September 26, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
WATERING & SYRINGING, 
ITS USE AND ABUSE. 
(Concluded from p. 39 .) 
No one is more in favour of having the vineries well 
charged with moisture than I am; and during the 
long winter nights, and well nigh into the spring 
months, when the forcing of Vines incurs constant 
and hard firing, I have worked more from ten to 
eleven at nights with the syringe in damping forced 
houses of every description, much more freely than 
in any hour during the afternoons at the same time 
of the year, and with good results. Depend upon it, 
there is no worse practice amongst Vines than that 
of a man on duty fetching in large tins of water and 
dashing the contents five or six times daily carelessly 
upon any available surface of the borders, and then 
shutting the door until six in the morning, with the 
foliage parching under the influence of hot pipes. 
But some may say, I would not saturate the foliage 
of my Vines at nights under any circumstances. 
Quite so, neither would I ; but saturating the foliage 
would not be judiciously damping it ; and to such I 
would say you had far better give a little to the foli¬ 
age and a great deal less to an already saturated 
border, brought about by the too common practice 
of so-called damping down. If Vine borders and 
Peach borders are properly and freely watered from 
the time the fruit is cut until the foliage is shed, it 
is astonishing how little is required during the early 
periods of growth. This applies to forced houses 
especially. Mid-season houses also should receive 
much less water up to the month of June than we 
are aware of. Root action is slow for the first two 
months, and the supply of water should be moderate 
accordingly ; and when we consider the frequent 
dampings each day (some three times or more), and 
ventilators seldom opened on account of cold sunless 
weather, it will not be difficult to find out when, and 
at what period, fruit borders are in danger of becom¬ 
ing much too wet, and root action much slower in 
consequence. This result of sluggish root action in 
the early stages brings us face to face with the very 
probable cause of shanking in Grapes—a problem 
that has never yet been satisfactorily solved by any 
of the most successful fruit growers. 
To-day they say it is through sour and too wet 
borders; to-morrow they will say the crop is too 
heavy ; and if you -assure them that neither is at 
fault they will then fold their arms, and declare it to 
be a very mysterious affair altogether. But my own 
opinion is that the more evenly balanced root action 
is with the advance of growth above, the nearer we 
shall be to the rightful interpretation of this myster¬ 
ious shanking. Heavy cropping will undoubtedly pro¬ 
duce it ; but the fact remains that the most serious 
cases of shanking are found in houses where the crop 
is light or only a fair one. I am satisfied of this, that 
where root-action is good and the bulk of the roots 
within the first foot of the surface, we may crop fairly 
heavily and with no fear of loss. But do not mis¬ 
understand me on the point of light crops faring the 
worst. What I mean and strictly adhere to is, that if 
Vine borders are in an unfavourable condition through 
excessive waterings at the wrong period, thereby 
incurring the certain unhealthy state of the roots, 
you may leave six bunches only on such Vines and 
they will shank more or less. Given a healthy and 
vigorous Vine, you may leave a dozen good bunches 
and all will finish well. Therefore, I believe to avoid 
shanking we must aim at constitution in the plant; 
and to get constitution we must look well to the 
compost of borders ; and where the borders are of 
the right texture do not poison them by treating the 
root§ as though they were drunkards ; because for a 
period of four or five months they are very moderate 
drinkers, while for the other seven they need a good 
extra supply. 
Peaches will take any amount of water; we are 
not so likely to injure the roots of Peach trees as 
those of vines, some one says. Well, perhaps not; 
but any amount is outside of the limit with me ; a good 
supply when they require it, and less at given periods 
is quite sufficient. I am quite as much opposed to 
excess of water to Peach trees as to an Erica. 
Excess in anything can only have one effect either 
with the vegetable or animal kingdom, and that a 
bad one. If you direct me to a Peach house where 
a gardener delights in copiously watering and 
manuring, I will show you a border with cankered 
roots and suckers constantly springing up. What, 
then, is a safe indicator to all these Stipulations? 
