836 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
October 28, 1905. 
2 ft. in depth. The lower part of the founda¬ 
tion should consist of concrete, made by mix¬ 
ing cement, sand, and any good local stone, 
clean gravel, or shingle; the brick or stone 
laid on this should be slightly wider than the 
wall above the ground level. Builders often 
make the coping project 2 in. or more ; while 
this preserves the wall it also forms a winter 
resting-place for insects, so the less of it the 
better. Fruit walls should always be wired. 
Wires should be about 9 in. apart, and 1 in. 
distant from the wall. J- C. 
Tuberous Begonias. 
As it sometimes occurs that we do not get 
a sufficiently sharp frost to really injure the 
Begonia foliage until late, and we desire to fill 
our beds with bulbs, etc., also to avoid the 
Begonias getting saturated with the autumn 
rains, I lift them about the end of Septem¬ 
ber with a small amount of soil, and place 
them close together (in grocers’ soap boxes) 
in their separate colours, and keep them in a 
fairly sunny spare room, water being very 
gradually withheld until all stems and foliage 
drop. Then lift out the tuber and shake off 
the surrounding, soil, lay in rows in boxes 
again, having a thick layer of silver sand 
above and below them. Moisten once very 
slightly with a fine rosed can before placing 
on top of cupboard, or some out of the way 
place in the kitchen, where the steam from 
things boiling will keep the air moist and 
keep the tubers nice and plump. At the end 
of January just sprinkle again, and continue 
this once a week or ten days until the end 
of February, then carefully shake off the top 
layer of sand, and tiny bead-like knobs will 
be seen on the top of each plump tuber. Care¬ 
fully place each one on a bed of moist cocoa- 
nut-fibre with a little sand ; lightly scatter 
dry fibre above them all, and put in a warm 
sunny window or greenhouse, always being 
careful to shade thickly on very hot sunny 
mornings, and as growths start sprinkle with 
chilled water when really required, but do 
not keep very wet until they are in toll growth 
and health. Very large tubers can be care¬ 
fully divided with a sharp knife into two or 
more, keeping one or two little shoots to each, 
and scattering the cut part with a mixture of 
sand, sulphur, and soot, and powdered char¬ 
coal, to keep them from mildewing. When 
the shoots to a tuber appear rather crowded 
thin them out when about 1^ in. long. These 
may strike root if put into tiny thumb pots 
with some peaty soil and a lot of sand, and 
stood in a propagating case for a few weeks, 
and will form nice little tubers by the middle 
of summer if planted in a bed to themselves, 
and all flower buds picked off. “F. R. W.” 
should be on the look out for all Begonia 
hints and notes in “ G. W.” when the spring 
appears, as they are sure to be of a useful 
character. T>. A . E. 
New Oechid found in Kent. —The acci¬ 
dental discovery of a new Orchid has been 
made in Kent by two members of the Canter¬ 
bury Nature Students’ Club. The specimen 
was forwarded to Mr. R. A. Rolfe, of Kew, 
the famous Orchid expert, who at once pro¬ 
nounced it a hybrid Orchid, a species which, 
although slightly known on the Continent, 
has never before been seen in this country. 
This Orchid, a cross between a Fly Orchid 
and a Spider Orchid, is pronounced to be very 
valuable, scientifically, and is now on view 
in one of the Orchid-houses at Kew. 
The Wo eld’s Champion Babley and Roots. 
—The champion prize' for the best Malting 
Barley open to the world—293 entries—at 
the Brewers’ Exhibition, London, has again 
been won by Webbs’ Kinver Chevalier Barley. 
This is the eighth occasion that the highest 
award has been secured by this celebrated 
variety. In the root classes at the recent 
London Dairy Show there were 169 entries, 
Now the general fruiting season of Peaches 
and also Nectarines is over, attention must be 
paid to such of those that require repotting, 
and the best time for this important operation 
is when the leaves are just turning colour and 
falling off. After the trees have finished 
fruiting in the houses, it is usual to place them 
outdoors in full sunlight to enable them to 
thoroughly ripen their wood, and the best plan 
is also to plunge the pots to their rims in the 
soil, placing a slate at the bottom of the hole 
to prevent worms from entering the pots. 
When it is decided to repot them they should 
be carefully lifted out and removed to some 
convenient place for the work. For the 
stronger-growing varieties it is best to use pots 
two sizes larger than those they occupy, and 
for those that do not make so much wood a 
single size shift will suffice. Have the pots 
washed and crocked carefully, as this means 
much in the end. One large crock should be 
placed, inverted, over the holes, and a few 
smaller ones laid in neatly on top of these, and 
then a layer of turf, grass side downwards, 
spread evenly over the surface. It is not so 
much the number of crocks used for drainage, 
but the way they are put in the pot. 
