September  0,  1897. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
235 
The  Platycodons  are  justly  general  favourites  with  all.  Their 
beautiful  flowers  are  appreciated  when  fully  open,  and  they  are  like¬ 
wise  admired  when  their  buds  are  nearly  ready  to  open,  their  peculiar, 
inflated  appearance  being  the  origin  of  the  popular  name  of  “  Balloon 
Flower.”  There  seems  little  conflict  of  opinion  as  to  the  respective 
merits  of  P.  grandiflorum  and  its  variety  Mariesi :  the  latter,  by  a 
general  consensus,  being  admitted  to  be  of  more  perfect  beauty  than 
the  taller  typical  form.  P.  g.  Mariesi  album  is  very  beautiful  also, 
and  its  greater  novelty  will  in  all  likelihood  lead  to  its  rapid 
introduction  into  gardens  n  iw  that  it  can  be  procured  at  a  low  price. 
I  do  not  think  it  is  generally  known  that  there  are  not  only  a  white 
form  of  P.  grandiflorum,  but  also  some  others  seldom  offered  in 
nurserymen’s  catalogues.  These  are  more  expensive,  but  some  may 
like  to  know  of  the  existence  of  these  forms,  and  what  they  are.  There 
are  semi-double  blue  and  semi-double  white  varieties;  also  single, pale 
blue,  and  single  striped  plants.  Such  fine  autumn  flowering  plants  as 
the  Platycodons  deserve  and  require  more  attention  than  has  been 
given  them  by  many  in  the  past.  Once  established,  they  should  be 
let  alone,  and  removed  as  seldom  as  possible. 
Now  that  September  has  begun  to  run  its  course,  the  rock  garden 
has  lost  much  of  its  colour.  Heaths,  Autumn  Crocuses,  Campanulas, 
and  some  others  yet  hel])  to  keep  up  the  interest  so  far  as  regards 
flowering  plants;  but  the  days  of  its  greatest  beauty  are  pist  for 
the  year.  Still  some  flowers  of  bright  colour  recognise  the  influence 
of  the  sun,  cooler  though  it  is,  and  spread  their  petals  when  it  appears 
through  tire  gloom.  Among  these  are  yet  a  few  of  the  Oxalises,  a 
class  of  ])lauts  but  rarely  grown  on  account  of  their  reputed  tender¬ 
ness.  One  would  not  like  to  hazard  the  statement  that  this  want 
of  hardiness  is  not  too  common  among  the  plants  of  the  genus. 
Among  them,  however,  we  find  a  few  which  may  be  called  hardy 
in  gardens  in  mild  localities  where  a  light,  well-drained  soil,  and  a 
sunny,  warm  position  can  be  found. 
One  of  these  is  Oxalis  lasiopctala,  the  Hairy-petalled  Oxalis. 
This  has  what  have  been  called  deep  rose-coloured  flowei’s,  with 
perhaps  a  tinge  of  that  purple  so  prevalent  in  the  genus.  This  tint  of 
purple  is  a  defect  with  many  of  the  flowers;  but  we  must  take  them 
as  they  are,  and  find  counterbalancing  advantages  if  we  can. 
Another  defect  is  that  the  flowers  are  sun-lovers,  and  hardly  conde¬ 
scend  to  open  except  when  the  sun  shines.  It  is  a  failing  from  one 
point  of  view,  but  only  heli)s  to  give  strength  to  the  ])leasure  we  have 
in  brighter  weather.  I'hese  flowers  are  produced  in  what  is  called  by 
botanists  a  cyme,  and  the  flowers  are  thus  more  effective  than  if  pro¬ 
duced  singly.  The  leaves  are  radical,  are  raised  on  rather  long 
petioles,  and  have  obcordate,  deeply  notched  leaflets  ;  the  root  is 
tuberous.  0.  lasiopietala  comes  from  Monte  Video  and  Buenos  Ayres. 
It  is  a  wise  precaution  to  give  it  a  slight  covering  in  winter. 
Those — and  their  number  is  fast  increasing — who  find  in  Alpine 
gardening  a  pleasant  hobby  might  do  a  service  to  many  others  by 
experimenting  with  other  members  of  a  genus  little  known  in  the 
outdoor  garden,  and  not  sufficiently  appreciated  by  those  who  make 
perennial  flowers  their  study  and  care. — S.  Abnott. 
DECADENCE  IN  TRAINING  WALL  FRUITS. 
