February 21, 1867. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



143 



thaw I had some Utter thrown over it. After this the frost was 

 as sharp as ever. Last week I turned the plant out of its pot, 

 and after deciding to use it for a sub-tropical border this sum- 

 mer, I divided it into sixty good solid crown.s, all of which are 

 showing life, and I have no doubt will make fine plants by 

 next June. 



Li the Farfugiiun, then, we have a variegated-foliaged plant 

 of no mean merit and quite hardy, therefore of much value to 

 the gardener ; for who amongst us does not feel the want of 

 plants which wiU prove effective in the summer and yet not 

 occupy our valuable space in the spring? Oue remark about 

 culture. Use fresh- cut loam with plenty of sand. Eich soils 

 and manure water turn the foliage green. — Gko. Botes, Barleij 

 Thorpe Gardens, Rutland. 



VISITS TO GARDENS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE 



The Denbies, Dorking, the SE.iT of Mks. Cubitt. 



In visiting many fine places one has the feeling oftentimes 

 that everything has been sacrifieed to show, and that the 

 wishes of the proprietor have given way to the exigencies of 

 appearance — that the gardens are show places, but nothing 

 more, and that the owner has very little enjoyment in them. 

 Certainly this is not the case at the Deabies, fur one would at 

 once say, The owner of this place loves flowers and plants, and, 

 what is more than that, has taken every means for the enjoy- 

 ment of that love in the most agreeable way possible ; and 

 although my visit was a very hurried one, quite insufficient to 

 do justice to the admirable manner in which every department 

 of the garden is carried on under the able management of Mr. 

 Drewett, I yet saw enough to convince me that in few places is 

 there more real enjoyment for the owner than here. 



The valley of the Mole, in which Dorking is situated, affords 

 to the lover of genuine English scenery a charming sample of 

 it, and that in the immediate neighbourhood of our great 

 metropolis. An hour from London brings j-ou into the heart 

 of it, and there Nature and Art combined have done their best 

 to gratify all lovers of rich, rural scenery. Dorking itself is a 

 classic name to the English horticulturist, for Mr. Ivery, of 

 that place, by the zeal aud skill with which he and his foreman 

 Mr. Appleby have carried on the cultivation and production of 

 Azaleas and British Ferns, has made it so. When I paid my 

 visit there in August the time for both was well-nigh over. 

 Azaleas were of course out oi doors, aud Ferns were past their 

 prims. However, I saw many of the newer varieties, such as 

 Polystichum angulare parvissimum, which bears the same re- 

 lation to the species that Lastrea Filix-mas crispa does to 

 Lastrea Filix-mas. Theu Polystichum angulare Wakeleyanum 

 and P. aculeatum acrocladon were very interesting, the latter 

 being the only one of this species which is tasselled. Of the 

 Lady Ferns, Elworthii, Yernonia;, Victorife, Iveryanum, and 

 Frizellia; nanum were all beautiful; but, in truth, the vari- 

 ations of these Ferns are endless, and one must only allude to 

 them in the hope that the gratification that all lovers of Ferns 

 can have at Dorking may be more sought after. There is 

 always something new there, and what is not new is very ad- 

 mirable, the manner in which these Ferns are grown ; their 

 verdure and beauty exciting quite as much interest as if they 

 were covered with brilliant flowers. 



Having strolled through Messrs. Ivery's grounds, I then 

 made my way up the bill on the opposite side of the valley, 

 under the guidance of Mr. Appleby, to the Denbies, a place of 

 which I h id often heard, and which I had long been anxious 

 to see. I need hardly say, what every one knows too well, that 

 last season was about as bad a one as the lovers of gardening 

 have ever had to contend with ; nevertheless there was very 

 much to see and admire. The situation of the house is charm- 

 ing — on the very summit of the hill, commanding a lovely 

 view of both sides of the valley ; on the one side enabling you 

 to see far into Kent, aud on the other away over Guildford, itc. 

