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JOURNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



I July 16, 1868. 



or something like it, may be the exclamation of some readers 

 when their eye catches the heading of this paper. Bat the 

 bnadred questions which have readied me of late about the 

 eoltare of Stocks make out a very different case. Indeed, I am 

 inclined to think that to popularise and instruct in the fine 

 ▼ftrietie'i oE Stocks is very far from being a work of supereroga- 

 tion. Tbe decorative capabilities of the finest varieties of the 

 Intermediate Stuck are not so well known or acted upon as they 

 deserve. Tbe effects which can be produced by the purple, 

 white, and scarlet varieties, both for spring and antumnal 

 gardening, are scarcely equalled by any of the now popular 

 plants. In saying this, the practice and experience of many 

 gardeners is the only corroboration that I would appeal to. 



For instance, in the end of March, 1S87, I sowed in a cold 

 frame a quantity of the Eist Lotliiau Scarlet, Wliite, and 

 Purple Intermediates. In May these were transplanted to 

 where they were intended to bloom for the season, and up to 

 .November the amount of double bloom which they produced is 

 hnown to manv who saw them here (.ircherfield), and at other 

 places in the L^thians. In November nearly the whole of the 

 doubles were lifted and potted. They continued to bloom more 

 or less the whole winter and spring, and were planted out in 

 March with a good crop of bloom on them. Since then they 

 liave made fresh growth, and are now, notwithstanding that great 

 quantities of bloom have been cut from them, literally a cloud 

 of bloom ; and it is hard to convince any one who has seen 

 them that they have been in bloom for twelve months. For 

 spring and early summer flower-gardening these Stocks are 

 nnapproachable, and cannot be too strongly recommended. 



The way to have the finest bloom early in summer and all 

 through the season is to sow in June in the open border thinly, 

 and when 2 inches high, and before they become drawn, 

 transplant them into beds in rows 6 inches apart each way. 

 Till they get fresh hold of the soil and begin to grow, they 

 require shading, and watering should the weather be dry. By 

 the early part of October they will have formed bloom-buds, 

 and it can be seen which are double. They should then be 

 potted up into 6-inch pots. For this purpose use light rich 

 soil, such as equal proportions of loam and leaf mould, with 

 about a fifth of the whole of sand. When potted set them in 

 a shady sheltered place, or better still, where it can be afforded, 

 it cold pits or frames. Here they soon establish themselves ; 

 and if cut bloom through the winter is not an object, the bloom- 

 buds may be pinched off them. A moderately dry place where 

 they can be protected from severe frost will suffice for their 

 winter quarters. If they can be afforded space in cold frames 

 under glass or in vineries or Peach houses at rest, they will 

 grow more or less all winter, and can be had in pretty full 

 bloom by the middle of March, when, if spring display be the 

 object, they can be planted with immediate effect ; but for 

 coming into bloom in May and the three following months they 

 are best not allowed to bloom till after being planted. Those 

 who have not seen rows or beds of these, entirely of double- 

 flowering plants, can have little idea of how splendid they 

 are. 



To sow in spring for late summer and autnmn blooming 

 they are well worthy of being more carefully treated than is 

 general in the case of Stocks. I would advise their being 

 sown in heat early in March, and when they form the rough 

 leaf to be pricked off in boxes 2 inches apart each way ; and 

 before they become crowded to be potted singly into 2 or 3-inch 

 pots, and kept in cold frames till well established, but not pot- 

 bound, when they should be planted out about the first or se- 

 cond week of May where they are required to bloom. Managed 

 thus they are prevented from making tap-roots, and receive no 

 check when planted, but come much earlier into bloom than 

 when allowed to remain in the seedling bed or rows till finally 

 planted out. It matters very little about their blooming a 

 month earlier as far as their late blooming is concerned, for 

 their blooming powers are so great that it they begin to flower 

 in the end of June they will bloom into winter. To do this, 

 however, they must have deep rich ground. When plants are 

 plentiful it is a good plan to pot up a quantity into 6-inch 

 pots and keep them in reserve, so that the singles can be lifted 

 out of the beds or lines and be replaced with doubles. In dry 

 sheltered situations where the winters are not severe, the mid- 

 Bommer-eown plants can be planted after the summer bedding 

 plants are removed in October ; but in this case it is best to 

 ieep a reserve that can be protected to meet contingencies. 



