64 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1884. 



MY FLOWER GARDEN IN THE DECCAN. 



During the whole of ray life I have been an amateur 

 floriculturist, and in whatever tropical climate my lines have 

 been cast there I have managed, under more or less dis- 

 advantages, to raise a few flowers, differing from or supe- 

 rior to those growing around. But, strange as it may ap- 

 pear, the place where I obtained the greatest success and 

 had the most charming and perfect varieties of blooms was 

 at Secunderabad, in the Nizam's territory in the Deccan of 

 India, and where I had to contend against difficulties un- 

 known before. True that for four months of the year the 

 temperature of the station was cool and moist, but for the 

 remaining eight either the periodical rains swamped, or 

 the scorching hot winds and sun dried up every atom of 

 delicate vegetation. Then again the soil was the poorest 

 of the poor — sand, or rather pulverised granitic rock, being 

 its chief component, and the labour available was the least 

 expert I had hitherto had the misfortune to deal with. 

 Your Indian maldee — such being the name of the native 

 gardener — is, as a rule, an ignorant coolie, knowing little 

 of the practice and less of the principles of his occupation, 

 which he only follows, as it is his caste — caste, the bogie 

 despot of the East. Moreover, he is a gentleman who 

 scorns to be taught, strive you ever so much to teach him. 



But before I enter into any details as to how — draw- 

 backs notwithstanding — I produced flowers which would 

 have held their own with those of many a European grower, 

 let me give the reader an idea of the spot where this cul- 

 tivation was carried on — my house and grounds to wit. Of 

 the former I shall merely say, that it was large and sub- 

 stantial, and stood within an inclosure — compound is the 

 generic term — of a coarse grass, indigenous to this portion 

 of the Deccan. A thin belt of shrubs and trees skirted 

 the frontage of the bungalow ; among the former some 

 Orotons, Hibiscuses, Mimosas, Lautauas, and Oleanders ; 

 among the latter, flowering but fruitless, Pomegranates, a 

 wide-spreading Neem (Melia Azadirachta), a ditto Tamar- 

 ind, and a Moringa pterygosperma, that tree whereof the 

 root is the substitute for Horse Radish, the seed pods the 

 " stick curry " of gourmets, and the seeds themselves the 

 " Ben Nut." yielding the oil used in perfumery. An un- 

 dergrowth of a sort of yellow flowering dwarf Leguminous 

 plant, relieved by several bright-leaved Poinsettias and 

 variegated Laurel, and by many a bush of the ubiquitous 

 Marvel of Peru, or Four o'clock Flower, and Plumbago, 

 filled up the ground space between the trees and slirubs, 

 which, however, could not be said to flourish well, Mother 

 Earth being, as before mentioned, so sadly wanting in ele- 

 ments of nutrition. 



How, then, did I manage to grow flowers sufficiently 

 worthy in points of speciality to be chatted about in this 

 journal ? Wholly and solely by cultivating them in pots 

 from their alpha and omega — from seeding to maturity. I 

 shall take but one instance, and that the rare and choice 

 Oonvolvuli and Ipomceas I possessed, and which, indeed, 

 were the raree show of my garden. Sowed in pots, and 

 fit for removal, I carried them to and arranged them around 

 the pillars which supported the portico of the house, there 

 to trail up a latticework of cane. Growing as they did in 

 rich mould, their upspring was amazingly rapid even for 

 Oonvolvuli in a hot climate, and presently they literally 

 dazzled the eye with the variety, the colouring, and the 

 numbers of their bloom, which einbarass dr richesse had 

 indeed to be toned down with Jasmine, Honeysuckle, and 

 a climbing Rose or two, all having been previously raised 

 in pots and brought into their present position. So, to be 

 poetical, I could fairly say — 



" O'er the porcb the wild Rose and the Woodbine entwined, 

 And the sweet-scented Jessamine waved in the wind." 

 — bar always that the sun's heat causes very much of the 

 fragrance to evaporate from the oil-cells, not oidy of Jas- 

 mine, but from every scented flower in the East. 



