August 5. 1905. 
THE O ARDEN 1 NO WORLD 
631 
Ox-eye Daisies in a considerable number of 
varieties formed plantations ; prominent 
amongst them was the Shasta Daisy, which 
flowers very profusely. Amongst others were 
Chrysanthemum maximum, C. m. Perfection, 
and C. Leuoanthemum, the last-named being 
our British Ox-eye Daisy. Various names are 
(riven to several of these large-flowered peren¬ 
nial Chrysanthemums, including Moon Daisy 
and Marguerites., They are certainly well 
adapted for border cultivation, and are 
equally well suited for arranging in vases for 
dwell ing-house decoration. 
Canterbury Bells, of the cup and saucer 
strain, were grown in a considerable number 
of varieties, some of which were very hand¬ 
some, particularly pink and mauve varieties. 
Several free-flowering perennial Lupins are 
grown, including forms of Lupinuspolyphyllus 
and a hybrid with yellow flowers. The annual 
Sunflower attains an enormous height under 
good cultivation, but a dwarf strain has been 
evolved that only grows 2 ft. high, or even less 
sometimes. This is simply named Single 
Dwarf Sunflower, and has very large blooms 
with yellow rays and a brown centre. 
Numerous strains of Violas are grown from 
seedlings, and selections are annually made 
of the best and most interesting of them. In 
special cases these are protected against in¬ 
sects by means of a. screen to prevent the cross¬ 
ing of the flowers with other undesirable 
colours. One sowing was made in September 
last, and planted out in the spring, these 
being most floriferous on the occasion of our 
visit, and the colours were extremely varied, 
comprising anything in the way of Violas. 
We also took considerable interest in a strain 
named Silver Laced Bedder, which has blue 
flowers of some shade, with a white edging to 
every petal, and to some extent imitates cer¬ 
tain show Pansies. The shade is certainly 
distinct, and very pretty, on account of the 
variety and beauty of the colours. 
Quite a different strain was that named 
Sutton’s Perfection Pansies grown in mixture. 
We can best describe them as being related to 
the fancy Pansy of the florist, as they are 
characterised by very large and richly-coloured 
blotches with a lacing of some other hue 
around the margins. Any of these might be 
selected for making beds in gardens, and pro¬ 
pagated by cuttings in the usual way. 
While passing around the nursery in order 
to get a closer view of the various sowings of 
annuals we noticed a remarkably strong con¬ 
trast produced by two easily-grown plants. 
These were Chrysanthemum Morning Star, 
forming two broad bands, one on either side 
of a smaller band of Sweet-william, named 
Dark Crimson. The contrast between the 
primrose-yellow and the crimson was very 
marked, the SweeLwilliam appearing almost 
black at a short distance away. 
The Trite Shamrock -A writer in the 
“ Standard,” referring to the statement which 
recently appeared that the true Shamrock had 
been found in England, near Cheadle, says 
there is no Clover growing in Ireland which is 
not far more frequent in England. The plant 
usually identified as the true Shamrock—viz., 
Trifolium minus —is about as common in Eng¬ 
land as the Daisy, and can be found in any 
gravelly fields or roadsides. 
* * * 
The Banana Trade. —During the first half 
of this year 2,395.351 bunches of Bananas 
were imported into this country, as compared 
with 1,416,873 bunches in the corresponding 
period of 1904. Jamaica and Costa Rica ac¬ 
counted for 681,792 of the increase. 
The Editor invites enquiries, which may cover 
any branch of gardening. Questions should be as 
brief as 'possible and written on one able of the paper 
only; a separate sheet of paper should be used for 
each question. Readers are invited to give their 
fellow gardeners the benefit of their experience by send¬ 
ing supplementary replies—see Prize Competitions. 
Replies cannot be sent by pest. 
Garden Plans .—Gardeners who would make the 
best use of this column are invited to prepare and 
forward to its a rough outlin: drawing or plan of their 
Crossing Varieties of Barley. 
I have a few ears of splendid Barley in my 
garden, but the straws seem too weak to carry 
them. I have also some strong in straw, and a 
fine yielder in grain. I shall be very much obliged 
if you can inform me how to cross them, for I 
feel sure that if this can be done successfully it 
would be a splendid variety. They are both new 
malting Barleys not as yet on the market. I 
should be glad if you could answer me this in 
your “ Enquire Within ” column. (Barley.) 
We presume that you would use that variety 
with the strong stem as the seed parent. Grasses 
are very frequently self-fertilising, but they are 
also adapted for fertilisation by the wind, as 
their structure evidently shows. You will have 
to study the flowers, however, and remove the 
anthers from the variety which you intend as the 
seed parent. This should be done at a very early 
stage, before there is any possible chance of the 
pollen being used on the pistil of the same variety. 
