October 17, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
107 
white as snow, and very mild in flavour. I have given 
up entirely growing Veitch's Autumn Giant, which 
used to be my favourite, on account of it being so strong 
in flavour, and now grow no other than Eclipse for 
autumn supply. We have a nice lot of it just now 
coming in, and we find them very useful, as we have 
gathered our last peas, Dickson’s First and Best, to-day, 
October 10th. Thanks to a strong heavy soil and plenty 
of manure Tve have had an unlimited supply of peas all 
through the summer. Anyone who may not have 
grown the Eclipse I would advise to give it a trial next 
season, they will he well pleased with it. — IF. C. 
Royal George Peaches.— I send for your 
inspection a fair sample of the Peaches I am now gath¬ 
ering from trees on the open wall ; the variety is 
Royal George. We had 9° of frost last night and 12° 
on Saturday. - -P. JV. Fair grieve, Dunkeld Gardens, 
Perthshire, Oct. 12th. [The samples received were in 
perfect condition, measured 8 ins. in circumference, and 
as highly coloured as any we saw' in its season, the end 
of August and beginning of September. The flavour 
too, was very good for such a late crop.— Ed.] 
Chou de Gilbert. —This remarkable production 
from Mr. Pi. Gilbert, of Burghley Park Gardens, in the 
way of an elongated Cabbage, with a large cluster of 
strong Sprouts eminating from its base, was exhibited 
at the show' at Kensington on Tuesday last. It was 
also placed before the Fruit Committee of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, and a portion of the Sprouts 
w T ere also put before them in a cooked state, which, I 
am told, were most delicious ; in fact, much superior 
in quality to the Brussels Sprouts which were submitted 
with them in a similar state. It appears to me that 
the excellent quality of the Sprouts—as none of the 
main heart w'as cooked—is its distinguishing character¬ 
istic ; if this be so, it is most desirable that before the 
subject is introduced into commerce, its type should be 
firmly fixed, for unless this is done, this new' kind of 
winter greens—which naturally is closely allied to 
many existing varieties—will quickly pass into insig¬ 
nificance through so many of them coming in a manner 
lmost indistinguishable, which will not only be very 
disappointing but really vexatious.— Kitchen Gardener. 
New Melon, Penrhyn Seedling. —At the 
conclusion of a committee meeting of the Manchester 
Horticultural Improvement Society, held on September 
28tli, a fruit of this new' Melon was submitted to the 
judgment of the members present by Messrs. Dickson, 
Brown, and Tait, who are now sending it out. The 
committee present were Mr. B. Findlay (President), 
Botanical Gardens, Manchester; Mr. E. Griffiths 
Hughes, Victoria Street; Mr. ~W. Swan, The Gardens, 
Oakley, Fallowfield; Mr. W. Plant, The Gardens, 
"Voodheys, Ashton-on-Mersey ; and Mr. J. Briddon, 
The Gardens, Claremont, Pendleton ; and all expressed 
their opinion that they had not tasted a finer flavoured 
or more luscious Melon in their experience. The 
raiser describes it as follow's: “A grand early Melon, 
of strong constitution, and most prolific.” The fruit 
is of a handsome oval shape, colour golden yellow, 
slightly netted, white-fleshed and of great depth, which 
can be eaten to the rind ; of a luscious and exquisite 
flavour. Weight, four to eight pounds. 
Lifting and root-pruning Peach Trees. 
—I read with much interest Mr. Warden’s letter in 
your issue of the 3rd inst., p. G9, on lifting the roots of 
Peach trees, and w'ould recommend everyone, amateur 
or gardener, to read it carefully, and if their trees are 
not doing satisfactorily, to prune and lift the roots as 
much as possible this year, and then next autumn, lift 
the trees bodily and replant them, keeping the roots 
near the surface. I consider 4 ins. of soil on the roots 
sufficient. We had three large trees here which used 
to make a tremendous quantity of wood, many of the 
shoots several feet long, and they used to flow'er well 
every spring but never set any fruit worth naming. 
Early in September of last year I took them in hand, 
with a determination to either kill or cure them. I had 
a trench dug about 6 ft. from the bole, then all the soil 
was worked carefully out with a fork to within 4 ft. 
