March 13, 1897. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
441 
them on until they are in 32 sized pots, when they 
will be ready for anything. There should be no 
difficulty about their doing well, provided the soil is 
fairly good, and the bed is not overhuDg by trees. 
Carnations. —Many Carnation growers have cause 
to complain this year of layers looking sickly. I 
think the cause may be either or neither of the things 
you suggest to “ L. L. A. ” (p. 424). I grow several 
thousands—border varieties, and pot varieties of all 
sections—and I find hundreds of my layers are sickly 
looking and without roots. They were layered by 
an expert band, carefully, and in good time—July 
and August—and gave every promise of a good 
stock; but when we lifted we found a very large 
proportion without any roots whatever, and now such 
assume a very sickly appearance. I can only suggest 
one reason. The season mentioned was one of 
drought and great heat, and the earlier ones to be 
layered seem to have suffered most. I imagine the 
great heat and drought had an injurious effect, 
A FIELD OF PAEONIES. 
The value of Paeonies for garden decoration has 
risen immensely within the last ten or fifteen years. 
We have had single Paeonies for a great number of 
years, but they were not very widely cultivated. The 
double form of Paeonia officinalis has been known for 
a great many years, and the glory of many a cottage 
garden during Mayor June, according to locality. 
Semi-double varieties of the Moutan Paeony were 
also grown in private establishments to some extent ; 
but it is more to the remarkable advance which has 
been made in P.albiflora that we wish to allude. The 
wild form, a native of Siberia, had white flowers, 
and was remarkable for the bright red colour of its 
young stems and leaves. Its numerous progeny, now 
numbering some hundreds, probably have the same 
beautiful tints in spring, and might well be asso¬ 
ciated with Daffodils or other white or yellow 
flowers. 
The numerous, grand double forms of P. albiflora 
can be grown in any good garden soil, and will even 
dry, a liberal supply of water is very beneficial in 
assisting the Paeonies during the flowering period, 
as well as in the development of strong crowns to 
produce good flowers the following season. This is 
Messrs. Kelway’s practice, and their fine exhibits at 
the Temple and other London shows amply demon¬ 
strate their successful cultivation. A mulching of 
manure saves a deal of labour in watering, and is 
always of great advantage to the plants. 
We have already alluded to the ornamental 
character of the young stems and foliage, but the 
latter is attractive at all stages, but particularly in 
spring, and again in late summer and autumn, when 
it proves valuable for church decorations at harvest 
thanksgivings and other festivals. The plants vary 
very much in their growth; the shoots of the several 
varieties come up in various shades of green, purple 
and red, varying as the season advances, and main¬ 
taining their decorative value till Christmas or the 
new year. P. corallina, the British species, is very 
distinct in its way, having leaves of a pea-green 
A FjEpp of Paeonies 
although we plied the hose freely on the newly 
layered beds. My Malmaison and other choice pot 
varieties suffered similarly, and here I must mention 
I departed from my usual practice. Hitherto I 
have always layered this section in frames, shading 
from bright sun and syringing, and the layers have 
been ready to pot in about a month ; but last year I 
left them exposed, and did not shade, but syringed 
and kept moist. The result was they took longer to 
root, and a number failed to root at all. 'Tis an ill 
wind that blows nobody good, though, and the heat 
and dry weather which proved disastrous to some 
layers, induced others to make riper growth and pro¬ 
duce flower stems,with the result that I have not been 
without blooms of Uriah Pike, Souv. de la Malmaison 
and others since October. I was able easily in 
January to cut several dozen good blooms of U. Pike 
to form a ballroom bouquet. Perhaps a few remarks 
in another issue will not be amiss as to the best 
means of treating Uriah Pike as a winter flowering 
variety, which is very simply dene.— A. P. 
Name of Apple. — Subscriber : Dutch Mignonne. 
flourish in that of a poor or sandy nature provided it 
is well enriched with farmyard manure. Some idea 
of the extent to* which they are cultivated may be 
gleaned from the fact that Messrs. Kelway & Son, 
Langport, Somerset, cultivate ten acres of them in 
various soils, and therefore under different con¬ 
ditions. The accompanying illustration, lent by 
them, shows a portion of a field of these Paeonies in 
bloom. In Messrs. Kelway's nurseries some are 
grown in a clay soil, overlying white lias rock ; some 
are on a heavy soil about a foot in depth, on a bed 
of 6 ft. of gravel; some on a medium loam on a bed 
of 6 ft. of yellow sand ; and others on a heavy soil of 
about 12 in. in depth, on a bed of blue clay. On all 
of these soils they seem to do equally well with the 
use of an artificial manure, which to some extent is 
also used by the customers of the firm. The free use 
of farmyard or stable manure is, however, responsi¬ 
ble for the splendid results obtained every year by 
the firm. 
When the spring or early summer happens to be 
colour, changing to pink. T 1 e seed pods are also 
very striking, being more bulky than those of other 
kinds. When mature they expand and expose two 
rows of bright, shining seeds resembling the colour 
of an amethyst. The seeds remain attached to the 
capsules for a long time, so that the trusses of fruit 
when cut with a foot of stem prove very useful for 
decorative work, and are highly ornamental if left on 
the plant. 
The flowers of many of the varieties of P. albiflora 
are distinctly and agreeably scented, as we have re¬ 
peatedly determined in collections near London, in¬ 
cluding the trials at Chiswick. The bulk of Messrs. 
Kelway's collection consists of the recently-raised 
double varieties of the Siberian P.albiflora ; and for 
outdoor culture, the great popularity of Paeonies 
within recent years is due to this extensive and 
beautiful race of hardy flowers. 
-4.- 
Holly has been exceptionally well berried this year, 
and has fetched from £6 to £10 per ton. 
