474 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 23, 1901 
GARDENERS’ WAGES. 
I have bern much interested in the discussion going 
on for several weeks on gardeners' wages. Gardeners 
as a rule are the worst paid in most establishments. 
I suppose that the reference made referred to the 
late Mr. John Downie, who was a good friend of the 
gardeners, and had filled a good number of places 
all over the three kingdoms. I may give you 
another reference of the pay offered to gardeners. 
When living at Crowe Hall, Bath, several years ago, 
I happened to call on the late Mr. Scammell, of the 
Kensington Nursery. A gentleman from Trow¬ 
bridge called on him and asked if he could recom¬ 
mend him a gardener for a single handed place. I 
asked him what his terms were. He replied it was 
15s. pay, free house, but no coals or vegetables. I 
looked him straight in the face, and said do yon 
mean to make your gardener a thief, as he might be 
inclined to steal your coals and vegetables. Give the 
man 22s. per week and make him honest. He 
replied, " I never thought of that; I will give him 
the amount you have named, 22s .”—William 
Carmichael, 14 Pitt Street, Edinburgh. 
PLANTING AN ORCHARD. 
As to the site of an orchard, land sloping to the 
east or south is better than a level; a sheltered 
hollow, not liable to floods, is better than an upland 
with the same aspect; and yet a gentle rising, backed 
by sufficient shelter answers well. A good loam 
suits most fruit trees, the subsoil should be dry, and 
the depth of mould 2$ ft. or 3 ft. Before planting, 
draia if necessary, trench to the depth of 2 ft. ; and 
manure according to the defects of the soil. Culti¬ 
vate the site for a year or two as a kitchen garden, 
so that it may be deeply dug, and receive a good 
annual dressing of rough bones and lime rubble. If 
the site is exposed plant shrubs, or wild fruits as 
screens. Forest trees may be planted as an outer 
screen, but at a distance, whence their roots will not 
enter and impoverish the soil to be occupied with fruit 
trees. If expense is grudged and materials for dress¬ 
ing not allowed, then any soil will do for an orchard 
which produces good crops of corn, grass or garden 
vegetables; but of course fruit trees will not have 
such a long life time in such soils. As long as it is 
not wet, heavy, or very clayey, it will grow fruit. 
They succeed well on a chalk bottom. Fruit trees 
will not thrive long, even in good soil, if water rests 
in the subsoil.— T. S. Dick, Castlemilk, Lockerbie. 
CULTURE OF HYDRANGEAS. 
There are two systems of treating these beautiful 
plants. If bushy specimens are required they 
should be cut back every year after they have 
flowered, and afterwards given a shift into larger pots. 
In this manner large plants can soon be obtained. 
The second and more usual plan is to grow them 
from cuttings and confine them to a single stem. 
Cuttings should now be inserted and placed in a 
little heat, using as a compost equal parts of loam, 
peat, and sand. As soon as rooted pot off singly into 
small pots, and when they have become well estab¬ 
lished give them a pot two sizes larger, using the 
same compost, but giving a little manure water once 
a week. Keep in the warmest part of the greenhouse 
until the terminal growth forms a crown. Then 
remove them to the open air where the sun will get 
at them, and at the same time will ripen the wood 
and set the flower buds. Remove indoors before the 
frost touches them. Keep on the dry side till about 
February, when they should be started into growth 
and repotted. Soon heads of blooms will show, and 
then liquid manure must be given regularly every 
week. If required earlier they can be placed in heat 
about November. Sometimes the flowers turn blue; 
this is owirg to the presence of oxide of iron in the 
soil; though a continuous use of alum in the water 
will bring about the same result.— T. W. Dollery, 
The Gardens, Whitburn, Sunderland. 
-» i — ■ — 
PRUNUS SINENSIS FL. PL. 
In last week’s paper Prunus persica was described as 
a decorative pot plant. I made reference to P, 
sinensis Acre pleno, in this paper last spring, which 
excels all the other varieties of wild Plum for pot 
culture, shouts of last year’s growth, over 18 in, 
long, being laden with double snow white flowers. 