For pot-culture the value of the ordinary Intermediate Stock 

 lias been long recognised, in some localities especially, and for 

 the Iiondon markfit thej are grovsn by the tboasand. To have 



fine plants for the greenhouse or conservatory in March, April, 

 and May, June-sown plants lifted in October and potted in 6 or 

 8-inch pots will bloom magnificently, and when large specimens 

 are required it is only a question of room, shifting into larger 

 pots, and tying them out. I have seen Mr. Lees atTynninghame 

 have tbem, I should say, nearly 3 feet in diameter and one 

 cloud of bloom. Certainly these have but few rivals for this 

 purpose, taking their sweetness, purity of colour, and immense 

 show of bloom into consideration ; and as they require but very 

 ordinary means or accommodation for their cultmc, they are 

 emphatically the plants of the million. — D. Thomson (in T/u 

 Gardener.) 



IMPROVEMENTS IN LIVERPOOL. 



SEFTON PARK. 



Of all the towns in Great Britain, Liverpool stands first, not 

 only as regards its commercial importance, but the number 

 of its public buildings and places of resort for recreation 

 after the toils of everyday lite. At present the Corporation of 

 this vast town, second only in importance to London, are 

 busily engaged in forming new streets through blocks of pro- 

 perty, where the buildings are found to be too close together 

 to be healthy to live in, and where streets are desirable for the 

 opening-up of the town. -They are also widening several of the 

 narrow streets, and pulling down whole blocks of court property, 

 which are found by tbe Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Trench, 

 to be unfit for human habitations. They are likewise building 

 a large block of buildings to be used as dwellings for work- 

 ing men, at moderate rents ; and last, but not least, in this 

 sanitary reform, they are constructing three large parks on the 

 outskirts, but, at the same time, of easy access even from the 

 centre of the town. These parks form an almost complete 

 cordon round the town, and will when complete be of immense 

 benefit in keeping down the high death rate which has here- 

 tofore been such a slur upon the town, as they will form 

 places of easy access where the people can get a breath of fresh 

 air, and healthy and vigorous exercise, which is denied them in 

 the middle of the town, and at the same time see and admire 

 all the beauties of Nature which are thus brought home, as it 

 were, to their very doors. 



These parks are called Stanley, Newsham, and Sefton Parks, 

 and lie respectively — Stanley on the north side of the town ; 

 Newsham on the east ; and Sefton on the south, the river 

 Mersey being on the west. 



Newsham Park is nearly finished ; Stanley and Sefton Parks 

 have only been commenced a short time, but will both be com- 

 pleted in the course of two or three years. The two first men- 

 tioned are of a rather restricted area as regards the ornamental 

 portion, but the latter, of which we propose giving our readers 

 a short account, will, when finished, be the largest public park 

 in Great Britain, including even Hyde and Eegent's Parks. 



This extensive piece of ground, consisting of about four 

 hundred acres of land, purchased from the Earl of Sefton for 

 the sum of £275,000, lies at the south end of tbe town, in the 

 district of Toxteth Park, and between the fashionable suburbs 

 of Wavertree, Mossley Hill, and Aigburth. The land strikes 

 one as having been made especially for a park, being composed 

 of large table lands, gently sloping and undulating towards the 

 centre of the park, where there is a small stream running down 

 to the Mersey, the whole being beautifully adapted for landscape 

 effect. It is also situated so as to be entirely removed from 

 the smoke and the business portion of the town, and being 

 surrounded by residences of wealthy merchants, &c., is at once 

 framed, as it were, with an outside border of well-grown trees 

 and wooded hillocks, which will go far in improving its appear- 

 ance when finished. A portion of the park outside the circnlar 

 drive is to bo devoted to the building of villas, &c., by the sale 

 of which the Corporation expect to be reimbursed to some 

 extent for their large outlay. 



Considered in an artistic and landscape-gardening point 

 of view, we may say that the new park will present, when 

 finished, a feature quite novel in tLis country. The works are 

 being carried out by, and from the def-ignsof Mr. Edouard Andre, 

 principal gardener to the city of Paris, and Mr. Lewis Horn- 

 blower, the well-known architect of Liverpool. These gentle- 

 men defeated twenty-seven competitors, and received the first 

 prize of 300 guineas, in the competition invited by the Cor- 

 poration in the caily part of last year. Since that time there 

 has been considerable delay occasioned by the differences of 

 opinion which have arisen in the Council as to the carrying 

 out of the design ; but now that the contract for the roads. 



