The Editor invites enquiries, which may cover 
any branch of gardening. Questions should be as 
brief as possible and written on one side 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 revlies—see Prize Competitions. 
Replies cannot be sent by post. 
Garden Plans.— Gardeners who would make the 
best use of this column are invited to prepare and 
forward to us a rough outline drawing or plan of their 
Apple Trees Dying, 
The Apple trees planted some six years ago 
are evidently dying from some malady which I 
cannot account for, so have enclosed some of the 
leaves from which you may be able to mrfke a 
diagnosis. The garden is old lea, scooped out 
of a slope of hill, clay subsoil, northern exposure 
(though sheltered in a hollow). The tree is 
trained against a wall which on the other side 
is 3 ft. to 4 ft. lower, also somewhat shaded by 
trees ; is is, of course, an ungenial situation, and 
all this may account for their non-thriving, only 
there are one or two trees in the open with better 
exposure similarly affected. I shall be glad to 
have the editorial reply in an early number? 
(Craigcrook.) 
The soil you mention is excellent material for 
the growth of Apple and Pear trees, provided it 
were well worked and well drained, but possibly 
it was not properly prepared before the trees 
were planted. The situation is also bad, as the 
Apple delights in the free exposure to light and 
air, and not to be too closely shut in by trees. 
A hillside would be an ideal situation, provided 
it were facing any other quarter than the north. 
The trees might also have been planted too 
deeply in an ungenial soil, and have got into 
the less congenial subsoil. If the soil is wet it 
should have been drained before planting, and 
it might also have been more convenient and 
effective to have planted the trees on the sur¬ 
face, and piled the soil over the roots. The 
leaves sent us show that in the meantime they 
are suffering from red spider, which have thickly 
planted themselves over the under-surface in the 
form of eggs, cast off skins and webs. This in¬ 
dicates a dry season, or dry conditions for the 
Apple. You state nothing about the drainage, 
and possibly we might be wrong in assuming 
that it is wet. It might, on the contrary, be 
very dry, and that would account largely for 
the red spider. In such case it would be well 
to heavily syringe the trees with clean water at 
night on several successive occasions, and also 
to water the roots if that is practicable. As far 
as your evidence goes, the most serious draw¬ 
back to the cultivation of the Apple is the 
northern exposure, and possibly the ground is 
vei-y cold till a late period in spring. 
Planting in Open Woods. 
While thanking you for the most useful and 
obliging information which I have already several 
times both sought and found in the columns of 
your paper, I should like again to ask for advice 
regarding the planting of various things in an 
open wood with running ditches, here and there 
through it, but not protected from rabbits. May 
I hope to grow Iris Kaempferi, Iberis semper- 
virens, mossy Saxifrages and the coarser Sedums, 
Lilies of the Valley, Michaelmas Daisies, Creep¬ 
ing Jenny (over stumps) without their being" 
destroyed ? It would not be convenient to wire 
the space in as the cross roads run all through it. 
(Merraythwaite.) 
It all depends upon the relative number of 
rabbits. We have seen warrens on which every¬ 
thing was eaten up, including the Gorse, which 
gardens, indicating the position of beds and lawns 
the character and height- of the fence or wall ; positio n 
of vegetable garden, orchard, etc. The north side of 
the garden and any overshadowing buildings should 
be denoted. It should also be stated whether the 
garden is flat or on a declivity, and all large trees 
should he marked. Particulars of the nature of the 
soil 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. 
was reduced to the form of short, dumpy bushes. 
In other cases where the vegetation was fairly 
plentiful and the rabbits not numerous, the wild 
vegetation was fairly well represented. You can, 
therefore, judge by the vegetation in your wood 
whether the rabbits are too numerous for the 
vegetation. If not very numerous, we do not 
think you would have any difficulty in establish¬ 
ing Iris Kaempferi in the ditches, as they should 
be planted in situations with their roots at least 
in the water. We are more doubtful about the 
Iberis, which should be planted in a dry situation 
well exposed to sunshine, and in such a situation 
rabbits might go for it. We think the other 
things you mention might also with safety be 
planted, and in any case it is worth trying as it 
all depends upon the number of rabbits present. 
The other plants you mention do not seem to us 
to possess any special attractions for rabbits, 
but we may remind you that they are like 
sparrows. If you make a speciality of anything 
‘in some prominent position, such as on a mound, 
to which they have access, they might cut the 
plants about from sheer mischief, eating very 
little of them. The firm you mention in your 
letter is a reliable trading company in our ex¬ 
perience, and we have no doubt they are good 
horticulturists, as we know that some good plants- 
men, old readers of The Gardening World, 
have gone there to take charge of departments. 
Lilium giganteum. 
The accompanying portion of Lily stalk was 
broken off by accident, the flower being over, and 
as I am very dubious of its being what I bought 
it for—namely, Lilium giganteum—I beg to 
enclose the leaf bunch at the top of the stalk. 