Your  correspondent  “II.  D.”  (page  213)  writes  well  on  the 
“  decadence  of  wall  fruit  culture;”  but  I  wonder  how  old  he  is.  I  am 
old  enough  to  believe  two  things — 1,  that  fruit,  generally  speaking,  is 
“cultivated,”  so  far  as  size  and  quality  are  concerned,  as  Well  as  ever 
it  was,  though  there  are  exceptions ;  but  (2)  that  the  training  of  trees 
against  walls  has,  as  a  rule,  degenerated  into  a  procedure  of  huddling 
and  shuffling.  In  innumerable  instances  this  is  pitiable  to  see ;  and 
not  in  all  of  them,  or  in  half  the  cases,  is  the  true  cause  want  of  time 
or  the  pressure  of  other  duties,  but  lack  of  interest,  zeal,  or  knowledge, 
or  perhaps  of  a  little  of  all  combined. 
Gardeners,  as  a  body,  worked  quite  as  hard  a  generation  and 
more  ago  as  they  do  now,  and  if  not  harder,  certainly  more  hours. 
The  best  of  them,  who  took  real  pride  in  their  work,  would  no  more 
let  their  wall  trees  suffer  by  want  of  timely  attention  than  they  would 
allow  the  Grape  crops  to  be  spoiled  through  negligence  in  thinning ; 
and  they  would  as  soon  devote  two  hours  before  6  a.m.  or  the  same 
time  after  6  p.m.  to  one  duty  as  the  other,  and  this  without  whining 
and  grumbling,  or  preaching  about  “slavery.”  It  was  not  regarded 
in  that  light  at  all,  but  the  work  was  done  cheerfully  by  head  men. 
and  under,  for  the  credit  of  the  garden  and  of  themselves. 
What,  however,  it  may  be  asked,  has  all  this  to  do  with  “  II.  D.’s” 
age?  Nothing;  but  something  else  has,  and  this  something  he 
furnishes  himself  in  the  following  words  : — “I  yield  to  no  one  in  my 
admiration  of  a  well-balanced,  fan-shaped  tree,  in  which  every  angle 
is  a  correct  one;  but  they  are  expensive  objects  of  beauty,  which 
gardeners  can  scarcely  afford  to  grow  in  these  utilitarian  days,  for 
much  labour  is  needed  to  keep  them  in  the  best  condition.” 
In  my  wonder  as  to  how  old  “  H.  D.”  is,  it  is  not  to  be  presumed 
that  he  is  thought  to  be  a  mere  boy,  or  anything  of  that  kind.  The 
excellence  of  his  article  as  a  whole  forbids  any  such  presumption  ;  but 
while  admitting  he  has  had  good  experience  in  some,  and  perhaps 
many,  things,  I  am  all  the  same  convinced  that  he  is  not  old  enough 
to  know  what  he  is  talking  about  when  he  proclaims  a  well-trained 
tree,  be  it  fan,  horizontal,  or  any  other  shape,  as  “too  ‘  expensive’  to 
keep  in  the  best  condition.”  He  has  fallen  a  victim  to,  by  becoming  a 
believer  in,  a  popular  fallacy. 
What  he  has  written  in  the  sentence  cited  cannot  have  been  founded 
on  experience.  If  he  had  ever  had  really  well  trained  trees  with 
“  every  angle  correct”  to  manage  he  would  not  have  written  such 
nonsense.  All  the  old  masters  of  the  art  of  training  wall  trees  know 
perfectly  well  that  those  which  they  prized  as  approaching  their 
standard  of  excellence  as  “  objects  of  beauty  ”  (“  II.  D.”)  cost  less, 
and  a  good  deal  less,  in  keeping  them  in  the  desired  condition  than 
do  those  which  are  managed  (?)  in  the  rushing  and  crushing  higgledy- 
piggledy  fashion,  miscalled  training,  now  so  prevalent  in  many 
gardens. 
Then  comes  in  the  blessed  word  “  utilitarian.”  It  seems  to  have 
become  quite  fashionable  of  late.  One  purpose  it  serves  is  that  of 
a  great  garden  umbrella,  under  which  “  modern  ”  men  who  do  not 
(cannot)  do  what  the  ancients  did,  take  shelter.  It  is  certainly 
easier  than  working — in  hot  weather.  “We  have  to  make  the  most 
of  everything  in  these  days,”  say  the  moderns.  “  We  have  even  to 
sell  all  we  can,  and  make  all  we  can — quite  different,  you  know,  from 
what  it  used  to  be.”  Used  to  be  !  How  do  they  know  the  customs 
of  the  time  before  they  were  in  “button  clothes?”  If  they  had 
worked  in  gardens  half  a  century  ago  "they  would  have  found 
something  else  to  do  than  going  a  tripping. 
