Fruit Tree Fundamentals

Choosing blackberries and hybrid berries

These plants like to sprawl and ramble, so you'll need to control them by confining them in some way, such as training them up a wall or fence, or a series of wires. If you have a small garden or limited space, choose a less vigorous variety, or one without horns (or both). Hybrid berries are more suited to a smaller garden than blackberries, since they are generally less vigorous. Hybrid berries prefer a sunny sheltered site, but blackberries will thrive in most situations, tolerating some shade and even bad drainage. Plant the bushes in autumn or winter, and tie the canes to some form of support.

Recommended blackberries

• Ashton Cross — wiry-stemmed, bears a heavy crop.

• Bedford Giant — as its name suggests, this is vigorous and so is not suitable for a small garden.

• Black Satin — thornless variety propagated in the U.S.

• Fantasia — discovered on an allotment near London, thorny, vigorous, with very large fruits indeed.

• Helen — thornless, best choice for early fruit.

• Himalaya Giant — makes a superb windbreak, but only suitable for large gardens.

• Loch Ness — thornless, and a good performer in the garden.

• Merton Thornless — good for confined spaces, small yields, but needs very little maintenance.

• Oregon Thornless — reliable, thornless, with mild-flavored fruit.

• Waldo — thornless. 

Hybrid berries

• Boysenberry — a cross between the loganberry, blackberry, and raspberry Thorned and thornless varieties are available. Fruits are long or oblong, and look more like raspberries although they taste more like wild blackberries. They ripen at the end of July.

• Dewberry — generally more popular in the US than in the UK, this is not a cross between other berries, but a distinct species on its own. The fruit tastes much better than it looks!

• Hildaberry — a new hybrid cross between a boysenberry and a tayberry, named after the plant breeder's wife. Not widely available except through specialist nursery catalogues.

• Japanese wineberry — This is a very ornamental plant with its arching stems covered with stiff red bristles. There's the added attraction of edible, seed-filled red berries.

• Loganberry — a straight cross between a raspberry and a blackberry This plant fruits mid-season, is very popular and more widely grown than other hybrid berry varieties.

Good grape-keeping

Water your vines regularly, as it is important to prevent drought stress. Drooping leaves are signs of thirst, so take action. Do not feed late in the season, as this encourages growth when energy should be placed into the fruit.

Pruning the vines

Once the main stem has reached the height you want, prune in winter to 2 buds of new growth. Cut back all the side shoots from the previous summer to one strong bud. As the vine matures, growth around these side shoots may become congested, so you may need to saw off these woody stubs. By early summer, you should see the flower trusses that will develop into bunches of grapes. Pinch out any weak trusses to concentrate the vine's energies on fewer, larger bunches.

Harvesting grapes

Examine your grapes for a slight translucence. This is a sign that they're mature. Fully ripe grapes have the best flavor, and you should taste before you pick to ensure sweetness.

It's important to avoid handling the ripe or ripening fruits, as dial are easily damaged.

Bountiful blackberries

ONE OF MY BEST CHILDHOOD MEMORIES is picking wild blackberries from the hedgerows and other wild patches of land. Even in cities, blackberries will grow wild along railway embankments and in other areas of neglected land. Cultivated blackberries are altogether more luscious, and well worth growing for apple and blackberry pie and bramble jelly

I'd put the other hybrid berries into the same category of deliciousness, the most popular of which is the loganberry. This is a cross between the blackberry and the raspberry, with fruit characteristics in between the two. The main difference is that hybrid berries have perennial canes, unlike the raspberry's annual stem.

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Planting And Cultivation Of Rock Plants

Hepatica triloba                 Ranunculaceae

Hepaticas are woodland plants with no special requirements as to moisture or care. They frequently spread to form natural plant communities as in their natural habitat.

They do well in rich sandy humus rich soil with an admixture of limestone rubble. They like to remain undisturbed and if not transplanted unnecessarily they spread well and bear a profusion of flowers in February to April.

Particularly attractive are the double garden varieties H. triloba 'Alba' with white blossoms, `Rosea' with pink blossoms and aubra' with red blossoms and flowers in March or April.

H. angulosa a slightly larger plant with five-lobed leaves, bears pale blue or pinkish flowers but flowers somewhat earlier in February and March. It is especially suitable for the wild garden as it spreads freely.

