744 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
July 22, 1899. 
Hints for Amateurs. 
Flower Shows.— I was at a flower show not long 
since which was exclusively devoted to competition 
among amateur gardeners. And, as at other shows, 
not exclusively for amateurs, there was much to 
commend and also to criticise. But criticism, to my 
mind, always seems like scoldiDg ; it is at least the 
enumerating of (supposed or real) faults. Let it 
not, however, be taken as fault-finding, but rather 
as what I would consider helpful hints, any notes 
of mine, which may here follow. The first con¬ 
sideration, then, in showing flowers or any garden 
produce is (having the best stuff marked and care¬ 
fully packed, as a matter of course) to be in such 
time at the show ground that your position having 
been made known to you, may be mentally planned 
before any of your entries are brought to light. 
You may in many cases have to make rough 
measurements, or to try a rough arrangement of 
your stock so that the very best effect may be given 
to whatever is put together. Many, many pounds 
sterling are missed by deserving men in other 
respects, but men who either lack the taste for 
beautiful grouping or who did not take the time and 
pains to find out the most fitting blends of form and 
colour. Therefore the moral follows :—Be in good 
time, and finish staging at or before the hour fixed. 
Then when you have arranged your group of 
plants, or flowers, or collections of fruit or vegetables, 
everything being proportionate, neat, and pretty, the 
naming by the use of smart little cards of paper of 
a size (for general use) measuring 2 in. long by £ 
in. broad may be undertaken, as by so doing jou 
exactly double the interest which your entry will 
give. Then though we generally write and preach 
against " dressing ” flowers, yet until such time as 
schedules forbid the same I would say do your best 
to improve your exhibits by " make-up,” else your 
neighbour who knows how to work the oracle will 
step in front of you. Of course, it comes in here 
that such exhibitors are not pure or straightforward, 
and that by such pamperings cultural skill is a 
nonentity in the business, or almost so ; and so it is. 
But for the reasons set forth, and also from the fact 
that it really requires much skill to dress blooms 
well, in other words, to improve them, the trouble 
and the skill combined merit the rewards which 
such efforts often secure. Before I leave off I would 
just point out that very many exhibits are far too 
much cramped up. It will also be found that, other 
points being equal, the man or woman who has given 
space and freedom to his or her produce, who has 
set them well up so that " the quantity of their 
quality” is easily visible, receives from judges of 
discretion and taste the greater award. In conclu¬ 
sion, it may not be amiss to say, too, that in the pro¬ 
duction of stuff for showing many of the primary 
cultural rules are seen to have been overlooked. 
These roughly are (x) timely thinning when in a 
young state, and also when expanding ; (2) feeding, 
for without sufficient but careful supplies the very 
best flowers or plants cannot be got. (It is debasing 
to horticulture, or at least says little for the particu¬ 
lar part, when one bears a successful competitor 
boasting, as is at times the case, that " he never 
needed to look at his plants," and put forth in the 
manner which conveys also that it would just have 
been the same had he grown those you had against 
his.) (3) Staking and keeping clean ; (4) Shading 
in all its forms; (5) watering, disbudding, and so on. 
Hybridising.—All of us in the horticultural line 
are just now full of one subject and that is, hybrid¬ 
isation. As is generally known, a representative body 
of authorities and practitioners met together under 
the auspices of the R.H.S. (England), to confer, 
collect and learn as much as possible about the 
present position of our knowledge, dexterity of 
practice, and attained results in hybridisation. It Is 
a matter whose ultimate results may affect for good 
the deepest pulse of commerce, or even greatly 
increase the beauty or aesthetic part of life. Men 
came to London from America, from France, 
Holland, Germany and all parts of the United King¬ 
dom, bringing with them all their experience and 
the results of their labours and studies, exchanging 
their results reciprocally. Many of the great 
English (and some foreign) nurserymen brought for 
exhibition a number of plants, some of them new and 
distinct and very useful or beautiful, all to show 
what they had been doing towards the production of 
finer fruit, flowers and vegetables. But after alb 
much more ought to have been done. It is a start, 
however, and the saying goes that “ a task begun is 
half done." The R.H.S. has done a good work in 
having collected some data before this old century 
dies. With the accumulated testimonies of so many 
men all over the world, the horticulturists and 
botanists will go forward with something tangible to 
guide them, something more to aspire to, and with 
greater heartiness, because that now they may feel 
that their labours and aims will be better understood, 
recognised and watched when the dawn of 1900 
breaks over us. Some of the hints thrown out by 
one or other of the speakers were, that for the sake of 
scientific guidance and investigation records should 
be kept, even if only roughly, upon our percentages of 
hybrids resembling the male parent, or how many 
resembled the mother parent, what characters were 
most marked and which of their primary characters 
had been most altered. The failures of attempted 
hybridisation were discussed and mainly summed up 
in rather an evident conclusion that the physiological 
and even morphological differences between plants 
were often too contrasting for any certainty of 
successful outcome. 
It was very generally expressed too that the hy¬ 
bridising of plants increased the vigour of the 
progeny. Microscopical study of hybrids, both the 
internal and external structures, was also demon¬ 
strated and discussed. Instances where perennial 
Poppies and other plants were crossed with annual 
varieties of different species, with improved flower¬ 
ing results, were not lacking. But I only mention 
such things to give you some general idea of what 
has been going on. Now, I would ask, are you going 
to study the essays and printed speeches, when they 
come out, and then acting upon instructions, will you 
favour the desires of many of those men who have 
been working hard at this subject, will you try to 
hybridise ? But remember I do not want you to 
waste your time. To produce something better than 
the thiDgs you operate with will require some care¬ 
ful reasoning and some amount of knowledge. As 
one of the lecturers said, it is easy to collect and 
grow species already known because no mental effort 
is attached, but in hybridising the case is different. 
