224 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
December 12, 1891. 
look-out. It is very likely that the 
chief grumbling will be found on the part 
of those who, in the short Chrysanthemum 
show season, desire in some capacity or 
another to fill three or four engagements 
in one week. However, for good or for 
evil, the fact remains that the show season 
of the Chrysanthemum is a very short one, 
and we hail with satisfaction the pro¬ 
posal on the part of the National Chry¬ 
santhemum Society to take the lead in 
promoting October exhibitions by holding 
one next year. 
Without doubt, if some effort be made, 
many varieties which now so generally 
bloom in the latter month might be in¬ 
duced to bloom earlier if needed. But 
there is ample reason to believe that we 
have grown up a section of October bloom¬ 
ers, and these need that encouragement 
which earlier shows would afford. There 
seems to be good reason to believe that 
shortly very fine exhibitions of Chrysan¬ 
themums may be held in October. 
utdoor Peach Culture. — We have 
not anywhere seen growing, as ordinary 
standard trees, various varieties of Peaches 
so abundantly as Mr. R. D. Blackmorehas 
in his garden at Teddington. It must not 
any the more be assumed that trees of this 
description are generally fruitful. When 
it is so difficult under ordinary culture to 
obtain a crop of fruit on walls, naturally 
we should be surprised to find trees grow¬ 
ing as standards in the open quarters to 
be productive. Mr. Blackmore has told 
us that these trees just fruit occasionally, 
and that is all, and if he does not destroy 
them it is because having them he is loth 
to part with them now. 
It may be taken for granted that the 
art of Peach culture as applied to trees on 
openwallsislesswellunderstoodthan it was 
a generation ago and earlier. The free 
use of glass houses has materially discoun¬ 
ted Peach culture outdoors, and ive have 
not followed the old practices in the same 
way that our fathersdid. Those of us who 
are old enough to rerfiember them and 
their gardens know full well that there 
was then no feature in those gardens 
which they more ardently worshipped or 
were prouder of than their Peach walls. 
Now that our Peach walls are too seldom 
very attractive we put all the blame on the 
seasons and make the weather the scape¬ 
goat. Forty or fifty years ago we had bad 
or cold seasons as we have now, and our 
fathers in their gardening had to contend 
against them, without having any glass 
houses to fall back upon. Perhaps the 
weather really is at fault, perhaps our 
defective practice, perhaps both. 
The old gardeners almost always kept 
their Peach borders firm and not cropped 
so near the trees as we do. May not our 
trees have suffered materially from this 
cropping practice. Why should we sur¬ 
face crop Peach borders, keeping the roots 
from the surface, any more than we should 
crop our Vine borders. Very likely, too, 
we have made our borders too rich, and 
have in our hurry to cover walls forced the 
trees into a coarse, barren growth. We 
should hail with pleasure a winter discussion 
upon this subject as it is full of interest 
for young gardeners. 
S^Tho are Amateurs ?—When a most 
** estimable gentleman and an occa¬ 
sional correspondent wrote the other day 
complaining that the old lines of demarca¬ 
tion between the plant - trader and the 
amateur gardener had been broken down, 
he did but give utterance to a truth with 
regard to which many of us have too long 
been familiar, We have never found in 
horticulture a more acceptable person than 
is he who, out of the noblest regard and 
love for gardening, maintains good gardens 
and gardeners, seeks for no other return 
than is found in the pleasure derivable from 
such expenditure, and places the love for 
gardening inherent in him above every 
consideration. Such men as these are 
amateurs in the highest sense. They are 
gardeners because they love gardening and 
for no other reason. 
In earlier days there were few gentlemen 
who had gardens who did not belong to this 
class of amateur, and our profession stood far 
higher in dignity than it does now. At the 
present day it is difficult to divide the 
amateur gardener from the trader, for if 
not directly and openly as the trader does 
at least covertly and indirectly trading is 
carried on in myriads of gardens of a 
nature which the few would suspect. Prob¬ 
ably this form of trading is found more in 
relation to Orchids than to other plants, to 
fruits more than to other garden products. 
Orchids are purchased that they may grow 
into value and thus become good invest¬ 
ments. One result of that method of look¬ 
ing at these beautiful flowers is that 
collections have multiplied all over the 
country, and both Orchid trade and 
Orchid cultivation have enormously bene- 
fitted. Still the fact remains that all so- 
called private collections are grown in the 
interests of trading more or less. 
As to fruits, it would be difficult to 
name a private garden of any pretension 
where surplus, and often a big surplus, is 
not sent to market. Many large gardens 
are market growing establishments pure 
and simple, and being lightly rated, do com¬ 
pete most unfairly with bona-fide market 
growers. Cut flowers go into our shops 
and markets also from thousands of private 
gardens, indeed there is no end to that 
form of trading, and it is spreading. Possi¬ 
bly we may yet see the title of garden ama¬ 
teur become an absolute misnomer. 
he Gardeners’ Orphan Fund. —The 
announcement made in our last issue 
that at the ensuing annual general meeting 
in February next it is proposed to add 
eleven more orphan children to the list of 
those now enjoying the benefits of the 
fund, may well induce our readers gener¬ 
ally, and gardeners specially, to manifest 
renewed interest in this noble, and yet 
most economically managed charitjL A re¬ 
minder of this kind may well be regarded 
as seasonable, because we are approaching 
the customary festival season of Christmas 
when appeals for all sorts of charities, 
good and doubtful are made, and as'a rule 
responded to with great liberality. 