The Twin Leaf ( jeffersonia), Hacquetia, Sweet Violet (Viola odorata), dwarf ferns, ornamental grasses and Anemones are often planted near them. The green leathery leaves appear after flowering and remain throughout the winter.

Propagation is by seed, sown as soon as ripe, or division of clumps in the autumn. The double forms, which can be propagated only by division after flowering, multiply fairly slowly.

St. John's Wort                    Hypericaceae

Hypericum rhodopaeum

St. John's Worts are rewarding rock plants and great favorites for their long flowering period and wealth of blossoms. They are good in rock gardens and dry walls, in beds amidst low-growing perennials and on slopes. All have yellow flowers with striking finely radiating stamens.

Hypericums are either herbaceous or semi-shrubs which prefer loose, light, slightly humus rich soil but grow in any good garden soil, and require warm sunny positions. Excess tinoisture, especially in winter, is detrimental therefore the drainage should be good. In suitable situations they live long and attain a great height.

Of those suitable for the rock garden and dry wall several low-growing species are fairly common in cultivation, e.g. H. rhodopaeum, which makes low, thick shrub lets with blue- green foliage and bright yellow flowers borne in profusion every year as early as May.

H. cons, a lime lover, has narrow leaves; smaller golden yellow flowers and attains a height of only 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm.). In winter it should be protected in wet weather.

H. olympicum is a popular and commonly cultivated Hypericum, 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 cm.) high, also distinguished by a great wealth of large, orange-yellow blossoms appearing in June and July and later, sometimes until September.

St. John's Worts should be cut back after flowering and top dressed with old, well rotted compost every couple of years. In winter they require a light protective covering of fir branches or bracken.

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Propagation Of Rock Plants

Pink 

Dianthus alpinus

Pinks are welcome additions to the garden and rockery chiefly for their lovely, abundant, pleasantly scented flowers, and also because they fill in the gap between the late spring and early summer flowering species. Of the approximately 270 species of annuals, biennials and perennials, the ones generally cultivated in the rock garden are D. super- bus with the scent of a linden tree, and the Common Garden Pink (D. plumarius ) with its familiar blue-green foliage, which forms large cushions and bears a profusion of flowers in May; there are a number of white, pink and red varieties. These plants will do well in any soil as long as it is not freshly fertilized, and they do not like permanent damp, as in their natural habitat they grow on rocks and sunny slopes.

One of the earliest rock garden Pinks is D. alpinus. It makes clumps of narrow, glossy green leaves and bears remarkably large, bright pink flowers. It requires a loamy-sandy, porous soil with good drainage and adequate moisture during the growing period. In winter, however, excessive damp is injuri us. It likes a slightly sheltered position in the rock garden turned away from the direct sun. D. alpinus also has creamy white variety. It should be planted in the clefts between stones, together with small species of rock plants.

Other Pink cultivated in our rock gardens include the rarer high alpine species D. glacialis with narrow, stiff, green leaves and bright pink, almost sessile flowers. It requires humus rich, lime free soil freely mixed with stones.

Shooting Star, American Cowslip

Dodecatheon meadia

The Shooting Stars, natives of North America, are striking rock garden plants with leaves forming rosettes like the Primrose and bearing a single stalk topped with a cluster of three to twelve or even more flowers. These resemble the blossoms of Cyclamen europaeum to which they are related.

A common garden species is D. meadia with broad, simple leaves and white-throated flowers. Nurserymen usually have two varieties of this species, namely the white D. meadia `Albiflorum' and D. meadia `Splendens' with somewhat larger lilac-rose flowers. D. meadia attains a height of 12 to 15 inches (30 to 40 cm.) and flowers in June.

Some of the other 30 or so species of Dodecatheon worthy of note are D. jegreyi with bright purple flowers borne on 12 inches (30 cm.) long stalks and D. pauciflorum, only 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm.) high, with pink, scented flowers.

Shooting Stars do well both in semi-shade and in the sun, in loose, porous, loamy-sandy soil, rich in humus, but also in heavier soil. The position should be sheltered from the wind. The plants are most effective alongside ornamental grasses and heath plants, chiefly because they soon die back in summer which would result in empty gaps if planted elsewhere.

Propagation is generally by seed, which is sown soon after ripening, or by division of the clumps in early autumn. In winter the plants should be covered with a light layer of soil mixed with humus or peat. They do not tolerate lime.

