580 
May 14, 1892. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
THE FROST AND THE 
FRUIT BLOOM. 
Audley End, Saffron Walden, Essex. 
Throughout the eastern counties I fear the late 
severe frosts have had disastrous consequences. 
Here we have registered frost nearly every morning 
until the last two. On April 30th we had I2 Q , and 
on May ist io° of frost. Our Peaches and 
Nectarines are, I think, saved, as they %vere well pro¬ 
tected, but where there was no such protection the 
crops must be lost. Cherries, (with the exception of 
Morellos, which are not out). Pears and Plums, 
showed remarkably well, particularly on the walls, 
but have been reduced to half a crop ; while Goose¬ 
berries and Currants, which also showed well, are 
reduced to a fourth. Owing to the cold north-east 
winds nothing can make growth, and as soon as the 
Asparagus made its appearance through the ground 
it has been killed by frost. I had more outside a 
fortnight ago than I have now.— James Vert, Audley 
End Gardens, Saffron Walden, May 4. 
During the month of April our thermometer, 
standing 5 ft. above the ground, registered on twenty- 
one frosty nights a total of 127° of frost, and on 
three other nights the temperature went down to 30° ; 
on Saturday morning last we had 12 0 of frost. There 
was a fine show of flowers on Peaches, but they are 
much damaged. The Apple blossoms are not yet 
open. Gooseberries and Currants had escaped so 
far, but I hardly know how this frost will affect them. 
— A. S. Butcher, The Hamlet, Bures, Essex. 
Kent. 
We had io° of frost this morning, which has played 
sad havoc with the bloom. — F. Bridger, Penshurst Place, 
May jth. 
Dunkeld. Perthshire. 
The spring has been unusually severe on fruit 
. trees in this district, as few nights are without frost 
even now. Apricots are very much destroyed, more 
so than they have been for twenty years. The foli¬ 
age is suffering much, while the young fruit is killed 
after attaining the size of Peas. Peaches are much 
hardier here, and promised well for a while, but now 
I think I may only calculate on half a crop of most 
kinds, except White Silver and Early Albert; they 
are exceedingly hardy. Early Plums have suffered 
much, yet I think a fair crop may be looked for. 
Cherries look well ; however, it is too early to say 
definitely what sort of crop these will be. Pears and 
Apples on walls are in flower ; those in open ground 
are not yet in flower. Small fruits of bush kinds are 
looking fairly well.— P. W. Farrgrieve, Dunkeld Gar¬ 
dens, may 9 th. 
Gordon Castle, Banffshire. 
The effect of the long spell of cold weather does not 
seem to have done much damage to the fruit blos¬ 
soms in this neighbourhood as yet, but the wind still 
continues in the north, with slight frosts at night; 
and unless we have a change to more genial weather 
I am afraid the Plums, Pears, and Cherries will 
stand a poor chance of setting. The Apricots have 
been very irregular in flowering, and on most of the 
trees you can find fruit as large as blackbirds’ eggs 
down to the flower buds not expanded. Peaches 
have set better, and all the protection we give them 
and the Apricots is a double herring net with a few 
Spruce branches strung along the top of the walls, 
and it is seldom we fail to secure a crop of both 
fruits. We had only one week in March without 
frost; and the aggregate for the month amounted to 
142 0 , the lowest reading being 17 0 on three different 
occasions.— C. Webster, Gordon Castle Gardens, May 
9 th, 1892. 
Gunton Park, Norfolk. 
Vegetation fortunately is very backward on the 
seaboard of Norfolk. Plums and Cherries (May gth) 
are only just beginning to open their blooms. Pears 
have set on south walls and have escaped the late 
frosts. Pears on other aspects are not forward enough 
to have taken harm. The severe wind and frosts the 
first week in March took all the foliage off Strawberry 
plants and did more damage than the previous hard 
frosts of winter, and there has been quite a dearth of 
vegetables from the same cause. On the whole, 
through the absence of snow, the winter and spring 
of 1892 has proved much more damaging to vegeta¬ 
tion than the harder frosts of 1890 and 1891. The 
severest frosts registered here on two occasions was 
1 8° although I heard of 24 0 a few miles further 
inland. I never remember the work of the garden 
and farm being so backward at this date. It was 
one continuous winter up to the 29th of March.— 
Wm. Allan, Gunton Park. 
