420 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 23, 1389. 
very well indeed ; in fact, better than might be expected after such a 
wet, sunless season as the past. Grapes are also grown well, one house 
of young Vines being worthy of note ; they were planted last July, and 
half of them at the present time are carrying a crop of good-sized 
bunches. These are intended to be rooted out in the autumn. Those 
to remain are not allowed to fruit this season, but will make good canes 
for fruiting next season and onward, the object being not to loseayear’s 
fruit Melons must not be overlooked ; these, too, are looking like 
finishing well. Green Gem (?) is the only variety grown, and I think if a 
good strain is procured there is little need to grow any others. Much 
more of interest might be noticed, but I think these notes will suffice 
to give an idea of what is being done in the way of fruit culture.— 
C, V. c. 
DELPHINIUMS. 
Delphiniums, or Perennial Larkspurs, as they are very commonly 
Called, are plants well worth cultivation. In the year 1817 nine species 
only were given, but now there are nearly a hundred varieties culti¬ 
vated, and new varieties are constantly being raised at home and 
abroad. All of them are hardy, with flowers of various colours and size, 
dwarf and tall growing, and producing splendid spikes of blooms. The 
Delphinium is of very easy culture ; a deep rich mellow loam suits it 
best. Plenty of room should he given for the plants to develop. To 
have this plant at its best it will be well to devote a bed to it placing 
the taller ones in the centre and the dwarf ones round the side. A 
splendid bed of them may be seen in the gardens at Balrath Burry, 
Co. Meath, where an annual dressing of manure is applied to the plants 
with great benefit. 
Choice varieties can be propagated by division of the roots. When 
1 he plants have done flowering cut away the flower stems. They will 
then push up young shoots, which when strong enough should be care¬ 
fully divided. These should be shaded from the sun a little till they 
begin to take root. The following make a fine selection Beaut6, 
Hyacinthiflorum, Figaro, M. Duvivier, Coelestinum, Eugene Mezard’ 
Illustration, M. Riviere, Nudicaule, Cardiuale, Victory, and Soleil 
couchant.— A. G. Frampton. 
EVENING NOTES. 
A Seasonable Receipt. —At this season of the vear gardeners 
Will be busy, in the absence of blinds, applying some m'ixture on glass 
structures to obscure the strong rays of the sun. The following simple 
mixture I have found to answer the purpose admirably—viz°, white 
lead, Brunswick green, and turpentine made into a thin paint and 
applied with a brush. Great care must be taken to add no oil, or it 
will be difficult to wash it oil in the autumn. The great benefit of 
using the above is, if done on a fine day it only needs doing once in 
the season, and with the aid of a little soda in the water it can eafi y 
be washed off again.—T. IV., Doneraile Court Gardens, Co. Cork. 
Gardeners Again. —In your issue of the 11th of April, at pa°-e 301 
I find under the headingof “ Evening Notes,” another interesting article 
on the subject of gardeners’ certificates. I at once say it will take all 
Mr. Dale’s spare evenings, also those of “ East Kent,” to write and 
criticise me on this subject before I shall get unhappy. My answer (o 
‘•East Kent” is in the affirmative as to my knowledge of the practice 
of the leading nurserymen. Many gentlemen prefer bein<* supplied 
with a gardener (if possible) by some personal friend, and this is prin¬ 
cipally owing to the want of a system whereby a thoroughly practical 
all-round gardener may be distinguished from an insufficiently trained 
one, so that each man may rank according to his abilities. These were 
my thoughts when I first wrote on this subject, therefore I advocated the 
use of certificates. Of my old bothyites some are following the occupa¬ 
tion of carpenters, policemen, and one or two others have been recom¬ 
mended to the best places as gardeners, but could not retain them 
owing to their insufficient all-round training. This I mav state was 
perhaps owing to their age when they commenced learning, this bein°- 
about twenty years, and after working four or five years under glass 
they were recommended as head gardeners to fill situations for which 
they had not been sufficiently trained. “ East Kent” avaiu asks me if 
I wish any of those trained in the same school as mvself to have third- 
class certificates. This I answer in the affirmative," should they not be 
qua'ified for a higher, that be : ng the very essence of my argument. It 
is not the position a man holds nor that which he has held = that would 
entitle him to the certificate, but it should be granted to him entirely on 
his abilities as a gardener. -Alfred Bishor, Westly Hall Gardens, 
Bury St. Edmunds. ’ 
Forcing Strawberry Plants the Second Year -Like vo 
correspondent, “ A Foreman,” I find plants answer better for forcii 
purposes the second year than the first. When growing for mark 
some years ago we obtained from 4s. to 5s. per ounce during the mom 
of I ebruary for fruit from old plants of Vieomtesse Hericart de Thur 
Our mode of culture was as follows. At the end of June the plan 
were turned out of the pots, nearly all the soil was shaken from thei 
the roots were not shortened, they were then repotted firmly in the san 
size pots, 6 inch, and stood in a sunny position outside. As soon 
established liquid manure was applied at every alternate waterin 
By October they were in flower, and were removed to a north hous 
and kept there quite cool until the end of December, when they we 
placed in the Strawberry house, the temperature varying from 55° to 
70°, in which they ripened at the time mentioned. What the flavour 
was I am unable to say, as I believe my mouth was not made for eating 
Strawberries so early in the year. I have never been able to obtain 
fruit from young plants until nearly the end of March, our supply 
during the early part of that month being taken from old plants of the 
same variety that failed to flower in autumn. These were started in 
November. I made up my mind then that when I had charge of a 
garden that I would try to span the year with Strawberries, but unfor¬ 
tunately for that resolution my employer does not like forced Straw¬ 
berries, so for that reason I have not grown any for him. I still believe 
it possible to do, and hope some day to prove it.— Handy Andy. 
