July a, 1893. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
711 
are most essential to suceess. Everything should 
be clean and sweet—pots, crocks, stages, and glass— 
inside as well as outside. Cleanliness is half the 
success in plant growing. The plunging material in 
the propagating cases—fibre, or whatever is used— 
should also be kept as sweet as possible. Decaying 
w'ood often breeds fungus, and once you get fungus 
into the cases it is difficult to get rid of it. The 
water tanks should also be cleaned out now and 
then. 
I should like here to recommend to you a hot- 
water tank, such as we have in the pits at Kew. 
This tank is in itself a most pleasant and exceed¬ 
ingly interesting study to me. If you have any 
cuttings which refuse to strike, try them in warm 
water. Bambusa striata, with which I had failed so 
often, was at last struck in the tank. Many young 
Palms we have saved by placing them on warm 
water; also bulbs, ferns, and many other plants we 
have tried with success. Nothing, as far as I can 
remember, has yet failed.— G. H. Krumbiegel, in the 
Journal of the Kew Guild. 
-- 
ABOUT OSIERS. 
The term Osier is popularly used as comprehending 
all the trees or shrubs of the Salix genus, which are 
converted into wicker work. The genus Salix in¬ 
cludes Willows, Sallows, Osiers. Most of the kinds 
grown for a crop in the Fen district are, it is stated, 
really Willows, and not Osiers. At any rate, while 
growers use the term in a collective sense, they limit 
the term when distinguishing sorts of rods to a 
coarse-growing, soft-wooded species, which peels 
indifferently, and is only grown in limited quantities 
for a particular purpose. 
Osiers are grown in enclosed plantations, which 
are locally known as holts. The produce of the 
Osier holt is known commercially as “ rods.” 
In the Fen district the growth of Osiers is chiefly 
carried on in unembanked river valleys, which are 
subject to flooding. A variety of circumstances con¬ 
tribute, perhaps, to this situation being almost uni¬ 
versally selected. It is not merely that this is the 
natural habitat of the genus, and that the soil is 
suitable, but the convenience of having close at 
hand water carriage for a bulky and heavy crop, 
which must be for the most part removed in a green 
state, has no doubt tended to restrict the growth of 
Osiers almost entirely to the borders of rivers. An 
additional reason for the selection of such sites is, 
that the periodical winter floods bring down from 
the uplands a considerable quantity of soil which 
acts as a fertiliser, and is obtained at a compara¬ 
tively cheap rate. Floods, however, are occasionally 
the cause of considerable injury to the holts, An 
ice flood cuts the rods and seriously damages them. 
Sheet ice settling down on the holt will entirely 
destroy a crop, and a spring flood, which entirely 
covers the young shoots, will kill them ; but freshets, 
which disappear quickly and which do not rise above 
the tops of the rods, do no harm. 
The area of Osier holts in the district in question 
has been approximately estimated as follows :— 
In the Ouse valley, between St. Ives 
(Hunts) and Denver (Norfolk) .. igo acres. 
In the Cam valley, near Cambridge 
and Ely . 108 ,, 
In the Nene valley, in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Peterborough. 60 ,, 
In the Welland valley, around 
Spalding and Crowland . 130 ,, 
Excluding considerable areas above St. Ives, Peter¬ 
borough, and Cambridge. 
There can be no doubt that the extend of Osier 
holts in the Fen district is now much less than it 
was; but at the present moment there is some evi¬ 
dence of increased interest in the subject and 
greater attention to the business. The industry is 
apparently becoming more of a speciality, and 
basket-makers are planting holts in some instances 
to supply their own requirements. 
The Cultivation of the Osier. 
The most suitable soil for the growth of Osiers is a 
deep, rich, moist, alluvial soil. Any good clay may 
be planted if sufficiently moist. Peat moor and 
hot gravels are absolutely unsuitable. Though 
water is requisite, a holt will not thrive in stagnant 
water. 
The site of a holt having been selected, the land 
must be thoroughly cleaned during the summer 
before planting, and it may be worth while to give 
it a complete summer fallow. Before the winter 
sets in it must be thoroughly stirred either by 
digging or ploughing to a depth of 14 in. or 16 in. 
