September 24, 1868. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



221 



gardening next year that we are not so far behind our neigh- 

 bours on the other side of the Channel. 



PiNCiiiNa AND riinNiNG. — There is but little necessity for a 

 knife when pinching has been properly performed. I think 

 many persons who prune by pinching do it too early : hence, 

 ii a wet growing time sets in, " iiMicipcs," are forced out. 

 Much depends on the character of the season. This year I 

 stopped by pinching all my shoots, including terminals, on 

 July '2l8t. It seems to have answered well. Another year it 

 may be best to pinch later or earlier. I disbud but little. I 

 spur some of the foreshoots, and pinch alternately to about 

 4 and 8 inches the side shoots. This pivos two chances. I did 

 this at Kashton, and I see by Mr. Brfihaut's excellent work 

 that he approves of and recommends it. 



If M. Grin's severe system is adopted, aiilicipen will give 

 great trouble, especially if pinched early ; and trees so served, 

 unless root-pruned severely, will exude gum, by reason of the 

 trees not having sufficient leaves to elaborate the sap. If I 

 were asked to give reasons for the sad state our out-of-door 

 Peach and Nectarine trees are in, I should say it was owing to 

 winter injuries, too much disbudding, and neglect of the 

 foliage at the time of expansion and during the fruiting sea- 

 son. Owing to protecting my trees with sheets — some fixed as 

 a coping, and others moveable by rings on iron rods, I have 

 had this year but little blister, which arises mainly from rup- 

 ture of the tissues of the leives in their tender state, and 

 from injury to the main wood in winter. 



Nailing and Tying. — I use cast-iron nails, which can be 

 easily broken off ; hence no holes are left for insects to winter 

 in ; but I leave the nails in the wall for future use. I tie with 

 bast, which is neater than shreds, and does not harbour ene- 

 mies. The bast must not be tied too tightly, otherwise gum will 

 be the result. It the sap is stopped by a tight ligature the 

 Bun will cause gum. Mr. Williams, of Woolland, near here, 

 sent for me to see his Peaches and Nectarines trained to 

 strained wires, as he said that he had heard that wire-trained 

 trees were a failure. His trees were a complete success. I never 

 saw finer specimens of the Late Admirable, wrongly tallied 

 Millet's Mignonne, which is the same as the Royal George. 

 What a pity that the form of the Late Admirable is spoiled by 

 a turgid nipple with an acute point ! I believe the only other 

 Peach that has this unsightly nipple is Teton de Venus, which 

 some have confounded with the Late Admirable. When walls 

 are wired the wires should be strained so as to be close to the 

 wall, as Peach and Nectarine blossoms do not like draughts 

 of wind behind them. This is probably the cause of the failure 

 of wire-trained trees. Where walls stand singly, an abutment 

 should be built to stop the eddying of the wind. — W. F. Rad- 

 CLYTFE, Okeford Fitzpaine. 



(To be continued.) 



WHO WAS THE FIRST IMPROVER OF THE 

 HOLLYHOCK '.' 



My thanks are due to " A Hollyhock Amateur," for his 

 statement, page 183, of Mr. Chafer's first doings with the 

 Hollyhock. No one more deserves the credit and patronage 

 experienced than Mr. Chafer, as a raiser and grower of Holly- 

 bocks ; but I would submit that " A Hollyhock AiiATEnii," in 

 reviewing my errors has fallen into a still greater one — he does 

 not distinguish between an originator and an improver. Mr. 

 Chater in 1848 crossed his flower Napoleon with Mr. Baron's 

 Queen, resulting in a new strain. For twenty-five or thirty 

 years Mr. Chater had been collecting and improving, but no 

 improvement is effected until Mr. Chater is in possession of 

 Mr. Baron's plants, and the first improvement is through the 

 effect of the pollen of Mr. Baron's Queen on Mr. Chafer's Na- 

 poleon. In Mr. Baron's stock Mr. Chater has a new strain, 

 the first improvement is by and through them. That is " A 

 Hollyhock Amateur's " own showing. 



Mr. Baron, in 18"2.S, as is stated by " A Hollyhock Ama- 

 teur," added to his collection that of an amateur named 

 Johnson, having at the time the " best or finest collection in 

 the world." With those for more than twenty years Mr. Baron 

 worked hard and perseveringly in bringing the Hollyhock up 

 to the florist's standard of excellence. Through Mr. Glenny's 

 recommendation Mr. Baron let out both seed and plants. His 

 plants were distinct from those possessed by any other grower, 

 and were eagerly sought after. Mr. Chater, Mr. Bircham, Mr. 

