438 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
March 12; 1891. 
Some houses are devoted to Orchids, and additions 
are being made to this department from time to time. 
Amongst those in flower we noted Pleurothallis 
Colibri, with purple spotted flowers curiously fringed 
with white cilise. Numerous Cattleyas in baskets 
hung up near the glass will flower in due time. 
Dendrobium Brymerianum and D. densiflorum are 
showing well, while D. Wardianum is flowering 
freely. Others flowering in the same house are 
Cypripedium Villosum, C. Harrisianum, C. H. 
superbum, C. insigne var, C. Leeanum, C. callosum, 
and C. Boxalli. Of several of the latter scarcely 
two were alike, and some of them were handsomely 
blotched on the upper sepal. C. Harrisianum 
superbum was particularly notable for its dark and 
glossy colour. 
-- 
THE CHRYSANTHEMUM. 
Is the Feeding of Chrysanthemums necessary ? * 
After reading Mr. Norman Davis’ practical paper 
on " Chrysanthemum culture under difficulties,” I 
thought I should like to hear some discussion on the 
subject of feeding Chrysanthemums, for although I 
should be sorry to influence any grower to alter the 
treatment so ably explained by Mr. Davis, with the 
main body of his plants, I think it would add a 
great interest to our hobby of Chrysanthemum grow¬ 
ing if we were to try an experiment or two with a 
few surplus plants, and bring the results to our 
meetings whether they succeed or fail, for I think we 
oftentimes learn more from a failure than we do from 
a success. In speaking of feeding it would be as 
well perhaps to study our plant a little, what food it 
requires, and how it assimilates it. As a cutting it 
requires nothing more than warmth and moisture 
to induce it to throw out rootlets, when the 
plant may be said to commence feeding. Now 
a dried plant is said to be composed of carbon, one- 
half, oxygen and hydrogen, two-fifths, and nitrogen, 
two and a half per cent., called organic matter ; and 
the analysis of the ashes of the plant show the plant 
to contain potash, about 25 per cent., silica, 18 per 
cent., lime, 16 per cent., acid, 12 per cent., sulphuric 
acid, 5 per cent., magnesia, soda, chloride of sodium, 
iron, etc., called inorganic matter. Now this gives 
us some idea of what a plant requires. 
The first rootlets are formed from food material 
returned from the leaf, and they in their turn convey 
the crude sap and nutriment to the plant. These 
rootlets and root hairs are formed of deli¬ 
cate tissues through which no solids can enter; 
water readily passes providing the plant is in 
want of moisture, and so can other substances in 
a soluble state provided they are'not too dense, for 
if they are the action of the rootlets would be 
stopped. This action, called endosmose, can be 
easily understood by the following illustration :—If 
a small bladder containing sugar and water be 
placed in a vessel containing pure water, the sugar 
and water being denser than the pure water the two 
liquids will tend to become of the same density, the 
less dense passes through the bladder the more 
quickly, and in consequence the bladder gains more 
than it loses, the force of which would eventually 
burst the bladder. Absorption by the roots can now 
be understood, the flow of sap being induced by 
heat, and evaporation passes through the young 
wood to the buds, young shoots, and upper 
parts of the leaves, where it undergoes a process of 
manufacture passing through another set of vessels 
in the under part ef the leaf and returning by the 
cambium and inner bark, forming another layer of 
wood, a part of the elaborated sap returning to the 
extremities of the roots forming new ones. 
Now I wish to impress upon my listeners that I 
thoroughly agree with Mr. Davis’ mode of growing 
Chrysanthemums, but as a grower myself I know 
something of the difficulty of obtaining good loam or 
a good compost for them, and that possibly accounts 
somewhat for the inferior flowers sometimes staged 
by amateurs. I believe a large flower may be had 
from a compost of good loam three parts and one 
part of leaf mould and coarse sand, with a layer of 
small bones over the crocks, but I very much doubt 
if with the loam we get the blooms would have that 
depth which is necessary in an exhibition flower, 
and again I am under the impression that the large 
quantity of water required by a Chrysanthemum, 
* A paper read at a meeting of the Battersea Amateurs' 
Chrysanthemum Society, on March 2nd. 
say from June to November — some thirty or forty 
gallons in a dry summer, possibly more, per 8-in. 
pot—must carry off a great amount of the soluble 
plant food, leaving the compost in a very poor con¬ 
dition at the end of the season, a time when the 
plant requires extra food to develop its buds. 