If the soil is not naturally rich, it should be 
manured, and soot is said to be a good preparation 
for the crop. 
Planting should be done in February or March. 
The sets are cut from wood of two years’ growth— 
they should be 16 in. or-18 in. long, and about 10 in. 
of the set should be in the ground. During the 
spring and early summer the spaces between the 
rows must be kept clean by hoeing and forking. The 
cleaning must be completed before the middle of 
June, or the Osiers will be injured. The cost of 
cleaning is variously estimated at from £1 to £2 per 
acre per annum for the first two years. After that 
time the expense of cleaning is much less, as the 
dense and rapid growth of the Osiers stifles and 
smothers all other vegetation. It may be mentioned 
in passing that the young shoots from an established 
stock will make a growth of 18 in. in the course of 
a single week. 
Under the most favourable circumstances the 
newly-planted holt will be at maturity in three 
years ; but, as a general rule, four or five years must 
elapse before its full development. 
A holt properly planted, kept clean, regularly 
filled up, and well managed will last from ten to fifteen 
years, the duration depending upon the sorts planted 
and various circumstances which affect the several 
kinds of Osiers in different ways. 
A certain proportion of the coarse-growing Osiers 
may be, grown, as the basket-makers require some 
strong, stout rods for uprights ; where they are not 
grown their place is supplied by leaving a portion 
of the holt to grow for two or three years. 
The cost of preparing and planting an osier holt 
is variously estimated at from £14 to £23 an acre_ 
the amount depending upon whether the land is 
trenched or ploughed and upon the preparatory 
cleaning which may be necessary. 
Taking an outside estimate, the items of expendi¬ 
ture would be as follows :— 
£ s. d. 
Fallowing.. .. .. 400 an acre. 
Trenching .. .. 800 
Sets, 20,000 at 10s. per 1,000 10 00 ,, 
Planting. 100 ,, 
£23 o o 
This is without any allowance for manure. 
On the other hand, if fallowing is not required and 
ploughing is resorted to, the cost would not exceed 
£ 14 an acre. 
The Osiers attain to their full growth by the 
middle of September, by which time the rods on 
established plants will have made a growth of 6ft. 
to 7ft. Osiers and Sallows will make an average 
growth of 8ft. or gft., and, occasionally, as much as 
13ft. in a single season. 
Cutting and Pulling the rods. 
Cutting the rods commences with the new year, if 
the holts are accessible. Sometimes, however, 
floods or other circumstances prevent the early 
cutting, and the process has to be postponed. It is, 
however, considered very desirable to cut before the 
sap rises, as the stocks bleed, and the new growth 
is less vigorous if the sap has risen before cutting. 
The rods are cut with a sharp hook, somewhat like 
a strong reaping hook, a clean cut, without splitting 
the rod, is essentially necessary. As the rods are 
cut they are tied up by willow bands into bundles or 
"bunches.” Each bunch has a girth of 45m. (an 
English ell) at a distance of ift. from the butt end 
of the bunch. The "ell band” is secured in its 
place by attachment to another band, called the 
“ breech band,” round the butt end. A third band 
is placed higher up. The cutting is paid for by the 
score bunches, the ordinary rate being 2s. Sd. An 
average crop will be about 150 bunches, and a heavy 
crop will reach to 250. A green bunch will weigh 
6st. The weigh of rods per acre will range from 
5 tons to 10 tons. 
If the rods are to be peeled, they are conveyed to 
the peeling-yard, and placed with their butt ends in 
water, where they remain until the rise of sap makes 
the peel separate easily from the stick. Sometimes, 
after the rods are cut, they will dry from exposure 
to the air, and in that case they are put in a heap, 
watered, covered up, and sweated, or “ couched,” as 
it is called. If the rods in the pits get too advanced 
in growth before peeling, the difficulty of peeling is 
increased, and the rods are damaged. The work of 
peeling begins as soon as any of the rods are fit. It 
is chiefly done by women, who draw the rods 
through " break ” or “ cleave,” which divides the 
bark into strips, which are removed by the hand. 
