163 



JOTJENAL OF HORTICULTURE AJSTD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 1, 1863. 



To produce early bloom and rapid growth, it is not so 

 mucli a large as a properly prepared plant that is reqiiii'ed. 

 If both can be had of course so much the better, but the 

 preparation is of most importance. 



If instead of this mode of treatment the plants are 

 potted into three and four-inch pots in February, and sub- 

 jected to just suiEcient heat to start them, and then placed 

 in houses or pits under clear sheet glass, and exposed on all 

 favoiu-able occasions to a free cu-culation of air and all the 

 simshine that can be had in a south exposure, how different 

 is the result ! We have short, stubby plants clothed with 

 thick hardy foliage, and bristling mth bloom, that make 

 comparatively gay beds the day they ai-e planted. This is 

 no mere theory, but a fact, which, no doubt, can be strilc- 

 ingly illustrated by many cases. One particular instance 

 of the great diil'erence produced on the side of rapid gi'owth 

 and early flowering came within my own exjjerience this 

 season, in the case of a border wherein some seven hundi'ed 

 plants of variegated Geranium Bijou foi-m part of the com- 

 bination. It was desired that two of the lines should be 

 planted with the largest plants of this Geranium that could 

 be selected, and they were found in a house with an east 

 exposure where they only had the sun for a short i^eriod of 

 the day. In other respects they were here treated exactly 

 the same as another lot of the same plant, which had a 

 place in another house with au aspect due south, which, 

 consequently, had all the sunshine that it was possible to 

 enjoy. The jjlants from the east aspect were fine hand- 

 some plants, larger in all respects than those in the other 

 house, and they had always been so, and were accord- 

 ingly planted in the two back rows. The short, stilf, rust- 

 ling plants fi-om the influence of the fuU sun filled up the 

 rest of the bed. Most of them were much less than the other 

 set ; but the result has been, that the small plants out- 

 distanced the others in a very short time, and closed up, 

 and were ia full flower a month before the others. 



Now, the big plants were by no means tender when 

 planted, and they lost no leaves, and apparently received no 

 check, but they made neither wood nor flowers half so quickly 

 in the early part of the season as the others. Besides this, I 

 might notice .as coiToborative of the above, the case of a 

 large number — between eight and nine thousand — of the dif- 

 ferent varieties of the Zonale and plain-leaved Geraniums, 

 which were potted-oif in Pebruai-y, and placed in one large 

 house, where they had no fire heat whatever. They stood 

 not far from the glass, and were constantly exposed to all 

 the sun and ah' which an eificientlj' ventilated and clear' sheet- 

 glass house could afford. When planting time came they 

 were compact, sturdy plants, bristling with exijanded and 

 unexpanded blooms, and made gay beds the day they were 

 planted. And I speak within the bounds of truth when it 

 is stated that they were in their prime at least three weeks 

 earlier than ever I could liave them when put into vineries, 

 and afterwards hardened-o£f on the makeshilt system in 

 sheltered corners under mats, shutters, &c. The labour 

 and anxiety incurred were also wonderfully decreased, as 

 compared with any temporary means which ever I coidd hit 

 upon. There can be no doubt whatever, that in the case of 

 one of our most prominent sections of plants, and in others, 

 too, the blooming season is much longer when they ai-e 

 grown as related above. 



It is also considered a point of considerable importance, as 

 a means to this end, to select in autumn good, large, stifi' 

 cuttings instead of the mere points of the shoots, and to 

 strilie them early. Before the middle of September the last 

 cutting should be piit in. Besides this, there is a great dif- 

 ference in favour of the cutting that is struck out-doors in 

 the fuU blaze of the sun, as compared to a later cutting 

 under glass. 



In the case of Verbenas again, several weeks covild be 

 gained by making a selection of the vai-ieties found to 

 flower the earliest. In this respect there is a difference of 

 several weeks in favour of some of the varieties. GeneraHy 

 speaking, the stiff compact-growing sorts, such as Charl- 

 woodii liu.ong the dai'ks, and Victoria Scott among the 

 scarlets and crimsons, ai-e much earlier bloomers than the 

 strongrambling sorts. White beds could be much earlier 

 in fiLt condition by using the Cerastiums in place of 

 white Verliifciins, which are generally late, and wh.en in 

 bloom c nnot be compared to Cerastiums for a sheet of 



white. In autumn, too, the white Verbenas give way, while 

 the white-i'oliagcd plants are in their glory. There are 

 several varieties of Arabis (particidarly A. lucida varie- 

 gata), which are really beautiful for edgings ; and in con- 

 sequence of their standing the whiter, and being fine when 

 many other things are only being planted, aie deserving of 

 more extensive cidtivation. 



