54 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
September, 25, 1885. 
absorb the moisture given, which, as a consequence, 
hangs about the bulbs to the stagnation of the soil and 
the ultimate decay of the bulb. L. auratum does not 
stand alone, for already some magnificent forms of it 
have been awarded First Class Certificates by the Royal 
Horticultural Society for their excellence, and of these 
I may say a few words in my next.— J. 
-- 
NOTES ON PEACHES. 
Looking over my notes on Peaches for this year, I 
thought that, perhaps, a few remarks might be accept¬ 
able, especially as our houses contain (with the exception 
of three trees) all Peaches and Nectarines raised by 
Mr. Rivers. Our range is 142 ft. long, and in two 
divisions. We commenced with the first house on 
February 20th, and used scarcely any fire-heat after 
the fruit had stoned. The trees ripened in the following 
order ; —Early Rivers, June 20th ; Hale s Early, July 
10th ; Lord Napier, July 15th ; Dagrnar, July 20th ; 
River’s Early \ ork, July 23rd ; and Earl} Alfied, July 
29th. The second house was started on March 20tli, 
and no fire-heat applied after the fruit had passed the 
stoning process. The following is the order of ripen- 
ing;—Early Victoria, August 7tli ; Royal George, 
August 16th ; Yiolette Hative, August 20th ; Pine 
Apple, August 27tli ; Albatross, September 9th ; Sea 
Eagle, September 15th ; Princess of Wales will be ripe 
about 23rd j and Gladstone about the end of the month. 
I wish to say a few words as to the merits of the 
above excellent Peaches and Nectarines. Early Rivers 
is a very fine Peach, and, although not in bloom so early 
as some of them, it overtakes them, and is ripe two or 
three weeks before any of the others. I now come to 
that most delicious Nectarine, Lord Napier, which is 
always first rate with us. It is so good and so highly 
thought of here that my employer wished me to plant 
a second tree, which I have now done. Dagrnar is a 
fine large Peach, of excellent colour, a most abundant 
cropper, but should not be allowed to hang for any 
length of time on the tree, or it loses much of its .fine 
flavour. Early Alfred is also a very good Peach, of 
medium size. I consider Early 5 ictoria one of the best 
flavoured Peaches we have. Pine Apple is too well 
known, and needs no description of mine to do it 
justice. Albatross is now ripe, and grows to a very 
large size ; I gathered three fruits last week, and give 
following dimensions and weight. No. 1, 1| ins. in 
circumference, weight, 9 ozs. ; No. 2, 10j ins., weight, 
8 ozs. ; No. 3, 10 ins., weight over 7 ozs. It is one I 
would strongly recommend to be in every collection, 
and, although of such large size, it is an excellent Peach. 
Sea Eagle and Princess of Wales are two splendid 
Peaches ; there is very little difference as to shape and 
colour of fruit, although the former ripens a week 
earlier, and is more robust in growth. Gladstone is a 
grand late Peach, and attains a beautiful crimson colour, 
and will give us fruit into the first and second week of 
October. In concluding this article, I wish to state 
that I have given a true and impartial account of these 
fruits, having no desire to disparage any of the old 
kinds, but hoping it may help those who are about to 
make selections, not to include old kinds only, but to 
give some of the above a trial, and with caieful culti¬ 
vation and attention, I am sure those who try will not 
fail to reap excellent results, and hold them in high 
estimation.— B. P. B-, Liverpool. 
-- 
NOTES ON STRAWBERRIES. 
The Strawberry crops in the northern counties are 
tolerably good, with the exception of the early varieties, 
which suffered from want of rain in the early part of 
the season ; but later-cropping sorts came in for occa¬ 
sional showers, which greatly benefited them, helping 
them to swell out better, whilst the flavour was not im¬ 
paired by an over-excess of moisture, which is generally 
the case when we have a wet, sunless season. I have 
grown a good many varieties of Strawberries in my 
time, and as often as I travel from one garden to 
another I am sure to find certain varieties failing in one 
place, yet as often succeeding in another. The failures 
may possibly be due to “ mistakes in’ gardening,” but 
we must not forget the old adage, “ Nothing venture, 
nothing have,” for it is only by experiment that we 
can learn what to grow and what to avoid. 