A gardener from temperate zones, visiting my " com- 

 pound "—the word is convenient — would have been struck 

 by the abnormal system he saw in operation ; nothing bedded 

 out, everything " bedded " in — if I may be allowed the 

 term— either a pot, a half tub, a keg, a cartridge barrel, 

 or receptacle capable of holding it. I and others too who 

 gardened in the Deccan held to the wine-bibber's view — that 

 the liquor, being good, no matter what sort of vessel held 

 it. And this same expert would have stared a bit as well 



at the arrangement of the various plant receptacles afore- 

 said, though he must have confessed that it was pleasing 

 and effective. I disposed the receptacles in semi-circles, 

 where they would show to the greatest advantage, and 

 particularly in front of the house. To each of these semi- 

 circles there was a background of tall plants — Cannas, 

 Salvias, Poinsettias, Coleus, Tobacco — nay, even of feathery 

 branched Asparagus. One has no idea until one tests it, 

 what an elegant mass of light foliage the "sprays" of 

 Asparagus make. In front of this ■' backing " stood a large 

 tub painted green, or an equilly large flower-pot daubed 

 red, in which grew a Rose, or a Gardenia, or a choice 

 Hoya, or a Stephauotis, or indeed any flowering plant that 

 would stand out well, and not "hide its diminished head." 

 Then around the base of the tub or pot, bit at a foot 

 or two from it, came a closely-set-together arc of small 

 flower-pots, in each of which was either an Aster, a Bal- 

 sam, a Phlox Drummondi, a double Portulaca, a dwarf 

 Tropaeoluni, an Antirrhinum, a Marigold, a Verbena, a 

 tuft of Golden Feather ; and last, but not least, a Gera- 

 nium or Pelargonium, care being always taken not to mix 

 flowers higgleoy-piggledy, but to keep each kind together, 

 and to study colours and sizes somewhat. I may assure 

 the reader there was very considerable beauty and a little 

 realisation of the " bedding out " in this order of plants 

 of mine. 



The Roses I cultivated were many, those that did best 

 being the old-fashioned sorts, such as Marechal Niel, Gloire 

 de Dijon, Geaut des Batailles, Cloth of Gold, Devoniensis, 

 Coquette des Alpes, and so on ; and it was wonderful hnw 

 quickly they grew, and how profusely some of them flow- 

 ered. The soil I used was a haphazard rule-of-thumb 

 I mixture of leaf-mould, stable manure, alluvial gatherings 

 I from the large fresh-water tanks, red earth — its colouring 

 principle no doubt iron, sand, and a dash of sal ammo- 

 niac, which, in infinitesimal quantity, is a grand fertiliser, 

 but, when too liberally given, a certain atropos to a Rose 

 bush. The trees were wintered by laying bare the roots, 

 and depriving them of water to a great extent during the 

 hot season, when all vegetation is at a stand-still. The 

 maldee afore told of objected greatly to this " not gib tree 

 panee (water) to drink, dis plenty too hot sun," and was 

 for drenching them, but I forbade his doing so under penalty 

 of " stick." 



It was striking how quickly and splendidly, yet not with- 

 out trouble, Balsams grew. I had them with huge-sized 

 flowers, of all colours and varieties, raised from seed ob- 

 tained from Carter and from Sutton. I would have matched 

 my dwarf Camelia Balsams with any, even with renowned 

 growers of the flower in England. Portulacas did gloriously, 

 the double ones always recalling to my mind those rosettes 

 one sees in the button-holes of officers of French and other 

 Continental orders of knighthood. Asters, too, were an 

 especial pride of mine, and I got much kudos for the dwarf 

 P;eony Perfection, the dwarf Victoria, and the dwarf 

 Chrysanthemum kinds I raised. It was difficult to get good 

 Verbenas, but, per contra, Pelargoniums, both double and 

 single, were really first-rate. So also Phloxes, and Snap- 

 dragons, and other annuals, which at this moment have 

 faded from my memory. But I reraembeer that Sweet Peas 

 flowered scantily and were next akin to scentless, but Tube- 

 roses made up for that, and were almost too powerful in 

 perfume. Dahlias and Zinnias did fairly well ; Tulips would 

 never flower with me, nor would the Gladiolus, though I 

 have seen it thriving in the gardens of the Nizam, near 

 the city of Hyderabad. 



Three spoilators infested my garden: one was the white 

 ant, which got into the tubs and boxes, ate the wood, and 

 worked its way through the soil into the roots and stems 

 of Roses and such-like ; another spoilator was the bandicot 

 or pig-rat, who revelled upon the larger seeds and the juicy 

 parts of succulent plants ; and the third and last, and 

 worst, was my gardener, who, for the trifling consideration 

 of a few of the Nizam's " duls " (copper coins), would cut 

 and sell to any lady or gentleman of the station a bouquet 

 of my choicest blooms, at the same time taking oath to 

 me that he knew not how my " Johns of Battles " " C'ock- 

 eys of Yalpes," " Glories of the Dungeon," as he miscalled 

 my Roses, or how my " Gasters," " Ploxes," " Snapping- 

 up-Dragons," and other flowers had been conjured from my 

 pots into the vases of other individuals, — H. L. 0. — Gard- 

 eners' Chronicle. 



