258 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 2, 18C6. 



It requires to be replanted every season. The end of March 

 or beginning of April is the best time. It should te taken up, 

 divided, and dibbled in where wanted, in single bits about 

 4 inches apart. To make a good ribbon two rows are requisite. 

 Every little bit will grow. No one need fear giving it a trial, 

 for it is certain to give satisfaction. — James Ceeeae, Shabdcn, 

 Redhill. 



AN AFTERNOON AT VITRY. 

 Vitt.y is the paradise of Paris nurserymen — a place unlike 

 anything we have in England, the good quality of its soil and 

 its vicinity to the great city having attracted to it, I believe, 

 not less than two hundred of the fraternity, great and small — 

 some of them well known to fame, others little men, who have 

 their spHcialite, with which they supply the Paris markets. 

 The whole place is redolent of gardeners; " Pepiniereste," 

 " Horticultew," meet your eyes on each side; the very tw- 

 berge has something to say to the profession, it is the " Belle 

 JanUnii re," or something of that sort. Amongst those who 

 have grounds there are the two Verdiers — Eugene and Charlw, 

 and it was in answer to a courteous invitation from the former 

 that I set out one afternoon, in the early part of last .Tune, to 

 visit his grounds. Ami what a journey it was ! — the diligence, 

 a memorial of those primitive times when, as I well remember, 

 it took one a couple of days to get from Boulogne to Paris, 

 and nearly a week from Paris to Marseilles ; the road, that 

 delicious pav£, which only such diligences could endure without 

 having every spring smashed ; the dust inches deep; and the 

 day one of those close sultry ones that usually precede a thunder- , 

 storm. Still, the engagement was made, and so I went. Un- 

 fortunately, M. E. Verdier had been obliged to go off to Erie, 

 but left directions for his foreman to meet me. The hour that 

 he named for me to be there was simply impossible, and so , 

 when jolted and hot I arrived at Vitry no one was there to 

 meet me. I walked on, inquiring for M. Verdier, but no one 

 seemed to know him. Ah ! how I sighed for poor Paddy, who 

 not only knows everybody, but everything about them, has 

 the story of the skeleton in the closet, if there be one, and all 

 other ins and outs of each family. I found out afterwards 

 that this arose from the fact of his having no house there, and 

 of course they did not trouble themselves about the mere 

 owners of fields and nurseries. After a vain search for an 

 hour or more 1 at last bethought me that mine host of the 

 auberge would perhaps know, and so I asked. He immediately 

 told me that there was a nursery just at the back, but no one was 

 there ; but he said, " There is a nurseryman here who will tell 

 you, and he speaks English too." This I found to he Porteiner, 

 who has lately ariived here from Gentilly. Still I could not 

 gain any more definite information, and as I was now tired ! 

 and thirsty, returned the host's politeness by asking him [ 

 for some Bordeaux. While refreshing myself thus, Verdier's 

 foreman rushed in. He had been told by some person that 

 there was an Englishman looking for him, and was glad to 

 find me, as I was to find that my journey would not be a 

 fruitless one. 



In the piece of ground that I have already spoken of there 

 was a large number of Gladioli, of which M. Verdier has a 

 fine collection, and whose roots, as I can testify from personal 

 experience, are sound and good. I was rather disappointed 

 this year on receiving Souchet's new varieties to find them so 

 small ; but was perfectly astonished at the fine spikes of bloom 

 that they threw up. I saw also here a row of a rose-coloured 

 Rose, which struck me as good, and found afterwards that it 

 was Alba mutabilis ; whether it will sustain that character in 

 our English soil and climate remains to be proved.* I have 

 not, to my knowledge, seen it once exhibited ; but the best 

 piece that he had was evidently one on a little more elevated 

 position, but sheltered with trees. The soil was a rich unc- 

 tuous loam, having that yellowish look so dear to the Rose- 

 grower, and so agreeable to the Rose. Here, as I expected, 

 were to be seen a large number of those sent out by M. Verdier 

 last autumn, and also rows of those under trial, to be sent out 

 this autumn. Foremost amongst those of last season the 

 foreman placed Mdlle. Marguerite Dombrain, and as at Lyons 

 so here, it was pronounced to be the premier Rose of the year. 

 Certainly nothing could be more beautiful and fresh and fine 

 than it was here. " Ah ! " said the foreman, " it ought to be 



* I cannot understand my friend Mr. Radclyffe's statement about this 

 Rose. I did not see it at tbelnternjitional ; but it is as unlike Alba rosea, 

 alias Madame Bravy, as one can well imngine. 



called after a young lady, it is so beautiful ! " Then there was 

 Madame Charles Baltet, a Bourbon Rose of fine properties, 

 evidently a seedling of Louise Odier, but of good size and 

 substance, and beautifully imbricated. Jules Cesar, another 

 Bourbon, did not strike me as so good as that called after my- 

 self. Charles Rouillard I marked as good, although not particu- 

 larly striking. On the other hand, Fisher Holmes is a brilliant 

 scarlet-looking flower of excellent shape ; I hope to see more 

 of this, and shall be surprised if it do not prove to be an ac- 

 quisition iu that rather numerous class from its fine shape. 

