Janaory 4, 1S7" 



JOURNAL OF HTOTICUIiTURE AND GOXrAGE GARDENER. 



15 



rest till the guinea fellowship has been aooomplished. Ou a 

 former occasion I had to take independent action, having 

 means of knowing more of the oircnmBtauoes of the time than 

 some of my friends had. I was so certain that it was for the 

 interest of the Society that the Coancil of 1873 should be con- 

 tinned in office, that on my own responsibility and at my own 

 expense I circnlarised the lady Fellows asking for their proxies 

 to support the Council. One hundred and fifty ladies trusted 

 me with their proxies. Twenty more proxies would have 

 carried the vote of confidence and kept in the Council, and 

 this means that the arrangement with the Commissioners on 

 the eve of settlement would have been accomplished, with the 

 result that the Society would now have been free from its de- 

 benture debt, free from rent, and with a conditional accession 

 of income, then estimated to amount to £1000, but which last 

 I doubt the continuance of. Therefore, having been proved 

 right once, I claim the inference. 



I hope that nothing more will be said about turning out the 

 present Council. On more than one ocoation there has been 

 great diihculty in finding at all suitable men who would under- 

 take the office. The present work is both unpleasant and 

 thankless. When we get a really good Society with only hor- 

 ticultural work, there will be plenty of first-class men only too 

 glad to serve. — Geoege F. Wilson. 



TOM KING'S GABDEN. 



Amongst the moat pleasant episodes connected with the 

 garden are instances of the power of its attractiveness over 

 those to whom at first sight it might be thought to have no 

 sharms. We read of martyrs to the love of flowers — those 

 who have lost their lives in the pestilential swamp, and have 

 braved death in the wild beasts' haunts. We are reminded of 

 others who have endangered their existence by sharing their 

 last drop of water with plants which they have been trans- 

 mitting by land and sea. Such devotion we note with un- 

 bounded admiration. It evinces a deep-eeated burning love 

 for flowers implanted in the breasts of the votaries of botani- 

 cal science and horticultural enterprise. Yet such zeal on the 

 part of such men does not evoke nearly to much surprise 

 as a triumph of cultural skill secured by any not known to 

 be intimately associated with the gentle craft ; hence the sur- 

 prise — almost incredulity — which followed when the announce- 

 ment was made in these columns that the redoubtable athlete, 

 whose popular and familiar name is above quoted, vanquished 

 all comers in the principal cla^s for cut blooms of Chrysanthe- 

 mums at the late Brixton Show. 



When the prize card'? were placed on that ocoision, and 

 " Mr. Le';, gardener to T. King, Efq.," had the foremost posi- 

 tion, the Judges not only delivered a just but a popular ver- 

 dict. Mr. King's blooms were not only decidedly superior, but 

 their owner was esteemed as a good neighbour and supporter 

 of the Society. "Do von know who Mr. King is?" inquired 

 an official. "No," was the reply; "well, then," continued 

 the official, " he is the champion." " Yes, that is clear ; some- 

 one must be the champion." "Oh! you don't understand me. 

 He is Heenan's victor, and we are proud of him. It's true, 

 honour; but don't say anything." A reporter must at times 

 be faithful to the public, and give the exact words of a speaker ; 

 and Mr. King being an adnairer of flowers, and keeping a com- 

 petent gardener to grow them for him, was an " item of news " 

 not to be curtailed in its telling. And now it remains for the 

 dual champion to pay the penalty of his floral fame by per- 

 mitting the many who are interested in his prowess, and who 

 rejoice in his new honours, to be made acquainted with the 

 garden which yields him, all earnestly hope, solid pleasure — 

 real happiness. 



Tulse Hill Lodge is a suburban residence — one of many in 

 its district which speak of well-appointed homes and neat and 

 cherished gardens. At the front" of the large light-coloured 

 residence is the little enclosure, containing its few ehrubs, its 

 bit of lawn, its miniature flower beds, its shady deciduous 

 trees, and its semicircular carriage drive. On each side of the 

 building stand two sentries — Birches, drooping in silvery 

 gracefulness. Next to the public road is a row of pruned 

 Limes, breaking but not hiding the view from the windows. 

