168 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 3, 1892. 
bloom well in due course, the exact period depending upon the 
amount of heat accorded. The points are to insure steady un¬ 
interrupted growth and its subsequent maturation, avoiding 
drying-off at any stage. 
•'Ij At whatever period they may bloom these evergreen Amaryllises 
will be welcomed by gardeners and amateurs alike. Their beauty 
is great and their uses many. It is sincerely to be hoped that the 
time is not far distant when both these facts will have wide 
recognition.— W. P. Weight. 
OPEN AIR PEACHES. 
Whoevee “Nous Verrons” may be, I should like to ask if he is 
writing for writing’s sake, or if he really wishes to gain additional 
knowledge? His last paragraph on page 144 is the best he has con¬ 
tributed, No one can employ language not strictly courteous without 
weakening his case. I have no personal knowledge of Mr, Iggulden ; I 
read his writings with pleasure and profit, and, as your able corre¬ 
spondent “W. H, W.” truly remarks, his successes at various competi¬ 
tions are sufficient for all reasonable men. With respect to “Nous 
Verrons’ ’’ question, I have only to say that if I took charge of a 
garden in November I should feel it my duty, as I did in May, to at 
once consider the best means of action for producing desired results, and 
if to bring about those results required exceptional treatment it would 
be given as well as my knowledge of science and gardening would allow. 
My only object was to show what could be done, with care, if occasion 
required it, to attain a particular object in the shortest possible time. 
When “ Nous Verrons’’ signs his name to his writings he will interpret 
his curious pseudonym and “ we shall see.”— John Chinnery, 
Ip “Nous Verrons” had avoided personalities at the outset and been 
content to attack my practice, or what was advanced as such, also con¬ 
trived to prove that it really was “ in the interest of science and good 
gardening that the subject was brought to the front,” I should have 
been very well pleased to have fought the matter out with him. What 
I have to show at Marston does not greatly affect the case. I will go 
further, and maintain that if we had not a single Peach or Nectarine 
tree it would be no justifiable hindrance to my writing the article 
under the above heading on page 144. If it were, how comes it that 
one of the very best works on hardy fruit ever written should have 
met with such unqualified approval, seeing that the author, to my certain 
knowledge, has not practised fruit culture for the past sixteen years ? 
Can he point with pride to splendid examples of his cultural skill ? I 
think not. Then we have another grand work in the press also on fruit 
culture, and this again is bound to be well received, even by those who 
are well aware the writer does most of his gardening within “ sound of 
Bow Be'ls,” or in other words not many miles from Fleet Street, Surely 
what is right in one case is equally so in the other. 
Being somewhat of a pugnacious disposition I will at the risk of 
being thought inconsistent enter rather more fully in the matter than 
at first intended. Before doing so let me take this opportunity of 
thanking “ Nous Verrons ” for suggesting a title for what I hope on 
some other occasion to make an interesting and instructive article. 
Friends who have written privately concerning “ Nous Verrons’ ” unfair 
treatment of my writings generally, for that is what it amounted to, 
have contributed a few very interesting facts on moving Peach trees in 
various stages of growth, and this, coupled with my own experience, 
should provide food for legitimate discussion. It seems to be “Nous 
Verrons’” opinion that I have advanced a “new method” of treating 
open-air Peach trees, but I maintain nothing of the sort has been done. 
If I had roundly asserted that the spring was the proper and only time 
when trees should be root-pruned or shifted, there would have been 
some point to his argument, but I did no such thing. I distinctly stated 
on page 79 that the most successful growers rightly attach much 
importance to the necessity for keeping the roots well up to the surface 
of the border; and further on intimated that root-pruning and the 
addition of fresh soil to the border are the surest means of keeping them 
in this desirable position. I also added that the “ autumn, or a short 
time before the leaves change colour and drop, is perhaps the best 
time for doing this work,” but rather than miss doing it altogether I 
stated that it is perfectly safe and most advisable that it be practised up 
to the time the trees are in flower. I mentioned having moved young 
trees when in flower, not to suggest that this was the best time to shift 
them, but only to bear out my assertion that it might safely be done. 
IE I aecepted the gift of two trees in flower from a friend, and went to 
the trouble of fetching and replanting them, there was no necessity to 
state as much, and 1 fail to see how that rightly could afford a text for 
preaching a sermon on the crime of neglecting to perform work at the 
proper time ; yet such was not the view of “ Nous Verrons.” That little 
bit of tree moving was an experiment conducted “ in the interest of 
science,” and there are other experiments on a larger scale to chronicle, 
these not being altogether “ productions of an active mind,” 
By picking out a short passage here and there it is no very difficult 
matter to convey the impression that the writer of certain articles has 
been glaringly inconsistent, and that is what “Nous Verrons ” has done 
on page 144. If I found our young trees were growing far too strongly 
to be productive they would be root-pruned, or completely lifted and 
replanted in the autumn, but when they are growing only moderately 
strongly such severe treatment would most probably do very much 
more harm than good. If the borders were solely given up to the roots 
of the trees there would be much less necessity to root-prune or partially 
lift so often, but in nine cases out of ten, or probably nineteen out of 
twenty instances, a clear width of not more than 3 feet is left them, 
the roots having to contend with the gross rooting vegetables for 
supremacy. Now if the trees are half lifted every autumn or spring 
and fresh soil worked in, abundance of healthy root fibres are kept well 
away from the vegetables and the spade, and the surface culture being 
of a liberal description, grand crops of fruit are annually produced. 
