February 15, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. "5 
has never shown any signs of fruiting. 
Does it require grafting, or how can I get 
it to flower and fruit? There was only one 
seed in the whole Orange. (A. S. Durrant, 
Surrey.). 
No Orange .requires grafting in order to 
produce flowers or fruit. Trees raised from 
seeds, however, take some years to reach the 
flowering state. Raised from a seed or pip 
the tree is not high enough to bloom, and 
you must encourage it to grow by giving 
"it a larger pot about the end of March if the 
roots are in any way confined or the soil in 
a bad condition. In July stand it out of 
doors in a shady position for a week, and 
then in full sun till the end of September ; 
stand it on ashes to keep out worms. At¬ 
tend well to watering, especially during hot 
weather. The object of treating it thus is 
to get it to ripen its wood and prepare for 
flowering. What you really want is a little 
more heat, light and air than the plant can 
get in the window of a dwelling house. A 
sunny, sheltered position should, therefore, 
be selected for it. Even after growing it 
for many years it may turn out to be a 
worthless variety, as they do not always 
come true from seed. To utilise a tree in 
this case you wjSftld have to get cuttings of 
a good variety of Orange in cultivation and 
graft them on to your seedling tree. If you 
cannot do this yourself you would have to 
get some gardener to do it for you. 
2598. Name of Plant and Propagation. 
I have’ an Umbrella Plant in a window 
which I should like to increase. The stem 
is about i ft. high and the thick leaves hang 
down to the pot. It is in a window which 
gets plenty of sun. Can you give me the 
correct name? (R. Norris, Derbyshire.) 
Judging from your description your plant 
•n all probability is Epiphyllum truncatum. 
It is not an Umbrella Plant proper, the best 
term for it being a standard Epiphyllum. 
If the stem is round it would be the Per¬ 
eskia, the stock used for this class of plants. 
That being the case you would require to 
get some plants of the Pereskia, then take 
some of those branches which you term thick 
leaves and graft them on to the stock. You 
raav have standards of different height ac¬ 
cording to fancy, the Pereskia being cut at 
the desired height. There are, however, two 
other wavs in which you can multiply this 
plant and train it. The first one is to take 
a strong straight shoot, root it as a cutting 
and grow it to the desired height, training 
it to a stake to keep it upright. Then allow 
it to make branches so as to form a head. 
This kind of stem is always very weak so 
that a stout stake must always be used, 
especially after it has produced a head. 
Another plan is to put in cuttings and al¬ 
low them to grow simply to form a natural 
bush without any upright stem. 
FLOWER GARDEN . 
2599. Suitable Annuals for a Large 
Bed. 
I have to thank you for advice given in 
to-day’s issue, and I wish to ask the same 
' question with regard to the bed shown on 
my* plan, No. 2, sent herewith. In the 
case of this bed, you will see it is partially 
- shaded, but will get a fair amount of sun 
except at midday. The ground, too, will 
not admit of drainage, as it is partially 
planted with bulbs and the plants and shrubs 
shown on the plan, but where possible it 
has been dug to the depth of one spit. 
There is ample room for annuals, and I 
would like your advice as to which are most 
likely* to succeed in this position. The soil 
is good, though somewhat clayey underneath 
and in places is much intersected with tree 
roots. The shaded portions in the plan are 
the positions destined for annuals. I have 
a large variety of seeds available. Would 
you also please inform me what is the best 
compost for raising seeds in under glass? 
(Beginner, Hereford.) 
The Fir trees will keep the soil dry, but 
otherwise they are not so detrimental to 
annuals as the roots of Ash, Elm, etc. The 
shading is heavy, however, in proportion to 
the size of the trees and the spread of their 
branches. The evergreen leaves keep the 
light from plants beneath them all the year 
round, and you will have to be guided by 
this in sowing or planting anything under¬ 
neath heavy branches. You can use the fork 
when digging the ground in such places, and 
it will help annuals greatly if you use 
either manure or leaf soil freely when dig¬ 
ging. Returning to the plan we should re¬ 
commend such annuals as Tom Thumb Nas¬ 
turtiums, where the ground is kept dry by 
the foots of the Firs. We refer to the south¬ 
east end of the garden. Of all plants the 
Nasturtium must, of course, have plenty of 
sunshine. In front of the Christmas Rose 
and Paeonies, etc., you could have such 
varieties of Mignonette as King of the 
Dwarfs or Miles’ Spiral; then between the 
third and fourth Fir tree is a large space, 
where you could have a clump of Sweet Peas 
at the back and double Larkspurs in front 
of those next to the grass. Then comes an 
isolated patch where you might have some 
single Hollyhocks raised from seed in a 
greenhouse and planted out in May. If you 
do not care for those you could sow Lava- 
tera trimestris, which grows 2 ft. to 3 ft. 
high in good soil. Towards the north end 
are some patches where you could grow Sca- 
biosa atropurpurea from a packet of double 
mixed seed, or for this space you could have 
Godetia Marchioness of Salisbury. In the 
narrow portion yon could sow Linum grandi- 
florurn rubrum ; then the large patch at the 
end could be sown either with Convolvulus 
tricolor (C. minor of the catalogues), or 
you could have the same area covered with 
Erysimum perofskianum. This produces 
flowers of a rich orange like those of a wall¬ 
flower. As you do not mention the areas we 
presume that the above will be sufficient seed 
to sow the whole of the patches in that 
large bed. 
