IRISH GARDENING 



Notes on a Holiday Tour. 



By John H. Cumming. 



At the beginning of last September it was my 

 privilege to have a tour through various parts of 

 Scotland, and garden notes then made may be 

 interesting to some of your readers. As most of 

 us know there are fashions in gardening, and in 

 the course of my ramblings 1 was agreeably 

 surprised to find that the old fashion of tender 

 plants for summer bedding is rapidly giving 

 place to hardy things. Pelargoniums, Calceolarias, 

 and Lobelias that one used to see everlastingly 

 are now in many places entirely absent in the 

 summer display. 



Visiting Lord Kinnaird's place in the fertile 

 raise of Gowrie. I noted a border over a hundred 

 yards long planted throughout with four lines of 

 Antirrhinums and two lines of East Lothian 

 Stock. The Antirrhinums were tall a1 the back, 

 then of an intermediate height, and the front 

 two lines were purple and white stocks, in the 

 flower garden the beds were lilled with Pent- 

 stemons of one colour; Antirrhinums, tall. 

 medium and dwarf in distinct colours; Lark- 

 spurs. Phloxes, and Marguerites. >sot a Pelar- 

 gonium to be seen. I need hardly tell gardeners 

 what a saving of labour this system of bed- 

 ding means. Cuttings oi all these, if desired, 

 can be kepi in frames all winter. I noticed 

 in a few gardens the new Pentstemon South- 

 gate Gem; it is a big improvement on New- 

 berry fJem, and in a mass is really a capital 

 thing. The use of annuals in pots to make a 

 temporary display was effectively done at the 

 Dundee Horticultural Exhibition. It is a three 

 days' affair, held in tents in one of the public 

 parks, and the executive spend £1.000 in prizes 

 and amusements, and are well repaid by a large 

 attendance. I was impressed by the use nursery- 

 men made of the floor space at this show. Much 

 tabling is dispensed with, and grand groups 

 worked old on the floor. A really charming 

 border was made up entirely of annuals in pots, 

 and visitor^ saw the true value of annuals for 

 such a purpose. 



1 1 ere also I noted a new Croton-leaved Coleus 

 that is a distinct break away from the well- 

 known type. It has a slender upright habit, and 

 with long, narrow, drooping laciniate leaves. 

 highly coloured, and the whole plant has the 

 appearance of a well-grown Croton. Those who 

 have not yet tried Sutton's Fairy Rose from seed 

 have a pleasure in store. I saw it in a nursery- 

 man's stand at the Royal Caledonian Show in 

 Edinburgh. It was in pots, and used as a ground 

 work for Standard Hoses, p grows a loot high, 

 and is smothered in blossoms of a nice pink 

 colour. 



Dahlias have (hanged in character very much 

 during the past twenty years. Lately the Paeony- 

 flowered form created much interest, bur a newer 

 type still has come to the front. It is called the 

 " Collarette." and very elegant it is. Messrs. 

 Dobbie were the only nurserymen who were 

 awarded a gold medal at the Edinburgh Show. 

 and their stand was largely made up of a huge 

 display of this class of Dahlia. As garden plants 

 they are very decorative while for cutting they 

 are said to be superior to any other form of 

 Dahlias, lasting quite one week in a cool room. 



I had a run through the late General 

 Wauchope's place at Xiddrie, and there I saw 

 a new departure in herbaceous border arrange- 



ment. Tlie borders were on each side of a 

 central walk, but there were no edges to the 

 walk- no stiff boxwood : stones or tile edging. 

 The plants along the front were dwarf, and 

 allowed to grow irregularly on to the walk. 

 This gave quite a natural pleasing appearance. 

 and I could not help thinking it a great improve- 

 ment on the stiff, formal borders one so often 

 sees. 



Visitors to Edinburgh cannot help admiring 

 its beautiful Princes Street. Its gardens, too, 

 have a natural beauty seldom met with in cities. 

 The summer bedding this year in a large portion 

 of them is made up almost entirely of Antir- 

 rhinums. The lordly tall sort of three feet down 

 to the dwarf and compact one of nine inches, in 

 a great variety of colour, was indeed making a 

 great effect, and viewed from a distance arrested 

 the attention by the brilliancy of colouring pro- 

 d need. 



At Duntreath Castle, in Stirlingshire. I noted 

 several things worth remembering. The gardens' 

 best display was expected to be in late summer 

 and autumn. To provide for this, flower beds 

 and borders were tilled mostly with hardy plants. 

 The herbaceous borders were simply grand in 

 appearance. The mode of planting adopted is 

 to group, say. six or eight plants of a kind 

 together. This gives a bold mass of colour. 

 The plants used are varieties of Helianthus, 

 Asters, Pentstemons, Phloxes. Montbretia, Gypso- 

 phila, and such like. The staking of these is too 

 often done by putting down one stake and 

 encircling the plant with a string. In the borders 

 under notice all the branches of each plant are 

 supported by a stake, thus making each a group 

 perfect in itself. These stakes are put in early. 

 and are concealed by the later growth, and 

 thousands of them are used. It entails much 

 work, but when such a border is in flower the 

 effect is really charming. A part of the grounds 

 is devoted entirely to flowering shrubs and foliage 

 of an ornamental nature. By the middle of 

 September Golden Elders are reckoned past their 

 best. Here they were looking fresh, and the deep 

 golden colour was strikingly attractive. On 

 enquiry I learned they were cut down to the 

 ground early in May each year. This induces new 

 growth, winch keeps fresh, bright and dwarf later 

 into the autumn than where they are usually 

 pruned down earlier in the year. Outdoor 

 Chrysanthemums were a feature in the bedding. 

 and their dwarf appearance led me again to ask 

 the plan of cultivation adopted. The cuttings 

 are inserted in boxes during the first week in 

 May ; when struck they are planted out direct 

 from the cutting box. In three months they are 

 in full flower. 



The planting of a big oval bed in a conspicuous 

 place was considered specially good this year. 

 Plants about live feet high of Calceolaria amplexi- 

 caulis were planted four feel apart. Underneath 

 as a groundwork was Perilla nankinensis. The 

 royal yellow heads of this grand Calceolaria were 

 a wonderful contrast to the dark metallic foliage 

 of 1 he Perilla. Such combinations arrest at tent ion, 

 and can be done hy even the simplest subjects. 



g^» {«?* &* 



There are three sorts of blacke Hellebor or 

 Beares Foote, one that is the true and right 

 kind, whose flowers have the most beautiful 

 aspect, and the time of his flowering most rare, 

 that is, in the deepe of winter about Xmas . . 

 We call it in English the true blacke Hellebor. 

 or ihe Xmas flower. — John Parkinson. 



