August 7, iee«. j 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



ti 



greatly injured my own plants, and which I havo never seen so 

 virulent an it has been thiB year. 



I have rarely seen better beds of Gladiolus than Mr. Fraser 

 has this year. They were in apparently the most healthy con- 

 dition : and as the surface of the ground was neatly covered 

 with cocoa-nut fibre it kept them cool, and at the same time 

 Rave a great appearance of neatness to the beds. It does seem 

 very strange that so little encouragement is given to this fine 

 autumnal Bowel about London. I was looking through the list 

 of prizes offered by the Royal Horticultural Society at their 

 Saturday shows, where they seem to be desirous of bringing to- 

 gether everything they c:m ; and although Asters, Dahlias, &c, 

 were included, the Gladiolus is left out. It is a great matter 

 of complaint that provincial towns should be so far beyond 

 the metropolis in their appreciation of this noble flower, the 

 varieties of which aro each year increasing in beauty and in 

 those properties which a florist delights in. 



In common with most of our leading nurserymen Mr. Fraser 

 has a largo selection of Zonale and Nosegay Pelargoniums. 

 In one large bed he has a large number of the newer sorts 

 arranged for comparison. Amongst the most conspicuous were 

 Leonidas, Julius Ciesar, Marie Rendatler, Diadem, Madame 

 Werle, Emile Lican, Chieftain, Commissioner, The Clipper, 

 and Excellent. I hope to have an opportunity later in the 

 season of entering on the merits of this class of flowers, now 

 so popular, when 1 have had the opportunity of noting them 

 in other places as well, and making comparisons with those in 

 my own garden and Mr. Banks's. Their name is legion, and 

 we must weed. Let me say here, however, that by far the 

 best bedding Geranium of the scarlet class is one sent out 

 some three years ago by Mr. Bull, of Chelsea, called Editor. 

 I have used it this year as a back-row flower in a border, and 

 in brilliancy and profusion of bloom it far exceeds Attraction, 

 Crystal Palace Scarlet. &e. Its habit is sufficiently dwarf, and 

 it has been greatly admired by all who have seen it. The leaf 

 is plain, or with the very faintest trace of zone possible, and 

 thus, as Mr. Robson will tell us, it is better for effect than if it 

 were zoned. 



There were some very beautiful things amongst the foreign 

 introductions, especially amongst Pentstemons and Delphini- 

 ums. Amongst the former I was particularly pleased with 

 Maitre Guorin, Paul Racouchot, Laurence, George Bruant, 

 Richard Lenoir, Charles Klein ; and amongst the latter with 

 Triomphe de Pontoise and Henri Jacotot. The main fault to 

 be found with the rentstemon as a garden flower is that the 

 bees seem to revel in it from the abundance of pollen, and in 

 coming out again dust all the centre of the flower, so as to 

 make it look dirty. 



Lapageria rosea is here in great beauty, and was, when I saw 

 it, producing its seeds very freely. Mr. Fraser has for some 

 years been able regularly to save a large quantity of seed. 

 Each pod produces about fifty seeds, and when sown they come 

 up as regularly all over the pan as if they had been cuttings 

 inserted ; and as the pods were hanging all over the roof, there 

 must be thousands of seed6 there now. I saw also large quan- 

 tities of nice plants of Clianthus Dampieri. Azaleas and Vines 

 looked remarkably well. The ground was very well kept — no 

 easy matter in such a summer as this has been. 



It would be tedious to enumerate all that I saw at this well- 

 known nursery. Suffice it to say that it is well worth a visit 

 by all who care to see a well-ordered nursery, and one where 

 at all times novelties of some sort will be sure to be seen, and 

 where they will always, I venture to say, receive the most 

 courteous attention from Mr. Fra6er. — D., Deal. 



P.S. — Since the above was written I have received the Crystal 

 Palace schedule for the autumn show, and am glad to find 

 that the authorities, as usual, have been the first to anticipate 

 the wishes of the floral public by greatly increasing their 

 prizes for Gladiolus. — D. 