2600. Border Carnations. 
Could you name half a dozen Carnations 
easy to grow and say where I can sow seeds 
of them or how they should be propagated ? 
I have not yet tried this kind of flower, 
but want to give it a trial. (M. F.. P., Sus¬ 
sex.) 
Varieties of Carnation do not come true 
from seeds, s.o that if you require the flowers 
to be a certain colour you must get plants 
and propagate them by means of layering 
at the beginning of August and, no doubt, 
vou will find information concerning that 
operation in due course. Very handsome 
and easily grown varieties of Carnation are 
Gloire de Nancy*-, (white), Raby Castle (sal- 
thon-pink), The Burn, best known as Duchess 
of Fife (pink), Herbert J. Cutbush (scarlet), 
Countess of Paris (blush) and Old Clove or 
Kaffir (crimson). Have the ground deeply 
dug and well manured at once. If the 
manure is well rotted so much the better. 
The plants ma_v be put into the bed in 
March. If y*ou particularly* desire to get 
a knowledge of Carnations you should get 
“ Selected Carnations, Picotees and Pinks,” 
obtainable from this office for 2s. 3d. or 
2s. gd.,. post free, the latter being in cloth 
boards. 
2601. Best Strain of Larkspurs. 
Gan you say which is the best variety of 
annual Larkspur to grow ? I want a bed of 
them 'on the grass, and would like a showy 
bed' to last well into autumn. Can they be 
reared without heat ? (D. Smith, Herts.) 
It is' largely a matter of opinion - as to 
what might be considered the very best 
strain of annual Larkspurs, but many would 
prefer the double Stock-flowered strain of 
Larkspurs. It may be had in separate 
colours, such as rose, purple, white, etc., or 
in mixture. If you require them to be in 
bloom as late as possible rather than eaTly, 
your best plan would be to sow the seed in 
the open ground in the first week of April 
and thin out the seedlings when they have 
made a few leaves, leaving 3 in. to 6 in. 
between every two plants. If you particu¬ 
larly desire large plants you will require 
to give them the more space. 
ROSES. 
2602. Pillar and Other Roses. 
I should be greatly* obliged if y*ou would 
kindly* assist me in choosing some suitable 
Roses and creepers for the positions I have 
marked out on the enclosed plan. I would 
like only free bloomers, but not China or 
Monthly Roses.. (A. Han well, Middlesex.) 
In selecting and naming Roses suitable 
for the various parts of your garden we 
shall commence at the north end, where the 
wall, of course, faces the south. The two 
Roses we should recommend for that are 
Longworth Rambler (H.T.), crimson; and 
Mme. Alfred Carriere (H.N.), which is the 
best hardy white-flowered climbing Rose. 
In the next division of your garden there 
are situations for seven tall or pillar 
plants, and as you mention Clematis we 
have selected four Roses and three Clema¬ 
tises. The Roses are Dorothy Perkins, Reine 
Olga de Wurtemburg (crimson), Climbing 
Mrs. W. J. Grant (rose-pink), and Grus an 
Teplitz (scarlet). The distribution of the 
Clematises would be one on each of the side 
borders and one in the middle. They are 
Clematis Jackmani, C. Jackmani alba, and 
Mme. Edouard Andre. These will give you 
variety in colour. Between and in front of 
those pillar plants you have marked spaces 
for four dwarf Roses, and you could not 
do better than get Mrs. J. Laing, Frau Karl 
Druschki, La France, and Caroline Testout, 
the first two being H.P.’s and the second 
two H.T.’s. In front of the house yc-u have 
marked a border for three standard Roses. 
Varieties suitable for this purpose are Mrs. 
J. Laing, Dupuy* Jamain, and White Maman 
Cochet. On the right hand side of that 
piece of ground we select a Rose suitable 
for a pillar, namely, Frangois Crouse, 
crimson H.T. On the other side of the path 
from that you might plant Clematis Star of 
India, a .velvety-purple variety* with red 
bars. All the Clematises we have selected 
are summer flowering and require the same 
sort of treatment. They all permit of being 
pruned to any extent in winter, or even cut 
down to the ground in autumn, as they* 
flower on the young wood made during the 
current season. 
2603. Soil for Roses. 
Will the Roses bloom this year if planted 
in the first week of February? There are 
no trees in the garden, and it is pretty open. 
The soil is rather clay*ey. Is the situation 
good enough at the bottom of the back gar¬ 
den for climbing Roses, standards, and bush 
Roses? (A., Hanwell, Middlesex.) 
Most of the Roses we have mentioned 
would bloom this year if allowed to, but it 
all depends upon circumstances as to whether 
they should be allowed to the first year. If 
the climbers are dug from the open ground, 
the best plan is to cut them down to i8in. 
or 2ft. the same year as planted. This ap¬ 
plies only to climbers, which require to get 
established before they are capable of pro¬ 
ducing good wood for flowering. We 
should advise you, therefore, to treat the 
climbers from that point of view if they are 
dug from the open ground. Heavy clay soil 
is very suitable for Roses, provided it is not 
waterlogged. You can see therefore that it 