Treat the plants similarly to Deutzias. After the 
flowering period prune hard back, leaving a dozeD 
shoots, which arise from the ba c e, the object being 
to keep the plants dwarf and open. The shoots left 
will bear the flowers for the succeeding year. Plunge 
outside in June and keep well supplied with water 
till the month of September, when cold weather will 
necessitate their removal into a frame or a like recep¬ 
tacle. Remove to the forcing house or greenhouse 
when wanted in flower. Propagate from young 
shoots under a bell glass. Eight-inch andg-in. pots are 
most suitable sizes for old plants. The growths that 
are left for flowering need not be shortened, as flower 
buds will appear right out to the tips. P. spinosa, 
the double-flowered Sloe, is a handsome shrub. But 
none is so well adapted for pot use as the one 
mentioned.— A. V . M. 
- - - 
STARTING BEGONIAS. 
I am very glad to see that Mr. W. Hogarth has 
given his opinion on this subject. I cannot, how¬ 
ever, agree with him, especially as to the use of 
manures. I have taken a special interest in Begonia 
culture for the last fifteen years, and have never 
found the use of chemical manures, to have any but 
a most beneficial result during the growing season. 
As to its being detrimental to the resting tubers, I 
have never found it so. I have only lately potted up 
my stock, and I think I am safe in saying that I have 
not lost five per cent, of the older tubers, even 
although last autumn was one of the worst in my 
experience for ripening them off. I do not think any 
one could expect much better results. Here is what 
Mr. Molyneux says about the use of cow manure:— 
“ Well decomposed cow manure is often recom¬ 
mended. . . . This is wrong, because what bene¬ 
ficent properties can there possibly be in manure 
when decomposition has entirely taken place? Simply 
the shell is left that held the goodness. ... I 
do not approve of cow manure in any form." I am 
at one with Mr. Molyneux there. No doubt fresh 
cow manure made into weak liquid, and given occa¬ 
sionally after the flowering pots are well filled with 
roots is beneficial, as is also sheep droppings, but if 
applied regularly they soon clog the soil. I have 
therefore much more faith in a judicious use of 
" Ichthemic ” and an occasional dose of weak 
sulphate of ammonia, say from J oz. to J oz. in a 
gallon of water.— C. Blair, Binny, Upliall, N.B. 
SOWING ANNUALS. 
The t'me has now arrived when many of our 
beautiful summer flowering annuals will have to be 
sown in the open borders. Easy and simple as this 
may appear to be, some care and forethought is 
necessary to obtain the best results. Far too often 
the inexperienced are under the impression that 
nothing is required except sowing the seed and 
merely burying it, but this is not so. Like every¬ 
thing else, if woith doing at all it is worth doing well. 
The ground should first of all be deeply dug, 
especially does this apply to shrubbery borders. 
When grown in patches the soil should be broken 
up finely and the seed in all cases only just buried. 
On stiff, heavy ground it is necessary to import a 
little fre^h finely sifted sandy material for this pur¬ 
pose. After tbe seed is sown it should be patted 
down firmly. Immediately the young seedlings are 
large enough to handle they should receive a severe 
thinning. A fatal mistake is generally rpade by 
overcrowding, consequently owing to this the plants 
become ruined long before they come into flower, 
and in many cases prove to be a complete failure. 
Space at my command will permit me to deal with 
only a few of the most beautiful for sowing at this 
season. These will include Love Lies Bleeding, 
Prince's Feather, both of which should be sown in 
large batches, Mignonette, dwarf Nasturtiums, Con¬ 
volvulus minor, Godetias, Clarkias, Candytuft, 
Sweet Sultan and Larkspurs.— A . Thatcher, Elstree, 
Herts. 
ROSE-FLOWERED BALSAMS. 