I liave no doubt that in the ooiu'se of year's, and bv judi- 

 ciously agitating the subject, that the season of the flower 

 garden will be greatly lengthened, independently entirely of 

 the things now used in many places for spring decoration. 

 And, oh ! that we could hope for the time when in our giant 

 establishments we shall see an acre or two covered with 

 glass, if it were for nothing else than to bring out the real 

 splendours of the fine varieties of Geraniums which we now 

 possess. Very little conception can be formed of the effects 

 which could be produced under glass with the great Nose- 

 gay and Globe vai-ieties of Geraniums. A glass-covered 

 garden for these alone would be an era in pleasure-garden- 

 ing that would .astonish us, if anv judgment is to be formed 

 fi'oni the effect which they produce in a small way long weeks 

 after they are cut down with fi'ost out-doors. In this 

 dii'ection an extension of the blooming season on a lai'ge 

 scale can scarcely be looked for ; and it is, therefore, all the 

 more desirable that early blooming in the system now so 

 much adopted should be aimed at. as well as the selection of 

 those varieties which have theu' full effect early in the season, 

 and which at the same time maintain it to the last. More 

 particularly is this to be desired when such plants have 

 innidiciously been made the chief or only featiu-es of the 

 parterre. The sooner the masses of om' tender flowers which 

 vanish with the fu'st fi'ost cease to be the alpha and omega of 

 our flower gardens, the better in many respects ; and if any- 

 thing is wanted more than another, it is the genius which will 

 so blend and intermingle them with beautiful vai'ieties of 

 evergreen trees and shrubs that they will prove important 

 features in summer and autumn, and yet not be much missed 

 when not there in muter. There is always a foreboding 

 of di'eariness which comes over the mind when looking at 

 a mass of flower-beds in a sunk panel, or on a terrace, where 

 there is nothing left when they are gone but bai'e beds of 

 earth, or even broken bricks or bottles. They shovdd be so 

 placed and blended with something of a more pei-manent 

 character, that their removal would be no more missed than 

 the bracelets and jewels which ornament the natiu'ally 

 elegant and beautiful person when they are laid aside. 



D. Thoji-son. 



THE AGKICULTUEAL HALL FLOWEE AND 

 FEUIT SHOW. 



The Agi'icultirral Hall, Islington, though only completed 

 last year, is familiar to the public as the place where the 

 Smitlifield Club Cattle Show is held. There ai-e few persons 

 interested in ruriil affa-ii'S who do not make a point of being 

 Ijresent at least once in two or three year's at these gi'eat 

 annual gatherings, where the townsman and the country- 

 man meet each other to the amusement, instruction, and 

 profit of both. 



The Show had outgrown the old inconvenient building at 

 Baker Street, and, to meet its requirements, a new structm'e 

 was erected in the Liverpool Road, enclosing a space of 

 SSI feet by 217 feet, and sm-rounded by galleries 36 feet 

 wide, affording in all an area for exhibition purposes of 

 neai-ly 3 acres. The roof has a span of 125 feet, and a height 

 of 7-5 feet, and being of glass alibrds an abundance of light. 

 It wlU thus be seen that the buUtling is well adapted for a 

 horticultm'al exhibition on a gTand scale ; and as this was a 

 w.ant in that wide and popiilous district, the north of Loudon, 

 it was determined to hold one. This determination, however, 

 was arrived at too Late in the season ; the last of the summer 

 shows was over, and exhibitors, expecting nothing more, took 

 their measures accordingly. Had a list of the prizes offered 

 been issued in sufficient time, doubtless a greater competi- 

 tion would have resulted; added to which the Exhibition 

 v.'as singidarly unfortunate in the weather, for the flowers of 

 many of the intending exhibitors were irretrievably damaged 

 by the thunderstorm which visited the southern part of 

 England on the Tuesday preceding. There were also some 

 iiiuits in the schedule of prizes offered, which undoubtedly 