 That is the "little front;" but the garden proper is in the 

 rear— an enclosure perhaps 100 yards in length by 40 in 

 breadth, bounded on both sides with brick walls, and terminat- 

 ing in open meadows. The first half of tho long slip ia a well- 

 kept lawn containing shrubs and flower beds. Prominent are 

 two large beds of Roses. To the inquiry, " Does Mr. King like 



Roses?" was received the reply, "Don't he, though? look aft 

 'em," from one who was charmingly innocent of being " inter- 

 viewed." One look was enough. There were the Roeea planted 

 regularly, staked, labelled, and the surface of the ground well 

 mulched with manure, nooristied and protected at this period 

 of the year as all Roses should be which are cared for. Y'ep> 

 it ia ceitaiu that Mr. King " likes Roses." 



Beyond these Rose beds, and partially separating the lawn 

 from the kitchen garden, are the glass structures. The most 

 prominent is a new span-roofed house about 3G feet long and 

 perhaps 18 feet wide, divided into two compartments — stove 

 and greenhouse. Aflat stage for plants passes round (minus 

 the doorways) this house, and is filled with gay-flowering plants, 

 mostly Primulas. The centre is open, and arranged ou the 

 ground level are specimen Camellias in large pots. Some of 

 the plants had recently arrived from the nurseries, one plant 

 having cost five and another four guineas, and the rest were 

 much of the same value. On the roof was being trained 

 MarCobal Niel Roses — an excellent idea — the queen of winter^ 

 the Camellia, being crowned with the queen of summer, the 

 Rose. Than the varieties of these justly admired flowers none 

 I associate better and none are more easy to grow. Any amateur 

 may furnish a house and provide for himself during winter 

 and summer a supply of the finest flowers of earth by growing. 

 Camellias and Roses, the former in the body of the house 

 planted out or in large pots, the latter covering the roof, their 

 roots being planted outside after the manner of Vines. The 

 roof covered with Roses ia not only not detrimental to the 

 Camellias beneath, but is of the greatest value in affording the 

 shade which is indispensable to the well-being of these plants. 

 Mr. King may well plant other free-growing Roses, especially 

 Teas, which will produce the requisite shade for the Camellias^ 

 and almost every day in the year he may have " button-hole 

 flowers " of the most lovely tiuta and perfect forms. 



In the other compartment are tropical plants. The central 

 bed is mostly occupied with a luxuriant Banana (Musa Caven- 

 dishii) showing a tine cluster of fruit. When this has ripened 

 it is proposed to uproot the plant and devote the pit to orna- 

 mental-foliaged plants of brighter colours and dwarfer atature. 

 Some of these have been already purchased — Dracaenas, 

 Crotons, &a., also Ferns and Orchids. An old house is devoted 

 to utilitarian purposes ; but a third, a Cucumber house, is a 

 very useful structure. From three Cucumber plants Mr. Lee 

 last year out upwards of four hundred fruits, and plants are 

 now being raised for the ensuing season's supply. At one end 

 of this house a few Pines are plunged in the pit, and on the 

 shelf above Strawberries are being forced. 



In the garden are vegetables and fruit trees, the only vacant 

 space in the garden being the lofty shaded north wall. Mo- 

 rello Cherries would grow admirably here, but they are not 

 liked. Plums, some Pears, Currants, and Roses would also 

 thrive if the walls were limewashed to destroy the moss, toning, 

 down the white glare with soot to any tint desired. Were this 

 wall covered the garden would be more complete. A garden, 

 such as this and similarly cheriahed cannot fail to aSord 

 healthy exercise to its owner, and the hope cannot be withheld 

 that many gardens are as heartily enjoyed and as well cared 

 for aa the garden of our " dual champion," the wide-famed 

 and highly-respected " Tom King." Long may he reign to wear 

 the peaceful emblems on his breast — Roses and Camellias, and 

 " Place them near his aoul. 

 Not in Ilia heart, indeed, but in liis button-hole." 

 — Visitor. 



GARDENING BEMINISCENCES OP THE PAST 

 FIFTY YEARS. 



Having omitted from my notes on page 552 one of the most 

 important features of the whole period — namely, the hot sum- 

 mer of 1826, I desire to make good that omission. 



I verily believe that if its effects on the various garden 

 crops had been as duly chronicled as has been done very often 

 since that time, the year mentioned would have atood out aa 

 the most remarkable of the present century. I well remember 

 a field of Barley in a remote district the very reverse to an 

 early one, and yet that crop being shaken with the wind and 

 losing a good deal of corn speedily produceci a second crop, 

 which ripened the same year in as good a condition as the 

 first. This is very seldom done even in districts more fa- 

 voured than the one alluded to, and I do not remember a single 

 cjse where so good an example occurred. I have seen corn 

 standing out till after Chiistmaa in the same neighbourhood,. 



