In the Garden
With me snowdrops were out about mid-January, coinciding with the blossoms of the Algerian iris, and almost at the same date the hazel male catkins began to distribute pollen and the black currants to open their buds into leaves. All this and more indicates an early season, and causes fruit-growers, a pessimistic company, to forecast early blossoms and late frosts. It is too early to know whether flower-buds will open early, but the fear suggests emphasis on late bloomers. Specialists in fruit say that among plums the Czar is the best for orchards subject to frost, that is low-lying or much enclosed orchards ; and probably the surest way of defeating frosts, at any rate for those not provided with apparatus for distributing smudges of protective smoke, is to plant late-flowering sorts of both apple (King Edward VII, for example) and plum. Among pears, I have found Louise Bonne a singularly regular bearer, though it is not particularly late in flower. Small fruit may be more or less defended from frost even by no more solid covering than a net.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
Previous page
