416 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
February 29, 1896 
HINTS FOR AMATEURS. 
Pruning. 
The Peach. —Although the Peach belongs to what 
may be termed the better class of fruits, yet it is 
amenable to cultivation in the open air, as well as to 
under-glass treatment, providing that a warm 
sheltered position and a sunny aspect are given it. 
In a fairly sunny season some really fine fruit can be 
obtained from trees out of doors, and when the 
autumn is fine, and favourable to the thorough ripen¬ 
ing of the wood, the trees will stand anything like 
an ordinary winter very well. In many gardens, at 
least in the more southern counties, this is taken 
advantage of, and walls having a southern, south¬ 
western, or western aspect, are utilised for the 
accommodation of this delicious stone fruit. 
Where the mean temperature of February is a 
little over 40° Fahr., and that of March about 44 0 , 
the trees will be in flower during the last week in 
March if grown against a south wall. Hence any 
knife dressing that is necessary must be seen to with¬ 
out delay, so that the trees may be put ship-shape 
before the swelling of the buds indicates that growth 
for the season is beginning. 
Fan-shaped trees.— For covering any ordinary 
wall this is the very best system of training. Fan 
trees are very easy to manage ; they present a very 
neat appearance when nicely tied or nailed, they 
cover a wall much more quickly than other more 
elaborately trained trees, and, most important of all, 
allow of deficiencies caused by the dying off or 
cutting away of branches being made good with the 
least possible delay. 
The Peach bears its fruits upon wood formed 
during the previous season. Many branches also 
bear short spurs, carrying blossom buds chiefly. 
The aim, therefore, in pruning is, first of all, to 
secure a regular succession of young fertile shoots 
distributed over the whole of the tree. Old wood 
that has already played its part must be cut out to 
make room for the younger material. It will be seen 
that all wood that is more than one year old thus 
bears younger shoots that may become fruit bearers. 
Enough of main branches, and of others which are 
subsidiary to them, must be left to insure a succes¬ 
sion of the young wood that is to bear the fruit. 
Generally speaking, each bearing shoot should carry 
a smaller succession growth near its base. 
Too great stress cannot be laid upon the necessity 
of careful disbudding in the early part of the summer. 
Most of the shoots produce ten times as many 
growths as there is room for, and the greater part ot 
these must be removed. But as it is of the winter 
pruning with which we have now to deal, we can only 
briefly refer to the summer dressing, and point out 
how much the one depends upon the other. 
Supposing a number of young growths to have been 
carefully tied or nailed in during the summer and to 
have matured themselves well, the winter pruning 
will not be a very lengthy or arduous task. Large 
branches which are but sparsely furnished with 
young growths must be cut clean out to make room 
for others. Shoots which have borne fruit during 
the previous season may also be removed, except 
where they are required to carry the succession 
growths, or where they are the leaders of main 
branches. Then again it may well happen that too 
much young wood was laid in during the last summer. 
This is an error which professional gardeners are apt 
to fall into, so it is not at all wonderful that amateurs 
should trip sometimes. A certain thinning out of 
these may also take place if necessary. 
The shortening of the bearing shoots will also need 
attention, in order that besides bearing fruits they 
may produce succession shoots in their turn. The 
length to which the bearing shoots of the coming 
season must be shortened will depend upon their 
vigour and also upon the position of the wood buds. 
It is very necessary that whenever a shoot is cut back 
in this way that a wood bud— i.e., a bud enclosing a 
growing point bearing ordinary foliage—should be 
immediately belcw the cut. If such a bud is not so 
situated, the shoot will die back to the nearest one, 
and thus dead snags of various sizes will mar the 
appearance of the tree 
It will readily be gathered from these remarks that 
it is absolutely essential that the wielder of the knife 
should be able to tell the difference between wood 
buds and flower buds. The following hints may 
therefore be of some service, although it is rather 
difficult in a written description to settle the matter 
beyond doubt. The two kinds of buds differ chiefly 
in the point of shape. The wood buds are conical, 
with a rather acute point, and are not nearly so 
thick and plump as the flower buds, which are at first 
ovate in shape, becoming nearly globose early in the 
spring. Both are covered with brown over-lapping 
scales, although those surrounding the embryo flower 
soon expand and display their downy integuments. 