55 
The principal and safest guide begins .with a know¬ 
ledge of the constituents and formation of borders, 
whether shallow or deep, whether drained effectually 
or badly, whether the compost is light and porous or 
heavy, and lastly whether the trees are growing 
under the influence of the winter months and early 
spring or under the more favourable conditions of 
light sunny weather. 
All these conditions must of necessity be taken into 
earnest consideration before we can expect to get at 
anything like a safe principle on which to work. As 
with Vines, so with Peaches ; from December or 
earlier, when our first houses are started, it is, 
I repeat, astonishing how little watering is needed 
until the stoning period ; but after that time increased 
supplies are safe, and as the ventilators are more 
frequently opened so will evaporation increase and 
extra water become essential according to the 
strength of the trees, and the state of the border. 
Manure with discretion, and when the crop is 
approaching its full size water should be modified to 
prevent over-development and damping of fruit. 
Syringing should almost cease when fruit is ripening, 
and after the crop is gathered syringing can be done 
freely and liberally, and at this period when ventila¬ 
tion is constant night and day frequent waterings 
are beneficial and manure water also. This is the 
period when very large numbers of gardeners used 
to bring failure upon themselves by neglecting the 
needy water from the time the crops were gathered 
until forcing began again ; and then to their great 
dismay wholesale shedding of buds used to follow. 
Happily this old practice of resting Peach trees (but 
what in reality was ruining them) has been super¬ 
seded by a more common-sense plan, that of never 
allowing the trees to become dry at any period of 
the year. 
That Melons require careful and good manage¬ 
ment none will deny, and more particularly during 
a dreadfully wet summer such as we have had this 
year. Of late years I have not been requested to 
grow them, but in earlier years of my practice Melons 
were always wanted over as long a period as possible. 
I have cut them from April to November inclusive, 
but October generally saw the last of them. “ How 
have your Melons done this season ? " is a common 
inquiry amongst gardeners. From the very fact of 
such an inquiry being made we at once comprehend 
that Melon culture is sometimes a tedious affair, if 
not perplexing ; and it is so very frequently. Those 
who have had to produce good Melons, and keep 
up a constant supply during such a season as this, 
under conditions not so favourable as they might bs 
(unsuitable quarters for instance), know something 
of the perplexing points in their culture without 
asking what I mean. Damp and canker are the 
most troublesome destroyers known to me, 
therefore to ward off the possibilities of being over¬ 
taken by this state of things is what we have bear to 
in mind. 
The weather, which rules so much, has great 
influence upon the well-being of Melon plants. I 
have known what it is to squat under glass, in high 
temperatures, dressing wounds upon the stems of 
Melons, trying to save this fruit and that fruit, some¬ 
times with success and others not ; but our business 
is to avoid all this. How to do it is the problem. 
My opinion on this may not be worth much, but 
here it is. Prepare the bed or mounds in which the 
plants are to grow in such a way that the roots 
may find sufficient food to support a plant until it 
attains a good strength with as few waterings as is 
possible and until the crop is well advanced. Let 
the syringe be used with caution. When young men 
are entrusted to syringe a miscellaneous range of 
houses, in which Cucumbers and Melons are 
included, make them understand that while the 
former are benefited by a liberal use of the syringe 
that Melons are opposed to the same amount of 
drenching. Nothing will bring about the unfavour¬ 
able conditions so soon as wet foliage during a spell 
of cold and sunless weather and the temperature 
correspondingly low. Have the temperature regularly 
and well maintained, with no excess of water either 
at the roots or foliage. If these latter conditions 
were followed out I do not think damping off would 
be so troublesome as it sometimes is. 
Such are a few statements upon the dangers and 
unpleasantness brought about by excessive watering 
and syringing, or vice versa. Many other subjects 
might be discussed under this head, but enough has 
been said to show that I am strongly of opinion 
that fruits in borders are abused very much by ex¬ 
cessive watering and syringing at wrong periods, and 
that hard wooded plants generally suffer more from 
an insufficiency than an excess— A. ]Vat(rs, Hofvcot} 
Hall GgrikuS, rrCfton. 
