40i 



JOtJENAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



t November 28, 1887. 



Pearson again brings up Gishurst compound, saying that it 

 required so many repetitions of treatment that plants requiring 

 much more of such attention would have found their way to 

 the rubbish-heap. 



Gishurst compound having now held its own with the highest- 

 class gardeners for more than eight years, outliving many pre- 

 parations " vastly superior," I have latterly left it to fight its 

 own battles, but this experience of Mr. Pearson's tempts me to 

 break my good resolution ; it is so diametrically opposite to 

 that of the Orange growers in Australia, where, owing to the 

 absence of cold, blight lives and breeds all the year through. 

 Mr. Carson's report on Orange trees, quoted some years back 

 in your paper, entirely differs from Jlr. Pearson's, and con- 

 cludes by saying that Apple trees were so much infested that 

 their cultivation was being discontinued (on the road to the 

 rubbish-heap), and that they had more than doubled in price 

 since Gishurst compound had been found an effectual remedy. 

 — The Invekior of Gishukst. 



NUNEHAM PARK. 



[Concluded from page 35'2.) 



The kitchen gardens are eight acres in extent, and the 

 pleasure grounds cover thirty-three acres. Passing out of the 

 former by a door in the Ivy-covered wall, crossing a road, and 

 going through some evergreens, I reached the rosery. No 

 flower in the garden is quite equal to the Eose, but the end of 

 September is not the most favourable time to visit a rosery ; 

 still enough of beauty and fragrance remained to convince me 

 how pleasant it must have been to linger on the spot when the 

 Eoses were in full blossom. In form it is a large circle, having 

 for its centre a triangular trellised seat or bower, with iron up- 

 rights supporting chains covered with climbing Eoses, sur- 

 rounding which, and for the greater part of the plan, are flow- 

 ing devices in beds of Roses, among which are stone pedestals 

 bearing figures, and statuettes also of stone. Oiher more formal 

 beds of flower garden plants, in single line, complete the plan 

 within the circular main gravel walk ; and then there was a 

 ribbon arrangement composed of Cerastium tomentosum, with 

 Campanula carpatica, very effective here, much more so than the 

 Bister-coloured Viola cornuta could have been, and so I should 

 think it would be anywhere, as the flowers are larger and more 

 even in outline. The other plants employed were Amaranthus 

 melancholicus ruber, which looked very melancholy indeed. 

 Scarlet Pelargoniums, red Salvias, Eoses, Dahlias, and Sun- 

 flowers, the last apparently looking down approvingly. An oc- 

 casional subtropical plant held a position around ; for example, 

 Brugmansias, with their sweet, white, enamelled, post-horn-look- 

 ing flowers, and noble foliage ; Ficus elastica, Cannas, Castor 

 Oil plants, and Acacia lophantha. Varieties of Crataegus bear- 

 ing their large bunches of haws of different colours, Arbor 

 Vitffis, and UoUies slope upwards all round, so as to embrace at 

 last the forest trees completely screening this pretty retired 

 spot. 



I believe I may state that Mr. Stewart intends to sacrifice 

 the Cerastium tomentosum which now borders some of these 

 beds for the Variegated Alyssum, as the former " will not stand 

 the shears." Amaranthus melancholicus ruber was also to be 

 replaced by a Coleus. The Brugmansias when taken up are 

 well cut back, root and branch ; they are then placed under the 

 stage of the greenhouse during winter, and merely allowed the 

 protection of the glass-roofed shed for five or six weeks, to 

 encourage slight growth before they are planted out again in 

 the beginning of June. At the taking-up of the Acacia lo- 

 phantha more care is required — I advised having the roots 

 cut and kept within bounds during the summer — and the 

 branches must be left entire. Cannas may be treated in the 

 same way as the Brugmansias. The Indianrubber plants were 

 plunged in their pots. 



Passing along a walk bowered with evergreens, from which 

 every unhealthy spray and dead leaf was cut off, we emerged into 

 a delightful part of the pleasure grounds, containing specimens 

 of evergreens, which might lead one to fancy himself in the 

 south of Devonshire — say at Lady Eolle's, Bicton ; or Sir 

 Trayton Drake's, Lympstone, had the Magnolias only been there. 

 Fine deciduous trees, as well as some statues, are also dispersed 

 over the greensward, which is, at well-chosen places, lighted up 

 by brilliant beds of flowers. 