To briefly recapitulate the chief items in the prun¬ 
ing of the Peach : first, the intended bearing shoot 
must be shortened at the winter pruning ; second, 
shoots that have borne fruit must be removed, except 
where they form the leaders of main branches; 
third, a succession shoot should be trained in summer, 
choosing one that originates as close to the base of 
the bearing shoot of the current year as possible. 
Cordon training is a favourite method with some 
cultivators for covering high walls quickly. A number 
of trees may be planted close together and their 
central axes trained at an angle of about 6o° to the 
ground line. The winter pruning these need is 
reduced still further than it is in the fan trees, pro¬ 
viding they have been properly attended to for 
pinching and stopping during the summer. The 
shoots that have borne fruit may be cut out soon 
after the latter has been gathered, and the new wood 
neatly trained in their place. Now, the stronger 
shoots must be cut back to a wood bud. 
Nectarine. 
For some reason or other the Nectarine is not grown 
so extensively out of doors as the Peach, although 
under glass it receives its full share of attention. 
Amateurs who possess trees on walls out of doors 
may treat them in the same way as has been recom¬ 
mended for the Peach, as both need the same kind 
of treatment.— Rex. 
--— 
Correspondence. 
Questions asked by amateurs on any subject pertaining 
to gardens or gardening will be answered on this page. 
Anyone may give additional or more explanatory answers 
to questions that have already appeared. Those who desire 
their communications to appear on this page should write 
“ Amateurs' Page ” on the top of their letters. 
Replies.—There are several ways of making up the 
stages in a greenhouse, T. R., each of which 
possesses its own special advantages. The one most 
commonly seen, perhaps, is composed solely of 
wood, a number of strips about a couple of inches 
in width being nailed on to supports. Spaces of 
from an inch to an inch and a half are left between 
each lath. This is a very neat and inexpensive 
staging, but it is open to the objection that it is not 
so good for the plants during the summer months, as 
they dry up very quickly. Another method is to lay 
slates upon iron supports, and cover them over with 
a layer of sifted gravel or breeze. These form 
excellent materials for standing the plants on, and 
during the hot, dry days of summer will assist in 
keeping the house cool and moist if damped 
occasionally by means of the watering can. 
All greenhouses, W. Farrar, should be fitted with 
both top and bottom ventilators—in fact no properly- 
constructed house is without them. The lower 
ventilators admit the fresh air, which, in a warm 
house, is usually heated slightly by passage over the 
pipes, whilst the top lights allow of the escape of the 
bad air, in which function they are materially 
assisted by the laps of the glass. 
X. Y. writes to say that he has left the lower 
ventilating boxes in his greenhouse partly open all 
night nearly all the winter, and asks if he has been 
wrong in so doing. He says his plants are all 
looking well. This is a case where results have 
apparently justified the treatment, but it is a rather 
risky method to pursue nevertheless, X. Y. But 
perhaps you are in direct communication with the 
weather office, and thus have known beforehand 
what kind of weather to expect. Ordinary mortals, 
like ourselves, we should advise to shut their green¬ 
houses up the last thing at night in mild weather, 
and open them again the first thing in the morning, 
in case of the outside temperature falling a few 
degrees below freezing point. 
R. Symes wishes to know if it is necessary to prune 
Lapagerias each year; and, if so, when, and how? 