Sending Plants with and without Earth.— At this time of 
the year numbers, especially of amateurs with unheated greenhouses, 
and who wish to have them gay for the remaining six months, when 
visitors are flitting about, buy quantities of “rooted plants” for con¬ 
servatory decoration. It is useless here to discuss the question as to 
whether they would not enjoy far greater pleasure by raising all that 
would be possible from seed or cuttings at home, and watching their 
progress from day to day since the commencement of the new year. 
Many have not time, and a considerable number, for want of heating 
apparatus and sufficient acquaintance with the details of procedure, 
would only be courting failure. There is, therefore, and for sufficient 
reason, a vast number that must every year be purchasers of plants for 
garden and cbnservatory decoration. I am very fond of propagation 
as an amateur, but for twenty years I have always had to do this. 
Others have to do so on a large scale, and the system has been increased 
and is necessary. Well, on the point above referred to, the professional 
gardener and the amateur who raise their own seedlings and cuttings 
have considerable advantages above those who order plants and receive 
them by parcels post. Their plants are turned out of the cutting pots or 
propagating boxes, and in two minutes turned into their future position 
in the flower garden, or potted for indoor display. The potsherds are 
removed, and frequently not a root is displaced, with the result that 
when brought indoors no check whatever is sustained, and if bedded 
out growth is continuous. Contrast this with the customary system in 
almost all nurseries. Plants are ordered by parcels post. To travel by 
this method they must not exceed a certain weight, and so, to make that 
certain, all soil is shaken out, and in numbers of cases, with plants having 
tender or fragi’e roots, the feeding fibrous roots are broken, and when 
they arrive—even admitting they were most carefully packed in damp 
moss—too frequently that moss, at this season especially, is considerably 
dried up. This, I must premise, is not a personal experience, but a 
pretty general result attaching to small nurserymen and small orders 
transmitted in cardboard or frail wooden boxes—admitting that such 
boxes arrive unsmashed. What is the result ? The nurseryman may 
receive in the first place undeserved imprecations. I say “ undeserved,” 
because cheap plants and “ small lots ” may have been ordered, and his 
custom is thus compromised. Worse still, the recipient has to spend the 
whole year nursing his plants, which took several weeks to recover the 
violent check they sustained when shook out on transmission. Is there 
no remedy ? I received during the past week a large number of green¬ 
house plants, mostly of ornamental foliage, in pots, removed them from 
the chest to my greenhouse, syringed them with warm rain water, and 
in one hour they were in splendid form. What would you think of a 
suggestion that nurserymen should have a special tariff arrangement to 
send valuable plants in pots?—W. J. Murphy, Clonmel. 
L2ELIA DIGBYANA-M03SLE. 
Many remarkable hybrid Orchids have been raised in Messrs. 
J. Veitch & Sons' nursery at Chelsea, but never probably since the 
earliest productions appeared in public has so much interest been 
excited as was occasioned by the exhibition of the handsome 
hybrid named above. This was shown, as may be remembered, at 
the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on Mav 14th last, 
when the Orchid Committee unanimously awarded a first-class 
certificate for it, and also unanimously recommended the award of 
a silver medal, an exceptional but well merited honour. In dis¬ 
tinctness of appearance and beauty, with the fusion of characters 
possessed by two such well-marked Orchids as Laslia Digbyana, 
better known in gardens as Brassavola Digbyana, and Cattleya 
Mossiae, this hybrid is quite an extraordinary production. There is 
also every probability that as the plant increases in strength the 
flowers will still further improve in size and character, and though 
for many years to come it must necessarily remain very scarce and 
proportionately valuable, it will always have a great deal of interest 
attiched to it. 
The plant shown (fig. 08) was said to beabout seven years old from 