A good loam should contain the principal food of 
the plant, and consist of 30 per cent, of clay, 5 
of lime, 5 of humus or vegetable matter, and 60 
of silica or sand. But the poor light sandy loam we 
too often get probably does not contain more than 
10 per cent, of clay, the rest being principally sand 
and lime. Now by adding one-third of leaf-mould to 
this the compost is sufficient to support the existence 
of the plant, but does not contain sufficient inorganic 
matter to make a good flower. 
Carbon as charcoal is insoluble, therefore the plant 
cannot take it up in that condition, but absorbs it in 
the form of carbonic acid gas, which is one part 
carbon and two parts oxygen, and is obtained 
from the atmosphere. I might add this gas 
is taken in by the leaves, where the light 
decomposes it, the carbon is retained, and the 
excess of oxygen is thrown off, hence the necessity 
of all the light that we can give our plants ; and 
although charcoal is not a plant food I would 
recommend the use of it as drainage, as it retains a 
large amount of plant food in a soluble state. 
Hydrogen is formed in the plant by the decom¬ 
position of water, and the plant derives its nitrogen 
from ammonia, which is formed through the decay 
of vegetable matter. 
We thus see that our compost contains sufficient 
organic matter, and I now come to the question of 
inorganic matter. It is the application of this in¬ 
organic matter that is termed " feeding.” 
The inorganic elements, as I before stated, are 
potash, silica, lime, phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, 
magnesia, soda, chloride of sodium, iron, &c,_ Now 
good loam contains all these (although not, I think, 
in a sufficient quantity to finish a Chrysanthemum), 
but I am quite sure a poor one does not, and that is 
the reason why I advocate feeding. I cannot help 
thinking that many are of a different opinion through 
using plant foods containing a large amount of 
ammonia in one form or another, and the result has 
generally been a vigorous, but sappy growth, and the 
resultant bloom more or less a failure. 
I think if we in this district use rain water when it 
is obtainable we shall get as much extra ammonia as 
our plants require, particularly if we catch it after a 
spell of dry weather. 
The food of Chrysanthemums is generally applied 
in solution, some growers preferring one kind of 
manure and some another. This, perhaps, is owing 
to the difference in soils. Mr. Davis suggested 
guano, but after trying it myself I gave up using it, 
the results not being satisfactory. I came to the 
conclusion that it was a good stimulant, owing no 
doubt to its being composed of a good percentage of 
ammonia in some form or other, but I believe that 
others have done better with it than I have. 
The same might be said of several other artificial 
manures and natural manure waters. Of manure 
water I prefer the urine from the stable, because in 
a fresh state it is composed principally of potash,nitro¬ 
gen, soda, and lime, but then we have not all got the 
advantage of having a stable to go to, and the same 
things can be procured in a much cleaner way from 
the chemist or horticultural sundriesman at a 
trifling expense. 
Now if we return to the analysis of the ashes we 
find that potash forms about 25 per cent, and is 
mostly found in the form of carbonate of potash, 
which is an important part of the food of the plant; 
this can be bought at the chemist for about 2s. 6d. 
per lb., or in small quantities at 2d. per oz. We also 
find lime and phosphoric acid, 16 and 12 per cent. 
No doubt our compost contains a large amount of 
lime but in an insoluble state, and phosphoric acid 
would be too corrosive in itself, and that is the reason 
why bones are used as a plant food, as they contain 
both phosphoric acid and lime ; but when we 
consider what a short time the Chrysanthemum has 
to do its work in, I do not think the bones dissolve 
quickly enough. I therefore prefer super-phosphate 
of lime, which is bones dissolved by sulphuric acid 
and is soluble in water. Then we have sulphate of 
magnesia, which is better known to some of us as 
epsom salts ; chloride of sodium, which, in its pure 
state, we know as rock salt; and last, but not least, we 
have iron in the form of sulphate of iron, known at 
the oil merchants as copperas, sufficient of which 
can be obtained for twopence or threepence. I 
intend to use this last much more freely, as I am 
under the impression that it greatly improves the 
colour. There are traces of others, but these are 
the principal plant foods. 