 It is also beautifully surrounded by fine trees, and in one part 

 of the grounds there is the most lovely fernery that I have for 

 a long while seen, the plants growing in the greatest luxuriance 

 in the most natural way possible, and comprising some of the 

 best of the many beautiful varieties of British Ferns, which 

 are now so well known. Bound the house — and this I look 

 npon as the distinguishing feature of the place — runs a glass 

 arcade 400 yards in length. You can enter into it through the 

 conservatory from the dwelling-house, and not only enjoy an ex- 

 tended promenade in all weathers, in that which is truly a winter 



garden, but from it various plant-houses branch off, so that 

 you can, without having to go out of doors, revel in all the 

 beauties so liberally provided here. This arcade is hteraUy 

 covered with charming creepers of all kinds ; Lapageria rosea, 

 Escallonia rubra, Abelia floribunda, I'lantago capeusis, Banksian 

 Buses, Habrothamaus fasciculatus, Cobrea scandens varicgata, 

 Gloire de Dijon Eose, the lovely Tacsonia Yau-Volxemii, Bou- 

 gainvilltea speciosa. Fuchsias, and a host of other plants cover- 

 ing the walls and roof. The Bougainvillaea is planted in a 

 large slate box resting on the flues that warm one of the stoves ; 

 it is then brought out into an iutermeuiatc-house, which forms 

 part of the arcade, and there produces its lovely bracts in great 

 abundance. The Tacsonia deserves all the praise it has re- 

 ceived, aud nothing can be more lovely than those crimson 

 parachutes suspended from the roof of the house. This is, 

 doubtless, the way to see it in perfection, and from the manner 

 of its growth here there does not seem to be any difficulty in its 

 cultivation. In one of the houses branching off from the arcade 

 there was a nice collection of fine-foliaged plants, and, which 

 one does not often see in a private estabUshment, a veiy good 

 collection of the plants of commerce, deeply interesting and 

 instructive. The conservatory close to the house was, of course, 

 very gay, Tacsonias covering a large portion of the roof ; while 

 on the walls at various heights were placed iron baskets with 

 flOT^ering plants. 



Mr. Drewett is well known for the skQl with which he culti- 

 vates Grapes, and his bunches, especially those of Muscats, 

 have carried off many a prize. These were very fine, and I 

 noticed that he had an air-chamber underneath the roots ; but 

 of Grape-growing it is hardly necessary for me to make re. 

 marks, so much has of late appeared on the subject in the 

 pages of this Journal. 



As I have alreadj' remarked, the season was most unfavour- 

 able for bedding-out plants ; but there was evidence enough to 

 show me that the Nosegay Pelargoniums do not endure the 

 wet any better than the Zonale varieties, and that two bediUng 

 plants, about which there has been much dispute, do really de- 

 serve, in certain situations at least, all that can be said in their 

 praise ; one is Iresine Herbstii, the other Viola cornnta. The 

 former, I dare say, is doubtful on wet soil and damp situations ; 

 butiu dry places, such as the Denbies, it is beautiful, especially 

 in the latter part of the season. Amaranthus is there " done 

 for," Coleus shabby, but the Iresine charming. As to Viola cor- 

 nuta, for a greyish blue border — an edging, for instance, for a 

 bed of Mrs. Pollock, nothing can be more chaste ; it continues, 

 too, in flower for so long a period, some of it planted here 

 having been successively in bloom until May. Amongst hints 

 obtained was one of filling in a bed of Bijou, which i= apt to be- 

 somewhat "leggy," with Cerastium tomentosum. In front of 

 the greenhouses a capital border had been made of DahUa, 

 Zeliuda, Alba Multiflora, aud Crystal Palace Scarlet ; and in 

 a season like the last the Dahlia, which seems to defy wet, was 

 especially valuable. 



Brief as the notice of my very hurried visit is, I feel it muft 

 not be closed without a reference to the exceeding care and 

 attention bestowed by the owner, and seconded ably and heartUy 

 by Mr. Drewett, on the young men employed in the garden. 

 A more comfortable arrangement than that provided for them 

 cannot be imagined. Airy dormitories ; good, clean, comfort- 

 able beds ; places for their clothes ; a library for them to read 

 in, and means for cooking their food, — all these are as liber- 

 ally provided for them as if they were the inmates of the 

 house. Of what immense moral benefit this is none can better 

 tell than those who, like myself, know wh.at the young gardener 

 often has to put up with — an untidy room in a house with a 

 large family, where there is no quiet, aud his only resource the 

 public house aud the demoralising influences of pot com- 

 panions. All honour to those, theu, who, like Mrs, Cubitt, 

 believe that our influence for good nr evil is sure to tell. 

 Happy they who feel a pleasure in making it tell for gcod, and 

 like mercy itself, 



" It is twice blessed — 

 It blesseth him that gives and him that take?." 



And I feel sure that in the interest which those employed feel 

 in their employer such outlay is amply repaid. May many 

 more follow the example.— D., Deal. 



Edging tor G-Irden W.4lks. — Let me recommend for this 

 purpose paving-stones put down lengthwise. I tried this plan 

 in Devonshire, and here in Warwickshire. Su,ch an edging 



