November 25, 1905. 
above-mentioned subjects would be out of 
place, and one of the best I have seen is 
Lavender bushes, which are of a pleasing 
colour when not in flower, emit a delicious 
perfume, and require but little attention. 
Generally speaking, all the plants have now 
finished flowering, and can be cut down, and 
this should be done close to> the stools where 
the steins and foliage have turned yellow, but 
with those that are yet green it is better to 
only partially shorten them. A. E. T. 
Fruit Garden. 
Indoors. 
Orchard House. —Now the foliage is fallen 
from the trees, whether planted out or in pots, 
it affords the cultivator an opportunity to 
thoroughly cleanse the house as well as the 
trees. Amateurs who grow Chrysanthemums 
often have to accommodate them in these 
structure®, and where such is the case, little 
can be done for another few weeks ; but much 
care is required that no more fire heat is ap¬ 
plied than to keep severe frost out ; falling.to 
35 deg. will be all in favour of any permanent 
trees. Give full ventilation in the daytime, 
and proceed to prune, wash, and tie where 
houses are empty, and then put the borders in 
order, as recently advocated for Peaches, etc. 
Pot trees standing outsidei must be protected' 
with litter, leaves, or coal ashes, or many pots 
will get broken with the frost. 
Current work under glass will include 
washing glass and woodwork of succession 
Peach-houses and Vineries, lime-washing the 
walls, cleaning all the occupants as in the 
case of early-forced houses so lately treated 
upon. Take full advantage of this dull 
season, and endeavour to clear out any insect 
life that is known to be present, rectifying 
faulty borders, painting woodwork inside, so 
that a clean start may be made in spring. 
Most Vines will be leafless by now, except the 
very latest, and may be pruned, so> that a 
good rest may be afforded ; and here the diffi¬ 
culty conies in where pot plants have to be 
stored in Such structures. Yet it is sur¬ 
prising the many degrees of frost old-fashioned 
fruit houses with small panes of glass and 
much woodwork will keep out, especially if 
closed towards 4 p.m., or before the outside 
temperature reaches 40 deg. Vines do> not 
feel the small amount of fire heat ; it is when 
it has to be turned on Peach cases that worries 
the gardener or fruit-grower, a® buds of the 
Peach and Nectarine quickly fall if subjected 
to such treatment many nights in succession. 
The beautiful weather of late has been in 
favour of ripe Grapes hanging on the Vines. 
These must be examined, though, frequently, 
removing a. bad berry as soon as detected ; also 
foliage that parts from the Vine. Guard 
against a very dry border, or the berries will 
shrivel, and much unnecessary fire heat will 
hasten this! evil, too ; so endeavour to husband 
a bit of sun on bright days, turning on a 
little heat last thing ; a morning temperature 
of 45 deg. should be safe figures. 
Outdoors. 
Planting Fruit Trees.— in continuation of 
my remarks last week, the planting of various 
kinds of fruit trees must be pushed forward 
where much of such work has to be done, only 
delaying it while the soil is very wet or frozen. 
The Apricot is a much-esteemed fruit, but all 
soils will not grow them. Their requirements 
are warm, sunny aspects, perfect drainage, 
good loamy sloil, with the addition of wood 
ashes, lime nibble, road scrapings, or similar 
material. Fan-trained trees are best about 
three years old, and the best varieties are 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Hemskirk, .Moor Park, Breda, Kaisha, Royal, 
and St. Ambroise. Peaches and Nectarines re¬ 
quire similar positions, also soil, and the 
following varieties will be found reliable as 
regards flavour, cropping, and succession: 
Arnsden June, Hale’s Early, Violette Hative, 
Dymond, Dr. Hogg, Barrington, Sea Eagle, 
Princess of Wales, Gladstone, and Devonian 
Peaches. Nectarines : Early Rivers, Lord 
Napier, Elrtige, Down ton and Humboldt. 
Before planting,. examine all roots and cut 
away with the knife any mutilated ones caused 
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or other gardening journals, are debarred 
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may compete. The name and address of the 
competitor must appear on each article sent 
for competition. The Editor’s decision is 
final, and he reserves the right to reproduce, 
in any way, any article or photograph sent 
for competition. The conditions applying to 
each competition should be carefully read. 
WEEKLY PRIZES. 
A Prize oe Ten Shillings will be given 
for the best paragraph or short article on any 
gardening subject, such as hints of practical 
interest to gardeners, notes on the propaga¬ 
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graph or article must not exceed a column, 
but value rather than length will be con¬ 
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received later than Tuesday (first post) will 
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for the best novel device for saving labour, 
protecting plants, or a garden utensil, which 
reaches us during any week. A rough 
sketch must accompany the brief description. 
