April 6, 1896. 
THE GARDENING WORLD* 
503 
Odontoglossum cninitum sapphiratum. Nov. 
va y .—The typical form ofthiscuriouslittle Odontoglot 
has brown and yellow flowers ; but in this case the 
narrow sepals are pale green with brown blotches 
aloDg the centre; the petals are erect or nearly so, 
approaching one another, and are pale greenish- 
yellow, and edged with brown, enclosing a central 
purple line. The lip is white with a violet blotch 
on the crest, and a few others in front of it. The 
crest itself consists of numerous slender fringes like 
bristles. Botanical Certificate. Exhibited by Sir 
Trevor Lawrence, Bart. 
Schomburgkia crispa.—The sepals and petals 
of this uncommon species are oblong, wavy, or 
crisped, and brownish-purple in the case of the 
flowers exhibited by Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., but 
they are liable to variation amongst different impor¬ 
tations. The lip is sometimes white, but in this case 
it is distinctly rosy-purple, and turned up at the 
sides with three white plates on the disc. The scape 
arising from the top of the short stem is 3 ft. to 4 ft. 
long, bearing a short and broad, dense raceme at the 
apex. The pedicels of the flowers are pale lilac, and 
3 in. to 4 in. long. The species was originally intro¬ 
duced from Demerara in 1844. Botanical Certifi¬ 
cate. 
Odontoglossum luteo-punpureum amplissi- 
mum.—The sepals of this distinct variety are of a 
deep shining chocolate with a yellow blotch at the 
base. The petals are chocolate above the middle 
and down the sides on the lower half. The lip is 
the characteristic feature of the variety, and is 
dilated in a fan-shaped manner, plaited, toothed, and 
white, with a brown band in front of the crest. A 
fine plant bearing ten flowers in a raceme was 
exhibited by H. Weetman, Esq. (gardener, Mr. 
Bernard Dunn), The Hawthorns, Little Haywood. 
Award of Merit. 
Cattleya Trianaei Parkes’ van., Nov. vay .— 
The sepals are of the palest lilac, while the petals 
are similar in colour, but of huge dimensions, and 
triangular ovate. The lip, however, is the finest 
feature of this grand variety, and is notable both for 
size and colour ; the tube is lilac, but the side lobes 
are dark purple, while the lamina is still more 
intensified and rich in hue, with an orange blotch in 
the throat. Award of Merit. Exhibited by W. C, 
Parkes, Esq., Llanberis Tower, Tooting 
Dendrobium splendidissimum illustre, Nov. 
var .—The original D. splendidissimum was obtained 
by crossing D. aureum with D. nobile, good varieties 
being employed in each case. The variety under 
notice was obtained from D. Leechianum crossed 
with D. nobile nobilius. The first-named is the 
reverse cross of D. Ainsworthii and D. splendidissi¬ 
mum, so that the four hybrids here mentioned are all 
very closely allied. D. splendidissimum illustre has 
stems 2 ft. to 2^ ft. high, like those of D. nobile, and 
bears its huge flowers in clusters of two or three 
together. The sepals are broadly oblong, and the 
petals are purple on the upper half and pinkish towards 
the base. The lip is roundish, slightly prolonged at 
the apex, of a rich crimson-maroon, with a narrow 
creamy band in front of the blotch, and continued 
round the edges, with a purple tip. The great size 
of the blotch makes the lip highly couspicuous and 
ornamental. Award of Merit. Exhibited by W. R. 
Lee, Esq. (gardener, Mr. Billington), Audenshaw, 
near Manchester. 
