356 



JOUKNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ November 12, 1868. 



flower garden is in beds which are to be seenneartotheeye, or in 

 lines close to the windows of the house, or as edgings to vases 

 on terraces ; and the best contrasts, in my opinion, are white- 

 leaved plants, especially Poa trivialis, and Dactylis elegans 

 variegata, or small plants of Ceutaurea. Blue Lobelia, again, 

 does very well, especially the dwarl kinds — pumila elegans and 

 its varieties ; but, unfortunately, there are very few kinds of 

 Lobelia that last long enough, and when the flower goes off, 

 there is nothing which looks much worse. I am, however, 

 trespassing on another subject which ought to be treated by 

 itself. 



I will now pass on to the Gold-edged Bicolor varieties. Of 

 these there are happily not so many, the best being Golden 

 Chain, Gold Pheasant, Crystal Palace Gem, Cloth of Gold, 

 Golden Fleece, and to these I will add at once, the Gold Selfs, 

 Gold Leaf, and Pillar of Gold. 



Golden Chain is still with mo the best of the Gold-edged 

 varieties ; it will not thrive in cold or clay soils, and ought to 

 have some well-decayed farmyard manure or leaf soil forked into 

 the soil for the plants at bedding-out time. Crystal Palace Gem, 

 Cloth of Gold, and Golden Fleece, are, as a rule, too green, but 

 are good wet-weather and autumn plants. Gold Pheasant has 

 too upright a habit, but the colour is good. I forgot to mention 

 Stella sulphurea marginata, which I think is very promising ; 

 but cf all the plants in this section I like Pillar of Gold, sent 

 out by Mr. C. Turner, of Slough, the best ; it is far the most 

 golden of any I have yet seen, both in-doors and out. The leaf 

 when dying oiif turns to a lighter yellow, which enhances the 

 effect of the plant, instead of burning-up at the edges, as many 

 kinds do, and I venture to prophesy for it a long and prosperous 

 career. In point of habit it seems to be all that can be desired, 

 with abundance of foliage. Gold Leaf, the other Gold Self I 

 mentioned, has not constitution enough. 



I will next take the Silver-edged section, commencing with 

 the Tricolors — viz.. Beauty of Guestwick, Italia Unita, Burning 

 Bush, Picturata, Countess, Queen's Favourite, Waverley, &c. 

 Many of these have not sufficient strength of habit for bedding 

 purposes, and I have seen none 1 think so good as ItaUa Unita. 

 Beauty of Guestwick has a more vigorous habit than most of 

 them. Burning Bush is still as good as any for dwarf front 

 edgings, &c. 



Among the Bicolors come most of our old sorts : Alma, 

 Bijou, Brilliant, Mrs. Lennox, Countess of Warwick, Variegated 

 Nosegay (Beaton's), Flower of the Day, Flower of Spring, and 

 Jane. Of these I would place foremost Flower of the Spring, 

 as certainly the best both as a pot plant for conservatory de- 

 coration, and also for bedding purposes. Bijou, which is one of 

 the whitest, has a very bad upright habit of growth, hardly ever 

 throwing out a side branch, unless pinched-in. Jane is a very 

 good variety, especially for Self beds, having a very fiee-growing 

 branching habit, and the leaf-margin distinct and good. 



Brilliant I only name to condemn. It is good as a free- 

 flowerer, but, as in the ease of Mrs. Benyon among the Gold 

 Tricolors, its flowering habit is rather a demerit than a merit, 

 as nearly all variegated-leaved plants are better with their 

 flowers cut off. Flower of the Day is, like Bijou, too leggy. 



Alma is still one of the best, especially in large plants. Mrs. 

 Lennox has a very pure white edge, and is very good in light 

 rich soil. Countess of Warwick has so dark a zone sometimes 

 that it might almost be called a Tricolor, though in that case 

 Lady Cullum, Mrs. Pollock, &c., ought to be called Quadricolor ; 

 it is a good plant for ribbon border.'^. Another old sort which I 

 had almost neglected. Mountain of Light, is still very good for 

 front edgings, having a neat, dwarf habit and a pure white 

 margin. 



This brings me to the last, the Bbonze section, of which I 

 must confess I have not had much experience of my own. The 

 most effective that I have seen bedded is Bronze Queen, the 

 habit being exceedingly compact, and the foliage very dense. 

 Among the best are Beauty of Oulton, Beauty of Bibblesdale, 

 Beauty of Caluerdale, Egyptian Queen, Perilla, Model, Luna, and 

 three which Messrs. Smith, of Dulwich, exhibited at Leicester, 

 Criterion, Plutus, and Sybil. 



