106 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 11, 1886. 
talis, a plant of similar habit and height. It must, however, be conceded 
that neither of these plants can vie in brilliancy with the plants usually 
employed in bedding, and their proper place is perhaps the front row of 
the mixed border.— W. T. 
HINTS ON THE CULTIVATION OF HARDY FRUIT 
TREES. 
At the last monthly meeting of the Lee, Lewisham, and Black- 
heath Horticultural Society, held on January 29th in the Working 
Men’s Institute, Old Road, Lee, Mr. Pavey, gardener to W. Watkins, 
Esq. (of the firm of Howcroft & Watkins, the well-known London 
seedsmen), Eltham Road, Lee, read an excellent paper entitled “ A 
few Hints on the Cultivation of Hardy Fruit Trees,” in which he 
very ably described the various methods of planting, training, and 
pruning, and the best modes of destroying insects, &c., injurious to 
fruit trees. 
He dealt with the important subject of planting in a thoroughly 
exhaustive manner, laying particular stress on the necessity of pro¬ 
viding good drainage for the planting stations, especially on cold, 
damp, and heavy subsoils. To the absence of good drainage he 
attributed the chief causes of failure in growing fruit in many 
gardens, rightly stating that to this cause was due the existence of 
canker, especially among Apple trees. He advocated the thorough 
preparation of the planting stations by giving ample space to each 
tree, and the great importance of forming in the case of clay subsoils 
a good hard bottom by means of concrete, thereby preventing the 
formation of tap roots and the roots generally from penetrating into 
an uncongenial subsoil. Mr. Pavey had many years ago experienced 
great difficulty in cultivating fruit trees in the garden of which he 
still had charge owing to the uncongenial cheracter of the soil, but 
after he had set to work and prepared new stations on the principles 
recommended no difficulty occurred, seasons permitting, in obtaining 
excellent crops of fruit with fine healthy and vigorous trees. 
The distinction between the positions (culturally) of market and 
private growers was pointed out, the former having the advantage of 
pitching their tent, so to speak, on just the right kind of land suitable 
for fruit-growing ; hence, as a general rule, market growers were 
able to produce greater crops than private growers ; whereas the 
latter have to be content with whatever position and soil builders— 
suburban especially—choose to erect the houses on. Here, then, lay 
the necessity of adopting such artificial means of assistance as would 
conduce to ultimate success. 
Another important point mentioned was the advisability of plant¬ 
ing and growing fruit trees in quarters to themselves instead of (as in 
the usual way) their being planted round the margins of the walks; 
urging as a reason for adopting this plan that when planted in 
quarters the blossom was better protected from injury in early spring 
and the roots from being interfered with during the important period 
of growth. On this point particularly most experienced cultivators 
will agree that considerable injury is often done to the roots of fruit 
trees during their season of growth by the unavoidable disturbing of 
the soil in planting and lifting vegetables when the trees are growing 
round the quarters of the vegetable garden. Where the proposed, and 
indeed often adopted, plan of growing fruit trees in quarters to them¬ 
selves can be carried out it will be found highly advantageous. The 
kitchen garden will, perhaps, not look quite so well furnished without 
its marginal trees, but where it is a question of abundance of fruit in 
preference to effect there the quarter system should be adopted with¬ 
out hesitation. 
Next came the important subject of summer and winter pruning. 
Mr. Pavey expressed his disapproval of summer pruning as generally 
practised, believing that the constant practice of pinching and 
stopping the growths had an injurious effect upon the progress of the 
fruit during its development. Bis idea is that when a tree is in full 
growth removing a portion of its growth seriously checks the flow of 
the sap, and thus prevents that healthy free circulation which is so 
essential, he thought, to the well-being of the tree. All that would 
be done by way of summer pruning to cut entirely away all weakly 
growing shoots, but not by any means stop the stronger-growing ones, 
leaving these to act as the lungs of the tree until growth had quite 
ceased, and then prune in the usual -way. Much, however, expressed 
under this heading did not meet with entire approbation from some 
of the members present. 
Root-pruning judiciously carried out was considered to be an ex¬ 
cellent remedy for reducing gross-growing trees to a fertile state, 
He did not, however, advocate doing too much in this way at a time, 
doing one half of the tree the first and the other the second year. 
Then a few interesting remarks were made on some of the insects 
affecting fruit trees and the best modes of eradicating them. For 
destroying American blight he advised 8 lbs. of softsoap to be dis-j 
solved in 4 gallons of boiling water, adding a wineglassful of paraffin, 
and when cool thoroughly scrubbing the affected trees with it. 
