IRISH GARDENING 



135 



this was a true species, apart from baceata, and, 

 as Mr. Bean suggests, anyone who did not know 

 that it occurred in Mr. Dickson's nursery at 

 Chester, in the thirties of the last century, might 

 be forgiven for making the mistake, for it is far 

 more luilike our Yew superficially than are recog- 

 nised species such as T. hrerifolid and T. caiui- 

 (leiisis : whether grown as a shrub or a standard it 

 is most ornamental; the leaves are narrow, small, 

 abruptly pointed, and lie very flat; in habit it is 

 dense. In colour it is of a dark grey-green, the under 

 side of the foliage being glaucous. I see from Mr. 

 Bean's book that this form is female, but it is cer- 

 tainly not a free fruiter, and though I have seen 

 nuTuy plants, and some, I should say, quite sixty 

 years old, I have no recollection of any crop of 

 fruit. T. h. (idpressd nuieii is a golden form which 

 originated in Fisher, Son & Sibray's nurseries at 

 Sheffield. A silver form is also recorded l)y Nichol- 

 son, but this I do not possess, nor, indeed, do 1 

 know of anyone who does, and in fact a true silver 

 variegation, so connnon in the case of Holly and 

 Box, is very rare in that of any kind of Yew. I see 

 in the Glasnevin list that T. h. (tnjeiite<i is recorded, 

 but how far the variegation in that instance is truly 

 silver, and not merely straw-coloured, will be better 

 known to your readers than to me. 



T. h. (I. st)iitu is, a.s its name would imply, an 

 upright variety. I can also boast one called T. /;. 

 fdidini j/eiuhihi, which is a free, loose-growing 

 plant witli long slender branches; taidiva is an out- 

 of-date synonym for adpressa, though in this case 

 the foliage se^ms to me to show little or nothing of 

 the flattened ndpressa character. I suspect it of 

 being a weeping form of the connnon Yew, and 

 though it is quite di.stinct from Dovasfunl or uni- 

 riJis penduld, I find it (luitc im{)o.'^sible on paper 

 to nuike clear where the difference is. My plant 

 was given me by a Quaker gentlemtin, named 

 Morris, living near Philadelphia, which, I take it, 

 would not be too far north to enable forms of our 

 Yew to survive the winter. 



(Tu he coiifniued .) 



Famous Netherland Horticultural 

 Centres. 



By Mk 



VAN DUN Berg. 



II. Aalsmeer. 



A SECOND very interesting Dutch horticultural 

 centre is Aalsmeer, located in the province of 

 North Holland, and only half-an-hour by train 

 from the capital city of Amsterdam, going in the 

 south-west direction. The horticulture of this 

 place dates from the year 1852, the year of the 

 draining of the Haarlem Lake, since when the 

 ])opulation of Aalsmeer half-nurserynum, half- 

 fisherman at that time — has devoted itself wholly 

 to hortii'ultvn-e. Aalsmeer is a flower village in 

 the real meaning of the word, where at the same 

 time is to be seen typical Dutch natural scenery. 

 The soil is in general the same as is found in 

 Boskoop— namely, very rich moorland. 



From the centre of the place several roads, which 

 are sometimes very narrow, go in all directions, 

 often longer than two miles. Separated by ditches 

 one from the other and from the road the nurseries 

 lie like small isles on both sides, bounded ))y this 

 road by a little turn-bridge. Flat-bottomed boats 



and motor-boats are also here the principal means 

 of transport for the nurseries, and one has to be a 

 native of the place to know his way in this en- 

 tangled thread of waterways. 



Florist stock is the principal culture in the 

 Aalsmeer Nurseries, although some tree nursery 

 stock is cultivated. Of this, the boxwood takes a 

 considerable place, and the following numbers will 

 show the importance of this article. During the 

 export season 1915-1916 160,UU0 bush ))ox in 

 average good height has been shipped; ;!,000 pyra- 

 mid form, 800 l)all form, 4,200 standards, 73,-300 box 

 for edges, 4.50 box in different forms. The export 

 is mostly to the U.S.A. 



Wonderful, in some Aalsmeer nurseries, is the 

 cultivation of clipped boxwood and yew in all im- 

 aginable shapes, as dogs, cats, hens, swans, sliips, 

 tables, l)anks, spirals, fowl, sometimes placed on 

 globes and cubes, and between one hundred and 

 two hundred years old. 



Of the florist stock the cultivation of cut flowers 

 comes first, and numberless hot-houses are built 

 for forcing plants and cultivating pot plants. 

 Lilacs and Roses are here the principal forcing 

 plants, and in latter years a start has been made 

 with the cultivation of Carnations. The perfection 

 of the Aalsmeer forcing Lilacs, with their long 

 stems and large flowers, has earned European re- 

 putation. During 191-5-1916, 1,500,000 Lilac sprays 

 were exported to all countries, and in 1914 the first 

 consignment of those Lilacs was shipped from 

 Aalsmeer to New York, and arrived in splendid 

 condition after a joiu'ney of nearly two weeks. 



The cultivation of Roses for cut flowers covers a 

 large area under glass, only broken by the high 

 chinnieys of the steam boilers, which give the im- 

 pression of a number of factories — Rose factories. 

 Among the othei- cut flowers are different kinds of 

 perenniaLs — Antirrhinunnis, Dahlias, Ijilies. The 

 Chrysanthenuuns are cultivated by the hundred 

 thousand, as single stems and bush varieties, 

 ready for the market from the middle of August. 



Also the cultivation of pot plants is very impor- 

 tant. Two groups of pot plants may here be de- 

 scril>ed. First, we have the so-called l>edding 

 plants cultivated in frames for garden decoration, 

 as Pelargoniums, Fuchsias, Lobelia, Petiniias, &c. 

 The cultivation of these plants is usually in tlie 

 hands of the small nurseryman, who sends them 

 to the inland. The second group contains the 

 Cyclamens, Begonias, Gloire de Lorraine, Glox- 

 inias, Hydrangeas, &c., cultivated and forced in 

 up-to-date glasshouses with electric light. Other 

 cultivations are room plants, palms, ferns, &e. 



The products of the Aalsn)eer Nurseries are 

 generally not all exported by the nurseryman him- 

 self, but they bring these products to the auction, 

 where the exporters buy the flowers and the plants. 

 Several large sale depots are built for this purpose. 

 The exporters have their own offices and packing 

 sheds, and the export takes place to nearly all 

 coinitries of Europe. The packing has, therefore, 

 to be very careful. 



The co-operation between the Aalsmeer nursery- 

 men for making the quality of their nursery stock 

 as high as possible, for making all sorts of experi- 

 ments, for organising and coming out to exhi- 

 bitions, for conjointly buying in all sorts of mate- 

 rials for their nurseries, &c., is extraordinarily - 

 well organised, and all mutual competition and 

 private dealing has been put in the background, 

 which has made Aalsmeer at this moment a horti- 

 cultural centre founded on a very soimd base and 

 of great importance in the Dutch horticulture. 