I remember some fifteen or sixteen years ago (I 
was a member of the Croydon Horticultural Society 
at the time), I had the mum fever rather badly, and 
being anxious to produce some extra blooms used 
some of these foods very freely, and I often had cause 
to regret it; but as we go on experience teaches us 
that it is better to use them very sparingly at first, if 
we increase the dose afterwards, for, although I 
know of no plant that will struggle on more gamely 
under adverse conditions, I know of none that will 
give a better return for a little generous treatment 
than the Chrysanthemum. 
Now, if members will carefully note what they 
use, what quantity, how often, and the results, and 
compare their notes, it will greatly help us to reach 
that standard of perfection which is one of the 
principal objects of our society.— J. Sharman. 
-- 
THE AUBRIETIA. 
It is in April that the Aubrietias put on so thickly 
and effectively their garb of flowers. In my own 
garden I employ A. violacea as an edging, and every 
winter the plants owing to the effects of fog and the 
drip of trees lose every vestige of green, and appear 
like so many naked and dead stems. But only let 
spring weather be experienced, and then these 
apparently dead plants leap up into new life, put forth 
growth freely, and bloom abundantly. It is a plant 
that will undergo a great deal of rough treatment, 
also the extremes of wet and drought, heat and cold, 
and yet its tenacity of life is so strong that it rises 
superior to every reverse of this character. My 
plants receive only a small amount of sunshine, but 
they bloom at the proper time with great freedom, 
and form quite a miniature bank of rosy-violet. 
The first introduced Aubrietia was A. deltoidea, 
the three-angled flower, which came to us from the 
Levant about 1710. It is of a dwarf and compact 
growth, admirably adapted for covering rockwork. 
The flowers are of a pale greyish purple, and it is 
one of the earliest to bloom. There is one feature in 
which the Aubrietias may be said to beat the Arabis 
—the flowers are more lasting both in the season of 
bloom and the individual flowers. 
I think it may be assumed that all our varieties of 
Aubrietias have been derived from A. deltoidea, the 
generic name Aubrietia having been given in honour 
of Mons. Aubriet, a French botanical draughtsman. 
So purpurea, grandiflora, Graeca, Hendersoni, 
Campbellii, and others, are simply seminal varieties 
improved by cultivation. Among newer types 
showing advances in point of colour are Violacea, 
deep violet purple ; Leichtlini, pale rosy pink, a very 
marked advance in point of colour ; and Bougain¬ 
villea, which is said to represent in colour the 
particular hue of Bougain/illea speciosa. Anything 
that gives a new and distinct tint of colour is highly 
desirable, and especially welcome. All that is 
required is that the habit be compact and the plants 
constitutionally vigorous. 
We owe a great deal in the way of the production of 
rose-coloured varieties to Mr. William Ingram, of Bel- 
voir Castle Gardens, who several years ago selected 
Aubrietias showing a tendency to flesh colours, and led 
them on until he had evolved some very pleasing pale 
pink and pale rose-coloured shades. Anxious at all 
times to have new shades among the pretty, early- 
blooming hardy plants he uses with such delightful 
effects at Bel voir in March and April,— 
" Maketh all things softly smile, 
Painteth pictures mile on mile, ” 
he took in hand the Aubrietia, and has now many 
shades of pretty rose-coloured varieties. 
I have already alluded to the hardihood of the 
Aubrietias. That, as already stated, they suffer 
severely in winter at times, but their singular 
tenacity brings them through the trial. They seem 
to do well in a good loam, with some leaf mould in 
it, and a little grit of some sort, such as old mortar 
rubbish. When they occupy warm and exposed 
situations in summer they should be helped by top- 
dressings of fine soil scattered among the shoots, and 
also by drenchings of water. Aubrietias pay well 
for good culture. When they have something to 
