1881 . ] 
PERPETUAL FLOWERING CARNATIONS. 
7 
labour-power to keep the place. I pass over 
years of lifting and*transplanting old and young 
fruit-trees, Vines especially ; but in every case 
I found real benefit from bringing the roots 
upwards, well mulching them from drought, 
and preventing any from getting to the subsoil. 
It is with a distinct recollection that I can 
record an unpleasant case connected with the 
severe root-pruning of a number of Pears. In 
a nobleman’s garden, where a good collection 
of Pear trees was established on a wall, the soil 
being good, but the climate rather cold and 
severe, the trees always grew late in the 
season, and became too gross, to be expected 
to ripen their wood, and consequently disap¬ 
pointment had to be endured over and over 
again. The gardener, an experienced and 
clever man, set about lifting the whole of 
these trees, root-pruning them at the same 
time. The result was that they scarcely 
showed more than leaves the following year, 
and the noble proprietor, in disgust, at the 
end of the season discharged his worthy gar¬ 
dener, and engaged another, also an experienced 
man. The latter took advantage of his oppor¬ 
tunity, and in the following spring an abund¬ 
ant show of blossoms appeared. The crop set 
amazingly, and was judiciously thinned, while 
the roots were mulched and watered with 
guano-water several times during the season. 
The result was the production of about the 
finest lot of Pears seen in the district. From 
that garden excellent collections of Pears have 
been exhibited, and for anything that I know 
to the contrary, fine fruits are still grown by 
the same gardener, who has for upwards of 
thirty years, in the same place, won a name 
and fame as a clever grower of hardy fruits, 
and of Pears especially. 
My opinion regarding the doctoring of roots 
to cause fruitfulness is, that the extreme 
practice of some, brings discredit on the system. 
Boot-lifting, when performed judiciously, has 
been known to entirely change the character 
of fruits, so that they could scarcely be recog¬ 
nised because of their excellence; but the 
mutilation of the roots, even when cut cleanly 
with the knife, should be looked on as a neces¬ 
sary evil, and done tenderly. For nearly twenty 
years I have adopted the piecemeal system of 
lifting, cutting back with the knife those roots 
which were without fibre ; and to have the tree 
in good health, laden with fruit, the following 
season, I have performed the work between 
June and September, first lifting one side of 
the tree, and when the roots had taken fresh 
hold, and emitted a mass of fibres, doing the 
other side. In this way, before the leaves fell, 
abundance of knotty, natural-formed spurs were 
studded all over the branches. Last July we 
half lifted some hundreds of trees, Apples, a 
few Pears, Plums, Apricots, Peaches, and 
Morello Cherries. We only lifted both sides 
of a few trees, for the half-lifting and clearing 
aw r ay their tap-roots arrested growth, and had 
the desired effect. I find that I have a loner 
o 
list of notes on root management, especially 
on the piecemeal system carried out when 
growth was active, and in every case the work 
has been attended with the greatest success. 
Figs, Vines, and Plums have done exception¬ 
ally well by this treatment.—M. T. 
PERPETUAL FLOWERING, OR 
TEEE CARNATIONS. 
GppT would be no loss to drop the term 
“ tree,” as applied to these plants ; or, 
GA) more correctly, it would be a gain to 
drop the form of growth that has given rise 
to this appellation. It is scarcely possible to 
imagine anything in the shape of a pot-plant 
uglier than the tall, scraggy deformities that 
used to do duty wherever these beautiful 
flowers were grown. When the market- 
growers took them in hand, they soon gave up 
the cultivation of these tall plants, with their 
attendant long sticks and close-ties, and either 
confined themselves to young stock, or headed 
the old ones down in the spring, after blooming. 
Notwithstanding that these Carnations com¬ 
bine almost every desirable property that goes 
to make up a valuable flower for autumn, 
winter, and spring use, they are not so gener¬ 
ally grown in private gardens as they de¬ 
serve to be. I find that many who have 
not grown them imagine them difficult 
to cultivate, associating them in this re¬ 
spect with the Florists’ varieties, which, in 
common with all other things cultivated by 
Florists, are supposed by numbers of people to 
want more attention than ordinary gardeners 
can bestow 7 . This is, at least, so far a mis¬ 
take, that few plants are more easily managed 
than these Perpetual-blooming Carnations. If 
the cuttings are struck early enough in spring 
to admit of the plants attaining their full 
strength, and they receive a fair amount of 
attention during the summer, so that they do 
not come to a stand-still for want of pot-room 
or water, with the help of a low house or pit 
where they can be kept near the glass during 
the time they are being brought on into flower, 
they are about as certain to succeed as any 
