164 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
Nov. 15th, 1884. 
not only of our loved vocation of horticulture, but 
also for the sake of humanity, we trust that the 
taste for flowers may grow and strengthen rather 
than be decreased. 
But we are terribly the slaves of fashion, and 
were it decreed in the Court, which seems to rule 
our fashionable life, that flowers were to be 
tabood, the love and the taste would soon find the 
decrees of fashion to be the most powerful. 
What if it became popular to have weddings, 
without bouquets, or flowers of any sort; how 
soon would not flowers disappear from funerals 
also? Then, too, also from button-holes, and 
finally from all else. The condition of an abso¬ 
lutely flowerless life seems too awful to contem¬ 
plate, for that iron rule of fashion might even 
spread into our gardens, indeed if no cut flowers 
were wanted, we might become careless as to 
their culture at all. 
Eeaders perhaps will smile as they read this 
sort of Jeremiad, yet we think if presently they 
further read in the papers that weddings without 
flowers are now common or fashionable, they may 
admit that the custom may grow to be a veritable 
ogre eating up the trade and livelihood of 
thousands.. Just at the present time when 
Chrysanthemums are so abundant, and are grown 
for sale as cut flowers in such vast quantities, 
we see very forcibly illustrated the extent 
and capacity of the flower-producing business. 
Perhaps much of the elasticity of that trade is 
found in the readiness of growers to seize upon 
and produce in quantity any new and striking 
flower. It would not do to trust too much to the 
assumption that the love for flowers is enduring, 
but much may be done to make it so by leading 
rather than following public taste. 
-Hh- 
Small Fekns foe Fancy Pots. —We have on 
one or two occasions alluded to these as being very 
popular for general decoration, yet it may 
surprise some of our readers to learn to what 
extent the trade in these little Ferns has deve¬ 
loped. As an example, we may mention the fact 
that Mr. H. B. May, of Edmonton (who is 
perhaps, one of the largest growers of Ferns for 
this particular purpose), supplied Messrs. Wills 
& Seger with upwards of 15,000 during the 
months of August, September, and October. 
Although this is the largest number supplied to 
one firm by Mr. May, yet it by no means repre¬ 
sents the number sent out of his nursery during 
that period. Besides, the fancy pots made of the 
ordinary pot-clay, several firms have their own 
special designs in Doulton and other ware for 
this purpose, and remarkably pretty they are. 
Luculia geatissima. —A fine specimen of this 
lovely Bubiaceous plant is now flowering 
in the greenhouse at Kew, and in a few days will 
be at its best. It is evidently quite at home, as 
it grows vigorously, and produces its panicles of 
delicate pink flowers in abundance. It is very 
impatient of root restriction, and the secret of 
growing it well is to plant it out in a border of 
light rich loam, for it requires really very little 
heat, a fact which might be suspected from its 
growing in Nepal, which is one of the more 
temperate parts of India. Flowering as it does 
in the dull season it is especially valuable, and 
this fact, together with the delicious fragrance of 
its flowers, renders it a most desirable plant for 
cultivation. 
Blue Boses. —A writer in the Journal des Roses 
gives the following directions for producing Blue 
Boses Get some fuchsine (an aniline dye) and 
dissolve it in distilled water, so as to get a strong 
solution; then dissolve a pint of Potash in twenty- 
five centilitres of distilled water. Steep a white or 
pale Bose in the potash solution, next in pure water, 
and finally soak it in the fuchsine. In this way a 
fine blue tint will be produced. 
(Sartrmng l&halkxmj. 
The Chrysanthemum shows to be held next week 
are as follows :—On Tuesday, Manchester, Oxford, 
Yeovil, Hanley and Devizes. On Tuesday and 
Wednesday, Plymouth, Winchester, Woodford, and 
Lincoln. On Wednesday, Wimbledon. On Wednesday 
and Thursday, Birmingham and Northampton. On 
Thursday, Dublin, Aylesbury and Taunton. On 
Thursday and Friday, Hull; and on Saturday, Lough¬ 
borough. 
Me. Geobge Goldsmith, who has very successfully 
managed the gardens at Hollanden, Tonbridge, during 
the last fifteen years, is leaving there at the end of 
this year, owing to the estate changing hands. 
Me. E. W. Seeeell, Plymouth; Mr. F. J. Chees- 
man, Mr. Herbert Letts, Mr. G. S. Watts, Mr. C. H. 
N. Lavendar, Mr. S. K. Page, Mr. J. B. Thomas and 
Mr. Taylor, were on Tuesday elected Fellows of the 
Boyal Horticultural Society. 
The choice collection of Orchids belonging to 
W. Leach, Esq., Oakley, Fallowfield, Manchester, will 
be sold by Messrs. Protheroe & Morris on Tuesday 
next. 
Messes. Allum & Haeden, florists, of Gunnersbury 
Lane, Acton, had a plant of Ponisettia pulcherrima 
major, in Covent Garden Market, on Thursday 
morning, with nine good heads of crimson bracts, on 
a plant grown from a cutting, and having only one 
stem above the soil. 
It is stated on the authority of a Colonial paper 
that Mr. H. 0. Forbes, F.B.G.S., is organizing a 
scientific expedition with the view of exploring the 
botany and zoology of the Mount Owen Stanley 
Mountains, the great central range of the eastern 
peninsula of New Guinea. Mr. Forbes has been 
allowed £400 by the British Association and £250 
by the Boyal Geographical Society towards the 
expense of the expedition. 
At the meeting of the Manchester Horticultural 
Improvement Society, to be held on Thursday evening 
next, Mr. Abraham Stansfield will give some practical 
hints on planting. 