6 ins. of the stem, all the thick fibreless roots were cut 
off, the small ones were saved and laid carefully in 
some good soil, layer after layer, until the trench was 
filled up and made firm. Then, as Mr. Warden recom¬ 
mends, a basin was made round the trees and a thorough 
soaking of water was given ; then we mulched them 
with rotten manure, kept the house rather close for 
several days syringing the trees every afternoon, they 
rtyened their wood and plumped up their buds very 
well and I expected to have a moderate crop the follow¬ 
ing year. In the spring they w'ere a picture with 
blossom, and while they were in full flower I had them 
gone over several times with a camel’s-hair pencil, they 
set their fruit well, so well that we had hundreds to 
pull off, yet I was afraid they would drop a good many 
while stoning, after going through such a severe ordeal, 
and was prepared by leaving plenty on. But I am 
pleased to say they stoned w'ell and exceeded my ex¬ 
pectations, by finishing off a capital crop of good-sized 
and well-flavoured fruit. I have four other trees that 
I root-pruned in the same way, and which have this 
season borne a fair crop of fruit. I intend to lift all 
these this autumn, as the roots are far too deep to my 
liking. — JV. C., Lancashire. 
A Prolific Cucumber. —We commenced cut¬ 
ting in our first house of Cucumbers—a span-roofed 
house, 27 ft. long and 10 ft. w'ide, and planted with 
Telegraph, true —on April 1st. During that month 
we cut 342 fruits ; in May, 425 ; June, 309 ; July, 213 ; 
and from August 1st to 12th, 70 fruits ; making a total 
of 1,359 fruits. The plants were destroyed on August 
12tli to make w’ay for late Melons. —Pl. Gilbert, 
Burghley. 
Omega Peas. —We are now picking good well- 
filled pods from the above, which were sown on a 
sheltered part of a south border, on June 18th. At 
that time the ground was hard and dry, so that it had 
to be well watered, and after the peas came up, occa¬ 
sional soalcings were given, also a good mulching of 
half rotted manure. IF. J. Ireland. 
Hardy Bedding 1 Plants: The Golden 
Spergula. —“Scotia’s” complaint with respect to 
the exceeding shortness of the summer bedding season, 
finds an echo even in the south of England, where late 
frosts prevail till the end of May, and autumn one’s 
come, as this year, before September is out. In such 
case it is useless to plant out realty tender things, in 
the expectation that the exceeding labour involved in 
the effort will be repaid. Some four months only of 
summer, and much of that period very dubiously sum- 
merish, so that with cold nights and ofttimes keen 
cutting winds, tender plants thrive badly, make poor 
growth, and seem only to reach their full perfection 
just at the moment when autumn frosts coming very 
prematurely lay them low, andd estroy all their beauty. 
With such climatic mischances, the bedder out finds 
his best course to lie in ignoring tender plants 
altogether, and utilising hardy, or at least, partly 
hardy things, such as will resist a few degrees of frost, 
and thus enable a good bedding display to endure from 
five to six months at least. Mr. Herring, Clialfont 
Park Gardens, some few years since, began to utilise 
that pretty hardy and rich yellow carpet plant—Golden 
Spergula. Writing with reference to it recently, he in 
mourning over the effect of early frosts, said, “ what a 
gain it would be to us if we could obtain a red or rich 
coloured foliaged hardy plant, like the Spergula or that 
capital green plant,- Herniaria glabra, to replace the 
tender Alternantheras. ” Ho doubt myriads of gar¬ 
deners have had ample cause to say the same thing. 
Is there no such hardy plant to be found ? Certainty, 
as grown at Chalfont Park, no yellow plant can be 
more beautiful or perfect as a carpet plant than is the 
Golden Spergula, for it is employed to form, not tiny 
dots, but good breadths, and forms with the green 
Herniaria beautiful contrasts. With a few' more similar 
hardy carpet plants and other wondrous wealth found 
now in decorative plants and conifera, we may w'ell 
ask whether these are not in the end far more satisfac¬ 
tory than are shattered tender bedders.— A.D. 
American Blight.—In many old gardens, par¬ 
ticularly where Apple trees are subject to canker, this 
formidable pest is generally to be found, and is always 
a source of great annoyance to those in charge of the 
place. In the gardens here v'ere many very old 
cankered Apple trees, badly infested with the blight, 
which had found its v'ay to younger trees in bearing 
order. The worst of the old trees were cut dowm, and 
the roots grubbed up and burnt, and as soon as the 
leaves fell from the remaining ones they were painted 
over (using ordinal'}'paint-brushes) with neat petroleum, 
every stem and branch, great care being taken to work 
it W'ell into all the crevices. Nearly all the trees were 
more or less affected with the blight, and this season we 
have detected it only on one or two trees, which are 
again having another painting of the petroleum. Some 
gardening friends, who were here last autumn at the 
time the painting operation w r as going on, gave their 
opinicn that the petroleum would kill the buds, being 
too strong in its neat state ; but such was not the case, 
as the trees, without exception, look well, and nearly 
all the established ones gave a nice crop of fruit, and 
more than that, they are far more healthy in appear¬ 
ance than they were in seasons before.— JV. J. Ireland, 
Headfort. 