A suitable soil to use may be mixed up as 
follows :—Three barrow-loads of good fibrous 
loam, broken to about the size of a cricket 
ball, one loud of old decayed manure, half a 
barrow-load of broken lime rubble, not too 
fine, with a good sprinkling of soot, and some 
good artificial manure, such as is recommended 
for fruit trees, about a peck of each. This 
should be turned two or three times at first 
and allowed to stand a day or so, and then be 
mixed over again, when it should be ready for 
use. Have the soil and pots ready at the same 
REG0NIA5 ==r- 
I- y AT BEXLEY HEATH. 
Late in September we went down to Bexley 
Heath, Kent, to inspect the tuberous-rooted 
Begonias of Messrs. T. S. Ware, Limited, 
Ware’s Nurseries, Felt-ham, Middlesex. For 
some years now a field of Begonias on the 
main road between London and Dartford has 
been an object of much attraction to 
travellers on the road as well as local people, 
judging by the beaten track which they make 
to a certain gap in the hedge to overlook this 
splendid floral display, in a great variety of 
colours, both single and double. 
In the first instance we inspected the collec¬ 
tion of named varieties in pots, which repre¬ 
sent the cream of the collection. Of course, it 
was too late to see all the varieties or any of 
them at their best, but many of them, were 
still carrying flowers of great size and ex¬ 
cellence. To such a degree of perfection have 
these flowers now been brought that it would 
seem almost impossible to improve upon 
open to the world. First prizes for both Man¬ 
golds and Swedes were awarded to roots 
grown from Webbs’ seed, viz. :—Webbs’ New 
Smithfield Globe Mangold and Webbs’ Im¬ 
perial Swede respectively. 
time, so that the work can be carried out pro¬ 
perly. The pots should be quite dry, and the soil 
in a nice workable condition. When ready, 
turn the trees out of their pots, and with a 
stick pick out the old crocks, and take care not 
to disturb the roots any more than is necessary. 
Place the ball in the new pot, and allow two 
inches at the top for water, if possible. Ram 
the turf at the bottom of the pot before placing 
the tree in, and then gradually fill up round 
the sides and ram very firm.* Keep the stem of 
the tree upright, so that the soil may be dis¬ 
tributed evenly round the sides, and when the 
pot is sufficiently full, spread a little of the 
finest soil over the surface, and ram evenly, and 
the operation will be complete. 
Take great care that the balls of soil are not 
dry before being potted. It is, perhaps, as well 
to give them all a good watering two or three 
hours before repotting, to make sure they are 
quite moist. When the trees are all finished 
stand them in a sheltered position for a short 
time, and syringe them overhead daily. Give 
them a good soaking of water with a coarse 
rose can, and look over them carefully after to 
make sure none are in need, as it is fatal to 
Peaches and Nectarines to let them become 
dry at the root. Stand them on wide boards, for 
preference, during the winter, and tie each tree 
to a stout stake to prevent the wind blowing 
them about. When frosts are likely to appear ? 
the pots should be plunged in leaves or long 
stable litter, as it is liable to crack them, and 
also disturb the soil. The trees will require 
very little water during the winter months, but 
as spring approaches and the new roots become 
active they must be well looked after in this 
respect, both before and after they are placed 
in their fruiting quarters. R. Thatcher. 
Wistow Gardens, Leicester. 
them. New varieties- continue, however, to 
be produced, differing in -some respect or 
other from the older standard varieties. Very 
choice was a pure white named Lucy Evans, 
with the petals arranged as regularly as a 
Camellia. The aim seems to be to get them 
to imitate such flowers as Camellias, Roses, 
or Carnations. Equally good in its way was 
Countess lichester, a creamy-white flower of 
much beauty. 
The best of the picotee-edged varieties is 
Queen Alexandra, with a carmine edging at 
the flesh-coloured petals. Mr. W. L. Ainslie 
is a large creamy-white flower of fine form. 
A pleasing variation was Mrs. Arthur Paget, 
salmon, with a white Centre, ultimately 
becoming uniformly salmon. A fine Camellia 
flower is Marchioness of Bute, pure white, 
shaded with cream in the centre. The finest 
o'f the dark flowers was King Edward VII., a 
dazzling crimson-scarlet flower of Camellia 
shape. W. G. Valentine was paler, being 
orange-scarlet. Countess of Dartmouth is 
blush coloured, of Camellia shape, and one 
of the largest. The same might be said of 
Water Lily, a large pure white flower, shaded 
REACHES 
AND ~ 
UF.CTARINES 
DIRECTIONS 
FOR 
RE-POTTING 