It is necessary, in order to obtain satisfactory 
resuits, to secure a good strain of these much-appre¬ 
ciated flowers. They do well in pots, if properly 
handled ; also for bedding out purposes, if planted 
in suitable soil. It is not necessary to sow the seed 
in heat—seeds sown thinly in pans in March or early 
in April and placed in a greenhouse temperature 
make by far the sturdiest plants. When grown in 
heat they become soft and weak in growth. As 
soon as the seedlings are large enough, they should 
■ - - - : —r 
be potted singly inlo small pots, and placed in gentle 
heat until growth has resumed. At all stages of 
their growth rich soil should be employed, consisting 
of good yellow loam, leaf mould, rotten manure and 
some silver sand well mixed together. A dwarf, stout, 
vigorous growth is the habit aimed at. Frequent 
potting in the early stages cannot be over-estimated. 
Never allow the plants to become pot-bound or dry 
at the roots, if success is your motive. Pinching 
out the leader, to promote the growth of side shoots, 
and disbudding are vicious observances, the natural 
growth being more effective and the largest flowers 
obtained on the main stem. For bedding purposes 
the ground must be deeply dug and richly manured. 
If grown in pots and planted out early in June they 
make plants of large proportions and flower well, if 
carefully watered in dry weather— Walter Hogarth, 
Norton Gardens, Ratho, Midlothian. 
The Orchard House. 
When the trees in the orchard house come into 
bloom it will be necessary to see that the bouse is 
properly ventilated so as to secure a dry atmosphere, 
and favour the dispersal of the pollen. If the trees 
have been brought along slowly without fire heat it 
will not be necessary to heat the pipes now unless to 
guard against a frosty night when the trees happen 
to be in bloom. Provided there is a little sunshine 
during the day the careful cultivator can so manage 
the ventilation as to insure a good set without the 
use of fire heat. There is no particular necessity to 
guard against the east winds, provided the tempera¬ 
ture is fairly high, owing to the presence of sunshine. 
Close the house early in the afternoon so as to con¬ 
serve a little heat. Should the sunless cold weather 
of the last week prevail during the time the trees are 
in bloom it may be necessary to warm the pipes 
during the early part of the day so as to make the 
atmosphere buoyant during the middlejof the day to 
favour the setting of the blooms. 
Peaches. —In the case of those trees that have set 
their fruits the cultivator must be on his guard 
against the inroads of the Peach aphides, particu¬ 
larly the brown species which increases very rapidly 
and curls the young foliage, doing irreparable 
damage in a short time if allowed to work away un¬ 
checked. Fumigation may be resorted to, in which 
case the foliage must be kept dry over night when 
the house is filled with smoke. Very often they may 
be detected in the early stages when only a few shoots 
are infested by them, a good plan is to syringe the 
trees and dust the infested parts with tobacco 
powder. The process is not a speedy one, but it is 
effective, as the powder can be dusted into the centre 
of any curled leaves. 
When the trees in the early house have reached 
the stoning periodjthe temperature must be kept as 
evenly as possible, about 58° at night, with a rise of 
io c to 15 3 during {he day under the influence of sun¬ 
shine. High night temperatures are not recom- 
mendable during cold and relatively sunless weather. 
Syringe the trees twice a day, and ventilate early, 
giving a little at first and increasing it as the sun 
increases in power till mid-day. Front air must be 
admitted with caution if cold east winds are blowing, 
in the case of houses now kept at a relatively high 
temperature, and where the trees are in full growth. 
The trees in succession houses must be disbudded 
as they require it. Tie the leading shoots iDto their 
proper position, also those that are intended to bear 
fruit next year. Crowding must not be tolerated 
under any circumstances ; but there should be no 
occasion for it when toe trees are in leaf and show 
what space is available. The fruits may be thinned 
gradually, removing those that are badly placed first, 
and others as it becomes evident which are making 
the most vigorous and healthy headway. 
Vines. —Where late Vines have started into 
growth it may be necessary to use a gentle heat in 
order to bring them along steadily without check. 
If any difficulty is experienced in getting the rods to 
break evenly all along they should be brought down 
into a horizontal position for a time. As soon as the 
shoots have all made a good start tie the rods into 
position again before there is any danger of the shoots 
being broken off. Syringe them twice daily, the 
second application when shutting up the house in 
the afternoon. In succession houses carefully attend 
to disbudding and tying in of the young shoots. The 
