602 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
September ig, 1908. 
The Fruit Garden. 
Trench Soil for Fruit Trees. 
Do not wait until the time actuall}' comes 
for the planting of fruit trees before you 
prepare the borders. If you do you will 
probably be tempted to put in the trees with¬ 
out preparing the rooting medium as it 
ought to be. Fruit trees should be regarded 
as permanent occupants of the soil. When 
once they are planted you cannot trench or 
deeply dig about their roots, so that timely 
preparation of the soil is essential. 
Fig. 2 shows how the soil should be 
treated. A, B and C denote loam turned 
over and broken thoroughly; D shows 
ground undug. The top soil should not be 
placed in the bottom of the trench, neither 
should the lower, or subsoil, be brought to 
the surface. A small quantity of surface 
soil will, undoubtedly, get mixed with the 
subsoil, but this cannot be avoided, and no 
harm will result. But it is very important 
that the subsoil C be well broken up and 
left below. 
This work should be commenced during 
the present week and be followed up in due 
course. 
Ripening' Grapes. 
Guard ripening bunches of Grapes grow¬ 
ing on walls or trellises from flies and wasps 
by wrapping some coarse muslin cloth 
around them during the daytime. The mus¬ 
lin should not touch the berries. A few jars 
filled with treacle, beer, or sugar and water 
to within a few inches' of the tops and 
covered with paper in which a small hole 
has been cut in the centre, will act as traps if 
suspended near the clusters of fruit. 
Raspberries. 
Autumn-fruiting varieties must receive 
close attention. Birds will eat the fruits be¬ 
fore they are ripe unless you place some 
nets over the canes ; use long forked sticks 
to prevent the full weight of the nets bear¬ 
ing upon the plants. Continue to cut out 
old canes from the rows or clumps of earlier 
fruiting varieties. Where the smallest canes 
have been removed previously, larger ones 
should now be cut out to complete the thin¬ 
ning. The canes left should be disposed 
about 5 inches apart in the rows, and three 
or five left where clumps are favoured. 
The Kitchen Garden. 
Gathering and Storing Onions. 
Take advantage of dry weather and get 
the Onions stored, or at least placed under 
the cover of a shed, as soon as possible. 
Bulbs which are allowed to remain in the 
bed after they are fit to gather do not im¬ 
prove in quality, but deteriorate and fail 
to keep well. First partially dry the bulbs 
on the ground if the weather is fine, but 
finish the drying in an open shed. Some 
bulbs may be stored on shelves, but the best 
ones shpuld be tied with strands of twine 
in bunches, as shown in Fig. 3, and then 
suspended from the roof of a store shed. 
About "twenty medium-sized bulbs are suffi¬ 
cient for each bunch. 
Plant Out Spring Cabbages. 
Tihe best plants should now be put out in 
their permanent quarters, where the ground 
is vacant, otherwise plant them at 4 inches 
apart in nursery beds. 
Celery. 
Continue to draw up soil to the rows of 
Celery plants, placing some sand next to the 
sticks, and taking care to keep the soil out 
of the centre of the plants. 
Sow Cauliflower Seeds. 
A few seeds should be sown now, and the 
resultant plants kept safely through the win¬ 
ter in a cool frame. 
Foxglove 
The Amateur’s Greenhouse. 
Preparing for Winter. 
By the time these notes are in print all the 
more tender and delicate plants which have 
been outside hardening their growths, or used 
for decorative purposes, should be secured, 
whilst the sitove plants, summered in the 
greenhouse, should be returned to their pro¬ 
per quarters without any undue delay. We 
can do well with all the sunshine we are 
now gettings and with this end in view the 
“ Summer Cloud,” or whatever substitute 
has been used for shading the structure, 
should be washed off, as during autumn and 
winter it only impedes the light if allowed 
to remain. 
Free ventilation should yet be given both 
night and day if the weather is warm and 
genial, but already signs are not wanting of 
the coming chilly nights that will have to 
be carefully guarded against, more es¬ 
pecially after hot days do they have to be 
reckoned with. The heavy task of propagat¬ 
ing summer bedding plants will now be in 
full swing, although the Calceolarias may 
be left till the end of the month. Geranium 
cuttings, struck last month, may be potted off 
singly as soon as rooted, and should be given 
a light, airy situation near the glass. 
Increasing Double Lobelia. 
What a blessiing to the amateur was the 
introduction of the double Lobelia Kathleen 
Mallard (which the ladies may well describe 
as a “ duck of a plant ”), with its fine bushy 
habit and intense blue flowers. Its popu¬ 
larity is certain, and very few greenhouses 
that I have visited this season failed to con¬ 
tain it. It does splendidly, too, during the 
summer months in hanging baskets, either 
for conservatory decoration or in sheltered 
places outside. It is quite readily propa¬ 
gated at the present time by means of cut¬ 
tings, selecting shoots that have not flowered 
and inserting them in pots of sandy compost 
well moistened previously. Several slips 
may be placed together round the sides of a 
three-inch pot, and if kept close for a time 
signs of active growth (which denotes with 
certainty that they have rooted) should be 
manifest within a fortnight. At this stage 
the young plants should be potted off singly 
on a shelf near the glass. 
