586 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 27, 189-1. 
Messrs. Bunyard & Sod, Maidstone, use an excellent little contriv¬ 
ance which is so easily secured to their plates of fruit, and a neatly 
printed card with the name is securely placed in a clip, so that visitors 
can readily see the names without any difBculty whatever. 
Hardy herbaceous and other border flowers are now so much seen at 
our flower shows, and very frequently it is most difficult to see the 
names of many of them. A simple wire arrangement, consisting of 
stout iron wire of various lengths, with a clip at the top to hold the name 
of the variety, and placed in a slightly slanting direction in front of 
each variety, so as to be easily seen, the point of the wire being secured 
in the stems of the bunch. 
A very little ingenuity is required to bring out a neat arrangement 
for Boses, Dahlias, and Chrysanthemums, and a better method of 
naming Carnations, Picotees, and Pansies is greatly needed, so that the 
names should be legible and easily seen fixed to the back of the stands. 
Legible naming should be insisted upon, and correct naming also. 
Much that is very slovenly in this way is too often seen at flower shows, 
and should be condemned. 
It is of equal importance also that the prize cards of the winners 
should be distinctly and fully filled up by giving the class number and 
its contents, then the full name of the employer and address, and Mr, 
So-and-so, gardener, underneath. 
Too much of the card is often taken up by the title of the Society, 
a matter of very small importance compared with proper filling up of 
the prizewinners’ names and addresses, well and legibly written.— 
An Old Judge. 
LIME. 
I SHOULD like to say a few words in answer to “ Inquirer’s ” note 
re lime (page 563). If a soil requires lime in a caustic state it should be 
put on tbs land in small heaps, allowed time to slake, and afterwards 
spread with a shovel. This method prevents using the hands to sow it, 
for its caustic or burning nature causes soreness and cracking of the 
skin. Its effect upon clothes and boots is to give them a scorched or 
brownish appearance, and leather is very liable to crack if it be exposed 
to the action of much lime. 
A question asked by “ Inquirer,” is “ Would not the application of 
lime kill or injure the nitrifying bacteria ?” Not if applied in moderate 
quantities to soils requiring lime, for instead of injuring them it would 
help them in their important work by keeping the soil in a basic con¬ 
dition, which is so essential to the full development of these organisms, for 
if the soil be acid or sour the micro-organisms cannot go on with their 
work, and it is the lime that plays the most important part in keeping 
soils in a suitable condition. By applying an excess of lime we could 
kill these organisms, but the quantity required for this purpose would 
be very large, and we should make the .soil unsuitable for the"growth of 
any crops by so doing, for we could never expect to grow the higher 
plants (garden crops) on a soil we had made unsuitable to the lower 
ones (bacteria). 
Lime acts on soils in various other ways, for it is in itself a direct 
plant food,^ large quantities being taken up by growing crops. As a 
nitrate of lime it decomposes the organic matter present in soils, the 
products of which are brought into a condition more useful to plant 
nutrition ; it also assists in the decomposition of some of the salts of the 
soil, which act then as direct plant foods ; it also acts physically upon 
all soils, making heavy soils more open ; it improves the texture of sandy 
soils, making them more able to hold plant foods ; it reduces the excess 
of organic matter in peaty soils, and makes them more suitable for 
plant life by correcting any acidity due to the decomposition of the 
excess of organic matter. 
In putting lime on refuse heaps, unless decomposition is wanted to 
take place rapidly, I should not be inclined to use quicklime on a refuse 
heap because loss must occur owing to the escape of ammonia produced 
by the decomposition of the organic matter, and the very soluble plant 
foods formed would be very liable to be washed out. Gas lime could be 
used without the above loss occurring.—W. D., T^lrnford. 
CHRISTMAS ROSES. 
With a limited number of plants, by far the best way to insure an 
annual crop of blossoms is to grow the clumps in such a manner that a 
frame will cover them. For the last ten years I have had splendid crops 
of flowers, mainly from Helleborus niger, and with but a minimum of 
trouble. Some persons lift the roots, removing them to a warm house 
with a view of getting the flowers to expand early, but with only a few 
plants they will not last long. 
Hellebores object to a continual interference with their roots. I 
have enough plants to fill an ordinary two-light frame, and from this we 
cut thousands of blooms, commencing with H. maximus in November, 
continuing with H. niger at Christmas. This latter will give us blooms 
until the middle of February. This I consider very good results with 
so little trouble expended on the plants. H. maximus opens with a 
tinge of^ink in the petals, but throughout January the blossoms are 
white. This is an excehent variety for a continual supply. For the 
purity of itg flowers H. niger is perhaps the best. 
Hellebores grow best in fairly light loam. I had some difficulty with 
our roots at first ; they objected to the heavy retentive nature of the 
natural soil. I lifted them and made an entire new bed of turf freshly 
cut from a pasture where the soil is heavy. With this I mixed peat and 
leaf soil freely, removing any bits of sticks from the latter and using, 
all as rough as possible. The subsoil to a depth of 2 feet was thoroughly- 
broken up to admit of a quick percolation of water from heavy 
rains. The roots, which are thick and fleshy, object to stagnation 
about them. 