The expenses in connection with the last National 
Dahlia Show, held at the Crystal Palace, are stated to 
have amounted to £128 11s. 6 d. (of which sum £111 
were awarded in prizes), and the receipts to £120. 
The deficit has been proportionately deducted from 
the sums paid to those prizetakers who won £5 and 
upwards. 
The Bev. Canon Hale’s popular Book about Roses, 
has recently appeared in an eighth edition and smaller 
form than the previous editions. 
The first meeting of the Boyal Botanic Society 
since the recess was held on Saturday last, in the 
Gardens, Begent’s Park, Lord Aveland, Vice-President, 
in the chair. A long list of donations of plants and 
seeds from various parts of the world was read as 
received since the last meeting. It included a 
collection of Acacias from Australasia, and a very 
extensive collection of ornamental Gourds, many of 
very quaint form and colouring, from the garden of 
Mrs. Montefiore at Crawley. The Secretary reported 
that the Society’s collection of Chrysanthemums were 
just at their prime; it contained over one hundred 
and fifty varieties of this fashionable though ancient 
flower, which, according to historians, was cultivated 
by the Chinese 3,600 years ago. 
We note the death last week of Mr. Octavius 
Blewitt, who for forty-six years was the honoured 
secretary of the Boyal Literary Fund. Mr. Blewitt’s 
name will probably be unknown to gardeners, though 
for many years he was the editor of the news columns 
of The Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette. 
In the days when penny papers were not so plentiful 
as they are now, the weekly summary of news contri¬ 
buted by Mr. Blewitt was highly prized by gardeners, 
for it was well done, and many regretted its dis¬ 
appearance when “The Chronicle” parted company 
from “ The Gazette ” in 1874. 
The Baroness Dowager de Bothsehild, who has just 
taken up her residence at Cannes, has had removed 
to her villa from the Gulf of Juan an Araucaria, which 
has not its equal in the country. It weighs twenty- 
eight tons, and was drawn on a dray to the town by 
thirty-two horses. 
PLANTING TREES. 
This is the time of year to plant all deciduous trees, 
and providing it be done not later than this month, Ever¬ 
greens move as well during the month of November as 
at any season of the year. Amateur gardeners should 
leave this work to a jobbing gardener, but they should 
superintend it, to see that it is done in a proper 
manner. They should do more—it is of great import¬ 
ance to go to a nursery and select their own plants, 
and, if they can, see them lifted, taking care that 
their plants, whether fruit-trees or shrubs, are well 
furnished with fibry roots. This is a matter of the 
first importance. A tree should be provided with a 
sufficiency of small, fibrous roots, for it is rom the 
spongioles at the extremities of these roots that the 
plant derives its support. 
Anyone acquainted with trees and shrubs knows 
that they vary in the form of their roots, from the 
dense mass of tangled fibres close to the crown which 
makes the Bhododendron so safe to transplant, to the 
long, coarse, thick tap-root, winch renders transplan¬ 
tation a dangerous process with some trees, unless 
removed young. But then tap-roots emit from 
various parts tufts of fibres, and it is on these being 
uninjured and in sufficient quantity that the success 
of the planting will depend. If, then, it should be 
found necessary to prune the roots previous to planting, 
the knife should be applied to the big, coarse taps, 
but not to the fine, hair-like rootlets, all of which 
should be carefully preserved, for they are the main 
feeders of the plant. 
We have seen trees planted in a way that fills a 
careful gardener with indignation. A hole is dug, 
much too small, the roots put into it in a kind of 
haphazard fashion, and who can wonder that the 
trees fails to thrive. The hole should be dug rather 
larger than that required to take the roots when 
carefully spread out; and in planting, care should be 
exercised that the fibrous roots are not cramped or 
tangled in a mass, but spread out carefully, so that 
they may occupy nearly the same position as they did 
before the plant was taken up. Sometimes plants are 
purchased in pots, and if they have been established 
in such for a time, the roots will, in many cases, be 
found coiled up into a dense mass. If this be so, 
they must, before planting, be patiently unravelled, 
and the crocks placed at the bottom of the pot for 
drainage taken from among them. In doing this, 
care must be taken not to injure the extremities of 
the rootlets, which should be placed as deftly as 
possible in the hole, and spread out in such positions 
as that, when they grow, they shall not resume the 
twisted form. 
One reliable authority states, with much fitness— 
“ Beware of planting too deep. The tree should not 
be fixed in the ground lower than will bring the soil, 
W'hen the hole is filled, an inch or two above the 
collar of the tree. The collar is the spot where the 
ascending axis (the stem) meets the descending axis 
(the roots). Thousands of young trees perish 
annually from being planted too deep. In situa¬ 
tions exposed to violent winds it may be alknvable 
to plant a little deeper; but it is only avoiding one evil 
by substituting another, and it would be preferable to 
undergo the expense and trouble of staking the young 
trees where it is required. When the plant is placed 
in the hole, and the roots well spread into their 
natural position, fill the hole half full with some fine 
soil, different if possible from that in w 7 hich the hole 
has been dug. Then shake this soil into the inter¬ 
stices between the roots, by gently pulling the stem 
up and down just enough for the purpose, and 
afterwards tread the soil lightly in. You may then 
proceed to fill up the hole, and when done, again tread 
the soil in pretty firmly before making the surface 
neat.” 
With some planters there is a very good practice of 
digging the holes which are to receive the plants some 
days before the planting takes place, and for this 
reason, that the interior of the holes are exjiosed mean¬ 
while to the fertilizing influences of the atmosphere, 
rain, &e.; and it need scarcely be stated that rainy, 
or at least damp, cloudy weather, is by far the best 
time for planting. Planting should not be done during 
sunshine, if it can be avoided, nor in frosty or dry 
weather. 
Lastly, if some trees should be received from a 