Look at the enjoyments you multiply for yourself 
by a consideration and practice of this subject. You 
may liken it to quiet gambling. Gambling creates 
effervescent excitement, however, while the hopes 
and fears of the hybridist’s kind of gambling run 
in deep currents away deeply within him. It will 
necessitate a larger knowledge of plants, and a better 
aquaintance with most things (up to a certain stage) 
makes them more and more interesting. It will 
afford you pleasurable matter for meditation; and 
then for those with mercenary views or dreams of 
fame and honour there is always the chance of pro¬ 
ducing something valuable. There can be no profit¬ 
able summing up of rules on hybridisation, because 
the conditions for the work vary in so very many 
ways amoDg the great variety of plants commonly 
cultivated. It would mean the crediting of all classes 
of readers with a knowledge of botany which may 
not extend sufficiently far. 
——- 4 *- 
Correspondence. 
Questions asked by amateurs on any subject pertaining 
to gardens or gardening will be answered on this page. 
A nyone 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. 
Fertilising Carnations,— Alex. Logan, Trinity. We 
always advise amateurs or others to do as much as 
they can and the best they can. You may find it 
somewhat testy for the first while to successfully 
cross-breed among your Carnations, but by care and 
effort you may hope for good results. This work 
you will find most successful when performed just 
after the heat of the day. Watch and mark the 
good qualities in the flowers intended to be crossed. 
These are, the possession of a stout, firm calyx, a 
large, strong bloom, with broad, open petals, having 
substance, depth of colour, brilliance, purity and 
fragrance—select such. When the pollen is well 
freed from the anthers, and while yet fresh, the 
female or seed-bearing bloom being ready, having 
sometime earlier removed the stamens from this 
latter, fertilise the stigma, which you may recognise 
as a double, arching, strap-like central growth. 
After this tie a transparent bag of muslin or paper 
around the bloom, loosely, and entirely free from it. 
Such a contrivance is a necessary evil. When the 
flowers begin to wither free them to light and air, 
and leave them till the ovaries are well ripened, 
whence they may be cut off and taken to an airy, 
dry room to be strung up, and later on to be shaken 
out. 
Gas lime for Wireworm.— M. H., Mortlake : It is 
difficult to make out your case. From liberal use of 
gas-lime we have found its effects on vermin, wire- 
worm included, to have been detrimental to their 
well-being. Yet you say that they are more frisky 
than ever before, and this after applications of gas- 
lime, and on a light soil, too. Well, let’s see what 
we can make of this. Fresh gas-lime is poisonous; 
this we all agreed to. So that if the wireworms ate 
a portion it would certainly not be good for their 
constitutions. They have tough skins, however, so 
that its virulence would have next to no effect in this 
way. The liberation of the carburetted-hydrogen 
would not help them either. But once its first 
effects were lost it may be that by its aiding in the 
decomposition of the organic or vegetable matter of 
the soil the lime might thus put a greater quantity 
of readily available food within reach of these 
devourers, and also by sweetening the soil, combine 
one way and another to make things more satisfac¬ 
tory for your wireworms. We think, however, that 
if you used fresh lime at the rate of 2J tons per 
acre, and incorporate it well with the soil, the grubs 
would have a hard job to live. 
Receptacles for Plants.— M. Swing, Highbury : 
Of course, we can encourage economy if it will also 
tend to propagate the love for plants, and, maybe, 
once you become more enthusiastic in your plant 
pets, you will see means to provide them with 
earthern pots. All sorts of things are at times met 
with, some of them containing very fine plants. 
Here is an enumeration :—Old felt hats, syrup-cans, 
wooden boxes in great variety, half Cocoanuts, 
pieces of piping, tiles, barrels, &c., &c. Indeed, it 
would be humorously interesting to compile some 
funny little corner out of doors, showing as great a 
variety of these ridiculous things as possible. After 
all, it may be taken that various sizes of wooden 
vessels, barrels, or boxes, all made clean and pure 
before use, are almost the only things worth suggest¬ 
ing in the absence of flower pots. 
Plants for Dry Banks.— J. T., Clackton : Euony- 
mus radicans variegatus, Hypericum calycinum, 
various kinds of Hedera or Ivy, 
Topiary Work.— A. McQ., Ayr : We go hand in 
hand with you. A garden without variety loses 
half its charms. If your charge is at all extensive, 
and if you are confident your taste and skill is good, 
then by all means try your hand at topiary. Regard¬ 
ing designs and trees, as you are no doubt aware, the 
various forms of birds and animals are tried, but of 
these the less said the better, because unless they 
are perfect they become absurd. Straight Yew 
"walls" with buttresses, semblances of towers, 
arbours,column?, and other things with flat surfaces, 
more or less, and straight lines are most easily 
brought to a pleasing completion. The spiral cork¬ 
screw of trained Box, shown by Messrs. Cheal, of 
Crawley, at the Temple Show this year, was one of 
the prettiest patterns we have seen. Yews, Box, 
Privet, Thorns, and other soft, close growing shrubs 
are alone used. In the primary shaping of the 
forms, all depends on the size and the form intended. 
For fancy designs a frame-work on which to train 
the first growths is helpful. For large figures try to 
let your bushes or trees expand to nearly the size 
wanted before starting to bring about accurate 
dimensions. 
Grubs attacking Cabbages.—IF. L., Edinburgh : 
From your rather meagre descriptions we conclude 
that your cabbage and such like plants are suffering 
from the attacks of Anthomyia Brassicae or A. radi- 
cum. The history and measures taken against this 
pest were noted by Hanison D. at page 618, May 27th. 
There it was explained that the female fly lays her 
eggs far down the stems of Cabbage and such like 
