The Garden.

Otago Witness, Issue 1422, 22 February 1879, Page 5

The Garden.

OAMARU FLOWER SHOW.

We would remind our gardening friends that the autumn show of the Noroh Otdgo Horticultural Society will take place at Oamaru, on Saturday, the 15th March. At the Oamaru Spring Show, last November, some of our Dunedin florists exhibited and took away several prizes. A Timaru florist also took prizes. We should think that the facilities afforded by the railway would induce some of our nurserymen and florists to forward exhibits of flowers, fruit, &c.

LETTUCE-GROWING IN FRANCE.

It is generally admitted that the French are a long way ahead of the English in the production of salad* during the spring months. A heavy tender White Cos lettuce in the spring months is worth trying for, and we certainly do not get it in this country. Perhaps it may bo secured by a high cultivation ia suitable soil, and the employment of cloohes. The cloche is in the form of a large bell-glass, and there are a good many cloches of different shape and qualities, but the cloche commonly ia use for lettucegrowiog is be\l-saape&, about eighteen inches in height, and about fifteen inches in diameter across tbe mouth. The clocho is not unknown to the Londou market gardens, for it is frequently in use for covering cauliflower on mounds in early spring, but for this purpose they are of large size. At tho end of April a visit was paid to a market gardener in the suburbs of Paris, whose " speVialite "is the culture of lettuce. He had about one thousand clochea in use, aud as the weather was fine they had been taken off the lettuces ; but any one can see at a glance that the thousauds of splendid lettuces in all stages of growth had been indebted to some sheltering agency during the winter. The outer leaves were not torn by the wind or bespattered by the rain; they did not look as if they had been alternately frozen, thawed, and blocked up with snow, as is usually the fate with lettuces growing in the London market gardens. As the visitor looked about what did he see ? Here is a batch of Eomaine Blanc and Romaine Vert (White aud Green Cos), ready for market, none of them less than a foot in height, heavy, compact, and crisp. They ar3 growing in four feet beds, and undoubtedly had received very high culture. The soil appeared to be light and exceedingly rich, and it was an easy matter to push a walking-stick down to the depth of eighteen inches. The market garden contained about two and a-half acres, and there Avere in one part of it three rows of large barrels sunk in the ground ab regular intervals, ten barrels in each row, making thirty in all. In half of these barrels wis fixed a water tap for clean water, and in the other half one for manure water, so that abundance of water of any degree of strength was alvays at hand. The leading principles of culture may be set forth in a few words. Tho plants in the seed bed are never allowed to become crowded, and in transplanting care is taken not to break off a single root it' pos sible. This is a matter of great importince in the estimation of the French cultivators. In preparing the ground for the reception of the plant 3 it is deeply dug, and if the soil is not rich enough plenty of light rich material is incorporated with it. The plants are never suffered to want for water, aud if once a check is received from this cause the plants ravply turn out well afterwards.

The lettuces cut for market about the end of April wero raised from seed sown about the first week in October, in a frame having a little bottom-heat ; and as soon as the plants are large enough to handle they are pricked out under cloche 3, about twenty-five under a cloche ; and at the end of February or beginning of March, should the weather prove favourable enough to admit of its being done, all tbe plants aro lifted with the exception of three and transplanted into four feet beds, carefully prepared, and covered with cloches so long as the weather remains bad. For u?e during January and Febiuary a cabbage lettuce is used, something like that known ia Eugland as Tom Thumb, but a little larger. The Paris market gardeners vary the time of sowing according to the times when they are likely to want most lettuces. When particularly fine lettuce is required only one plant is left under each cloche, and sometimes four plants, according to the size and quality required. In the opinion of the French cultivators, and the results justify the practice, there is nothing like manure water for getting up a fine, heavy, crisp lettuce in a short time ; and the facilities provided in the market gardens of France for applying manure water conveniently prove that it plays no mean part in the method of culture.-— London Field.