Hutton Hall, Yorkshire. 
The long continued cold, stormy weather we ex¬ 
perienced in this part of Yorkshire during part of 
March and the greater of April has had the effect of 
seriously retarding all kinds of hardy fruits. Apricots 
where not well protected suffered a good deal through 
the bard frosts on April 13th and five following days. 
This district is too cold for successful out-of-door 
Peach, culture, and very few are grown. Cherries, 
Plums, and Pears, with the exception of a few early 
blossoms which were open during the severe weather, 
are safe so far. Apples and all bush fruits are safe 
and promise good crops.— J. Mclndoe, The Gardens, 
Hutton Hall, Guisborougli. 
Mentmore, Bucks. 
We have had io°, 8° and 7 0 of frost here during the 
end of April and beginning of May. All flowers that 
had opened on Plums, Pears, etc., have been des¬ 
troyed, and only the late blooms are safe at present. 
Cherries seem to be safe, and are a good show. 
Gooseberries and Black and Red Currants are so far 
safe from the frost as the leaves have in a great 
measure sheltered the blooms. Apples in this dis¬ 
trict are not far enough advanced to be hurt by frost, 
but everyw-here they promise an abundant crop. To¬ 
day I have gone over our Plum orchard and find 
most of the bloom on the Victorias destroyed, and 
we shall only have the few late blooms to depend on 
for a crop. Greengage Plums seem half destroyed, 
and Prunes and Damsons are the same. The frost 
seems to have taken place at the most unfortunate 
stage here, for the trees were just coming into bloom 
and had no leaves to protect them. I think the late 
bloom if saved may produce one-third of a crop.—- 
J. Smith, Mentmore, Leighton Buzzard, May gth. 
Powis Castle, Montgomeryshire. 
In spite of the intense cold frosty nights I am in 
hopes that we shall have fair crops of all kinds of 
fruit. In regard to Peaches and Nectarines growdng 
outside we must not expect much, owing to the 
wood not being ripened through lack of sunshine 
last autumn. Although we have had but one week 
of warm nights all the spring, the very sharp frosts 
that we have had do not seem to have damaged it 
much, through its being so dry. The three worst 
nights we had in April with everything dripping wet 
through the day, and 14 0 , 14 0 , and 17" of frost. 
Apricots being set, Peaches and Nectarines in full 
bloom at the time w'ere protected and kept dry, and 
some of them I see are still left. Things in general 
throughout the garden do not seem to be hurt so 
much as one would expect to find them. —John 
Lambert, Powis Castle, N. Wales. 
Herefordshire. 
The very cold weather and repeated sharp frosts at 
night during the last three or four weeks have ruined 
our prospects of a good crop of Pears, Plums, Goose¬ 
berries, and Currants. The week previous to April 
13 was very hot; this brought on the fruit blossoms 
very rapidly, but on this day a great change in the 
weather took place, we had a snow-storm followed 
by hail and sleet, many of the blossoms being covered 
with frozen sleet. The wind went into the north¬ 
east, in which quarter it continued more or less until 
May 8, when it turned to the south-east, and the 
weather became much warmer. We have 
had continuous frosts at night, registering from 
6° to 12 0 , with the result that the Plums which 
were mostly in bloom or ready to open their blossom, 
and a fine prospect, have only a scanty sprinkling 
left uninjured. The Gooseberries were reduced by 
about two-thirds, and Currants are almost all gone. 
The Pears in the open have hardly a fruit set, and 
only a small sprinkling on the walls. The Apples 
and Strawberries, not being so forward, I hope are 
not hurt severely, but I have noticed that many buds 
not nearly opened when examined closely are killed, 
and others seem crippled and fall off. Peaches and 
Apricots on walls being set, where sheltered, have a 
sprinkling of fruit. These remarks apply chiefly to 
land lying low; on other land lying on a bank, 
although within sight, the damage is not nearly as 
severe. 
I have kept notes forffhe last four years of the 
time of blooming of different varieties and sorts of 
fruit trees, and it may surprise many to hear that 
in such a cold season as the present, Plums and 
Pears have generally been in blossom from ten to 
fourteen days earlier than for the last four years. The 
earliest Plum to bloom last year was open on April 
27th, this year the earliest was open on April 12th. 
