July 17, 1873. 1 



JOURNAL OP HORTICDLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



39 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



of 



Mouth 



Day 



o( 



Week. 



JULY 17—23, 1873. 



Koyal Horticnltoral Society's Pelargouiam 

 [ Show clones. 

 Cleckheatou Horticultural Show. 

 6 Sunday aftuk Trinity. 



Average Temoera- Kain in San 



tore near London. 43 years. Rises. 



Sun 

 Sets. 



Moon 

 .lUees. 



I 



Day. 



74.3 

 74.7 

 73.2 

 73.2 

 74.0 

 73.2 

 74.0 



Night. 

 51.8 

 00.2 

 49.9 

 60.2 

 !)0.8 

 61.4 

 51.4 



h 

 Saf 4 



ro. h. 



8.S 11 



57 11 

 morn. 



22 



54 



38 1 



32 2 



Moon 

 Seta. 



Moou'e 

 Age. 



Days. 

 23 

 24 

 25 

 26 

 27 



Clock Day 



before of 



Sun. { Tear. 



m. H. 

 5 50 



5 54 

 "> 58 

 B 3 



6 G 



198 

 199 

 200 

 201 

 202 

 203 

 204 



From observations taken near London dnring forty-three K'^.^e "average day ''J^P^'*'"™ °' 'If, ^ tempcratnre 



50.7°. The greatest heat was 94 •, on the 17th, 1834 ; and the lowest cold 32"=, on the 23rd, 1863. The gi-eatest tall of ram was 1.87 inch. 



AT A ROSE SHOW. 



WONDER if these few notes will be ac- 

 cepted. If they are, so much the better ; if 

 not, no harm clone. 



I have recently been exhibiting at several 

 Rose shows, and thought I would send a few 

 lines descriptive of the delights of showing 

 to our most excellent JouRN.ii. of Horti- 

 culture. I know not what is pleasauter or 

 jolher than taking one's blooms to one of 

 the gi'eat shows. From first to last it is to 

 me an unbroken pleasure. Even the early rising, the 

 jumping out of bed at 3 .v.m., when all the rest of the 

 world are fast asleep, is pleasant ; for yon know what a 

 glorious sight you will presently have. When dressed 

 and out of doors, how lovely your Roses look ! evei'y 

 petal frosted with dew, every leaf glittering with mois- 

 ture ; and whUst cutting your finest blooms and staging 

 them, how gi-aud is the siglit tliat gradually unfolds itself! 

 The sun rising in a quiet summer's morning, the eastern 

 horizon at first suffused with rosy light suddenly changed 

 to the brightest of auaber.';, and, before you have half done 

 your work, with one leap the sun lias risen. 



Then the jom-ney to the sliow, how pleasant it is ! 

 Even the raUway people at j'our own station, how pleased 

 they seem to see your boxes, and how willingly they help 

 you to put them carefully into the guard's van ; and 

 when you come to a junction, and some friend whom you 

 knew would meet you tliere, appears with his bright 

 green boxes, how delightful the meeting. And here let 

 me tell a short anecdote. Two nurserymen were over- 

 heard talking at a show about myself and my great (and, 

 alas ! generally victorious) Rose rival. " Yes,'' one said, 

 " they always show at the same places, and yet they are 

 friends.'' " Aye," said the other, " and I have heard, .and 

 I believe it is true, that they visit each other's houses." 

 Then the next morning, when we arrive at the tented 

 field, to see the hundreds of Roses being prepared, what 

 a grand sight it is, and how real lovers of the Rose de- 

 light in it ! Think of being placed near one of the great 

 Kose raonarchs — a Paul, a Turner, or a Keynes, and 

 others! You can see him stage, and observe, without 

 anyone to crush you, or policeman to shout, " Please pass 

 on," to what a state of perfection each Rose, so familiar to 

 you at home, really can bo brought ; and most delightful 

 of all, because most flattering, sometimes to be asked by 

 the cultivator of tens of thousands which of three blooms 

 yon would say was tlio best for his seventy-two. 



And when your own boxes are ready for the judges, 

 and just before the tent is cleared, how can words de- 

 scribe the scene which we are privileged to see '.> The great 

 nurserymen's boxes all uncovered, each bloom a picture, 

 every Rose we liave tried to bloom at home here shown 

 at its best, everyon(? we have longed to see, shown in 

 trebles and singles. Morrcn, Castellaine, Niel, Amand, 

 Ac, all shown without a spot on their petals, and perfect 

 as to form and colour. 

 And now wo leave, but not for long ; soon we shall be 

 l>o, 642.— Vol. XXV., New Sibub. 



re-admitted, and then we shall know our fate ; and in the 

 meantime there is a very satisfactory way of spending 

 our time. We are as hungry as horses, and just as we 

 are thinking of breakfast a hearty voice sliouts out, 

 " Come and breakfast with me, old fellow," and our great 

 rival, the king of the amateurs, lays hold of us, and 

 carries us off to his hotel ; and there we talk of our 

 chances over the best of breakfasts, with, perhaps, a, 

 glass of champagne to keep up our spirits, and before we 

 have well done it is time to rush off to the show again. 

 We present our pass, we enter the tent, we make to our 

 boxes, and then — well the writer of these lines was suc- 

 cessful ; but if he had not been so — and he often has 

 not — he would enjoy it nearlij as much, and at all events 

 would have congratulated his friend as heartily as he in 

 turn was. 



But we have not done yet with the delights of the 

 show. What pleasanter to stand near your box and 

 hear the remarks the visitors make upon your blooms ? 

 Sometimes they are flattering, sometimes the reverse, 

 and now and then wonderfully cruel. " I could have 

 shown much better blooms than that." " If I had known 



there were no better Roses to be shown, mine " 



" Pass on, ladies and gentlemen, pass on." " I wish you 

 would pass them on, constable," says a rather portly old 

 woman, " for they have been pushing me all round the tent 

 like a catapult." Then the meetings of friends, and the 

 introductions to people whose names are as familiar to 

 you as the flowers that they grow. The pleasant greet- 

 ings, among others, of your old friend and correspondent, 

 "D.,De«Z," and the valuable information he imparts to 

 you on this year's new Roses which he has seen exhibited 

 for certificates at Kensington. In fact, there is no plea- 

 santer place than a Rose show, tliere are no better fellows 

 than the exhibitors of Roses, whether they be amateurs 

 or nurserymen, and there is nothing which delights me 

 more than the conviction that each year the Rose is more 

 popular, and the exhibitors more numerous. — .John B. M. 



C.\MM. 



TRACHELIUM C.ERULEUM. 



Although Trachelium crcruleum has been cultivated 

 in this country for more than two centuries, it is far from 

 being generally known. I have frequently met with 

 persons whose knowledge of the plants of the day ex- 

 tended to countless varieties of each species, but who 

 acknowledged their ignorance of this handsome plant. 



It is a native of the south of Europe, and though 

 moderately hardy, it suffers from unusually severe winters, 

 therefore it is desirable in most cases to preserve a plant 

 or two under glass; but it is easily raised from seed, and 

 seedhngs flower the same season. Allied to the Cam- 

 panula, it, nevertheless, differs from the most of that 

 genus in its habit of growth ; it does not throw up 

 suckers like most of that family, but produces side shoots, 

 which make excellent slips or cuttings. It also differs 

 from most of tlie cultivated Campanulas by its flowers 

 being collected into a flattened umbel, often .'> or 6 inches 

 across. Although the individual flowers are small. 



No. 1S04.— Vol L ,Old Series. 



