August to, 1 ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
181 
of accomplishing an object, he will have a good crop of excellent Peaches 
and Nectarines next year. 
I now go back to Ketton. There is another span-roofed Peach house 
there, small in comparison with the other, for it is only 102 feet long, 
224 feet wide, and 13 feet high, but built and glazed in the same way. 
Every inch of trellis on both sides, from base to apex, is covered with 
trees, such as anyone may be proud to own. In training, health, and 
cleanliness no fault can be found with them, and it fo'lows that they 
bear the finest of fruit. What that means I will state by-and-by. 
There is yet another Peach range to be noticed ; this time a lean-to, 
186 feet long, 11J feet wide, and 13 feet high, glazed like the others. 
It is in three compartments—early, midseason, and late. It is a fine 
range, but would be finer and better if converted into a span-roof, the 
aspect not being the best for its present form. The trees, as in the 
other houses, are models of their kind. The varieties, as they occupy 
■each house, are not specified, but a digest from the whole will be given and 
selections for succession and exhibiting named. There is a span-roofed 
Cherry house, 91 feet long, 16^ feet wide, and 10 feet high, occupied 
with the best varieties in cultivation, and Marechal Niel Roses, which 
•are more extensively and better grown at Ketton than in any other 
private garden I have seen. There remains still another handsome span- 
roof, called the Camellia house, 45rj feet long, 30| wide, and 17 feet high. 
The roof is covered with Marfichal Niel Roses, across the ends are fine 
Nectarine trees ; on each side of the central path Camellias, Palms, 
and miscellaneous plants ; and near one end a hedge of Ivy-leaved 
Pelargoniums that reaches from the ground nearly to the roof. Two 
varieties were planted, bit Madame Crousse is by far the more free and 
fioriferous, and produces trusses of blooms in thousands. A small 
Wales, Dymond, Sea Eagle, Princess of Wales, and the Nectarine 
Peach. These will afford a supply in a cold house in the midlands from 
the middle of July to the middle of October. Lord Palmerston is 
excluded, because the fruit, though large,is pale and inferior in quality. 
The best Nectarines he considers are Lord Napier, Stanwick Elruge, 
Dryden, GoldoDi, Rivers’ Orange, Pine Apple, Byron, Spencer, and 
Victoria, these being alike good for show and for private use, and are 
named in order of ripening. 
Mr. Hopwood derives pleasure in sending boxes of fruit to his friends, 
and perhaps no finer Peaches and Nectarines have been seen on royal 
and aristocratic tables than the selected examples from Ketton. They 
are packed in boxes 18 by 12 inches, and 4 inches deep. 
A little must be said about the culture of Marbchal Niel Roses, of 
which 9000 blooms are cut yearly from the large Peach house—chiefly 
from one end of it, about a third or fourth the length of the structure, 
though some are grown at intervals the whole length of the central path 
and trained straight up to the roof. The Peach trellises in the Marfichal 
Niel end of the structure do not follow the arching of the roof, but 
the trees are planted about G feet from the sides of the house, and the 
trellises are taken straight up to the roof, the trees being trained as if 
to a wall, and on the borders in front of them up to the central path 
are arranged fruit trees in pots. The Roses on Briar stocks are planted 
3 or 4 feet apart next the boundary walls, and there is thus ample 
room to pass between them and the Peach trellises. The growths are 
trained up wires about a foot from the roof, until they reach a little 
above the top of the Peach trellises, and the wires then stretched 
tightly over the space, and when covered with Roses form, so to say, 
when in flower, a flat ceiling of golden blooms. These are of the first 
Fig. 23.—PEACH HOUSE AT KETTON HALL. 
•conservatory, Orchid house, and stove adjoin the mansion, and are 
attractively furnished with well-grown plants. As will be perceived, 
there is a considerable extent of glass at Ketton ; indeed, the various 
structures cover nearly half an acre of ground. Mr. Divers prefers 
Weeks’s upright tubular boiler for heating, for although others are set, in 
view of contingencies, he finds the one named the most certain to work 
continuously and uniformly over the greater length of time after 
•stoking. 
On an average about 7000 Peaches and Nectarines are gathered 
yearly. This shows that the trees are not thinly cropped for the pro¬ 
duction of sensational fruit ; but good crops are grown, and the vigour 
of the trees with generous support enables the fruit to attain a more 
khan average size. The shallow, well-drained borders permit of the 
free use of water, and it is given with no sparing hand when the crops 
are swelling, 3000 gallons at a time being applied in the “ big ’Chouse. 
1 do not remember seeing Peach borders kept so moist as these were, 
and both the trees and the fruit showed how they enjoyed and benefited 
by the liquid food. As ripening approaches moisture is lessened and the 
wood gradually and surely matures. 
The largest fruits gathered are of Lord Palmerston, weighing 16 ozs., 
and measuring 12£ inches in circumference ; Sea Easle and the Necta¬ 
rine Peach, 13 ozs., and measuring 12 inches ; Princess of Wales, 
1B4 ozs., but an inch less in diameter than the two last named ; 
Barrington and Prince of Wales, 12 ozs. and 11 ozs., and 11 ^ and 11 Inches 
round respectively ; but taking all their qualities into consideration, 
Mr. Divers recommends the following varieties for exhibition pur- 
posses :—Royal George, Crimson Galaude. Prince of Wales, Belleararde, 
Stirling Castle, Earlv Albert, Early Crawford, Princess of Wales, 
Barrington, Dagmar, Sea Eagle, and the Nectarine Peach. For private 
use in succession his choice is Alexander, Early Louise, Early Albert, 
Royal George, Stirling Castle, Goshawk, Crimson Galande, Prince of 
size as produced by vigorous annual growths, for after flowering, o 
about June, all the shoots are cut back as closely as Vines are at the 
winter pruning, there being nothing left but bare rods and two sets of 
spurs, the lower near the base of the roof, the upper near the top of the 
trellis. By syringing and general good management the buds break 
strongly and produce “ fat ” growths, those from the base soon reaching 
to what may be termed the ceiling, those from the higher spurs extend¬ 
ing across it. The term ceiling is a misnomer, but employed to make 
the method clear. When I saw them at the end of July the spring-like 
growths were about 2 feet in length ; they are now probably more than 
thrice that length, and may have extended or nearly so over the desired 
space. 1 have seen them attain a length of more than 20 feet, and 
thicker than an ordinary pencil, after the summer pruning, and those are 
the growths for producing magnificent blooms. Some persons I know 
have tried the plan and failed, but that was their own fault; they erred 
culturally somewhere, and I am convinced both by experience and 
observation that the plan described, subject to such modifications as 
local circumstances suggest, is the simplest and best for growing the 
greatest number of the finest blooms under glass, and I am positive that 
in no other way could Mr. Divers cut 9000 of such as connoisseurs covet 
from the plants in his charge. Some persons appear to be impressed 
with the idea that for growing Peaches and Mardehal Roses satisfac¬ 
torily the roof sashes must be moveable, and removed in the autumn. 
Without saying anything against the practice the fact may be noted that 
at Ketton the roofs of the houses are fixtures. 
Not much can be said about the outside department, though flowers, 
fruit and vegetables are equally cared for and cultivated, as is fruit 
under glass. Chrysanthemums are in a most promising state. They 
receive the immediate attention of a son of Mr. Tunnington, of Liverpool 
the said son being the foreman at Ketton, and will, Mr. Divers says, 
make someone a fine gardener some day. A “ curled ” wall standing 