Is there any other way of keeping the roots near the surface and well 
up to the walls ? If so “ Nous Verrons ” will please point it out. Does 
he maintain that the practice is faulty ? If so, I cannot do better than 
advise him to once more pay a visit to Mr. Challis, Wilton House, 
Salisbury, or to either Mr. Austin at Witley Hall, or his near neighbour 
Mr. Young of Abberley Hall, Stourport. To prove that there is nothing 
new or faulty in the practice I have briefly alluded to of annually 
lifting the roots, I have only to refer him to what was so well done in 
that direction by Mr. Bardney when at Norris Green, and also by 
Mr. Harrison of Knowsley. Unless I am much mistaken “Nous 
Verrons ” is no stranger to either place, and will not venture to 
criticise the system adopted by both of these successful growers.— 
W. Iggulden. 
[Possibly our able correspondent is labouring under a slight mis¬ 
apprehension. He advises his literary opponent to visit certain gardens 
“ once more.” We suspect “ Nous Verrons ” is in a position to state 
that he has not seen those gardens, and he is certainly actually and 
creditably employed in the cultivation of Peaches and other kinds of 
fruit a long way from the sound of Bow Bells. We advise him to 
await the publication of other communications and then reply on the 
whole question. He will find plenty of material to deal with, and some 
good men to combat on this subject.] 
Rose Show Fixtures in 1892. 
June 2l8t (Tuesday).—Westminster (N.R.S.). 
,, 29th (Wednesday).—Brighton*, Ipswicb, and Windsor. 
„ 30th (Thursday).—Canterbury, Eltham, Farningham, and Win¬ 
chester. 
July 2nd (Saturday).—Crystal Palace (N.R.S.) 
„ 6th (Tuesday).—Gloucester and Sutton. 
„ 6th (Wednesday).—Croydon and Hitchin. 
„ 7th (Thursday) —Bath, Lee*, Norwich and Woodbridge, 
,, 9th (Saturday).—Reigate. 
,, 12th (Tuesday).—Hereford and Wolverhampton.f 
„ 14th (Thursday).—Chester (N.R.S.), and Helensburgh. 
„ 21st (Thursday).—Trentham and Worksop. 
„ 23rd (Saturday).—Bedale. 
„ 28th (Thursday).—Southwell. 
„ 30th (Saturday).—Ripley. 
* Rose Shows lasting two days, f Rose Show lasting three days. 
I shall be glad to receive the dates of other Rose Shows for insertion 
in the next list, which will appear early next month.—E dward 
Mawley, Roscianli; Berkhamsted, Herts. 
The National Rose Society. 
I HAVE been reading my friend “ W. R. Raillem’s” Rcse notes on 
page 149 with my usual respect. I have seen the new schedules, and 
am grateful for the consideration shown to small growers. “ Raillem ” 
seems to fear that some of the leading lights among rosarians will be 
alienated ; I do not. Where are the leading lights of the future to 
come from for the most part unless from the lesser lights growing 
larger and shining more brightly ? I condole with your correspondent 
heartily in the difficulty of making his garden grow good Roses, but 
he succeeds as others have done. Let him call to mind our late friend 
Mr. Baker’s garden at Reigate, made in an old gravel pit. “ Raillem” 
is too modest in calling himself a fourth-prize man. I reckon him 
one of the best twelve amateur rosarians of England. Personally, 
for my own chances, I should like to see a sixth or seventh prize.— 
F. H. Llag. 
Mr. Grant’s Progress. 
I AM sure Mr. Grant’s personal friends, and all lovers of the Rose, will 
be glad to hear that I have had a letter from Mrs. Grant in which she 
says, “You will be, I am sure, glad to hear that my husband is still 
progressing very favourably. He was so glad to see your handwriting 
again ; he was able to read your letter for himself. His arm is taken 
out of the splints, and has done so well that no operation will be needed. 
He is very cheerful, and hopes to see you all again.”—D., Deal. 
Herefordshire and West of England Society. 
At the annual general meeting of this Society a satisfactory state of 
affairs was disclosed in the Rev. F. R. Burnside’s secretarial report. 
They had had a very successful season in 1891, which completed the 
twenty-fifth year of the Society’s existence, and carried forward a 