Chrysanthemums. 
We all look forward eagerly to the flower¬ 
ing season of the ’mums, and during the pre¬ 
sent month the amateur will do well to care¬ 
fully guard the plants from damage, either 
from the prevailing high winds or insect 
pests, seeing also that they receive no un¬ 
due check to the steady and perfect develop¬ 
ment of the selected buds. Keep the stems 
free from superfluous growths, which onl}' 
needlessly tax the energies of the plants, 
and although a judicious feeding with 
liquid manure will prove highly beneficial, 
let it be rather weak than over strong, as 
they do better grown on strongly and cleanly 
than when rushed forward by overfeeding 
with powerful stimulants. Do not forget-, 
however, to grow a batch of bush plants for 
the decoration of the greenhouse; if 
“ pinched back ” once or twice during the 
earlier stages,of their growth, they form one 
of the most valuable subjects we have for 
this purpose, and at a time when flowers are 
scarce, for if managed with proper care they 
will last till Christmas is nearly upon us. 
Potting Roman Hyacinths. 
Potting these popular bulbs seems a 
simple enough operation, but there are a few 
points that it is as well to bear in mind. In 
the first place be sure the pots are perfectly 
clean, and the compost a suitable one. Leaf- 
mould is not necessary — two parts good 
sound loam to one part each of well-decayed 
and sifted stable manure and silver sand is 
as good as anything. If potted direct, in¬ 
stead of being first started in boxes as ad¬ 
vised recently, four bulbs of equal size 
placed in a 32 or six-inch pot, will give 
good show, if blooming simultaneously. ] 
sure to well cover the bulbs with soil, lea 
ing the crown only visible, as shallow pc 
ting, or too -tightly ramming the compc 
around them, is. often the cause of the bul 
raising themselves out of the soil, in the k 
ter case, of course, the roots being unable 
penetrate, force the bulbs upwards. 
Repotting and Propagating Vallotas. 
The Scarboro’ Lilies, as they are pop 
larly called, do not require an annual repc 
ting, it is true, but those that have been tv 
years or more without a shift may be r 
tended to at any time during the autum 
when once the flowers have died off. Bewa 
of overpotting, but larger receptacles may 
used if the ones at present containing the 
appear too small. Loam, leaf-mould, ar 
sand in equal quantities, with the additiv 
of a little cow-dung being used as a pottir 
soil. 
At the same time the offsets, which a 
freely produced (that is to say, the sma 
bulblets thrown off from the main roc 
should be carefully detached and plac. 
singly in small pots, and, if proper atte 
tion be given them, will soon develop in 
fine flowering plants, although no manu 
should be used in their potting compost u 
til the bulbs are large enough to be; 
blossoms. 
Autumn Treatment of Caladiums. 
As the beautiful leaves lose their beau 
and show signs of fading, less water shou 
be given to the plants, the supply being 
course gradually reduced till the folia, 
dies down, although the tubers must not i 
any account be allowed to become quite dr 
as this often causes decay to set in. It 
well not to turn them out of the pots unt 
the spring, but place them somewhere aw; 
under the staging of the stove or warm horn 
where they will not catch the drips frc 
other plants, and if a very little water 
given them when necessary they will tu 
out in fine condition when the time arriv 
for restarting them. 
G. A. F. 
Orchids for Amateurs. 
Seed Sowing. 
Seed that is ripening at the present seas; 
of the year should be sown without the let 
delay, so that every advantage for germin 
tion may be derived from the light nc 
available and the favourable outside co 
diitions. I consider that very little is gain 
by sowing seeds of epiphytical Orchids aft 
the end of the present month, until the tu 
of the days. Unless one has special faci 
ties for treatment of late autumn-so\ 
Orchid seeds, they make but little advam 
ment, and frequently remain in a semi-ck 
mant state, even with every means at co: 
mand to assist germination, until after t- 
new year. In the case of Cypripediui 
and other terrestrial Orchids, that usual 
take a long time to germinate, I do not thi 
it matters much at what season of the ye 
the seeds are sown, but it is preferable 1 
sow them immediately the seed pod is ri{ 
rather than to keep them back and sow wh; 
the conditions are more favourable to g< 
mination in the spring of the )'ear. It ■ 
more than probable, where seeds of any 
the large-seeded kinds of Orchids are ke], 
after they have ripened, that they will nev 
be induced to germinate. 
Pricking off Seedlings. 
I consider this to be a suitable time 
transfer seedlings ’from the seed beds to t’ 
store pots. It will generally be found th 
where the plants have developed their fi: 
leaf or even the second they will be sen* 
ing out their roots from the base of t’ 
growth. If plants are shifted in this ste? 
they soon become re-established in thf 