 Parsons, and others, obtained the new and improved race of 

 Hollyhocks by which they have originated varieties outstripping 



aU Mr. Baron's HoUyliocks, for none of his varieties is up to the 

 present standard. All our improvements in Hollyhocks being 

 effected through or by Mr. Baron's flowers, he and he akne, 

 was the originator of the past and present improved race. To 

 him, as an old florist, attaches the merit of converting a tbin 

 shapeless disk into a half globe of close thick florets, and guard 

 petals of good proportions. 



"A Hollyhock Amateur" forgets that the Queen was a 

 seedling of Mr. Baron's, which ought to entitle him to some- 

 thing more than the name of collector only ; and his statement 

 that Mr. Baron had not a white, yellow, purple or scarlet, is 

 certainly not correct, for Mr. Bircham had from Mr. Baron's 

 stock Purple Perfection, in purples, al.so Pourpre de Tyre, 

 and yellow in Lemonade, and in Mrs. Oakes we have the 

 salmon, said to have originated from the cross, by Mr. Chater, 

 of his Napoleon with Mr. Baron's Queen. In like manner 

 whites and scarlets have come from Mr. Baron's strain, inde- 

 pendently of those in the possession of Mr. Chater. Both Mr. 

 Bircham and Mr. Parsons had of Mr. Baron all the shades of 

 colour alleged by " A Hollyhock Amateur " to have been in 

 Mr. Chafer's sole possession when Mr. Baron sent out seeds 

 and plants. 



Nothing is further from my purpose than to take from the 

 credit due to Mr. Chater, as an eminent raiser and grower of 

 Hollyhocks ; beyond that I cannot go. As to his varieties 

 being still the best sent out, " being of better form, more sub- 

 stance in the petal, and more decided in colour," in justice 

 to other raisers, as Mr. W. Paul (quite as successful in cross- 

 breeding as Mr. Chater), Mr. Roakes, Mr. Parsons, Mr. Bircham, 

 Mr. Parker, Mr. Gibbon, Downie & Laird, &c., I beg to differ 

 from " A Hollyhock Amateur's" dictum, as the best white 

 we have is due to Mr. W. Paul ; yellow to Mr. Roake ; purple 

 to Mr. Bircham ; whilst in scarlet shades, Mr. W. Paul is as 

 rich as Mr. Chater. — G. Abbey. 



VARIEGATED AND OTHER PELARGONIUMS 

 AT CAMDEN LODGE, SISSINGHURST. 



At a time when Pelargoniums of the Tricolor section form so 

 important a feature in fashionable flower gardening, those who 

 have the good fortune or skill to manage them will have many 

 inquiries made of them as to how they succeeded in growing 

 them so luxuriantly, and propagating them so abundantly. 

 Amongst those who have accomplished both these feats in 

 a manner which makes many of us almost envious, Mr. Potton, 

 gardener at Camden Lodge, near Sissinghurst, is certainly 

 one of the most successful, not, perhaps, in the raising of 

 new varieties, but in growing established kinds with a luxu- 

 riance but rarely met with, and that, too, without apparently 

 any other than the usual means at the disposal of most growers. 

 .One especial aid, perhaps, he may have, which every one has 

 not, but even that is of a kind which many others possess in 

 equal proportion, and I am far from certain whether the success 

 attending Mr. Puttou's cultivation can be traced to that source 

 or not. Certainly it is mostly due to the care, skill, and assi- 

 duity which make everything else succeed, and as the other 

 advantages which it may be presumed contribute to so good a 

 result are natural advantages, some allusion to them may be- 

 briefly made before entering upon the details of the mode of 

 cultivation adopted. A short description of the locality may, 

 therefore, be given to show how far success in the cultivation 

 of this interesting group of plants may be supposed to be in- 

 fluenced by the conditions which that presents. 1 will take 

 the same leave a shrewd old farmer always took when called 

 upon to look over a farm — to peep over the hedge into the ad- 

 joining one also, so as to convince himself that what he saw in 

 one place was confirmed in another. In this case I will, tbere- 

 fore, before describing Mr. Potton's success as a Pelargonium 

 grower, take a glance at the district, to see if some of the causes 

 of success are not in a measme due to natural conditions 

 assisting the skill exercised in cultivation. 



The undulating district in the southern part of the county 

 of Kent, possesses a soil and features widely different from those 

 of the two level tracts which bound it on the north and south. 

 Irregular eminences of no great elevation form a sort of water- 

 shed, from which the water flows in both these directions. This 

 broken chain would seem to rise a few miles to the west of 

 Tenterden, and continue westward considerably beyond Tun- 

 bridge Wells, and the little village of Sissinghurst is between 

 these places. The soil, although it differs in places, is in most 

 I cases more or less impregnated with iron, and presents the 



