space and a good crop 
of fruit, with the advantage of greater variety than can be effected by the 
fan, Seymour, or other mode of training. The system— i.e., cordon train¬ 
ing, is, however, different from the “ U.” In the cordon the main branch 
is trained oblique, or at an angle of 45°, and the side growths or bearing 
wood trained at a corresponding angle with it, so that the tendency of 
the sap upward is arrested by the depression of the main branch, and 
upright training of the fruiting wood secures for it as free a flow of sap at 
the lower part of the cordon as at the upper, and in this respect the 
oblique cordon system possesses an advantage. In the “U” the flow of 
the sap is all upright, unless we follow the horizontal training of the side 
or fruit-bearing shoots, to which I take a decided objection, for I am con¬ 
vinced that of all systems of training the horizontal is the most objection¬ 
able, the best way to render any tree unfruitful and unsatisfactory, the 
vigour being expended in useless spray in the central or top part of the tree, 
and which of necessity must be cut away ; indeed, we waste more of the 
tree’s energies and the soil’s nutrition in foreright and other useless sprays 
than is expended on fruit and fruiting growths, the remedy for which is a 
different method of training and complete control over the growth by 
limiting the rooting area. 
With a fan or other description of tree covering a large extent of wall 
or trellis we must of necessity have a large width of border, as the roots 
extend outward from the wall, the borders being in most instances equal 
to the height of the wall; and as these borders are valuable for early 
vegetable crops they are cropped. With the digging the roots within a 
cultivable distance of the suiface are mutilated and destroyed, and as a 
consequence the fruit trees as a rule are not satisfactory in cropping, the 
trees making much wood, and late growths be ng encouraged by the roots 
being at a distance from the surface. 
In fig. 36 we have a wall 10 feet high, the scale being quarter-inch 
to 1 foot, a border, a a, 2 feet 6 inches deep, resting on 12 inches of 
drainage b, and a 3-inch drain c, placed 3 feet from the wall, and having 
proper fall and outlet. The border need not be more in width than < ne- 
third the height of the wall, and this kept exclusive to the fruit tiees. 
The roots could, of course, be allowed to extend into the border beyi nd, 
and by taking out a trench, in case of the trees becoming over-luxuriant, 
at the outside of the fruit border, the roots being detached, the trees 
would be perfectly under command, This procedure I strongly recommend 