We presume you have only the two varieties in 
your garden. You should save the seed only from 
those flowers, however, from which you remove 
the anthers at an early stage, and pollinate with 
pollen from the other variety. It would be ad¬ 
visable to grow only a few grains in your garden, 
so that you would not have more plants to attend 
to than you could carefully work in the way you 
mention, otherwise your work might be made in 
vain by pollen being carried through the agency 
of the wind. Every flower upon which you oper¬ 
ate, if successful, should give you a separate 
chance of the desired combination of good quali¬ 
ties, and if only one straw or plant turns out good, 
seeds should be saved from that plant alone for 
further trial. 
Gooseberry Trees. 
My trees have made a lot of new wood this year, 
Some of the shoots are 24 in. long. Will it injure 
the crop and trees if I cut the shoots shorter 
now, say to 12 in. long, instead of doing it in the 
winter? Is it a good plan to cut and prune 
Black and Red Currant trees as soon as the fruit 
is gathered. (S. Howell.) 
We presume your bushes are pruned on the ex¬ 
tension system—that is. by thinning out useless 
shoots and leaving the useful ones at considerable 
length. Almost the same system may be adopted 
at present as you would in winter. If your bushes 
are growing very strongly, in all probability some 
of the shoots will be crowded in places; in such 
cases they might be removed to within three or 
four inches of the base, leaving the long ones at 
the same length as you would at the winter prun¬ 
ing. We presume that some of the stronger shoots 
would be left at greater length than 12 in., because 
in the pruning of bushes of such a plant the opera¬ 
tor has to study the symmetry of the bush, so 
that some of the shoots would necessarily be 
pruned to such a length as to maintain the bush 
in its proper shape. Such being the case, we 
should not lay it down as a rule that 
all the branches should be left 12 in. 
long, as some of them should be longer, 
and some of them shorter, according to 
circumstances. The strong shoots will re¬ 
gardens, indicating the position of beds and lawn 
the character ami height of the fence or wall ; positio n 
of vegetable garden, orchard, etc. The north side °l 
the garden and any overshadowing buildings should 
be denoted. It should also be statfd whether the 
garden is flat or on a declivity, and all large trees 
should be marked. Particulars of the nature of the 
sod will also help us to give satisfactory replies. 
When such plans are received they will be carefully 
filed, with the name and address of the sender, and 
will be consulted by the Editor whenever an enquiry 
is sent. 
quire less removed from them than the weak 
ones. This again will be governed by the outline 
of the bush. The shoots that are relatively use 
less, or crowding their neighbours, could be 
cut down to within 1 in. of the base, provided 
the bushes have ceased growing, otherwise it 
might cause the buds to start into growth, pro¬ 
ducing useless shoots that could not ripen before 
winter sets in. You will, however, have to exer¬ 
cise discretion, and leave a length of three or 
four inches to be further shortened at the winter 
pruning; then if they have made a second growth 
you will still have good buds at the base of the 
shoots to fall back upon. Black Currants require 
very little pruning in the proper sense of the term. 
What they require is the thinning out of the 
shoots, so that light and air can play upon the 
remainder of the bush. Red Currants are spur- 
pruned, so that you can remove the whole of the 
laterals to within 3 in. of base for the same reason 
as in the case of Gooseberries. The leaders should, 
of course, be left at greater length, provided they 
have not reached the limits of space allotted to 
them. This thinning in all three cases may be 
done with advantage while the bushes are still 
in leaf, because you can then see what effect the 
foliage has upon the density of the bush. There 
is just one other word of caution we would offer, 
and that is, if the Gooseberries are to hang any 
length of time upon the bushes, it would be a 
mistake to cut away too much of the foliage 
during the present heat as the, sun would very 
soon discolour the berries and render them 
tasteless and worthless. 
Potting Soil for Cacti. 
I have some Cacti given me, and I wish you 
to be so good as to tell me what sort of soil 
to pot them with, as they do not succeed well in 
the way I have potted them. I used soil and 
rotten stable manure, and silver sand. I do not 
know the names of them, so I have sent you a 
piece which I broke off, and I have one like the 
figure I have sketched. It is round like an egg. 
(George Woolloff.) 
The piece of Cactus which you sent us was 
Opuntia, but it would be impossible to determine 
which species from so small a piece, as they 
acquire quite a different character when they 
grow old. The one which you sketched is evi¬ 
dently a Mamillaria, which grows very slowly, 
and may still remain quite dwarf after many 
years, it is evident that you have been giving 
them too rich soil. Manure requires to be used 
very carefully when applied to these succulent 
plants ; in fact, we should not use it in the potting 
of the plants you name, and would prefer to 
give them weak doses of manure water, but only 
after they have attained some considerable size 
and have filled their pots with roots. A much 
safer compost to use would consist of two parts of 
good friable loam, turfv if possible, with one part 
of sand and one part of bricks, broken finely, or 
old potsherds, provided they are not too hard. 
Whether finely broken bricks or pots are used, 
they should be fairly soft and porous. This will 
act'as drainage and serve to keep the roots very 