Autumn Strawberries.—In many establish¬ 
ments a few dishes of Strawberries are required late in 
autumn, and after trying various plans, we find the 
most successful is to keep as many plants of the forced 
ones which ripen in April, and harden them off in a 
cold frame for a time, then they are potted and stood 
on the top of a low wall surrounding the outside vine 
border, where they get all the sun and light available. 
Here they are kept well watered, and are syringed in 
the evening after hot days. About August they com¬ 
mence flowering, and after the fruits are set they are 
thinned, leaving about twenty-four fruits to each plant. 
Then they are regularly supplied with doses of weak 
liquid manure until they commence colouring, when 
they are taken indoors, and stood on the vinery shelves 
close to the glass, where they receive an abundance of 
air, and colour much better than if left outside. The 
varieties which succeed best are Yicomtesse Hericart de 
Thury, and Amy Robsart, the latter a fine Strawberry, 
well suited for forcing, and a most prolific bearer. I 
forward you one or two fruits of each, kindly give your 
opinion of them. — IF. J. Ireland, Headfort. [They 
were better coloured and better flavoured than any we 
remember to have tasted before in October.— Ed.] 
Potting Home-grown Lilies.—Now is the 
time to do this, if not done before. I make a distinc¬ 
tion between home-grown and imported Lilies. The 
latter have not yet arrived, nor can they until the first 
week in December or thereabout, and it would be very 
desirable if importers were not in any hurry to bring 
them sooner. To send them to London any sooner, 
I understand they must be cut down and dug up 
in the green state in Japan, and if that be so, it 
may be an additional item in the explanation of the 
query, “why do so many imported Lilies rot or die 
off? ” The home grown have now as a rule died down, 
flower and stem—and it is important that the stems 
should be withered before commencing to re-pot. 
Once this has taken place, they should be shook 
out of the old soil and a fresh compost got ready 
at once. If the stem is not withered, neither it, nor 
the mop of stem-roots can be readily disentangled from 
the scaly bulb without pulling the latter asunder. To 
avoid this, when I pot early, say Lilium speciosum 
(in variety) L. pardalinum, &c., in August I cut 
the stem near the base, leaving the mop of healthy 
fleshy stem roots attached, and repot as they are. The 
reason is this, all Lilies, and they are in my experience 
the majority that throw out stem roots, use them for 
feeding purposes. In fact it is on these they mainly 
depend, except in the preliminary stages. If a Lily 
has not made basal roots before those commence action 
it will make none subsequently, and though it will 
flower the bulb will be lost. It was this idea that 
evidently induced a correspondent a short time since to 
recommend breaking off all Lily stem-roots when they 
appear, but all Liliophiles fell on him for such an 
iconoclastic suggestion. Nothing would be gained by 
doing that, as if the bulb had little or no basal roots 
made up to that time it would not then commence to do 
so, on the other hand I had fine blooms often that 
solely depended on stem-roots, and when the pot was 
turned over on the hand the bulb had decayed. L. speci¬ 
osum and all its varieties, except the white one 
“ Krsetzer’s Lily” increase rapidly, from below and 
above, and when healthy, often you have two or three 
bulbils among the stem-roots. A friable rich loam 
suits all, except adding peat for L. auratum. Casualty, 
I may remark, that I have three varieties, from white to 
deej) yellow' of this grand Lily now in bloom. I find 
t judicious to put a handful of clean river or sea sand 
around the bulbs, and unless the soil is dry they will 
want no water at present. — IF. J. Murphy, Clomnel. 
Pachyphytum bracteosum.—Itv'ould hardly 
be correct to term this a hardy plant ; but is has lived 
with me for seven or eight years, grown in pots in a 
cold house. The soil in the pots is allowed to become 
quite dry as winter approaches, and then it takes no 
harm, but it occupies the warmest portion of the 
house.— Ino. 