(Gardening Hiscellany. 
OO "SC/'j 
STREPTOCARPUS SAUNDERSII. 
The leaf of this species is solitary, as in the case of 
S. Dunnii, and equally if not more striking than the 
flowers. It is roundly cordate, and attains a large 
size even when the plant is grown in pots, but those 
who wish to see what the leaf can do should culti¬ 
vate the plant in the border of a dry and moderately 
warm stove, as it is treated in the succulent house at 
Kew. There the leaf varies from 18 in. to 20 in. in 
length and as much in breadth, and is much wrinkled 
with long, incurved ribs. There are several scapes 
from each plant about 12 in. high, bearing cymes of 
tubular white flowers, faintly tinted with blue, and 
having two blue blotches in the throat. Although 
smaller than those of S. Rexii, which bears only 
one or two flowers on a scape, they make some amends 
for this by their numbers. The habit of the plant 
may be compared to that of S. polyantha, but the 
flowers are of a different shape. The species is a 
native of Natal, and was introduced in i860. 
DAPHNE LAUREOLA PURPUREA. 
The Spurge Laurel is pretty common throughout 
British gardens in its ordinary green form, but the 
purple-leaved form is not yet widely disseminated 
There is a specimen in the nursery at Kew which shows 
the leaves to be of a blackish bronzy-purple above 
and deep purple beneath. It should find a place in 
beds of fine foliaged shrubs, which might more often 
be utilised than they are for producing striking effects 
by the contrast of different coloured leaves, different 
form and habit. Being of a slow growing nature 
the Purple Spurge Laurel should be planted near the 
margin of beds or shrubberies. 
EPILOBIUM HIRSUTUM VARIEGATUM. 
The Great Herb Willow is an ornamental subject 
on the margins of ponds or rivers, but is as a rule 
more common in a wild state than planted. The 
variegated form has its leaves much blotched 
and variegated with white, and would on that 
account make a conspicuous object planted amongst 
other semi-aquatics on the margins of ornamental 
water in pleasure grounds. The variegation keeps 
good to the end of the season even in an ordinary 
herbaceous border, but should even be better where 
it can get a plentiful supply of moisture. 
GLADIOLUS MILLERI. 
If hybridists would take this plant in hand, there is 
no saying what might be made of it in evolving a 
dwarf race with large flowers. The sword-shaped, 
glaucous leaves are only about 6 in. or 8in. high, 
while the flower scape ranges from 12 in. to 18 in., 
bearing a one-sided raceme (sometimes branched) of 
funnel-shaped flowers of larger size than those of G. 
Colvillei. The colour varies somewhat in different 
individuals, and this hint might be taken of the 
capability and tendency to vary still further. One 
variety has flowers of a pale bronzy-red externally, 
deepest on the nerves, and creamy-white internally 
with narrow purple midribs. Another has flowers 
of a deep red externally, fading towards the margin, 
and white internally with red ribs shaded with 
purple. The species is a native of South Africa, 
and has been flowering for some time past at Kew. 
TRACHYMENE CCERULEA, 
Occasionally this West Australian plant turns up 
in establishments, and undergoes all sorts of treat¬ 
ment, sometimes as a stove plant, sometimes in 
greenhouses, and lastly in the open air, where it may 
be seen to as good advantage as anywhere. Seeds 
should, of course, be sown under glass as in the case 
of other tender or half hardy annuals, potted off 
singly in small pots or transferred from the seed 
pans into boxes where they may be accorded more 
room, and finally planted in the open border about 
the beginning of June. It may be planted in a bed 
or in large patches according to the convenience or 
fancy of the grower; and the plants will come into 
bloom during August and continue through 
September. The flowers are much more durable, 
and continue to be produced in succession for a 
much longer period, in the open ground than when 
grown in pots. The individual flowers are small as 
in the case of most other Umbilifers, but they are of 
a bright blue, with white anthers, and bcinsr pro 