Finally attention was drawn to the advisability of planting fruit trees 
in the shrubberies of small gardens instead of so many Almonds, 
Horse Chestnuts, and Hawthorns. He strongly urged the. adoption 
of this plan on the score of utility, as not only would their blossom 
prove quite as effective in spring, but there would be the advantage of 
a good crop of fruit as well. 
There is certainly no reason why a few of our hardy fruits should 
not be grown as recommended, because they would prove not only 
ornamental but useful, and this is a great desideratum in small 
gardens of limited dimensions. A gentleman, well known to the 
writer of this report, and who possesses excellent taste in landscape 
gardening, has often remarked how beautiful and appropriate the 
Apple and Pear would be grouped with other trees in our shrub¬ 
beries, and this gentleman has carried it out in practice. 
A discussion followed the reading of the paper, in which several 
of the members took part, agreeing for the most part with the prin¬ 
ciples advocated, and at its close a hearty unanimous vote of thanks 
was awarded to Mr. Pavey. This Society has only recently added to 
its sphere of usefulness and attraction these social meetings, which at 
present augur well for its future prosperity. Mr. Pavey only dealt 
with hardy fruit in the open quarters ; thoBe on walls are to form the 
subject of a future paper. The next paper will be read by Mr. Fox, 
gardener to Mrs. Penn, The Cedars, on “ Forcing Strawberries.”— 
T. W. S. 
MIDWINTER ORCHIDS AT CHELTENHAM. 
At this season of the year an array of Orchids in flower, such 
as I have recently seen at Mr. Cypher’s nurseries in the Queen’s 
Road, is a cheering sight. 1 spent an agreeable hour among 
these Orchids, which was rendered all the more pleasant owing to 
the intelligence and patience of Mr. John Cypher in cai’efully 
informing one of all the interesting particulars concerning many 
of them. In the new Cattleya house were numbers of Barkerias, 
which included the lovely C. Skinneri, with rosy purplish mauve 
flowers, with its broad and distinct labellum; and also B. 
Lindleyana. Amongst the Cattleyas are to be seen C. Loddiges- 
iana; C. Tiianse, a pale variety; and the yellow flowered C. 
Holfordi, a very distinct Cattleya, carrying twenty-two flowers. 
Near by were Ltelia anceps Barkeri, a very fine form; also 
Lselia autumnale, the plants of the latter are very late, which 
gives them additional value just now. Here they are flower¬ 
ing with their wonted freedom, and have fine spikes of flowers 
as much varied as the plants themselves. Of Oncidium Jones- 
ianurn three distinct forms are grow'n; pa> ticularly noticeable 
was a variety with very dark purple-chestnut spots, the upper 
portion of the lip spotted with crimson. There are some tine 
forms of the well known Cypripedium insigne, among which are 
several carrying two flowers in a scape, evidence at least of good 
culture. Nor must the Coelogynes be omitted; these are just 
bursting, in fact some already open, and extremely useful they 
are. Conspicuous among them all is the Chatsworth variety, 
in which the pseudo bulbs would appear less numerous and 
more widely scattered than in the type, and apart from these 
distinctions it invariable carries in these nurseries two spikes 
of flowers to each flowering pseudo bulb ; if this is general with 
this variety it is certainly doubly valuable. 
In the Odontoglossum house are many beautiful forms of 
O. Rossi majus, all suspended near the glass. Among the 
Cypripedes in this house were C. insigne Maulei and Chantini, 
the latter spotted with light violet. in this house Lycastes 
abound, some in flower, others on the wane, and numbers beside 
throwing up strong spikes. There also I noted the satiny 
flowers of Masdevallia tovarensis, of which a profusion has been 
maintained since October last, but it is now nearly oyer. The 
East Indian house is bright with many flowers, the chief attrac¬ 
tion being the many deep-coloured arching spikes of Calanthe 
Veitchi, but Saccolabium giganteum is handsome. Then we 
notice the so-called white Dendrobium bigibbnm, D. leucolo- 
photum. but which somewhat resembles in the form of the 
infloresence Freesia refracta alba, in which. the flower spike 
having attained the maximum, a horizontal direction, on which 
the flowers of this Dendrobe are closely arranged. Other 
Dendrobes in flower are D. bigibbum, D. Ainswoi'thi. D. nobile, 
with D. heterocarpum, which are its parents, the latter very 
sweet, and the welcome D. Dearii, the most durable of all the 
white Dendrobes The plants of A insworthi, which are many, 
are specially noteworthy for vigour, due in a great measure to 
plenty of heat, abundance of moisture, and a position close to 
the glass. As an instance of their progress in twelve months, 1 
may state that a year ago each of the plants consisted in most 
oases of a single bulb from 2 to 3 inches long, from these 
have sprung some fine pseudo-bulbs, stout and massive, the 
longest about 1 foot, and others C or 7 inches. The whole of the 