I had now arrived at the spot where once stood the orangery, 

 the absence of which Mr. Stewart seemed to regret, but there 

 is much left to compensate for the loss of it. The pavement 



and back wall of the orangery remain, and against the latter 

 are arboured seats, ornamented with trelliswork, covered with 

 a lovely, sweet-scented, white-blossomed, Jasmine-looking Cle- 

 matis, supported on each side by Orange trees. Scarlet Pelar- 

 goniums, itc, with a backgri und of gracefully weeping Hiunea 

 elegans. The walk in front is founded in stone slabs, and flanked 

 with carved stone balustrades, which are divided to allow of 

 access to the centre of a tei-race gravel walk. Immediately 

 alongside of this were two long parallelogram flower-borders, 

 carpeted with Viola cornuta in full bloom, and bordered with 

 Iresine Herbstii, having along the centre thirteen round raised 

 bosses. Of these four were of Golden Fleece Pelargonium, four 

 of Mrs. Pollock, two of Madame Vaucher, one of Pink Stella, 

 one of Christine, and one of Comte de Morny. A shallow 

 flight of steps leads from these beds to an expanse of close- 

 shaven lawn immediately at the bottom, where a handsome 

 vase of Scarlet Pelargoniums, raised upon a stone pedestal, 

 confronted one, being, perhaps, just a little out of place there. 

 Following a gravel walk from the orangery, and passing 

 through a scene of beauty towards the north wing of the man- 

 sion, I arrived at the north-terrace geometrical flower garden, 

 which required fully an hour to do it justice. Its general effect 

 was very good. Calceolaria Aurea floribunda attracted the eye, 

 and monopolised my attention, being in such splendid bloom. 

 Iresine Herbstii in Mr. Stewart's hands is a thing of beauty, 

 whether grown as a bordering to beds or as huge speci- 

 men plants in pots ; and trained around the Calceolaria, the 

 two formed the most " telling " bed I have seen anywhere this 

 year. There was another bed in the design, towards the out- 

 side, which I would have liked to have made change places 

 with the preceding, being, as I thought, a quiet pleasing com- 

 bination. This was planted with Osborn's Brilliant Pelar- 

 gonium, with its leaves of, say a lavender tinge, slightly silvered 

 at the edges, giving a pleasing air of lightness to the red blos- 

 soms, and edged with Golden Fleece Pelargonium, which here 

 does extremely well. 



My eyes next rested upon a refreshing, old-fashioned, mixed 

 border of flowers, among which, producing an abundance of 

 fine trusses of bloom, were specimens on trial of Victor Em- 

 manuel, Eoi d'ltalie, and Lord Palmerston (Nosegay) Pelar- 

 goniums ; also some of Mr. Stewart's seedlings. After glancing 

 at the vases, filled with Nosegay and Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums, 

 I walked along the stone-balustraded terrace in front of the 

 mansion, whence fine views are obtained of Oxford, with its 

 domes and spires, to the right, of Abingdon to the left, and of 

 the " silver Thames," here called Isis. 



Looking over the balustrade I noticed a croquet ground, 

 which is the most perfect of its kind that I remember, not even 

 excepting that lately formed by Mr. Johnson, at Savernake Park, 

 the seat of the Marquis of Ailesbury. In shape the croquet 

 ground at Nuneham is a large oval, with a further extent of 

 turf on which to stroll, recline, or knock the balls about, without 

 fear of destroying any bedding plants, and with them, perhaps, 

 a year's hope and labour of the gardener. The grass is kept 

 closely mown by machines, each drawn by two men without 

 any one to guide it, thus saving labour; and practice soon 

 accustoms the men to perform the operation to a nicety. 



Shade of Capability Brown ! you who in the flesh planned 

 these fine parterres, I wonder whether you would approve of 

 those fine Elm trees, which have grown up so near, and which 

 so obstruct the view? To be sure I am quite a stranger, 

 and I 'do not know what the effect might be when the leaves 

 are gone. At any rate, on the supposition that you thus re- 

 visit this, one of your chief works, those who are now living 

 upon the spot and responsible, may be satisfied that you are 

 not wringing shadowy hands in despair on account of the 

 ground not being well and liberally kept. The combined whole, 

 as viewed from the terraces, is what an excitable person would 

 call " ravishing !" but that quick sharp way Bf expressing it 

 does not satisfy me. 



But I must hasten on to the south terrace, where other 

 symmetrical arrangements in more strict harmony of colour 

 present themselves in duplicate. The designs had for their 

 centres two vases on pedestals filled with Mrs. Pollock Pelar- 

 gonium and mixed flowers, flanked by beds of yellow Cal- 

 ceolarias and Honeycomb Pelargonium, bordered with Dandy. 

 I felt, however, that it would be impossible for me to do justice 

 if I attempted to make a minute description in my limited time: 

 therefore I singled out a few of the beds which I thought most 

 beautifKl— viz.. Perfection Pelargonium, edged with l^'lower of 

 Spring ; Stella, edged with Flower of Spring ; Italia Unita, 

 with Dandy ; Christine, with Mrs. PoUock ; and Golden Fleece, 