 Jean Lambert was too large and coarse to suit my idea of 

 beauty in a Rose ; it has, as M. Verdier's catalogue states, 

 extraordinarily large buds. Prince de Porcia I have already 

 spoken of as a very promising flower ; the colour is excessively 

 bright, and if the form be constantly good I have no doubt of 

 its excellence in other respects. Souvenir d' Abraham Lincoln 

 was a moderate-sized flower, of a peculiar shade of colour, but 

 hardly one that will commend itself to us on this side of the 

 Channel, I fancy. It will be seen that these were all sent out 

 by M. E. Verdier, and therefore I had a good opportunity of see- 

 ing them in large quantities, and on plants that had not been 

 so largely worked as many of those here had been. Along with 

 them there was a large number of new seedlings, some of which 

 will be sent out this autumn, and of which I shall have to 

 speak when I come to review the annual treat provided for us 

 by the French rosarians. I often wondered how the French 

 growers could send us such fine plants as they do ; but with 

 soil like this, and that in the district known as the " Brie," 

 where immense quantities are annually grown for the Parisian 

 nurserymen, it is easily accounted for. 



M. Verdier had a very large quantity of Marechal Niel, and 

 both at home and abroad large stocks of this favourite flower 

 will be ready to supply the immense demand that there is for 

 it. When I had gone through the grounds I had a long talk 

 with M. Verdier's intelligent foreman on the subject of Roses 

 in general, and found that the fame of our pot Roses had 

 reached him, and that great astonishment had been created at 

 their excellence at the great International. By-the-by, was 

 there ever a richer thing than Professor Koch (not the Rose, 

 hut the hero himself), saying he was surprised to find the 

 English so far advanced in civilisation ? Are we, then, to the 

 dreamy, tobacco-loving, saurkraut-eating natives of the Father- 

 land the rude islanders as of yore ? As I returned to Paris a 

 thunderstorm, such as one often meets with there, hurst over 

 Vitry and Paris, and not a Rose would then have been worth 

 looking at, so that a day which promised to be one of dis- 

 appointment, was after all a very enjoyable one. — D., Veal. 



WORKING MENS FLOWER SHOW' AT THE 

 AGRICULTURAL HALL 



Duiung the past week a working men's Flower Show was held 

 at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, in connection with the Metro- 

 politan and Provincial Industrial Exhibition, ami considering that 

 the subjects exhibited were grown within the range of the London 

 smoke, many of them in the most densely populated districts, and 

 that, too, not by professed gardeners, but by those busily engaged hi 

 other aveeatious, the result achieved was most creditable to the ex- 

 hibitors, as well as to Messrs. George Gordon, Broome, of the Inner 

 Temple, and Green, of Homsey Road, who freely gave their sen-ices 

 in carrying ont the arrangements, and to whom the success of the- 

 Show is in a great measure attributable. Several nurserymen and 

 gardeners also testified their willingness to assist by sending plants, 

 &c, for the decoration of the room. Thus, Messrs. A. Henderson & Co., 

 Mr. Williams, Holloway, and Mr. Bniley, Albert Nursery, Bayswater, 

 contributed a variety of nne-foliaged plants ; Messrs. Downie & Co., 

 sub-tropical plants ; "Messrs. Carter it Co., plant cases, a fine collection, 

 of Gladioli, and large Vegetable Marrows ; Messrs. Barr & Sugden, 

 the two former, and a collection of Onions; and Mr. Legge, of Ed- 

 monton, fine stands of Dahlias. Two fine Deodars, about IS feet 

 high and valued at £20, were shown by Mr. Gleuny. Fulham ; whilst 

 Mr. Prestoe, Victoria Park; and Mr. Young, gardener to P.. Barclay, 

 Esq., Highgate, sent a large number of fine-foliaged and other orna- 

 mental plants, in addition to which, Mr. Young also contributed col- 

 lections of Apples, Pears, and vegetables. By far the most interest- 

 ing exhibition, however, furnished by non-competitors, was a collection 

 of some two hundred specimens of Conifers, contributed by Mr. 

 Gordon, whose work, " The Pinetum," is an authority on the subject. 

 Among these we noticed the Californian Piuus aristata, V. Parryana, 

 flexilis, Loudoniana, Buonapartea, Sabiniana, Coulteri, Masoniana, 

 Balfonriana, Gordoniana, ayacahuite, insignis, distinct from radiata, 

 and Fremontiana: Picea appolinis (blunt-leaved, whilst P. cepha- 

 lonica has sharp-pointed foliage), religiosa, Pindrow, Webbi&na, ama- 

 bilis, nobilis, Abies Donglasii, Standishii, with glaucous foliage, a 