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RESULTS OF LAST WEEK’S COM 
PETITIONS. 
We have now a large number of articles on hand 
in the “Readers’ Competition," and desire our corre¬ 
spondents to wait ,a fe.v weeks before sending more 
articles for this competition, until we can find space to 
publish those already sent us. We shall remind 
readers when they can send more competitive articles. 
The other competitions are still open. 
The prize in the Readers’ Competition last 
week was awarded to “ H. Arnold” for his 
article on “ The Flower Garden,” p. 889. 
A prize for a supplementary reply was 
awarued to “ G. H. Webster” for his article 
on “ Clearing a Garden of Slugs,” p. 882. 
y 
in raising the tree. Avoid deep planting, 
spread evenly out a.ll roots witli a tendency 
to look upward, and work in a little fine soil 
first, giving the bole of the tree a slight shake 
that the same may work down among the roots, 
and. cover the upper root with about 4in. of 
soil, making the same fairly firm witli the 
feet, and secure the shoots with pieces of 
“ fillis ” merely to> prevent wind-rocking. 
Plums thrive on walls due east, west, north, 
or south, giving the latter position to dessert 
varieties. Draw from the same compost heap 
89? 
as above mentioned. Bush, pyramid, and 
standards thrive in the open in most places, 
and perhaps the best Plum for this is the old 
Victoria. Other cooking varieties for walls 
are Monarch, Diamond, Early Prolific, Mag¬ 
num Bonum, Belle de Septembre, Kirke’s, 
Czar, Pond’s Seedling, Prince Englebert, and 
Cox’s Emperor. Dessert varieties: Golden 
Drop, old Green Gage, Jefferson’s Washing¬ 
ton, Transparent Gage, Oullin’s Golden Gage, 
and Reine Claude de Bavay. Damsons, as 
standards or pyramids: Farleigh Prolific, 
Frogmore, Cheshire, and King of Damsons. 
This is an extensive list suitable for large 
gardens. Amateurs only requiring a few 
vaiieties should plant Victoria, Early Prolific, 
Monarch, Czar, and Kirke’s for cooking ; old 
Green Gage, Jefferson’s Golden Drop, and 
Oullin’s Golden Gage for dessert. 
Jajies Maine. 
Bicton Gardens, Devonshire. 
Orchids for Amateurs. 
Winter-flowering Oncidiums.— The Brazi¬ 
lian section of Oncidiums are annually im¬ 
ported in large quantities, and can be* pro¬ 
cured for a modest outlay, well within the 
limits of the most humble amateur. The best 
of the winter-flowering section are 0. crispum 
and 0. Forbesii; O. praetextum and O. Gar- 
denerii are also imported with the above, and 
it is often a difficult matter to identify these 
varieties on© from the other in an imported 
state. They like a fairly exposed position, 
where they may obtain abundance of strong 
light, shading only being required when there 
is a danger of the foliage becoming scorched. 
They enjoy a temperature of not less than 
50 deg. during the resting period, with from 
5 to 10 deg. advance with normal conditions 
during the growing season. They are con- 
viently suited when planted in shallow pans, 
so they may be -suspended near the roof glass, 
a position where they obtain the maximum 
amount of available light. 
The compost we use consists ,of about equal 
portions of fibrous peat, chojiped sphagnum 
moss, and partly-decayed Oak or Beech leaves, 
adding sufficient sand or broken crocks to 
render the compost porous. During the active 
season of growth the plants require a liberal 
amount of root moisture and a humid atmo¬ 
sphere. After the plants have flowered and 
completed their pseudo-bulbs less root mois¬ 
ture should be given ; a drier temperature and 
cooler degrees of temperature should also be 
given. In the matter of resting Orchids I am 
well aware that many, even prominent Orchid 
glowers, advocate the barbarous treatment 
of retaining their plants under strictly dry 
conditions during the dormant or resting 
season, pointing out for their reason that such 
aie the conditions under which plants grow 
in their native habitats. V hat are the results 
of such treatment ? Do we not find shrinking 
of the foliage and pseudo-bulbs, with what 
advantage obtained ? 
I have found that the results of unnecessary 
shrinking of the pseudo-bulbs is generally 
followed by weakened growth and a general 
deterioration in the constitution, thus pro¬ 
ducing considerably less size in bulb, and tlie 
flowers produced are usually lacking size and 
substance. They are a class of plants that are 
always prolific flowerers ; the racemes of 
flowers produced are sufficient in themselves 
to abstract a great amount of the substance 
and energy from the plant, but when followed 
by what should now be a worn-out cry of 
little or no water during the resting season, 
how are we to expect to obtain desirable 