As a general rule, I have been disappointed with the effect 

 of the iSronzes when bedded out. Many of them are very 

 beautiful as pot plants, and they will be very good as garden 

 decorations for all places where they can be brought near the 

 eye ; but the same remark I think applies to these as to the 

 Tricolors, where distant effect is required. It will be some 

 time before a definite fiat will be pronounced upon them, but I 

 think it will be found eventually, that both the Bronzes and 

 Tricolors will be best used as panels in contrast with other 



colours, like gems, or in small circular beds as edginga or 

 centres along with other ornamental-foliaged plants. 



There are some other Variegated sorts I have omitted, as 

 Mangles's, which is still a most valuable sort, and one of the 

 most effective beds I have seen this year was at Llangattock, 

 near Abergavenny — blue Lobelia and Mangles's, plant for 

 plant, in a circular bed about 8 feet in diameter, the small pink 

 flowers of Mangles's being allowed to remain on. 



L'Elegante is a very promising Variegated Ivy-leaved Pelar- 

 gonium, and will be valuable as edgings to raised beds and 

 baskets, and also for hanging baskets for conservatories. The 

 old sweet-scented Lady Plymouth is also a useful plant, when 

 it can be placed in a position where it may be allowed to grow 

 as much as it likes, as it is of much too strong a growth to mis 

 with other bedding plants. 



I must now conclude these remarks, as it is my intention to 

 trespass upon your space again another time, with a paper ou 

 the winter management of Pelargoniums ; what most persona 

 will, I am afraid, consider a trite subject, but concerning which 

 there is yet something to be said. — C. P. Peach. 



CAN BEET BE HAD AS AN EARLY BEDDER? 



I BEG to thank Mr. Mason for his courteous reply in page 

 323 to my inquiries respecting certain occupants of the flower 

 garden, and seeing we agree in opinion about the merits o£ 

 Tricolor Pelargoniums for that purpose, I am not surprised wa 

 differ in some degree about that of Beet for the same purpose. 

 My wish was to ascertain whether its appearance before 

 August 1st was such as to entitle it to a place in a flower garden 

 that was to look well before that time. Not having grown it 

 here for decorative purposes, I could only judge of what it 

 might have been by the appearance of the kitchen-garden crop 

 of the same plant at that time, and this was merely coming 

 into condition at the end of July. Early sowing, no doubt, 

 might have rendered Beet intended for decorative purposes 

 more forward ; but unless the plant can take its proper place 

 along with Calceolarias and Pelargoniums by the 1st of July, or 

 even earlier than that, it will not answer my purpose. The 

 question is. Can it be made to do this, and afterwards continue 

 in good condition throughout the season ? I fear not. Hitherto 

 I have been obliged to depend on Perilla for early and late 

 work, and I would willingly exchange it for Beet if the latter 

 could be coaxed into useful condition so early in the year, and 

 would yet continue to do good service as late as at present. 

 The fine colour and graceful habit of this plant place it 

 much higher in the scale of merit than any of its compeers, 

 Iresine, when good, excepted ; but the difficulty of obtaining 

 it early enough and preventing its running to seed, has with 

 me been a great drawback to its use ; but in places where ap- 

 pearance after the middle of August is of more consequence 

 than before that time, a good variety of ornamental Beet may 

 be of great service. With me, however, it ought to come into 

 use in June and July. I again ask if the same plants can be 

 made to do duty so early, and yet look well in October? — 



J. KoDSON. 



TRUE SCOTCH KALE. 



I ENCLOSE a small packet of the true " Lang Scotch Kale" 

 seed, which is not now to be had genuine in the seed shops, 

 and if sown now (Jime 17), in your southern clime you may 

 have a next-winter supply of greens from it. 



It is the " Lang Kale " of Bobbie Burns, also known by the 

 name of Kilmaurs Kale, from Kilmaurs, near Kilmarnock, once 

 the Birmingham of Scotland, having been no less famed for its 

 Kale seed than for its " whittles" or clasp knives, and "lang 

 Kale gullies." Hence the old Ayrshire saying that a person 

 of acute mind or smart habits was " as sharp as a Kilmaurs 

 whittle." The clank of the whittlemaker's hammer has, how- 

 ever, been long .silent in Kilmaurs, which is now a curious old 

 country village, and the Lang Kale are no more seen in its 

 Kale yards, their place being usurped by the finer-looking but 

 inferior-flavoured German Greens ; but they are still to be met 

 with in the high moorlands of the county, where they are 

 retained and esteemed for their hardiness as well as excellence 

 by the shepherds and other thinly-scattered cottagers, most of 

 whom grow their own Kale seed. 



Similar but somewhat shorter-growing races of Kale are also 

 still grown in the Western Isles, as well as among the central 

 Grampians, such as the Tullybeagles Kale of Perthshire, .0 