The earliest Pear was Brockworth Park last year on 
May ist, this year it was out on April 18th, and 
although in the previous four years no Pear was in 
full bloom in April, this year the great majority were, 
the early blooming no doubt being caused by the 
week of forcing weather previous to April 13th, 
unhappily followed by sharp cold weather. The 
Apples will, however, not be earlier, if so early as in 
previous years, the late severe weather having kept 
them back. These notes were all taken from the 
same trees in the open, so difference of site or aspect 
would not make any difference in the time of bloom¬ 
ing. —John Watkins, Pomona Farm, Withington, near 
Hereford. 
--5-- 
FLORICULTURE. 
The Northern Auricula Show. 
The Rev. F. D. Horner, writing with reference to 
the exhibition held at Manchester, on April 26th, 
says :—“ Considering the late cold spring, the flowers 
were good in both quality and quantity. Throughout 
the season, there had been very few such days as 
Auriculas expect, and delight in, and many of the 
flowers exhibited were hardly at their best. The 
date was too early for cold hilly districts such as 
Todmorden and Halifax. Both in London and 
Manchester, these flowers suffer greatly in effect 
from the dull and dreary vastness of the exhibition 
place ; and it is not easy to say which of the two 
deadens them the more. When, as I have known it, 
the gas has had to be turned on, over Auriculas, in 
Manchester, the ruinous effect is complete.” 
In our report last week we were unable to give any 
particulars of the winning varieties, and owe the 
following to the courtesy of Mr. Horner :—The ist 
prize collection of six show Auriculas, consisted of 
Ossian (Simonite) and Rev. F. D. Horner (Simonite) 
green-edged ; Samuel Barlow (Bolton) grey-edged ; 
Hypatia (Horner) and Heatherbell (Simonite) white- 
edged; and Dusk (Horner) self. The ist prize four 
(also Mr. Horner’s) were Rev. F. D. Horner, greer.- 
edged, Aspera (Horner) grey - edged, Snowdrift 
(Horner) white-edged, and Mrs. A. Potts, self. Mr. 
Simonite’s ist prize pair were Melanie (Horner) self, 
and Jenny Crossland (Simonite) white-edged ; other 
winning flowers in the same competition being Traill's 
Beauty, Black Bess. Frank Simonite, Heroine, Grey- 
Friar, and Gen. Niell. 
In the single plant classes the winning flowers 
were as follows, and in the order named .—Green- 
edged ; Shirley Hibberd (Simonite), Touchstone 
(Horner), Rev. F. D. Horner (Simonite), Brilliant 
(Horner), Commander (Horner), Col. Taylor (Leigh), 
Prince of Greens, and Imperator (Lytton). Grey- 
edged : Dinham (K. Penson), R. Penson (K. Penson), 
Seedling, A. Meiklejohn (Kay), S. Barlow (Bolton), 
Irreproachable (Horner), Rachel and George Rudd. 
White-edged: Atalanta (Horner), Mydia (Horner), 
Acme (Read), Mrs Dodwell, Reliance (Mellor), John 
Simonite (Walker), Snowdrop (Horner), and Heather- 
bell (Simonite). Selfs: Enchantress (Horner), Juno 
(Horner), Ophelia (Horner), Dimple (Horner), Mrs. 
Potts, Black Bess, Charles J. Perry (Turner), and a 
Seedling (Simonite). The premier Auricula was 
Ossian (Simonite), green - edged, shown by Mr. 
Horner. 
National Pink Society. 
Midland Section. 
The schedule of prizes of the above has just come 
to hand, and it is pleasant to note that two additional 
classes have been added. The exhibition will take 
place as last year in connection with the great Floral 
F^te at Wolverhampton. Our Midland friends 
certainly had the best of the Pink exhibition last 
season ; the south, owing to the necessity for the 
show being fixed early in the season for a definite 
date, was practically' out of it. The Wolverhampton 
fixture is July 12th, which appears to suit the district 
well, and the success which attended the first 
exhibition in July last, has inspired the midland 
growers with a desire to make the 1892 more success¬ 
ful still. The president is that devoted lover of the 