Though  it  was  not  proclaimed  from  the  house-tops,  there  was 
plenty  of  selling  in  those  far-past  days.  There  was  as  much  of  it  in  a 
ducal  garden,  and  another  of  a  knight  of  the  shire,  in  which  the 
writer  served,  as  could  be  got  out  of  them  by  the  most  strenuous 
exertions ;  and  there  was — and  here  is  the  point — as  much  money  made 
from  the  splendidly  trained  wall  trees  as  I  venture  to  say  “  H.  D.” 
has  ever  obtained,  or  ever  will  obtain,  from  an  equal  area  of  surface, 
which  trees  are  made  to  cover  on,  what  I  call,  the  anyhow  plan,  but 
which  he  euphemistically  terms  the  “less  methodical  ”  system. 
By  the  “anyhow  plan”  you  rush  the  ti'ees  into  bearing  a  year  or 
two  sooner,  crowd  them  with  fruit  which  is  more  stone  than  luscious 
pulp,  more  core  and  kernel  than  flesh,  thus  deceiving  the  public  and 
shortening  the  lives  of  the  ti'ees,  then  thinking  yourselves  clever 
enough  to  be  knighted  like  Sir  Joseph  Paxton.  Do  not  be  vain  ;  do 
not  harbour  the  false  nition  that  bacl  training  (unsightly  trees)  means 
good  crops,  and  good  training  (handsome  trees)  means  bad  crops.  The 
idea  is  too  stupid  to  be  discussed. 
If  a  man,  be  he  of  the  ancient  or  modern  school,  cannot  grow  crops 
of  fruit  ([uite  as  valuable  from  well-trained  as  from  ill-trained  trees 
he  does  not  know  his  business,  and  ought  not  to  pose  as  a  gardener, 
but  step  into  his  right  place  as  a  not  over-intelligent  labourer.  He 
may  do  good  and  honourable  service  there,  also,  perhaps,  make  a  “  bit 
of  money  ”  and  be  happy. 
I  have  been  watching  the  tone  of  the  moderns  for  some  time  in 
silence — publicly  at  least,  but  not  privately,  for  there  I  call  them 
wildings— until  I  can  stand  it  no  longer,  and  at  last,  like  the  old 
hunter,  have  broken  loose  for  a  dash  after  the  hounds,  as  if  the  cub¬ 
hunting  season  had  come  round  agam.  In  full  cry  are  you  ?  Well, 
I  think  I  can  stand  the  music. — Melton. 
“  H.  D.,”  at  the  close  of  his  paper  on  this  subject  in  the  Journal 
of  Horticulture  (page  213),  asks  for  a  sort  of  vote  or  expression  of 
opinion  as  to  the  reasons  why  this  phase  of  gardening  should  have  gone 
back,  as  it  undoubtedly  has  gone  back,  in  garden  management  during 
the  last  ten  or  twenty  years.  There  is  no  question  in  my  mind  that 
the  two  causes  given  by  “  11.  D.”  are  the  strongest  influences  in  the 
matter.  First,  reduced  labour,  partly  caused  by  the  depression  in 
agriculture  and  in  everything  pertaining  to  land,  plus  increased  society 
ex[)enditure,  which  contribute  their  quota  to  the  expenses  of  an  estab¬ 
lishment,  and  when  economy  has  to  be  enforced  it  is  usually,  more’s 
the  pity,  the  garden  department  which  feels  it  first  and  heaviest. 
Second,  fashion  in  table  and  house  decoration,  which  has  gone  up 
by  leaps  and  bounds  for  some  time  now,  making  an  excessive  demand 
on  the  labour  that  is  left,  and  causing  the  strength  of  the  establish¬ 
ment  to  go  towards  productions  for  decoration  both  indoors  and  out,  so 
that  the  fruit  and  vegetable  departments  have  to  make  shift  with 
what  they  can  get.  The  other  work  must  be  done,  the  latter  as  it 
can ;  thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  garden  walls,  which  were  one  time 
the  pride  of  the  gardener  by  reason  of  their  order  of  training  and 
fruitful  health,  are  now  left  untrimmed  till  late  in  the  year,  and  that 
which  has  to  be  done  is  done  in  a  hurried  and  slipshod  manner, 
distressing  to  a  quiet,  orderly  mind,  and  this  with  insect  visitations, 
which  cannot  be  attended  to  at  the  proper  time,  soon  reduce  the  fruit¬ 
fulness  of  the  trees. 