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Flowering Plants - The First Traces

creeping rhizome underneath. and composed of tight clusters of leathery leaves without pseudo bulbs. The short lateral branchrn bear a solitary leaf, glassy green, lanceolate to elliptic, usually fleshy which are typically broadest towards the apex and narrowed into a basal stalk, than giving the appearance of being borne by petioles, up to 30 cm long. The pseudo-petioles are surrounded basally by foliar bracts or have small bracts at each node. From the foliar beach the inflorescence emerge, one to three flowered. The flower size ranges from 2.5 ern to more than 30 cm from tip to lip, and the colors cover almost entire gamut of the hues of rainbow. and in certain rare forms black is also obtained. The flowers are curious in shape, one part of the length of the sepals are connate to ferns a mai of trumpet, then their lips spread out ending in a longish point or by a long., fine tail. The small jointed lip and erect column are produced inside the sepaline cup. The lip possesses earlike appendages near the base, the column is short may be winged or with a narrow margin around it. The pollinia are 2, eardrop shaped, yellow in color and without any caudicl The unusual shape of flowers, wide variation in size and vivid colors have made them very very rewarding to the collectors of orchids. There are several natural hybrids, and large number of hybrids have been evolved in this genus.

Ma.sdevallia anwhilis Rehb.f —The species is native to Colombia; coming to flower in June-July. The leave are up to 15 cm long, leathey, oblancstolate and acute. Single flowers are produced on an erect spike. up to 300m long. The flowers are 2.5 cm in diameter, dorsal sepal is narrow, orange; the lateral sepals are broad, orange-dotted with red, all tipped by a bog and narrow tail.

Masdevallia coccinea Lind!. (Masdevalfia Lindeni Anaire. and Masdenallia Hamiana Rchb.f.)--This is another Colombian species; blooming dunng March-April The leaves are dark glossy-green, clustered, up to 22.5 cm long. The inflorescence is erect, single flowered up 10 30 cm tall. The flowers are waxy, heavy textured, variable in color, up to 7.5 cm long, dorsal sepal very narrow, lateral sepals connate in their red bases. The lip and column is enclosed in the sepal tube.

Masdevallia iAnsca Rchb.f. (Masdandlia cniliraris Rchb.f.)--It in native to Colombia; produces flowers during March-April. The leaver are rigid, elliptic lanceolate, stalked at base up to 10 cm long. The inflorescence is single flowered, slender and 3730w long. Ilse flowers are 6.5 cm across. red flushed with bright orange, dorsal sepal narrow, elongated. recurved in front, the lateral sepals are broader and not acuminate. The lip is recurved the apex and stained with orange-red.

Masdevallia tnaculata Klotzsch Oa Karst.—The species is found in Venezuela; coming to bloom during July to November_ The leaves am 1250w long, linear-lanceolate. The inflorescence ry 17.5 cm long, 3 angled, few flowered, hardly emerging from foliage. The flowers are heavy textured, up to 15 cm long, the dorsal sepal is yellow, long and acuminate; the lateral .pa Is are pendent, dark purple and connate. The lip is dull purple.

Masdenallia toranensis Rabbi. (Masdcvaitia candida Klotzsch.)—It is another Venezuelan species producing flowers in November to February. The leaves are leathery, clustered, glossy-green, up to 15 cm long. The inflorescence is 2105  flowered, up to 17.5 cm tall, 3 angled with 3 bracts at the apex. The flowers are waxy, long-lasting, opening widely, up to 2.5 cm across, pure white; the dorsal sepal narrow, tipped by a ffliforrn appendage; the lateral sepals are connate over rn.t of their length and tipped by a short tail. The lip and column are short and remain within the sepal tube.

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Nursery Raising And Transplantation

Habenaria pool Ito Rchb.f. ttlabenarfa militaris Rchb.f., Ilabenaria rhodoeheila Hance.)—The species is native to South China and Viet-Nam southward to Penang, blooms during September-October. The stem is 30 cm tall. The leaves are radical in a dark green, satiny rosettle, maculated with lighter green. Inflorescence is 8-12 flowered, about 60 cm long. The sepals & petals are greenish white, yellow, orange, attractive, 4 cm in diameter, long lasting. The lip is large, outspreading, forming lobes of which the central is again hi. lobed, bright red with pink spin, which is the most decorative pad of the flower.