Why should the Gardeners’ Orphan 
Fund be an exception in this respect? 
Why should it not share in that Christmas 
bounty ? Perhaps the merits of the fund 
are not placed before gardeners with suffi¬ 
cient emphasis. Perhaps gardeners have 
not yet sufficiently realised the value of an 
institution of this description. Some time 
has elapsed since the previous election for 
reasons of a purely business nature, but 
now that the business year of the fund is 
brought into harmony with the ordinary 
calendar year, and also that another elec¬ 
tion is so imminent, it is hoped that 
renewed interest will be created, and that 
the new year will prove to be one of exceed¬ 
ing advantage to the Fund. Whilst it is 
most satisfactory to learn that the whole 
of the liabilities incurred in relation to 
every child on the fund are provided for, 
yet it is evident that only by the furnishing 
of ample means every year that the claims 
of other orphans can be satisfied. 
How fully that might be done did 
gardeners generally become annual sub¬ 
scribers ? For every twenty gardener 
subscribers now there should be one 
hundred, and were such the case the fund 
would be placed in a splendid position for 
carrying on its mission of mercy to the 
young and helpless. Cannot gardeners, 
even in a small way, adopt the lines of the 
Salvation Army, and have a self-denial 
week once a year, the savings in money 
going to the Orphan Fund. Now that the 
exhibition year has closed cannot the thou¬ 
sands of prize-winners all over the King¬ 
dom who have not yet given anything to 
the fund set aside some small portion of 
their gains for the benefit of the Orphan 
fund. The product would be a handsome 
sum and be most welcome to the Com¬ 
mittee at the present moment. 
_ - - _ 
-t- 
Royal Botanio Society —The dates selected for 
next year's exhibitions of this Society are as follows : 
—March 23, April 27, May 18, special Floral Fete 
June 22, evening Fete July 6. 
Mr. John Fraser, assistant editor of The Gar¬ 
dening World, has been engaged by the Berkshire 
County Council to give a series of lectures on prac¬ 
tical horticulture, extending over the ensuing four 
months. 
Mr. Alfred Hopkins, who has been gardener to A. 
Caldecott, Esq., at Pishobury Park, Gloucestershire, 
has removed to his employer's new establishment at 
Highcroft, Husbands Bosworth, near Rugby. 
Mr. Alexander Wright, gardener to E. H. Watts, 
Esq., Devonhurst, Chiswick, has been engaged by J. 
MacMeeking, Esq., as gardener at Falkland Park. 
Norwood, S.E., in succession to Mr. Mackinnon. 
The Temple Show. —The first of June next being 
Derby day, the dates recently announced for holding 
the Royal Horticultural Society's show in the 
Temple Gardens has been altered from June 1 and 2 
to May 25 and 26. 
Mildness of the Season in Ireland —M. C H , 
writing from Nenagh, Co. Tyrone, on December 1st, 
says :—I have to-day some plants of Laxton’s Noble 
Strawberry in fruit in an open border, a circumstance 
which has never happened with me before, though I 
take a lively interest in Strawberry culture, and have 
grown every good sort in commerce during the last 
fourteen years. The fruit is fully grown, but of 
course quite green. 
Tuberous Begonias with Striped Flowers. —Some 
striking additions to this useful class of plants have 
been made recently by Herr E. Benary, of Erfurt, 
Germany. These novelties recall by their colours 
those varieties of Carnations which are termed 
flakes and bizarres. Some have a whitish-yellow 
ground colour, others an orange ground colour, and 
a third series has a lively red ground colour. All 
are marked with bands and stripes of a more or less 
dark hue. We have not heard the last of these 
plants, says the Bulletin d'Arboriculture, de Floriculture, 
etc. 
Remedy against the Brown Rust of the Peach - 
Last year, says the Bulletin d'Arboriculture, etc., M. de 
la Bastie, President of the Pomological Society of 
France, had expressed the opinion that sulphate of 
copper would act as a remedy against that malady 
of the Peach. In the last number of Pomologie Fran- 
caise, that eminent pomologist reported the result 
obtained by the employment of the remedy precited. 
Notwithstanding the humidity and the cold of the 
springs of 1890 and 1891, his Peaches have shown 
no trace of brown rust; they had received in the 
autumn] an energetic treatment of bouillie bordelaise. 
That should then be an efficacious preventive 
remedy. 
Death of M. Alphand.—We regret to learn of the 
death in Paris, on Sunday last, of M. Alphand, the 
eminent landscape gardener who created the garden 
parts of the Champs-Elysees, the different squares of 
Paris, the parks of Chaumont and Monceau, and the 
Bois de Boulogne. M. Alphand was born at Greno¬ 
ble in 1817, and made the acquaintance at Bordeaux 
of Baron Haussmann when the latter was Perfect 
there, and was offered subsequently by him the 
directorship of the parks and public promenades of 
Paris. He was unrivalled in the art of landscape 
gardening, and some years ago published a splendid 
work on the Parks, Promenades, and Gardens of 
Paris. 
