168 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
February  28,  1901 
it  has  been  tried  for  several  years  in  succession  in  gardens  known 
to  me  without  having  the  effect  of  stimulating  top  growth  to  any 
marked  extent,  the  trees  being  incapable  of  making  an  effort  to 
throw  off  canker. 
In  marked  contrast  to  these  I  can  point  to  trees  on  the  natural 
stocks  growing  comparatively  luxuriantly  alongside,  which  in  all 
favourable  seasons  bear  gocd  crops  of  fruit,  and  apparently  remain 
unaffected  by  the  trying  summers  they  have  recently  experienced. 
Yet  if  we  dive  below  the  surface  very  few  root  fibres  are  found,  but  a 
number  of  strong  roots  have  spread  out  widely  and  deeply  in  search  of 
the  moisture  evidently  needed.  Moral,  on  shallow  hot  soils  plant 
trees  on  natural  stocks. 
There  is  another  way  out  of  the  difficulty  that  may  be  offered,  and 
it  is  this: — Plant  trees  worked  on  dwarfing  stocks  sufficiently  deeply 
to  quite  bury  the  stocks  and  point  of  union  with  the  scion.  This  is 
to  a  certain  extent  sound  advice,  only,  unfortunately,  nurserymen  have 
taken  to  budding  or  grafting  their  stocks  at  a  greater  height  than 
formerly ;  at  least,  such  is  my  impression.  Now,  it  is  not  an  easy 
matter  in  many  instances  to  sink  the  stems  sufficiently  deeply  without 
much  excavation,  removal  of  stones,  and  the  substitution  of  fresh  soil, 
and  burying  the  roots  thus  deeply  appears  to  be  both  unnatural  and 
unwise.  It  has  to  be  done,  though,  or  the  evils  indicated  early  in  this 
article  will  inevitably  result.  As  it  happens  if  that  portion  of  the 
stems  formed  by  the  stocks  is  unduly  exposed  it  makes  much  slower 
progress  than  the  variety  of  Apple  or  Pear,  as  the  case  may  be,  worked 
on  it,  and  it  quickly  becomes  too  dwarfing  in  its  effect.  Especially  is 
this  the  case  with  the  Quince  and  French  Paradise  stocks.  Unfortu¬ 
nately  for  buyers  of  trees,  far  too  many  raised  in  France  and  other 
continental  countries  reach  this  country,  and  seeing  that  everything 
“  English  ”  is  tabooed  by  our  continental  contemporaries  (except  our 
money),  the  chances  are  French  rather  than  English  Paradise  stocks 
are  used  by  them.  We  shall  be  told,  perhaps,  that  ihe  remedy  rests 
with  English  planters,  who  are  warned  (I  have  done  it  hundreds  of 
times)  against  purchasing  trees  sold  in  the  open  markets  of  our 
provincial  towns. 
To  return  to  the  planting.  If  deeply  planted  and  kept  sufficiently 
moist  by  either  mulchings  of  strawy  manure  or  substitutes,  these 
dwarfing  stocks  emit  roots  freely  right  up  to  the  point  of  union  with 
the  scions,  the  latter  also  not  infrequently  developing,  so  that  in  time 
we  have  what  is  tantamount  to  an  own-root  tree.  When  this  takes 
place  the  character  of  the  tree’s  top  growth  is  also  changed  greatly  for 
the  better.  Nor  will  this  freer  growth  militate  against  the  free 
bearing  habit  of  the  tree,  always  provided  the  over-zealous  pruner  is 
kept  away  from  it.  If  we  want  toy  trees  then  avoid  high  culture, 
but  I  fail  to  see  any  sense  in  growing  large  numbers  of  trees,  each 
producing  a  few  dozen  fruit,  when  a  quarter  the  number  of  more 
naturally  grown  trees  would  produce  a  far  greater  weight  ot  fruit. 
Deep  planting  of  trees  on  dwarfing  stocks  has,  to  my  knowledge, 
coupled  with  rather  hard  pruning,  including  cutting  away  some  of  the 
worst  affected  parts,  proved  a  certain  remedy  for  stunted,  cankerous 
growth ;  and  another  way  out  of  the  difficulty  in  the  case  of  trees  already 
established  is  to  bank  up  soil  and  manure  round  the  stems  to  the 
extent  ot  burying  the  swollen  base  of  the  tree.  If  these  top-dressings 
are  kept  moist  they  will  cause  the  buried  stems  to  emit  roots  freely, 
and  the  roots  being  kept  active  and  spreading  by  means  of  further 
additions  of  soil  and  mulchings  of  strawy  manure,  a  change  for  the 
better  in  the  top  growth  will  soon  be  apparent.  This  is  an  experiment 
I  would  commend  to  the  notice  of  some  of  my  readers  who  have  not 
as  yet  become  acquainted  with  the  by  no  means  original  ideas  just 
presented  to  them. 
But  there  are  other  dwarfing  stocks  that  may  eventually  prove  a 
source  of  worry  and  loss  to  fruit  growers.  Any  kind  of  Plum  stock 
seems  good  enough  from  a  nurseryman’s  point  of  view  for  Apricots, 
Peaches,  Nectarines,  and  Plums.  Some  of  them,  notably  the  Brompton, 
if  I  am  rightly  informed,  swell  evenly,  keeping  pace  with  the  rest  of 
the  tree.  But  what  of  those  miserably  stunted  stocks  and  great 
swollen  bases  of  the  varieties  worked  on  to  them  ?  What  gardener 
has  not  been  vexed  with  this  occurrence  ?  Slicing  the  stems  so  as  to 
cause  the  formation  of  new  layers  of  bark  and  sap  vessels  answers 
lairly  well  in  some  cases,  relieving  the  block,  so  to  speak,  but  I  can 
point  to  numbers  of  stocks  that  have  not  responded  to  the  knife  in  this 
respect. 
