1869.] CARTER & CO.'S NURSERY. 303 



MESSRS CARTER & CO.'S NURSERY, PERRY HILL, 

 SYDENHAM, KENT. 



This establisliineiit has become a most important adjunct of the ex- 

 tensive business of Messrs James Carter, Dimnett, & Beale, of High 

 Holborn, London. A few years ago, Avhen this enterprising firm 

 branched out into seed-growers and nurserymen, the then small Crystal 

 Palace Nursery at Perry Hill was taken by them, and since that time 

 it has grown into one of the first bedding-plant nurseries of the day. 

 Not that bedding-plants are the sole feature of this nursery, for a gen- 

 eral nursery stock is largely cultivated, but bedding-plants are a special 

 feature, and consequently largely cultivated. At no season of the year 

 could a more interesting visit be paid to this nursery than during the 

 end of April or early part of May, just before the heavy bedding trade 

 commences. Like an immense floricultural army gathered together to 

 be reviewed may the extensive array of bedding-plants seen here at 

 this season be likened, as all the intermediate and cool houses and pits 

 present the appearance of a succession of regiments wearing clivers- 

 coloured uniforms when the plants are arranged in groups of each kind 

 from which to select orders, as it is computed there are one million 

 bedding-plants ready for sending out, besides those advancing onward 

 to this stage of readiness from the propagating house — which can 

 be seen in almost countless thousands. In this nursery there are six 

 span-roofed houses, each 150 feet in length and 20 in width, and in 

 each of which it is stated 100,000 bedding-plants can be arranged in 

 dififerent stages of growth. In addition to the ordinary stages in each 

 house, extra-ordinary ones are extemporised in the form of broad com- 

 modious shelves, used for the purpose of economising space. Even 

 with so much room, a deep narrow large thumb-pot is used for the 

 first shift of the plants, thirty-six of which will stand on a square foot 

 of shelf. On the south side of each of these long houses (they all 

 run from east to west) there are ranges of pits of great width, and in 

 some instances on the north side as well, while the more advanced and 

 hardier stuff occupy shallow brick pits, which can be covered with 

 mats nailed to wooden frames should the weather turn cold or exces- 

 sively wet. The general character of the bedding-stuff was of a short, 

 stocky, yet vigorous character, apparently well adapted for exposed 

 situations. 



The centre stage of one of these houses contained Yines in 8-inch 

 pots, six pots in width, with an alley between. The spaces between 

 the pots are stuffed with spent hops, and a good heat was being main- 

 tained. These Yines remain here till the end of August, when, the 

 growth being matured, they are hardened off elsewhere. It was said 