T have grown over twenty sorts since I came here, 
seven years ago, and the garden not being of very large 
dimensions, what Strawberries are grown are such sorts 
as will give us the best possible results from the least 
compass of ground. Our soil is naturally very strong ; 
the subsoil on which it "rests would make excellent 
bricks, whilst the situation is cold and bleak ; if a 
Strawberry has a constitution at all this is the place to 
test it. The sorts which have stood the best, both for con¬ 
stitution, productiveness and quality, have been weeded 
to the following:—VicomtesseHericart de Thury, Keen’s 
Seedling, Sir Joseph Paxton, President, Sir Charles 
Napier, James Yeitch, and Dr. Hogg. These have 
proved to be the very best, in their respective classes ; 
were I to extend the list to a dozen sorts I should add 
the following, in the order named :—-Crimson Queen, 
Prince of Wales, Barnes’ Prolific, Elton Pine, and 
Bonny Lass ; these are sufficient for any garden. Of 
new ones, which I have noticed elsewhere, I have been 
favourably impressed with Laxton’s King of the Earlies, 
which is somewhat like Black Prince, but larger in size 
and equally as early. It is evidently a good variety, 
and I have set it down for trial. 
As regards planting and soils there is nothing new 
or fresh to relate, as most of your readers are fully 
aware that the Strawberry does best in soils of a deep 
loamy nature ; it has, however, been averred that Straw¬ 
berries are worthless after the third year, which I do 
not dispute where light soil abounds, as it is warmer 
and quicker in action, ripening and bringing the young 
plants sooner into maturity, and forcing, as it were, the 
plants and fruits as well as quickly exhausting the 
manurial agents of which it is composed. Soils of a 
heavy nature are slower in action, upon both the plant 
and fruiting. Keen’s Seedling with me gives the best 
crop the third year, and continues to bear well up to 
five years. Again, the method and time of planting 
varies, and no hard and fast rule can be recommended. 
On light soils and in favourable localities, plant in 
August or September; but, if otherwise, defer the 
operation until spring. Here we find spring planting 
the best, as runners cannot be had so early as to get 
sufficiently established before the winter sets in ; we 
plant in nursery beds 4 ins. to 6 ins. apart each way, 
and even in this way we sometimes have heavy blanks. 
The best and most certain result, I find, is to leave 
the allotted quantity of runners in the rows or beds, 
selecting the best, and clearing all the others away. 
In the spring these are taken up, with balls of earth, 
and carried to their permanent places, planting them 
from 12 ins. to 18 ins. apart, according to the sorts, in 
well-manured soil dug deeply, being careful to fill the 
places or holes up in the beds from which they came 
with’soil from the potting bench. Of course, there is 
a season lost by spring planting, but in such soils and 
places it is better by far, as the young plants grow 
right away, are regular, and ready for any winter that 
may come.— B. L., Huddersfield. 
-- 
THE VICARS GARDEN. 
This, as many of your readers will remember, from 
references that have already been made to it, contains 
a fine collection of hardy herbaceous plants, of which 
he is an ardent admirer, and when well cared for, as 
they are here, they must command the admiration of all 
true lovers of nature. There is among them an endless 
variety of form and colour in the flowers, whilst the 
variations of habit and foliage will alone give to those 
of cultivated taste a vast amount of enjoyment over 
and above what is obtained from the viewing of the 
best-arranged parterre ; for, however well the colours 
in a bedding-out design may. be contrasted or blended, 
it soon palls on the eye, and fails to interest as a flower 
garden should do. 
It is urged by some that if the bedding-out system 
was abandoned, our gardens would be duller and less 
trim than at present; well, so they undoubtedly would 
be in many hands, but that there is any real necessity 
for their being so under altered conditions, the garden 
under review is a standing witness to the contrary, for 
from the early spring months till the frosts of winter 
draw the curtain of general sterility over the face of 
nature, there is here always much to please the eye and 
feed the mind of any true lover of flowers, and even 
then objects of interest and beauty are not wanting ; 
and during the summer the tout ensemble may often be 
likened to a prize arrangement of plants at our large 
shows not a leaf or flower seems out of place, all 
decaying flowers and foliage is regularly cut away, and 
another large item in the success attained here is the 
copious waterings the plants get whenever the weather 
sets in dry. 