The children of the peelers assist in this latter 
operation. 
Gardening Miscellany. 
LORD ANSON'S PEA. 
There must be some mistake in applying the name 
of Lord Anson’s Pea to the blue variety of Lathyrus 
sativus, as mentioned by your correspondent at p. 
679. Lord Anson's Pea is a yellow-flowered annual 
species, which was introduced from Cape Horn, in 
1744, and was named Lathyrus magellanicus. The 
flowers are produced in many-flowered racemes, on 
long footstalks, and make their appearance in June 
and July. Now, L. sativus has only one flower on a 
short footstalk, and it is light blue. It was intro¬ 
duced from South Europe, in 1640, when it was more 
or less extensively cultivated as food both for human 
beings and other animals. What was considered a 
poisonous variety of it was brought from Barbary. 
It had black seeds, spotted with white, a white 
standard, and a red keel; and was supposed to be a 
mule between L. sativus and L. Cicera. In proof 
of this, the flowers and seed partook of the characters 
of both those species. Granting such to be the case, 
there is reason to believe that the small blue flowers 
of L. sativus, as now known in British gardens, 
are capable of improvement.— A. R. 
EARLY PEACHES IN CHESHIRE. 
It may interest the numerous readers of The 
Gardening World to know that a ripe Peach was 
gathered from a tree on an open wall in the garden 
of the Rev. Canon Turner, the Vicarage, Neston, on 
June 22nd. There is an excellent crop of medium 
sized, well-coloured fruit, and the variety is the 
Waterloo. Is there any recorded instance of Peaches 
ripening at such an early date in the northern parts 
of England ?—Andrew Jamieson, The Hermitage, 
Neston, Cheshire. 
HYPERICUM RICHERI. 
A large number of the St. John’s Worts are tidy 
and interesting plants, bearing, as a rule, a great pro¬ 
fusion of yellow flowers, of which the stamens fre¬ 
quently play a very conspicuous part. That under 
notice is a dwarf herb about 8 in. to 10 in. high, 
terminating in a profusion of flowers of relatively 
large size. The petals are of unequal size and shape, 
reflexed and dotted all over with black glands. The 
ovary, which is to a considerable extent exposed by 
the reflexing of the petals, is even more densely 
dotted with similar glands. The leaves are small, 
ovate, and glaucous. It is by no means a common 
plant, but may be seen on the rockery at Kew. The 
name of H. Burseri is sometimes given to it. 
SPIR/EA ULMARIA AUREA. 
The variegated variety of this plant frequently does 
not show much variegation, but S. Ulmaria aurea, 
on the contrary, is often almost wholly yellow with a 
few green leaves and shoots here and there. This 
yellow condition of the plant seems to have the 
effect of dwarfing it independently of the dry season, 
for many of the stems do not exceed 12 in. to 15 in. 
in height. A moist situation should be selected for 
most of the Spiraeas of this type, as they naturally 
inhabit moist places. 
CODONOPSIS OVATA. 
It is a pity the interior of the flowers of this Bell- 
wort is not so well shown as that of many others 
belonging to the family. The flowers are large, 
deeply bell-shaped, pendent, of a soft porcelain blue 
externally, with darker veins. The inner face is 
similar till near the base where there are two con¬ 
centric purple zones, within which are other two of 
entirely different and intense lines round the centre 
or base. The outer of these two is five-rayed and 
orange, while the inner one is five-angled and violet. 
The small, grey leaves are ovate, and the plant 
grows 12 in. to 16 in. in height. The plant is per¬ 
fectly hardy, and ought to be more extensively culti¬ 
vated than it is, as a choice plant for the rockwork. 
VERONICA SPICATA. 
The smaller and dwarfer forms of this plant are 
highly ornamental subjects for the rockery where the 
barren stems form a procumbent carpet, covering 
the ground, while the flowering stems are only 6 in. 
high, terminating in long, spicate racemes of bright 
blue flowers. The plant can readily be increased by 
division, by cuttings and seeds. Being a British 
plant it is perfectly hardy. 