A NEW ORCHID.

The proof of another achievement iv hybridising has just been brought forward by Messrs Veitch and Sons, the celebrated nursery firm at Chelsea, in the form of a now orchid raised aud reared by Mr Dominy, the firm's famous hybridist, whoso fame has been enlarged by the production of a new Cattleya, which is considered to be the greatest of his achievements. It was exhibited in flower at a meeting pf tup Horticultural Society of .London on the

20th August, whf n it gained a first-class certificate, and will in future be known as Cattleya. Veitchiana. It is said to be a cross between Cattleya Dowiana and C. exoniensis, or possibly C. purpurata (for there seems to be a doubt on the subject) one of the parents of C. exoniensis. The flower is remarkably beautiful; the most striking feature being the grand lip, which is evidently taken from C. Dowiana, but from whence the colour has been derived cannot even be guessed. The lip is two and a-half inches broad and three inches deep, with an undulated margin; it is of an intense magenta-purple colour, and marked at the base with radiating buff-yellow lines. The sepals are of a beautiful pink-mauve colour, the whole flower averaging five and a-half inches in diameter. The raiser has bad to wait, ten long years to see the result of his skill, and no doubt feels ample reward for his exercise of skill and patience. JAPANESE ARBORICULTURAIr CURIOSITIES. There is now on exibition at No. 4 New Montgomery street, undor the Palace Hotel, an extraordinary display of Japanese plants just brought from Japan by H. C. Dunn. Mr Dunn, who was for some yeai'3 connected with the Japanese service, made a large private col. lection of rare and beautiful specimens of Japanese garden plants, and has brought 200 of them to this city. There are no flowering plants among them, all being ever greens of different species. They ilinstratein a marked manner the Japanese gardener's skill, the trees being dwarfed and trained into fantastic shapes. An evergreen, which is a species ef spruce, is made to take the shape of a cat, a dog, a crane, a turtle, a cock, a sparrow, etc., and the skill of the gardener has been such that one recognises at the first glance what animals are represented. Many of the other plants are trained in the shape of cocked hats, which are much loved by the Japanese. Some of the trees are dwarfed and made to take their natural shape. There are small shrubs of only one foot and a half in height, which look like trees as seen through a reversed opera glass, bo perfect has been their training. Many of these trees are over fifty years old, and their knotted, twisted and stained trunks are as venerable in appearance as any to be found in the forest. There are two tea plmts, the leaves from one of which sell at lOdols. per pound in Japan, the leaves from the other bringing 7dols. There is a palm from the Loo Ohoo Islands, whichisas delioata as a fern, and far more beautiful. Thera are orange trees, bearing choice oranges, some of which aie now on the trees. There are specimens of curious grasses, some growing in long oords, and forming beautiful tassels. t Among the curiosities aro houses made of a curious root found in Japan, very porous in character, and, in which pUnts can take root. These diminutive nouses are covered or surrounded by diminutive shrubs and trees, which are so dwarfed that they never grow out of their just proportion to tha house. All that is necessary is to pour water into the basin, and the porous roots of which these little houses are made take it to tha plants wherever they aie placed. Tbere are models of a pleasure boat, and a va< rol^nt junk, made of this root, and having dimin»..;ive plankfl growing upon them. Rocks and cliffs are manufactured from this curious root, and upon them are growing grasses, diminu. ive trees andshrubs. Two species of cedar have been trained to form the model of the entrance to a tea garden. Some of these curiosities are very old, having been handed down from father to son for many generations. The pots in which these curiosities are placed are also worthy of examination, being remarkable specimens of ancient Japanese pottery. The designs are beautiful and the workmanship far better than that seen in the more modern porcelains. No collection like this has ever before boen brought to this country, Mr Duun says, and his own was of remarkable interest even in Japan, where it is seldom that so many rare shrubs are seen in one collection. — San Francisco Bulletin.