-- 
Vines. —As soon as the berries in the bunches borne 
by the earliest pot vines commence to colour, the 
application of manure water must be very judiciously 
conducted. Nothing of a too rank or offensive 
nature must be given or the flavour of the fruit will 
suffer. The atmosphere of the house which has 
hitherto been kept laden with moisture must be 
allowed to become considerably drier. More air 
than formerly must also be given, although the tem¬ 
perature must not be permitted to fall too low. In 
the second early house as soon as the berries com¬ 
mence to stone great care must be exercised that the 
Vines do not receive a check, as they are likely to do 
if the water supply is inadequate. Air must be 
given gradually as the temperature of the house 
rises in the morning. On no account should the 
house be allowed to get too hot, in which case to 
suddenly put on a lot of air is simply folly. Keep 
the evaporating pans full of liquid manure with the 
same temperature as recommended in the last 
calender. All the later houses will now be pretty 
well advanced in growth, for at this season of the 
year they come on very rapidly. Do not be too rash 
in the work of disbudding, but remove the weaker 
shoots first, and as soon as it can be seen which are 
the best to leave. 
Figs.— As the fruit on the earliest pot plants 
begins to ripen the supplies of liquid manure should 
cease, clear water alone being given. Succession 
plants may, however, be treated pretty generously 
if they are carrying anything like good crops and are 
not growing too rampantly. In the other houses the 
syringe may be kept at work pretty vigorously and a 
bright lookout kept for the appearance of bug. A 
mixture of warm water and petroleum applied with 
a small brush will quickly destroy any colonies of 
bug that may be present, although it is of the 
greatest importance that the mixture be stirred con¬ 
stantly whilst using, otherwise the petroleum, which 
never really mixes well with the water, will separate 
out and come to the surface, the result being that in 
the hands of a careless or ignorant operator the 
petroleum is applied nearly neat, damage of course 
resulting to the plants upon which it is being used. 
Peaches and Nectarines.— As soon as stoning in 
the earliest house is completed, and all danger of the 
fruit dropping is past, a warmer temperature may be 
maintained without fear of injury to the trees. 
Whereas until stoning was finished it was not safe to 
force too hard, a night temperature of about 6o° 
Fahr. rising to 75 0 on sunny days being ample, the 
temperature may now be raised wiih advantage to 
63° by night, rising to 8o° by sun heat. Avoid 
anything like a stuffy atmosphere however, and 
syringe thoroughly and well to keep down red spider. 
In the succession house as soon as the fruit has 
reached the size of marbles thinning may be com¬ 
menced. This must not be performed too severely 
for many trees have a trick of dropping much of 
their fruit during the stoning period, after which the 
final thinning must take place. The number of fruits 
left at this last thinning should depend upon the 
strength of the tree which is being operated on, and 
this will be governed in a great measure by its age as 
well as by the size to which it is desired the fruit 
should attain. Generally speaking a fruit to every 
eight or nine square inches of surface may be con¬ 
sidered a good crop if Peaches of medium size are 
required, although 10 in. or even 12 in. of space may 
be allowed if very large ones are desired. These 
directions it must be clearly understood apply to 
vigorously growing and healthy trees ; for weaker 
constitutioned subjects the treatment must be 
modified according to the judgment of the cultivator. 
Cherries.— As soon as the fruit here is well set 
the syringe must be started to work again with all 
speed. Do not coddle the plants in any way, for to 
do so would be fatal. Give plenty of air therefore 
whenever it is possible to do so without generating a 
cold draught. Stop the young growths before they 
get too long, and thus rob the plant of a large portion 
of its strength. Black fly is often very troublesome 
to Cherries at this stage of their growth, and thus a 
sharp lookout must be kept for its appearance. 
Where only a few shoots are infected one or two 
dustings with tobacco powder will prove very 
efficacious in checking its advance. Should it obtain 
a footing, however, a few good fumigations given on 
consecutive nights and followed by a series of heavy 
syringings will soon rid the trees of its presence.— 
A.S.G. 