Our plants are growing on an eastern border, therefore receive the 
advantage of the sun. They enjoy copious supplies of water, with art 
occasional soaking of liquid manure when in full growth. I provide an 
annual mulching for our plants in the spring after the frame is taken 
away. Partly decayed horse manure answers very well ; this not only 
prevents the surface roots becoming parched during the drying winds 
sometimes experienced in the spring, but its ammoniacal properties are? 
beneficial to the plants. When the new growth is fairly on the way the 
frame is removed, but not if the weather is unfavourable. A temporary 
covering is provided after the lights are taken away. About the middle 
of October the frame is placed over the plants, the lights drawn off 
daily in fine weather, but kept on if it be wet. By keeping the lights 
closer on the opposite during December, according to the state of the 
weather, the blooms of H, niger can always be obtained. A covering of 
mats is afforded during frosty weather, as the blooms are spoiled it 
subjected to half a dozen degrees of frost.—E. Molyneux. 
£20,000 LOST IN FRUIT GROWING. 
Ip Mr. R. D. Blackmore (page 571) has really lost £20,000 in his 
endeavour to grow fruit over a period of forty years, it is not only a 
duty on his part to say so, but since he has said it another duty seems 
to devolve on him—namely, to say how it was done. 
All who have read Mr. Blackmore’s fascinating books will rejoice in 
his being able to lose such a sum and still remain, as he is supposed to- 
be, prosperous. Eis “ long pen ” has evidently served him well, and it- 
is to be hoped will continue to do so for many years to come. He has 
brightened many homes, and relieved the tediousness of many long 
journeys—making them, in fact, all too short by his fascinating “ Lorna 
Doone,” and other works. He can now do great good, more than he has 
yet done, to intending fruit growers by pointing out the rocks, hidden 
to many, against which his vessel of hope, the ” Pomona,” has been 
wrecked, in order that others who he feels are in danger may avoid 
them. Will he be so good as to say— 
1, The kinds of fruit he mainly grows ? 
2, About the number of trees of each kind ; also the number of 
varieties ? 
3, If he has not found any varieties of any kinds to bear satisfactory 
crops ? 
4, If all fail, to what does he attribute the failure ? 
5, If he carefully sorts and markets the fruit (when he has any) in 
the best saleable condition 1 
6, If he considers the soil or situation of his plantations especially 
unfavourable for fruit cultivation. 
Information on these points would I am sure be helpful. I have, 
planted fruit trees which have not yet had time to be profitable, though 
some of them produced remarkably fine fruit last year. I should like 
to plant more, but now hesitate.— Landownee. 
THE EXMOUTH NURSERIES. 
Being in the neighbourhood of Bxmouth early in November, I 
called on the Chrysanthemum specialist, Mr. W. J. Godfrey, thinking 
I should see much of interest, and I was not disappointed. Mr. 
Godfrey has five nursery establishments scattered over the town, but it 
must not be thought that he spends all his time amongst Chrys¬ 
anthemums, although he flowers annually 7000 plants in pots. He 
cultivates largely and well Grapes, Peaches, Tomatoes, and Cucumbers, 
besides Carnations, winter-flowering Pelargoniums, Bouvardias, and 
other suitable plants for furnishing and supplying his numerous 
customers in the town and his handsome shop in Rolle Street. 
Like all other specialists, Mr. Godfrey believes in personally testing, 
all varieties of Chrysanthemums as fast as they are sent out by other 
firms. The raising of seedling Chrysanthemums Mr. Godfrey has made 
a special branch of his business, and with some success. He finds it is 
necessary to cultivate the plants two or three years before the true 
character of each is developed, so variable are some kinds. The 
plants are bloomed in a very large house recently erected at a 
great cost. The dimensions are 153 feet long, 27 feet wide, and 17 feet 
high. The roof is curve-shaped, with ample ventilation on both sides 
of the top. 
At the time of my visit the plants were arranged in the middle of 
the house, and produced a very fine effect. All the best kinds in 
cultivation were well represented, and new varieties also. Challenge is- 
an incurved Japanese, the florets being pointed, and the colour rich 
orange, a promising variety, growing 3 feet high. La Ehone’is French 
raised, of dwarf habit, colour yellow. Mrs. C. Lippingcot, Mrs. Joseph 
Thompson, La Ministre, Leon de Bruyn, Jules Chretien, Mrs. W. H. 
Godfrey, and Lady Northcote were also good, but these have been 
previously noted in the Jo^mial of Horticulture. Christabel resembles 
Mrs. W. H. Lees, when both open early. The long florets curve, at the 
tip, and are dull white. Garnet, wine red, incurved Japanese; Le Drac, 
alto incurved Japanese, bronzy yellow, with chestnut base. Mrs. G. 
