THE TLOEAL WOKLD AND CiAiiDEN UL'IDE. 



171 



perfection, the old roots should be taken up 

 iu April iind divided, and the single shoots 

 phmted six inches apart, in the s-ime way 

 as is done vvitli Campanula carp.itica, by 

 those who know how to manage it for 

 beddinn;. Tiie plants of tins seedling i;xhi- 

 bited at Regent's Park were wintered in a 

 cold frame in forty-e^ght sized pots. Early 

 in Apiil they were shifced into twenty-fours, 

 and six weeks after in twelves. They were 

 only protected from heavy rains, and six 



days previous to the day of the exhibition 

 were placed against a wall, and some spare 

 lights put over them. Such an improve- 

 ment of an old border favourite entitles 

 Mr. Cliitty to the thanks of all who have 

 the real interests of horticulture at heart, 

 for the tendency of fashion is to thrust 

 out of cultivation many old friends, 

 which for intrinsic beauty cannot be sur- 

 passed by the gaudiest of novel impor- 

 tations. 



BEDDING FUCHSIAS. 



I WILL reserve some notes on bedding and 

 propagating not of immediate importance, 

 in order to offer a few remarks on the use 

 of Fuchsias out of doors, so as to deal with 

 the other side of the picture, painted so 

 nicely iu another page, by the master of 

 fuchsias on this side of London, Mr. Ou- 

 bridge. As my friend has introduced him- 

 self so ably to the readers of the Flokal 

 World, I shall content myself by saying, 

 that the best set of specimen fuchsias I 

 have seen this season were those bloomed 

 by him in a back shed, in liis new nursery, 

 and altogether hidden from tlie public eye- 

 sight. For connoisseurs of these things it 

 was a public Ijss tliat those jdants were 

 not exhibited. There was not a fuchsia 

 fit to come into the same tent with them 

 at any of the Regent's Park Shows this 

 season, and if Mr. Oubridge had not been 

 too busy in meeting the wants of his cus- 

 tomers for bedding plants, he might have 

 added largely to his store of gold and silver 

 cups, and something to his balance at his 

 bankers ; Messrs. Loarn, Leaf, and Silver 

 Sand, being the taistees of his purse. 



"With Mr. Chitty in tlie fern and miscel- 

 laneous plant department, the best botanist 

 about here; Mr. Oubridge in the way of bed- 

 ding stuff, rose-, and show plants ; Mr. Ken- 

 dall for Covent Garden ; Mr.West for a bit of 

 anything, from a score of Collards to a thou- 

 sand Caladiirm Chantini ; Mr. Grimbly, the | 

 young beginner, making harle([uin changes ! 

 on the old worn-out nursery in Albion | 

 Road, Stoke Newington is on the mend in | 

 horticultural matters, and there is a fair | 

 prospect of its soon resuming the high j 

 position it once held for clever gardeners, 

 well-kept grounds, valuable collections, and 

 good nurseries. Tliis has to do with 

 fuchsias only so far as this, that, for years 

 past, I have been collecting sorts, planting 

 them out, taking note of their behaviour, 

 and coming to conclusions as to their 

 merits for bedding purposes, and I have 



had to ransack the stocks at the nurseries 

 to get together the varieties required. This 

 season I have fuchsias evei'vwhere except 

 in places where they would be decidedly 

 objectionable, as, for instance, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of my lovely foliage ribbon, or 

 near the grand bed of Iberis Kermesina, 

 which is now a close convex surface of 

 lilac crimson, rich and compact beyond 

 the conception of those who know Iberis 

 only as a weedy border flower. Some of 

 them look only fit for the muck -heap ; 

 some are too strong in their growth, some 

 too weak, but, taken altogether, they 

 confirm a conclusion to which I arrived 

 long ago, namely, that of all the green- 

 house plants in general favour for decora- 

 tive properties, tlie fuchsia is the very best 

 for amateurs. I cast no imputations on 

 other good things, these are times in which 

 we must not praise one plant at the expense 

 of another, I simply say, all things con- 

 sidered, and, cceteris paribus, the fuchsia is 

 the best plant to begin v.'ith in any first 

 attempt at practical horticulture, and the 

 best thing to go on with until you attain to 

 such skill in getting up specimens as my 

 amateur neighbour, Mr. Harrison, or my 

 nurseryman neighbour, Mr. Oubridge, who 

 is as great in fuchsias as Mr. Holland is 

 in pelargoniums, or the Messi's. Wortley, 

 ^V'ard, and Monk in chrysanthemums. Go 

 back to last winter for the sake of an ex- 

 treme case. Then in well-managed houses 

 geraniums died by dozens ; iu ill-managed 

 houses they died by hundreds, and all the 

 hap-hazard ways of keeping them were 

 simply and universally ways of losing 

 them, for they died outright, and alto- 

 gether. But the fuchsia, left to itself, is 

 strictly deciduous, and there is a gain at 

 once in the matter of merely keeping them. 

 I had a large lot packed away in a house, 

 which was simply shut up, without even a 

 mat on the roof, and no fire, and the deaths 

 were not more than five percent, On the 



