182 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ August, 
Leominster; the 2nd to Mr. Turner. Marie Baumann was grandly shown by Mr. B. R. Cant, 
and Messrs. Paul and Son, Mr. Cant’s flowers being of extraordinary size and form, and perfect 
wonders of freshness and brightness of colour. The splendid dark-colonred Louis Van 
Houtte was shown by five exhibitors, and Mr. Cant again came in 1st, with nnexceptionable 
flowers, and Mr. R. N. G. Baker 2nd. The class for Madame la Baronne do Rothschild was 
perhaps the finest of all, so numerous, large, and fresh were the flowers staged; of grand 
size and form, and splendid as to foliage, wore those forming the Ist-prize lot, from Mr. R. N. 
G. Baker; and another very fine stand was the 2nd, shown by Mr. Scruby. Mr. R. N. G. 
Baker took Messrs. Fisher Holmes and Co.’s prize for a dozen nice blooms of Fisher Holmes ; 
and the 1st prize, offered by the Rev. Canon Hole for a similar number of Reynolds Hole, was 
won by Messrs. Paul and Son. In the class for any variety not named above, Messrs. Curtis 
Sanford and Co. came in first with a magnificent lot of Francois Michelon; a but slightly in¬ 
ferior stand of the same variety, from Messrs. Paul and Son, was 2nd, and Mr. Turner came in 
3rd, with Mdllo. Marie Cointet. For three trusses of any new seedling Rose, Messrs. Paul 
and Son \vere 1st, with the fine glowing crimson, John Bright, which is bright indeed, though 
of the flat or expanded type; and Mr. Turner 2nd, with Penelope Mayo, a fine flower of the 
type of Marie Banmann. 
THE SEASON TO POT CAMELLIAS. 
f T lias been frequently hinted by experienced men that the proper time to 
pot Camellias is just before the flower-buds begin to open, the reason being 
that the roots remain active and are not injured by breakage when the 
growth of the wood takes place. I never had practised the system to a 
large extent before this season. In the early part of February we purchased 
about half a hundred large and small plants, and to make the best of them for 
another season, they were potted soon after their arrival, regardless of the flowers 
which were open and opening on most of the plants. None, however, dropped, 
and all seemed to be benefited by the shift, and plenty of blooms were cut as 
late as the end of April. 
A number of summer-flowering Heaths, Epacris^ Cytisus^ Neriums, and other 
greenhouse plants were also potted as they were coming into flower, and it seems 
to have benefited the flowering and the growth of wood alike. Ixhododendrons 
I have often lifted from the open ground and potted as they were coming into 
flower, and they seemed to do better than their contemporaries left behind them. 
It has been written more than once by one of the most successful plant-growers 
of the present time, that it is a great mistake to tear out the roots of pot-bound 
plants, with the view of making them take quicker to the new soil. Pot- 
bound plants when thoroughly moist through the ball and potted firmly, will 
send roots to the sides of the new pots quicker than the balls of roots which 
have been mutilated with the view of allowing them to root quickly into the 
new soil. But on the other hand, if the solid ball should be at all dry and the 
potting is done loosely, instead of using the ramming-stick to make all thoroughly 
firm, success is impossible.—J. M. P. 
APRICOT DISEASES. 
E hear something every season of the dying-off of the branches of Apricot 
trees, and there has not, as far as I am aware, been any specific suggested 
to arrest the progress of this-—one of the worst pests which is known in 
connection with fruit-tree culture. In those districts where apricots 