Tin.ir-A sylvestris. — " A Surgeon's Wife," quoting (page 64) 

 Smith's account of Tulipa sylvestris, and adding from some 

 private source of information its Yorkshire home " between 

 Hexthorpe and Sprotborough broats," asks some Yorkshire- 

 man to enlighten her as to the meaning of the word. This I 

 can easily do, as I live on the spot. The fact is, she has mis- 

 read or mis-heard the word. There is no such word in the 

 Yorkshire tongue, that I know of, as " broats," but in the 

 meadows between Hexthorpe and Sprotborough boat there are 

 many wild Tulips. The 6pot called Sprotborough boat, or 

 boats, is where the old ferry was across the river Don, but now 



no longer a ferry, but a handsome bridge, the munificent gift 

 of Sir Joseph Copley to tlio neighbourhood. — A Yorkshire 

 Incumbent, between Hezthorpe and Sprotborough boat. 



LORD CLYDE STRAWBERRY. 



In the Number of July 24th, Mr. Gloedo states lliat Lord 

 Clyde Strawberry is " nothing else than the old Chinese, in 

 France commonly called Ananas." Now, as I believe I know 

 as much about Strawberries as Mr. (Iloede, and that my opinion 

 stands as high as his, I unhesitatingly say that he is wrong, 

 and that Lord Clyde is a much superior Strawberry, and was 

 one of a batch of seedlings raised from a cross between Sir 

 Harry and Carolina Superba. I grew it for three years before 

 sending it out, and I still grow it. Unfortunately runners 

 from some barren plants were mixed with those from fruiting 

 plants, and so, many barren plants are in existence ; for at that 

 time I was not a firm believer in the opinion that all such 

 plants should be rooted out, but I am now fully persuaded that 

 they should be, and every barren plant throughout my collec- 

 tion has been destroyed this summer. 



I sent a strong plant or two to Rushton, and asked the Rev. 

 W. F. Radclvffe to grow it, and give me his opinion of Lord 

 Clyde, and 1 was favoured with two letters; and although I 

 have not his permission to publish them, I am sure he will 

 only be too glad that I should have the opportunity of putting 

 myself right before the public, and I therefore enclose the 

 letters for your perusal, also one from Dr. Hogg. You will see 

 that Mr. Radclyffe speaks very highly of Lord Clyde, and his 

 opinion and the advice of friends led me to send it out. 



M. Van Hontte. in my opinion, was wrong in stating that 

 Mr. Radclyffe had described it as "the most valuable Straw- 

 berry ever known," as he never did so. That M. Van Houtte 

 should regard Mr. Radclyffe's opinion with respect is simply to 

 do that which all are in the habit of doing who know Mr. Rad- 

 clyffe personally or by reputation ; and who does not? 



Every Strawberry-grower knows that some sorts will not 

 do everywhere. Look at La Constante, for instance. I have 

 repeatedly seen this struggling for an existence and making 

 but very few runners. The other day I met with it at Gar- 

 grave in most luxuriant growth, and loaded with fruit. In 

 the same garden Lord Clyde was promising well — a good-sized 

 handsome fruit. There also was Marguerite in fine trim ; whilst 

 in another garden a few days previously I saw three rows of it, 

 and two-thirds of the plants barren. — William Dean, Shipley, 

 Yorkshire. 



SOWING POLYANTHUS SEEDS. 



For the benefit of a correspondent in the Journal of the 

 '24th ult., I may state that if Primrose or Polyanthus seed be 

 sown immediately in a warm stove, and the seedlings cultivated 

 till large enough to plant out, most of the plants will flower 

 next April. It is curious that the Polyanthus, an indigenous 

 British plant, will flourish in a close warm house for months, 

 nay, I believe all the year round — I mean, of course, as to leaf 

 growth. Mr. Beaton found that it was the same with Cycla- 

 mens, which are now cultivated thus on a large scale. Of 

 course skill must be exercised in order to obtain a successful 

 result. 



Sow in pans, soaking the soil first with water ; place them 

 in a shaded part of the house, cover them with a pane of glass, 

 and prick-off the seedlings as soon as possible into other pans ; 

 when the young plants have made four or rive good leaves, 

 harden-off at the back of a north wall for a week or ten days, 

 and plant out in time to secure growth in the open air before 

 winter. 



I have sown Primrose seed in July, and flowered a few of 

 the stronger plants in October of the same year. Of eourse 

 this, like other go-ahead systems, requires attention to many 

 little points of good gardening, which would take too much spate 

 to detail here.— R. T. C. 



ORCHARD HOUSE ERUIT. 



ORCHARD-Housr: fruit is now grown so extensively, that means 

 might easily be taken to decide a vexed question — namely, 

 whether Peaches grown in orchard-houses are superior or in- 

 ferior to those grown on walls. The Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety might offer a small prize for the best three Noblesse 



