Instructions in gardening for ladies

by Mrs. Loudon

Mode of inarching the Camellia.

Grafting clay and grafting wax have been so frequently mentioned in the various operations of grafting and budding, that it seems necessary to say a few words on their composition. Common grafting clay is made with any kind of stiff clay mixed with a fourth part of fresh horse-dung free from litter, and a portion of cut hay; a little water is sprinkled on the mass, and the whole is beaten several times a day for a week together, till the ingredients are thoroughly amalgamated. The common French grafting clay, or Onguent de Ste Fiacre, is composed of equal parts of stiff clay and cow-dung; but a superior kind, recommended by M. De Candolle, is composed of one pound of cow-dung, half a pound of pitch, and half a pound of yellow wax. Grafting wax is generally made of equal parts of turpentine, bees’-wax, and resin, with a little tallow, melted together, and thoroughly incorporated. This is thinly spread on cotton cloth, and used in strips like cerecloth. In grafting trees with soft and delicate bark, fine moss and cotton wool tied on with ligatures of bast mat, are better than anything else, and they are quite sufficient for every purpose for which grafting clay can be required for ladies. A new composition has been lately invented, made with caoutchouc, which is said to be very efficacious, but I have never seen it tried.

The essential points to be attended to in grafting are choosing a stock and a scion that correspond in nature and in habits of growth; cutting the parts to be united so as to fit exactly and leave no vacuity between; taking care that the soft wood of the scion shall always rest on the soft wood of the stock, as it is between these parts that the union is to be effected; binding the parts closely together, and covering them so as to prevent them from becoming so dry as to shrink apart, in which case the vessels would wither and become incapable of uniting.

Uses of Grafting and Budding. The obvious use of grafting is to propagate varieties that cannot so easily be continued by seed, and that will not strike by cuttings. There is, however, another use nearly as important; and this is to make plants flower and fruit sooner than they would otherwise do. There are many plants that only flower at the extremity of their shoots; and these plants, when tender, would require enormous plant-houses before they would be thrown into flower or fruit. To remedy this inconvenience, a method has been devised of cutting off the tips of the shoots and grafting them; and then, after they have grown for some time, cutting off the tips again and regrafting them, by means of which flowers are at length produced on plants of quite a small size. The same method is applied in Paris to rare fruit-trees to throw them into fruit; and it has been tried with success with the rose-apple (Eugenia Jambos), the mango, &c. In common nurseries, the fruit of new seedling apples is obtained much sooner by grafting than by leaving the plant to nature; and this plan is also practised at Brussels by Prof. Van Mons, to test his seedling-pears.

CHAPTER V.

PRUNING, TRAINING, PROTECTING FROM FROST,
AND DESTROYING INSECTS.

Pruning appears, at first sight, a most laborious and unfeminine occupation; and yet perhaps there is no operation of gardening which a lady may more easily accomplish. With the aid of a small, and almost elegant pair of pruning shears, which I procured from Mr. Forrest, of Kensington Nursery, I have myself (though few women have less strength of wrist) divided branches that a strong man could scarcely cut through with a knife. The only thing to be attended to is to choose a pair of pruning shears with a sliding joint, so as to make what is called a draw-cut; in order that the branch may be divided by a clean cut, and not bruised on the side next the plant, and also to leave a somewhat sloping section. When a branch is pruned, it should also be cut as near to a bud as can be done without injuring the bud itself; or, to speak more definitely, not more in length than the branch is thick should be left beyond the bud. The cut should slope downwards from the bud to prevent the water lodging in the angle; and also that the sun and air may have their full influence in exciting the bark to cover the wound. When a long piece of branch, or what gardeners call a snag, is left beyond the bud, it withers, from there being no leaves beyond it to carry on the circulation of the sap; and it thus not only becomes a deformity, but very often seriously injures the tree by rotting, and infecting the fruit-bearing branch to which it is attached.

According to the usual method of pruning with a knife, the gardener holds the branch in his left hand, below the part that is to be removed; and then, holding the knife firmly with the thumb at the back of the blade, he makes a strong cut upwards, and from him, so as to remove the branch with a single stroke, and to leave a slanting section. This operation, however, requiring strength as well as skill, it will generally be safer for a lady to keep to her pruning shears, a pair of which may be bought for 7s. 6d., and which will be sufficient to cut through the largest branch that a lady would be able to remove; or to use a pair of garden scissors fixed to a pole which may be lengthened or taken to pieces like a fishing-rod. The scissors are strong and sharp, and are made to act by means of a long cord, which passes through rings down the side of the pole. The principal use of these scissors is to remove dead roses, &c., but they will also cut off a branch of dead wood, &c. When a gardener wishes to remove a large branch, he first cuts a notch out of it on each side, and then with his pruning knife, or a small saw, he divides the diminished space. In all cases, the great art of pruning consists in making a clean sharp cut, so as to leave the bark in a healthy state to make an effort to cover over the wound, and in pruning sufficiently near a bud not to leave any dead wood.

The time for pruning is either early in spring, after all danger is over from frost, but before the sap has begun to move; or in winter, after the movement of the sap for the summer has ceased. Summer pruning is also necessary with some trees; but, generally speaking, it should be confined to rubbing off all buds which would produce unnecessary shoots, as soon as they appear. This operation is called disbudding, and it is highly efficacious in sparing the strength of the tree. The points of those shoots which appear to be running too much to wood, should also be pinched off; or every leaf may be taken off them as it appears, which will exhaust the superfluous strength of the tree; and the shoots which will produce no buds for want of leaves, may be removed in the winter pruning. The vine is very apt to bleed when pruning has been delayed too late; and in very strong vigorous plants, the ascending sap sometimes drops from the branches like rain. The French very poetically call these drops the tears of the vine.