The havoc that the past severe winter has caused 
amongst the occupants of the flower garden is now 
just becoming apparent. The destruction, although 
great everywhere, is much worse in districts where a 
great deal of planting had been done previously to 
the setting in of the sharp weather. In several 
cases we have noticed scores of young so-called 
hardy trees and shrubs have been killed right off, 
and thus, unless steps are taken to remedy the evil, 
many plantations will look exceedingly thin during 
the coming summer. It will not be wise to hasten 
off to the nurseryman with a large order at once, 
however, for they have also experienced losses in a 
like proportion to those sustained by the gardener, 
and in most cases the same subjects will have 
suffered, a scarcity of favourite plants thus resulting 
and prices rising accordingly. The vacancies in 
beds and borders may be filled up during the coming 
summer by many of the taller growing herbaceous 
plants, such as Dahlias, Sunflowers, Perennial 
Asters, Solidagos, etc. As soon as possible, therefore, 
the dead trees should be rooted out and thrown 
away, and the ground prepared for the plants with 
which it is decided to furnish it by a generous 
application of manure and deep digging. The knife 
and the saw must now be kept hard at work cutting 
out dead branches. Many of the trees, if cut well 
back, will break again during the summer, and thus 
the ultimate losses may not be so severe as at pre¬ 
sent anticipated. 
Sweet Peas.— No garden should be without a 
few rows of these beautiful plants, at once so orna¬ 
mental and so useful as a screen for hiding old un- 
S'ghtly corners and objects which it is desired to 
keep out of sight. The flowers, too, are extremely 
useful for cutting, and as there are now so many 
varieties in cultivation, they may be had in all colours, 
from purest whites to deepest reds and purples. 
Their culture, too, is so extremely simple that it is 
no wonder they are such universal favourites with 
all those who possess a garden. If a row or two 
have not been already sown, this should be seen to 
at once. But as it is desirable to keep up a 
succession of bloom, two or three subsequent sow- 
ings should be made at later periods, as in the case 
of garden Peas, for the plants soon become 
straggling in the earlier rows and flowers are not 
produced so abundantly, neither are they so fine. 
Accordingly, it is necessary to have a few later rows 
to fall back on. 
Seed Sowing.— Select a warm, sunny spot, 
sheltered from cold winds if possible, but not over¬ 
shadowed in any way by trees, which would cause 
the seedlings to become drawn and worthless Fork 
the ground, which should have been roughly thrown 
up before winter set in, well over, and break the 
surface soil up as finely as possible. Choose a dry, 
warm day for the sowing of the seed, and above all, 
do not sow too thickly. Give a gentle watering with 
a rose-can afterwards. Most of the half hardy 
annuals may be sown in this way at the present 
time, transplanting them to their flowering positions 
as soon as they are large enough. If desired, many 
of the dwarfer plants may be sown straight away in 
that part of the borders where they are to flower. 
Any Aquilegias, or Digitalis, which were sown in 
the open ground last autumn and have survived the 
winter, should be transferred to their flowering 
quarters without delay. 
-- 
HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 
Most of the different hardy fruit trees have made 
considerable progress during the last few weeks, 
and thus Apricots, Peaches and Nectarines on walls 
must no longer be left without protection, for we may 
be dropped on now at any time with a few degrees of 
frost. Where the walls are furnished with glass 
copings this is a comparatively easy matter, as it is 
easy enough to affix mats or tiffany to these. The 
additional advantage of being readily able to roll 
these coverings up, and thus to expose the trees to 
the genial rays of the life-giving sun is also a very 
important one. Where sufficient covering material 
of this kind is not to hand, however, and protection 
has to be afforded by means of branches of ever¬ 
greens it is not possible to thus expose the trees to 
any extent, although portions may be removed here 
and there, of course replacing them at nightfall until 
all danger of frost is past. This will allow the bees 
readier access to the flowers and thus help to secure 
a good “ set.” 
Filberts.— The pruning of these where necessary 
should now be seen to. It is always advisable to 
leave any heading of branches that have outgrown 
their limits until about this time of the year, as it is 
necessary to have as many catkins upon the trees as 
possible to insure the fertilization of a sufficient 
number of the female blooms. All rotten or injured 
branches must be cut clean out,and the strong young 
growths with which the centre and base of the tree 
are usually so thickly crowded, but which are of no 
use for fruit-bearing purposes should also be removed. 
These shoots if placed in a shed or outhouse and 
dried until they have attained to a fair degree of 
rigidity wi 1 prove invaluable material for staking 
purposes presently 
