August 22, 1003. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
717 
READERS’ COMPETITION. 
For details of this competition and prize offered, please 
see page 715. Please post on Friday night. 
Fertilising Carnations. 
It is true that we already have a great variety in all sections 
of Carnations, and it would seem difficult to make much further 
advance; yet there is still room for improvement, especially in 
regard to habit. English raisers have made much progress, but 
the Americans have succeeded in some points to which the English 
raisers have not given sufficient attention. I refer to the strong, 
stiff stems and good calyx. 
I was never much struck with the American varieties until I 
saw some of the newer varieties grown in real American fashion. 
It is quite evident that it would be difficult to find any English 
variety that could be cut with long stems and stand up as well as 
Mrs. Lawson and other American varieties we have seen , exhi¬ 
bited during the past season; and I would suggest that by careful 
cross fertilisation we might soon get English varieties equal, if not 
better, or even to keep to our own varieties, it is most interesting 
as well as profitable to raise seedlings. It is not all varieties that 
will seed freely. Take, for instance, Miss Joliffe. I have never 
succeeded in getting this to seed ; while Winter Cheer lias proved 
most prolific, and has been the seed parent of many good varie¬ 
ties. In selecting plants for seeding habit of growth should be 
ore of the first considerations, form of flower comes next, and 
with regard to colour the pollen parent would have the most 
effect in this respect, but indiscriminate crossing of colours 
should be avoided. 
Taking a white, it is easy to get a. pink by using the pollen from 
a red or scarlet, but the pollen from a white on to a. red rarely 
gives good results. I have found the pollen from a crimson on to 
a scarlet variety will almost always give a. good percentage of 
crimson-flowered seedlings. With yellows, it is better to select a 
free-growing variety and take the pollen from another of a deeper 
shade, or cross fertilising the same colours from different habited 
plants will give good results. 
The great advantage of raising seedlings is that even if no 
great advance is made in the way of new varieties, it is much 
easier to keep up a healthy stock, and with care in fertilising a 
very large percentage will produce double flowers of good quality. 
There is one more point I may refer to ; that is the procuring of 
pollen. Sometimes flowers mav be had when plants are not pro¬ 
curable, and the pollen from cut flowers will prove equally effi¬ 
cacious to that taken from those on plants if the flowers are placed 
in a sunny position, with the stems in water. 
I used Uriah Pike as a pollen parent long before that variety 
was in commerce, and the results were most satisfactory. 
Zygo. 
A Rustic Summer-house. 
The summer-house has not been much in demand these two 
summers, except to shelter from the cold and wet, but “there’s a 
good time coming,” and it is well to take time by the forelock; 
hence these notes. 
Summer-houses vary in stability, from the bell tent upwards. 
I am recommending a substantial structure. I prefer the octagon 
shape, but a hexagon does quite well. Procure eight stout, knotty 
Oak or Spruce pillars 10 ft. to 11 ft. long. Peel them and dress 
the knots, except a length of 3 ft. at the thick end, which is to be 
pitted into the ground. Having determined the size of the house 
(12ft. across is a nice size), pit your pillars 3 ft. deep, one at each 
angle. Run a framing of three bars round the'house from centre 
to centre of the pillars, making provision for a doorway, although 
not necessarily for a door. Line each side of the framing with 
flooring boards, and then you are ready for the roof, which, after 
being framed, can be thatched with heather, reeds, or broom, 
according to locality. 
The best material for covering the outside is lengths of peeled 
Oak branches, and these may be wrought into a variety of 
designs, according to taste. The inside may also be covered with 
the above material, but for this (if time can be snared) I prefer 
split Hazel saplings, about § in. diameter, with the bark left on. 
Heie again a choice of patterns can be had, but one of the simplest 
and most effective is that known as “ herring-bone ” pattern. It 
is done tKus: With a pencil and “ straight-edge ” draw perpen¬ 
dicular parallel lines at from 5 in. to 6 in. apart; then proceed to 
nail on your split Hazel right along the first space at an angle of 
45 deg., then proceed with the second, reversing the angle, and 
so on till a panel is finished. The family coat-of-arms and the 
year of erection may be introduced as a central figure. If it is 
uesired to have a ceiling, the various panels should have the rustic 
work done on them before being nailed up separately. A rustic 
table can be fitted up in the centre to revolve on a pivot for a 
“ dumb waiter ” in a case of afternoon tea. It should have a seat 
all round. The floor can be laid with nice gravel, or laid with 
small cobble stones. The rustic work should be twice varnished. 
Chas. Comfort. 
The Gardens, Broomfield, Davidson’s Mains, Midlothian. 
Useful Crinums. 
Crinum Powellii has been pronounced by experts to be the 
finest of all hardy Amaryllids ; if one has a doubt concerning 
this a group such as that at Kew or several others soon chases 
away scepticism on this point. Seeing a- group like this, one 
Fossil Thunk of Tree. (See p. 715.) 
realises what the plant is capable of doing under favourable 
conditions, for Crinum Powellii is seen to the best advantage 
when massed, the different stages of the flowers being a pleasing 
feature. A strong scape shoots up, and the spathes on bursting 
reveal a cluster of buds almost crimson in colour, which tone 
down in an exquisite pink as the flowers unfold. 
The flower stems appear from near the base of the bulbs, and 
reach from 3ft. to 4ft. in height, and usually bear- from eight 
to twelve flowers in an umbel. Though the individual flowers 
are not of great duration, yet as they open two or three at a. 
time, the display is extended for a considerable period, each 
strong bulb producing two or three flower stems. 
Many Crinums are very uncertain in blooming, but C. Powellii 
rarely disappoints its cultivator. Thence one cannot wonder why 
this plant increases yearly in popularity. In different plants the 
shades vary from deep rose to light pink, but there is one variety, 
Crinum Powelli album, which stands aloof from the others like 
an emblem of purity ; the flowers are spotlessly white, and of good 
substance, and measure 5 in. to 6 in. across the funnel-shaped 
perianth, having the same free blooming qualities as the type 
renders it a valuable plant. Unfortunately it is not too abundant 
at present. Crinum Powellii is a hybrid, raised by Mr. Powell, 
of Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, produced by transferring the 
