TURNIP . . 
Dobbie’s Selected 
March 7, 190S. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
- Golden Ball. - 
The fashion for some time past in alJ 
the London markets has gone for white 
Turnips exclusively. The white Turnip, 
no doubt, looks clean and good, both 
when fresh and when cooked. In the 
latter state, of course, it would have a 
fine light colour and clean appearance. 
It does not always follow that the whitest 
variety of vegetable, or the whitest 
bread, or the whitest Potato is either 
the most highly flavoured or the most 
nutritious. Many of the best flavoured 
Potatos are quite yellow after being 
cooked. The yellow Turnip is just as 
good in appearance as the white one in 
the fresh state, and although the flesh, 
when cooked, looks more yellow, it does 
not lack in quality in that respect. The 
yellow Turnip is also hardier than the 
white one, and might at least be grown 
for winter use instead of the prevailing 
white one. Yellow ones are more exten¬ 
sively cultivated in the North and used in 
private establishments as well as for ex¬ 
hibition purposes. A very fine type of yel¬ 
low Turnip is that named Dobbie's Se¬ 
lected Golden Ball, being offered by 
Messrs. Dobbie and Co., Rothesay. The 
Turnip is globular, with a very small tap¬ 
root, consequently there is vert - little or 
no waste when preparing it to be cooked. 
plant so must you prune. A very vigorous 
tree will have an abundance of sap, there¬ 
fore can bear more Roses; hence we leave 
it with more shoots and with from four 
to six buds on each shoot. If you cut 
away a strong plant over much you will 
obtain either wood or coarse flowers, or 
both. 
Fewer buds should be left on a weakly 
plant, because it is only strong enough 
to supply sap for one or two buds on each 
shoot. 
As a general rule to be remembered 
when training a plant for shape, the more 
a shoot is cut back the longer will be the 
growth resulting from the bud left on the 
top. 
When pruning for decoration, the shape 
of the plant must be carefully considered. 
When pruning for exhibition, the shape 
will often have to be sacrificed to obtain 
the finest flowers; for thickness of petal, 
size of bloom, and intensity of colour are 
largely dependent on the severity of the 
pruning. 
Each plant requires to have its indi¬ 
viduality considered, and you would do 
well to consult your nurseryman as to the 
treatment best suited to develop from each 
its greatest strength and beauty. 
Somerset. Baynton-Taylor. 
-* 4*4 - 
Water for Gardens. 
The London Metropolitan Water Board 
have now decided to charge those using 
water for gardening purposes through 
hose, tube or pipe, on a rateable value 
of ,£50, 10s. ; from ^50 to ,£100, 15s. ; and 
from ^100 to ^200, 20s. No charge will 
be made where gardens are watered with 
a can. 
- *+4 - 
Tuberous Begonia Ma-y Pc-o T. S. Ware, Ltd. 
Tabefous Begonia jVIafy Pope. 
/ ^ 
The accompanying illustration repre¬ 
sents an excellent form of the tuberous 
Begonia. The essential features that one 
might look for in a flower of good quality 
are blooms of large size, broad, overlap¬ 
ping and imbricated petals, these being 
arranged round the single centre like a 
well-formed Rosebud, and lastly, the 
colour must be of some distinct, definite 
and beautiful shade. 
The variety here represented is pure 
white, and has been compared to a Ca¬ 
mellia, owing to the regularity of forma¬ 
tion and the colour. In good cultivation 
the bloom attains a size of 6 in. in dia¬ 
meter, but double flowers of that size are 
best suited for pot culture in the green¬ 
house or conservatory, rather than in 
beds out of doors, where the rain would 
be liable to damage flowers of such size 
and excellence. The plant itself is of 
dwarf yet robust habit, and the individual 
flower stems carry' the blooms v r ell above 
the foliage. 
Naturally these highly refined and se- 
-- N 
► 
lected named varieties are more expensive 
than the unnamed ones, but a firm who 
can put such varieties into commerce also 
makes selections of their choice seedlings, 
which are grown by the thousand, and in 
which a gardener could make selections 
of first-class excellence, vdiether for pot 
culture or flower bedding out of doors. 
After seeing such quality and such im¬ 
mense numbers of seedlings, it is sur¬ 
prising how many' people continue to take 
trouble in growing flowers of such poor 
quality that they are scarcely any im¬ 
provement upon the original wild ones. 
These high-class flowers are just as 
easy to cultivate as the very r worst of 
them, and give more satisfaction to the 
grower, while they do not take up any 
more space than a bad one. L'nnamed 
seedlings are reasonably cheap, whether 
for pot culture or for bedding. The il¬ 
lustration w r as placed at our service by- 
Messrs. T. S. Ware, Ltd., Feltham, 
Middlesex, who have been rearing Be¬ 
gonias by thousands annually' at their 
nursery in Kent for many' years past. 