Certainly some amount of pruning is necessary each 
year, unless you want your plants to become thickets 
of growth, and are not particularly interested 
whether they flower or not. With regard to time, 
there's no time like the present, and you should delay 
no longer in setting to work, as the young shoots are 
even now showing themselves. These are very 
tender, and will not stand much knocking about, for, 
if the points are bruised they invariably die off. In 
pruning you may cut out the growths that have 
flowered except where they are needed to carry fresh 
shoots, also the weak and spindly growths. It does 
not matter if the plants look rather thin; in fact it 
will be all the better, as the young shoots will have 
a chance to develop. 
M. T. intends planting Lapagerias and asks for 
the best sorts to plant. L. rosea, L. r. superba, and 
L. r. alba magnifica are all good. The red and the 
white forms should always be grown side by side if 
space will allow, as the one forms such a beautiful 
contrast to the other. The size and substance of the 
flowers vary considerably on different plants. It is 
important to obtain a good variety, and thus young 
plants produced from layers taken off older ones 
exhibiting the required size and substance of flower 
should always be chosen in preference to those whose 
parentage is not known. 
It is quite a common trick not only of Phoenix 
rupicola, but of many other Palms besides, 
friend A.M., to raise themselves half way out 
of the soil in the pots, so that a large 
portion of the thicker roots are exposed. This is 
caused by the formation of a thick mass of 
smaller roots which have accumulated at the bottom 
of the pot through inability to follow their natural 
inclinations and strike deeper. Some cultivators use 
a differently-shaped pot for Palms to what they do 
for other plants—one that is much deeper in propor¬ 
tion to its diameter than the ones usually seen. 
There is nothing for it but to give your plant a shift 
into a larger pot, as it is exceedingly ^barbarous 
treatment, and one often fraught with disastrous con¬ 
sequences to the plant itself, to tear away a large 
portion of its roots. 
In a cool house, R. A., you may grow such Palms 
as Chamaerops humilis and C. macrocarpa all 
through the year. During the summer months, 
Phoenix rupicola, P. sylvestris, Howea australis,'H. 
belmoreana, Livistona chinensis, better known 
perhaps as Latania borbonica, and Curculigo 
recurvata will do very well, but these need a rather 
higher temperature to keep in good health and 
condition through the winter months than that of 
a cool house. 
Never trust to popular names, Ducie, for they are 
very misleading in the majority of cases and very 
decidedly so in the one you mention. Aspidistras, 
although they are commonly called "Parlour Palms,’ 1 
are not Palms at all. They belong to the great 
natural order, Liliaceae. Certainly they flower, but 
the flowers do not make their appearance till the 
plants are of a considerable age. They are also 
somewhat inconspicuous, and are produced close to 
the ground close to the base of the leaf stalk or 
petiole, so that it is very likely that you have un¬ 
wittingly missed them. 
Herniaria glabra.—I had some of this pretty dwarf 
green plant put out in a bed in my small flower 
garden last summer. It was not lifted in the autumn, 
and is now (in the middle of February) as green as 
ever. Is this due to the mildness of the winter (we 
have only had 5 0 of frost here) or is the plant quite 
hardy ?— Cloncaird. 
The plant in question is hardy enough and will 
thus pass through ordinary winters unhurt. No 
doubt as you suggest, the exceptionally mild winter 
has something to do with your plants looking so 
wonderfully fresh and green. 
A young Peach tree, Royal George, planted indoors 
last September, refuses to open its flower buds. It 
was carefully lifted before it lost its leaves and in due 
time shed its leaves naturally. The growth is push¬ 
ing but the flower buds make no progress whatever. 
Can any reader explain ? According to the state of 
the wood growth in the natural order of things fruit 
should be set and swelling.— A.P. 
Propagating Double Primulas.—I have two or three 
plants of double white Primulas in my greenhouse, 
and I have quite fallen in love with them, they flower 
so freely and are so easy to manage. I should like 
to have a nice batch next year. Will you kindly give 
me directions for getting up a stock through the 
" Amateur's Page."—S. Martin. 
After your plants have done flowering you may 
remove a few of the bottom leaves with a pair of 
sharp scissors, and heap around the collars of the 
plants some nice light soil. A compost of two-thirds 