Will you kindly name it for me in the forth¬ 
coming number of The Gardening World? and 
if you could kindly mention whether or not it 
should be grown in partial shade I should be very 
much obliged. This plant flourished splendidly 
until the hot weather in July, when some of the 
leaves browned a little, but I am not quite sure 
whether it is due to sunshine or not. (Murray- 
THWAITE.) 
We have no doubt at all that the portion of 
stem you sent was that of L. giganteum. The 
only other one with which it was likely to be 
confused was L. cordifolium, and that is certainly 
very scarce in this country, but the leaves of the 
latter are very few upon the stem. The portion 
you sent had very numerous leaves for the short 
length of stem. It was hollow, however, and must 
have contained a caterpillar before it was broken 
off. You sent the portion containing the hole 
through which the caterpillar must have made its 
exit from the central tunnel. We split the piece 
open, but no caterpillar was there, so that we 
cannot guess what it might have been, unless it 
was the Ghost Swift or Otter Moth (Hepialis 
Humuli). The caterpillar of this moth eats the 
roots of Hops and various other garden plants, 
but whether this was the depradator we leave it 
an open question, as the only way to be certain 
about it is to catch the enemy and feed it until 
it changes into the moth stage. You suggest 
that the hot sunshine and exposure in July might 
have been the cause of the browning of the 
C67 
leaves, but in face of the fact we have just stated 
we believe the browning of the leaves was due to 
this caterpillar. At the same time, in the warm 
and dry parts of Britain L. giganteum is the 
better for a little shade, particularly the lower 
part of the stem and leaves and the soil which 
contains the bulbs. Home of our most successful 
cultivators grow it in the partial shade of trees 
in the pleasure grounds of their estates. You 
would do well, therefore, to try a little shade in 
this respect, although we have no doubt as to the 
cause of your present failure. 
Scarlet Runner Beans. 
Kindly advise me with full cultural directions 
for future guidance, also give the cause and 
remedy for blooms falling. Do, please, assist me 
in this matter. I have experienced sad disap¬ 
pointment with attempts this season. I have used 
Carter’s Champion in well-prepared trenches, and 
drenched the rows night and morning with water. 
I wish for your method of culture, and should 
be glad for a diagram, showing alternate layers 
in preparation of the trench. (J. H.) 
We think the reason for your Scarlet Runner 
Beans failing is owing to the dry weather we have 
recently experienced. Bees seem to feel the 
effects of this, and rob the flowers of a great 
variety of subjects of their honey by piercing a 
hole at the base of the corolla and not entering 
the flower in the usual way. We have had similar 
experience ourselves, and to this we attribute the 
dropping of the flowers. We think, however, that 
with the advent of rain the flowers will begin 
setting again. We may say that yours is not the 
only complaint on the subject we have had this 
week. We do not believe that Runner Beans re¬ 
quire such a lot of watering at the roots, as ours 
have not had any except what has fallen from the 
clouds, and yet we continue to get supplies of 
pods. You do not state whether the trenches are 
against walls or in the middle of the garden, or 
whether the Beans themselves are crowded or not. 
If you trenched and manured the ground in the 
autumn we do not believe that they would really 
want any water at the roots at all. Our plan 
would be to plant a line or double line of the 
Beans down the centre of a piece of ground, so 
that light and air could play freely upon all 
sides of the runners. This is of great importance 
to the setting of good crops of Beans. If you 
have two or more rows only a few feet apart, one 
row spoils the other, owing to the want of light. 
The Beans should be planted in a double row or 
even a single one, with 9 in. to 12 in. from Bean 
to Bean, as they will completely cover the stakes 
by branching out after they reach the top of the 
stakes. We do not think your failure is due 
in any way to the method of preparing the 
trenches. We simply advocate that the ground 
be trenched at least 2 ft. deep every year, 
manured, and the Beans sown as above directed. 
We do not think a great quantity of water at 
the roots is necessary, nor even desirable. Light 
and air are the principal factors after you have 
properly prepared the ground in winter. If your 
Beans are not overcrowded, we think they will 
commence bearing again presently. 
Readers’ Competition. 
Please state if Readers’ Competition is perma¬ 
nently fixed at one column in length. (E. T. L.) 
As far as we know, that is the length which 
will be stipulated and judged by for some time 
to come. It is not at all likely that more than 
a column will be desired, for the simple reason 
that we cannot afford space for longer articles. 
You will, therefore, be safe to stick to this until 
further informed. It would be well, however, to 
read over the stipulations each week to see if any 
alteration has been made, although we' do not 
anticipate any further changes. 
Onions Grubby. 
I, a constant reader of your valuable paper, 
should take it as a great favour if you can help 
me to remove the garden pest I am troubled 
with. I have a grand bed of Onions, which I 
have taken great pains with, having made the 
bed according to the gardeners’ instructions. They 
have done well up to the present, but when I 
