September SO, 1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
2G7 
gathered until exactly a month later, all being subject to the same 
treatment. How far the new Exrly Rivers will fill this breach 
of lost time perhaps some readers of the Journal who have 
proved it will be able to say. Certainly it will find purchasers if 
it comes within easy range of the early American Peaches in the 
time of ripening. Its earliness, however, will not be fully proved 
until it has been established a few years, because the first object 
of growers will be to build up a tree for future and full crops. 
The slow rate at which this was formerly accomplished has 
now given place to more rational cultural methods. Instead of 
hard pruning, lateral and early sub-lateral growths are laid in 
when the vigour of the trees allow of this to be done. With 
thin training an early and full crop is thus obtained, and this 
counteracts a vigorous tendency that would obtain under the hard 
pruning systems, and where there is but little fruit to subdue the 
vigour.—W. S. 
EREMURUS ROBUSTUS. 
I AM looking forward to ISIr. Arnott’s note on Eremuri. In the 
meantime let me hold up Eremurus robustus as the noblest of the genus. 
The smaller E. Bungei is perhaps the most beautiful, but E. robustus 
with a dark background of trees, is a glorious object. So my friends 
thought who saw my plant in bloom this year. When I last measured 
it it was 10 feet 8 inches high, and the flowers at the top were not then 
out. 
I had a fine spike of E. himalaicus, but not so good as last year. 
My plants of E. Bungei, although looking healthy, have not sent up a 
flovrer spike this year, the first time they have failed to bloom tor three 
years. Mr. Prichard of Christchurch says Eremuri usually only bloom 
every other year. He also says that there is no difficulty in moving 
them, as they make new roots from the crown every year, the old ones 
dying. 
E. Olgre is very unsatisfactory with me ; it will neither flower nor 
grow. I do not give any protection except that which is necessary to 
keep off the s’ugs, wh'ch have a greedy liking for them, until the flower 
spike peeps out. I then put a flower pot over every night, for if the 
rain gets into the head and is frozen, the spike is destroyed. I send you a 
photograph of my E. robustus taken by a friend. 
At last I have found the right place for Meconopsis Wallichi in my 
garden. Last year I made a bed of good strong loam in a recess on the 
north side of my house (on which the sun never shines) for these plants, 
and they were a beautiful sight to behold. When I grew them in a 
shady spot on the rockery they flagged when the sun shone upon them, 
and the colour was quite mauve ; now the colour is a real Cambridge 
blue. The foliage, too, and the stems are beautiful. But the sun must 
not even squint at the plant, or it fades and flags.—F. Page Egberts. 
CARNATIONS. 
Planting. 
All lovers of Carnations will be glad to see that layers are this 
season of exceptional strength, and are lifting with large balls of 
soil full of healthy roots. By the middle of the present month I 
hope to have the whole of our autumn plantations finished, and 
any not ready then wilt be postponed until the spring. The 
beneficial results following autumn planting have been repeatedly 
pointed out, but I do not think the necessity of early planting has 
been insisted on with the emphasis that it deserves. Merely to 
plant in the autumn means nothing, and if delayed to the verge of 
the winter may be worse than spring planting. 
In order to insure the very best results the layers must first of 
all be strong, in vigorous health, and, most important of all, 
furnished with a good ball of active roots. These, planted as 
early as possible in September, do not stop root action; but in a 
modicum of light sandy soil at once take to their new quarters, 
and before winter sets in are so well established that they go 
naturally to rest until the returning warmth of spring causes new 
growth to begin. The disadvantage of late planting is the 
inability of the plants to establish themselves before the winter, 
with the consequence that they often succumb to the weather and 
are unable to respond to Nature’s promptings in the spring. It is 
therefore preferable to winter the plants in cold frames, where in 
light soil abundance of roots are formed during the winter, and if 
carefully lifted and planted in favourable weather during the 
latter half of March they will quickly establish themselves. I have 
found a little extra care in covering the plants during any 
inclement weather the first week or two after being planted amply 
rewarded by the vigour with which such plants have grown when 
growing weather has come. Pots upturned, one over each plant 
form a ready and efficient means of protection. 
With regard to the preparation of the ground I am very adverse 
to using any manure. The border on which I am planting our 
layers was dressed last year with a thick layer of cow manure. On 
turning up the soil with a spade some of this manure, quite decayed 
of course, crmes to the surface. In breaking the clods it is well 
incorporated with the soil, and affords a sufficient stimulus to tl e 
plants until surface dressings are first applied in late spring. The 
Carnation, it should never be forgotten, is essentially a surfact- 
FIG. 39. —EREMURUS ROBUSTUS. 
rooting plant, and any manure that it may be considered judicious 
to afford them ought to be kept near the surface. Mr. Campbell, 
of High Blantyre, who cultivates many thousands of Carnations, and 
all, with the exception of a few, planted in the open, employs as a 
manure peat refuse from the Glasgow Tramway Company’s- 
stables. Judging from the appearance of the plants this is a most 
excellent manure. But, then, Mr. Campbell has the advantage of 
an open situation on a breezy hillside in the uplands of Lanarkshire, 
while ours are enclosed with walls, and surrounded on three sides 
by trees. 
I have been very successful with various yellow and yellow 
grounJ varieties. I largely attribute this to planting in a very light 
open material, and keeping the plants well above the surrounding 
level. Last year I thought it might have been the very dry and 
warm season that helped the plants, but again this year, with weather 
as damp and wet as it is possible to conceive of, the plants in most 
cases have done even better. One most important point in the 
case of these, as well as other Carnations, is to plant as shallow as 