Habenaria rosburghii Nicolrcn (Habenaria platyphylla Spreng3-11 is an Indian species distributed in Orissa and South India. The inflorescence is densely flowered. The flowers are white, scented.

Habenia isliginosa Rchb.f.—The species is found in South Brasil to Chile and Argentina, and flowers in autumn. The tubers are 1.25 cm long, narrowly nblong. The leaves are up 10 cm long. The inflorescence is densely many flowered, up to 15 cm long. The flowers are white and pale green, 1.25 On in diameter, fmgrant.

Haemaria Lindl.

Tribe Vondeae  Sub-tribe Cymbidiinae

Ito a monotypic genus of syrnpodial epiphytic orchids wide spread in Southern China, Burma to Sumatra, lava and Indonesia. These are allied to the Macorles and Anoectochilus. The generic name is derived from Greek word meaning "blood red", since the undersides of the leaves of these orchids an deep red in color and sterns are also blackish red. The orchids come under the group of "Jewel Orchids" which possess attractive leaves.

These plants are terrestrial in habit, dwarf, sterns are red. erect or procumbent. The procumbent types root easily from the nodes. The leaves are 4 to S. appear from the lip of the stem, arranged lightly up to 75 cm long and 35 cm broad, dark green above and blood red beneath, with red or yellow venetion which are also very prominant. The inflorescence is up 10 12 flowered. The attractive and showy white flowers arc 2 cm in diameter, the sepals and two lateral petals are similar in color and size. The lip possesses the saclike structure and a wide class at its base, and anther caps are yellow which emerge from the branch apex. The column is short & round. The pollinia am 2, light yellow in color.

Haem"ria discolor (Ker-Gawll Lind1.—The species inhabit in South China, Burma to Indonesia; coming to bloom in autumn and winter. The inflores. cence is up to 30 cm tall. The flowers are 2 cm across, beautiful, scented white with vivid yellow anther cap. There are several varieties in this species which arc also very beautiful in foliage and flowers.

Haxisea Lindl.

Tribe Epidendrear           Sub-tribe Ins/rinse

An unique genus with delightful flowers consisting of about 6 species of sympodial epiphytic orchids distributed in Mexico, Central America and Nothems South America. The genus is somewhat allied to EpirIcndrum. The generic name is derived from Use Greek words meaning "six and equal"; referring to the six outer floral segments which are almost equal srie and shape. These are most handsome and showy orchids, but uncommon in cultivation.

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Division Of Indoor And Outdoor Plants

Doritis Lindl.

Tribe Van*.         Sub-tribe Vattfirnne

This is a genus of single species of monopodial epiphytic orchids allied to Phokenopsis, found distributed in Burma to Sumatra. The generic name is derived from the Greek word meaning "spear" and also in annul the names applied to Aphrodite. It has a spear-shaped lip. These are small stemless and form dense chimp, unlike most monopodials. The leaves are 12 to 15 in number, stiff, leathery with clasping leaf bases, oblong to elliptic in shape, dark green in color often with purplish brown mottling up to 20 cm in length. The inflorescence is erect and stiff with up to 25 flowers. The flowers are 15 to 4 cm in diameter. The two lateral sepals are broader and fused to a spur like pmjection on the base of the column. The dorsal sepal and two lateral petals are equal in size, shape and color. The lip is three-lobed, the lateral lobes and a larger midlobe am with a slightly undulate margin. Them are two antennae behind the lateral lobes at the bass of the lip. The column is short, pollinias are 4 and yellowish. The genus Dorifis has been successfully hybridized with Pholaenapsis, Vanda, Kingiella and Rhynellostylis.

Doritis puithenima [dl, (Phalaenopsis antennifera Rchb.f.)—It is a spectacular species native to Burma, Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Laos, Viet-Nam and Cambodia, produce flowers during autumn and winter season. The stems are 15 cm long and freely rooting. The leaves am strictly spreading in a horizontal arrangement and more than 15 cm long, stiff, rigid, often purple flushed. The underside of the leaf is purple. The inflorescence is stout, erect, rigid and slender and up tab- cm tall, with 10 to 20 flowered, dense raceme. The flowers are variable in color and size, dark lavender, pale rose-purple or magenta rose. The lip is darker veined with pale lavender. There are, however, great deal of variation in this species.