To enumerate all the plants found here in a plan of 
very modest pretensions, would be to compile a moderate 
sized catalogue. The floral display begins with the 
Christmas Roses, following on which came the Snow¬ 
drop, Scillas, Crocus, and Hepaticas ; then with Aprri, 
a glorious display of Narcissus. The collection here 
contains many new and rare varieties, and is well dis¬ 
tributed about the borders, and Anemone fulgens being 
plentifully interspersed among th&m, with Hyacinths, 
the Aubretias, and Arabis all gay with flowers, and the 
foliage of Pseonies, Papavers, Pyrethrums, all fresh and 
green, render the floral display in April both clean and 
charming, which is continued well into May, when the 
Tulips are all ablaze, and the Anemones of the St. 
Bridget’s strain are at their best; while for gracefulness 
of form, what plant surpasses the varieties of Fritallaria 
meleagris and F. pyrenaica ? In this month we have 
the first instalment of the Sunflowers in Doronicum 
austriacum. Y'hat more distinct and beautiful 
flowering plant is there than Trillium grandiflorum ? 
this, with Corydalis nobilis, Doronicum Draytonensis, 
Mertensia virginacea and Anchusa, ought to be in 
every garden. 
Following hard after the last named come the Giant 
Poppies, the Pieonies, Pyrethrums, these latter being 
suitable for the smallest places ; the Spanish and 
German Iris vieing in beauty with the Orchids of our 
stove ; the stately Foxgloves, herbaceous Delphiniums, 
and lovely Lilies giving a charm to the garden during 
July of a distinctive character ; and when August 
comes round there are the Sunflowers, both annual 
and perennial, the Cactus and Pompone Dahlias, with 
varieties of Phlox decussata, some of the later-flowering 
Lilies, and Funkias, all at their best. Many of these, 
with the addition of autumn-flowering Chrysanthemums, 
keep the place gay till the frost comes. The varieties 
of Anemone j aponica are v ery good no w (September 14 th), 
the Gaillardias, Rudbeckias, Sedum fabarium, and 
numerous other things presenting attractions at every 
step we take in walking round. Zonal Pelargoniums and 
other bedding plants are not totally excluded, but are 
dotted about as single specimens, and serve to enrich 
the effect. As carried out here, this style of garden 
entails a great amount of labour and watchful care, but 
to a real lover of plants it yields a return which well 
compensates for it all. It is a real home for flowers, 
where the lover of fair Flora’s charms will ever find 
fresh delights. — W. B. G. 
- =❖£<« - 
PICTORIAL TREES. 
Planting time is coming round again at a rapid pace, 
for however slowly some things may seem to progress, the 
seasons, “ never hasting, never resting ” come and go, 
and they bring with them necessary work. October 
and November are the great planting months of the year. 
There is no doubt but that generally autumn is preferable 
to spring for this work. Open and seasonable autumns 
are the rule, and if, owing to the prevalence of rain and 
early frosts, but little planting can be doue in autumn, 
there are the spring months to look forward to. If the 
work is deferred till the spring, and a long winter, 
followed by wet, interferes with it and makes it late, 
there is danger of many deaths from drought, and other 
causes. 
One pictorial tree that cannot be too highly recom¬ 
mended is the Golden Oak— 
Quercus pedunculata concolok. This is an 
extraordinary tree, with bright yellow leaves, which 
preserve their golden tint throughout the summer. A 
fair-sized specimen is a remarkable object, and attracts 
notice at a great distance. Unfortunately it is delicate, 
slow of growth, and difficult to propagate, but where it 
succeeds it is an object of great beauty. It is a sport 
from our common British Oak. 
Corylus avellana PURPUREA, is the purple Hazel, 
and is remarkable for its beautiful dark purple, or more 
strictly, bronzy black foliage, with fruits to match. 
Let it have a soil that suits the Hazel, and it is bound 
to succeed. 
Acer nec.undo variegata or negundo fraxini- 
folium is so well known as hardly to need mention, 
the variegation of the leaves of this shrub, is most 
showy and striking. The prevailing colour is pure 
white, mingled with green, pink, and other tints. 
Planted here and there in a shrubbery it produces a 
wonderful effect, and attracts notice at a great distance. 
Acer Webbiana is also worthy of notice on account 
of its charming green, yellow, and white variegation. 