Last  year  I  was  asked  by  a  small  nurseryman  to  express  an  opinion 
on  the  Myrobella  Plum  as  a  stock  for  Peaches  and  Nectarines,  and  at 
the  time  I  failed  to  see  why  it  should  not  answer  admirably.  Since 
then  I  have  seen  large  fruiting  treeB  of  this  inferior  Plum  and  observed 
that  they  were  not  nearly  as  robust  as  other  choicer  varieties  of  Plums 
trained  against  the  same  wall,  and  I  have  also  looked  closely  into  the 
behaviour  of  young  Peach  and  Nectarine  trees  that  we  accidentally 
discovered  were  budded  on  the  Myrobalan  stock.  To  all  appearances 
this  stock,  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  nurserymen  because  so  easily 
propagated  by  cuttings,  will  eventually  prove  most  disappointing,  as 
already  they  are  failing  to  keep  pace  with  the  rest  of  the  stem,  and 
trouble  is  in  store.  No  doubt  Plum  stocks,  especially  the  free-rooting 
Myrobalan,  would  emit  roots  freely  if  buried,  but  the  greater  part  of 
these  are  worked  too  high,  and  the  thought  of  promoting  deep  root 
action  is  horrifying  to  the  older  gardeners  who  have  had  previous 
experience  of  the  “  yellows  ”  in  Peach  and  Nectarine  trees. 
— W.  Iggulden. 
- (•••. - 
Erantliemum  pulcliellnm. 
Blue  flowers  are  scarce  amongst  stove  plants,  hence  are  always 
acceptable,  more  especially  those  which  flower  during  the  winter 
months,  and  one  of  the  most  useful  is  this  free-flowering,  easily 
grown  plant.  I  have  plants  in  4-inch  pots  not  more  than  from 
4  to  6  inches  in  height,  nearly  covered  with  flowers,  and  yet  they 
have  the  healthiest  foliage,  and  are  useful  alike  for  cutting  from  and 
for  decorative  purposes. 
I  usually  cut  the  old  plants,  the  shoots  of  the  previous  year,  to 
within  one  or  two  joints  of  their  origin,  keeping  the  plants  rather 
dry  for  a  fortnight  after  flowering.  The  plants  start  freely  and  are 
potted  when  the  young  shoots  are  2  or  3  inches  in  length.  The  roots 
are  considerably  reduced,  and  the  plants  are  returned  to  the  same  size 
of  pot,  and  are  given  a  larger  size  when  the  plants  have  filled  the 
pots  with  roots.  A  light  airy  position  is  afforded,  and  if  this  cannot 
be  given  in  a  house  the  plants  do  equally  well  in  a  cold  pit,  admitting 
air  moderately  so  as  to  keep  up  a  good  temperature ;  it  is  only 
right  to  say  the  plants  do  better  than  those  grown  at  a  distance  from 
the  glass  in  a  warm  house,  the  growth  being  stouter,  shorter-jointed, 
and*  the  flowering  is  proportionately  finer.  From  about  the  middle  of 
June  to  the  middle  of  September  they  are  as  well  in  a  cold  pit  as  in  a 
stove. 
If  bushy  plants  are  wanted  the  growths  may  be  stopped  to  two 
joints;  or  the  shoots  may  be  regulated  by  tying  them  to  stakes  as 
they  advance.  The  unstopped  plants  flower  earlier  than  the  stopped 
ones.  In  April,  or  when  the  plants  are  cut  down,  cuttings  may  be 
taken  of  shoots  with  two  joints  and  the  growing  point,  and  these 
inserted  in  sandy  soil  up  to  the  second  pair  of  leaves  will  root  quickly 
in  a  gentle  bottom  heat.  They  should  be  potted  singly  when  rooted, 
and  kept  in  heat  until  established,  and  may  be  removed  to  a  cold 
frame  in  June  or  July,  shifting  at  that  time  into  5-inch  or  6-inch 
pots.  They  will  grow  compactly,  and  flower  well  in  early  winter  in  a 
cool  stove  or  warm  greenhouse,  being  removed  thither  by  the  middle 
of  September. 
Cuttings  taken  in  June,  inserted  round  the  sides  of  a  pot  in  sandy 
soil  and  over  a  hotbed  will  speedily  be  well  rooted,  and  may  then  be 
placed  singly  into  4-inch  pots,  and  placed  in  a  cold  frame  kept  close 
and  shaded  until  the  potting  is  recovered  from,  and  then  have  moderate 
ventilation,  and  be  kept  duly  watered,  the  object  being  to  keep  them 
dwarf  by  close  proximity  to  the  glass  and  at  a  temperature  only 
productive  of  slow  growth.  By  the  middle  of  September  remove  them 
to  a  light  airy  position  in  a  cool  stove  or  warm  greenhouse,  and  in 
January  or  February  will  be  a  reward  of  massive  heads  of  blue  flowers. 
Turfy  loam  with  a  third  of  leaf  soil,  or  preferably  a  fourth  of  old 
cow  manure,  will  grow  them  well.  Weak  liquid  manure  given  at  every 
alternate  watering  after  the  pots  are  filled  with  roots  will  be  found 
h'ghly  beneficial. — G.  F. 