Epidendrum Linnaeus

Tribe Epidendone           Sub-tribe Lnelliinae

This is another largest genera in the family Orchidaceae comprising of more than 1000 species of epiphytic orchids of America distributed between Carolina, North Louisiana to Southern Argentina, Mexico throughout West Indies and Central America, Andes and Brazil. One species Epirlendnon nocturnum is originated in West Africa. These are most popular cultivated orchids and commercially important as vol flower. 7he generic name is derived from Greek words epi, "on" and derdmo, "tree", meaning epiphytic plant growing 011 trees. There is comiderable variability in vegetative structure of this genus and two major sections are (i) those with distinct pseudo bulbs and Iii) those with reedlike growth. A few species are terrestrial and lithophyte. The pseudo bulbs are very elongated or short according to the species, with coriaceous leaves. Some leaves are thick and fleshy and  some are leathery- with two or four leaves at the apex of each pseudo bulb.

The Gardeners Problem Solvers

Ca'wake Tosco (AL) 0th. (Lintolochs Tosco I.d1.)—It is a deciduous species from Burma. The flowers are bloomed during autumn and winter. The pseudo bulbs are 20 cm tall, usually grayish germs in color, spindle shaped, swollen basally. The leaves are broadly lanceolate, up to 45 cm long, of flaccid-texture. The inflorescence is many flowered, nodding 10 90 um long. The flowers are loosely arranged in the raceme. The flowers are long lading. varying in color from pale rose-pink to white or dark-rose, up to 7.5 cm across. The lip is fattish, white in color.

Calanthe veratrilolia R. Br —The specie is native to India and Australia, produce flowers during May. The plants an! highty variable in all parts. The leaves are persistent 60 50 90cm long and 15 10 20 cm wide, prominently stalked at base, numerous, narrowly elliptic, acuminate and distinctly folded, light green in color. The inflorescence is up to 150 cm tall, often several from one growth, many flowered and erect. The flowers are lung lastmg, white, lip yellow-crested, Sum long. The lip is vivid yellow spotted in the center, which is very deeply cut and four lobed.

Calanthe vestita Loll. Wee:rho:die vestita Rchb. r; Cylheris Griffithii WIghtl—This desciduous species is inhabiting in India, Malay Peninsula, Burma and Thailand; produce blooms during November to December. The pseudo bulbs are conical egg shaped, 20 cm long, 4-angled, covered with silvery grey-sheaths, carrying 3 to 4 deciduous leave, The leaves are up to 90 cm long, and 10 cm wide, folded, falling before the flowers am produced. The inflorescence is up to 150 ore long, gracefully arched, carrying numerous large white flowers. The flowers are long-lived, 7 to 8 cm long. The lip is four-lobed, white centrally marked red.

Calorithe veitchii Hort—h is a hybrid of C. revert and C wstita, raised in 1860. The pseudo bulbs are elongated, narrowing apically. The leaves are deciduous. The inflorescence is about 75 errs tall. The flowers are rich rose colored. The lip is 4 lobed and rose colored. The flowers are produced during January to February, which are long lasting and suitable as not flower.

Camarotis Lindl.

Tribe Vandeoe  Subtribe Vandmac

There am 14 epiphytic species in this genus, naturally distributed in South East Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Guinea. The generic name is derived from the Greek word Kamarotos, meaning "an arch", a reference to the arched shape of the lip of flowers. The genus bullied to SarcseVilas or Trichoglottisvegetaively, but readily distinguished by its lip, which always points towards the apex of the inflorescence, thus generally making the flower appear inverted. Plants do not posses any pseudo bulb. 

Leaves are dist ichous or wanting at flowering lime. Flowers are small. Sepals and petals are nearly equal, elliptic- oblong. The lateral sepals are adnate to the base of the column. The cohunn is short or long, pollirda 

 Conan:Ws ohtosa rell.-1 he species is native to Bunna. Blooms during June-July. The stern is 15 to 20 cm long. Leaves are keeled, up to 7 cm long and 2cm wide, often recurred. Raceme is very shortly pedurre/ed, erect, subsessile, lady flowered. Bracts are broad and acute. Sepals and petals are linearoblong, obtuse. The lip is yellowish, slipper shaped, side lobes incurved. Flowers are 1.5 cm in diameter, pale rose colored.

Camarotis commit King and Pantl.—The species is found in Sikkim, Meghalaya, and North Bengal at an elevation of 4010 rri, produce flowers during June-July.

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