390 



JOURNAL OP HOETIOUIiTOBB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



f Vtf 89, 1888. 



the ground in April, or the beginning of May. Catlings may 

 be t.iken off and struck at on.v time, but thuy strike the most 

 readily when from .siioh cut-down plants the young shoots or 

 suckers are iiele?ted when firm nt the base, and about 3 inches 

 in length. These will strike quickly without any danger of 

 damping if v'nced in a little bottDm heat. If it is not desirable 

 to wait fertile cuttings from plants out of doors, some rather 

 large established plants may be kept in iiots, and cut down and 

 placed in a mild heat in spring, when they will soon yield a lot 

 of young shoots for cuttings. These sprjng-struclc plants ar<! 

 the best of all for edgings, as they remain compact, and seldom 

 tlirow np any flower-stalks during the first summer. 



11. DioTis MAP.iTiiiA. — A stiff shrub with silvory leaves 

 covered with greyish down, which when pegged down is said to 

 make a fine edging ; but I have not seen it sonsed. I prcanmo 

 that it is equally hardy with others of the family, and, mtb the 

 exception of the cutting and the pegging, requires only the 

 commonest treatment. 



12. G.vAPHiLUTii LANATUii. — A Very useful edging plant with 

 ■ lioary leaves, capable of being managed so as to be G or 18 inches 



inheight, in the latter casi' producing its bunches of bufHsh 

 sweet everlasting flowers. It should be prorogated by cuttings 

 in August, and kept rather dry in winter in auy aii^ place, where 

 frost will not reach it. The least frost destroys it when damp. [ 

 We have sometimes allowed it to run wild round a bed, aud to 

 interlace itself among the plants behind, when it looked very , 

 graceful. By pegging and cutting it may be kept compact, anil 

 to any dosiiable height. The more sun it has tho whiter it 

 ■will be. I 



13. Salvia akoestea. — This, though hardy , does better for a '. 

 bed or border than for edging, as it is geueraliy from 2 to 3 feet 

 in height, and looks best when growing upright instead of under 

 edging treatment. I 



li. Stacuys lasata. — A very hardy Siberian Hedge Nettle 

 plant, with large, woolly, thick leaves, which in any case, and 

 especially if the flower-stems are removed, makes a dense 

 carpet on tho ground. For this carpeting and for broad margins 

 it is more suitable than tho narrow edgings ; but it is useful 

 for many places, .and has the recommendation of looking after 

 itself pretty well wherever it has standing room. It makes roots 

 so freely, that every little bit will grow. It looks whitest and 

 most sparkling where it receives the most sun. ■ 



Of these plants specified, I prefer Cerastiums for low edgings, 

 and Centanrea and Cineraria when the edgiugs are to range 

 from 6 to 12 or more inches in height. — R. Fisn. 



THE INTERNATIONAL HORTICULTURAL 

 EXHIBITION AND BOTANIC.VL CONGRESS. 

 " Thet manage these things better in France." How often 

 that has been dinned into our ears by writers of all liinds iu | 

 gardening papers. Ladies, who are supposed to be the best 

 arbiters in taste ; dilletanti horticulturists, who know nothing 

 of the practical working out of this fascinating pursuit ; learned 

 doctors, who out of their own consciences in their study evolvo 

 ■what might, ought, should, or could be done ; travelled gentle- 

 men, who have escorted some fair dame through the beauties i 

 of a foreign show ; — have all told us that we do not know any- 

 filing about flower shows— that our stiff and formal training, I 

 oui- huge pyramids of bloom, our boxes of cut blooms, are i 

 abominations ; aud that we had better either abandon them | 

 altogether, or else take a leaf out of the books of our continental ] 

 friends. It was vain to assure them that all this was a mis- 

 take, that the shows abroad were got up as special things, that 

 they bore no analogy whatever to our six or eight exhibitions 

 held every season, for that they only took place every three or 

 four years ; that if the occasion came we could far outstrip 

 them ; aud that in point of cultivation there was no compari- 

 son between the productions of our English gardeners and 

 those of the best continental ones. And yet all has been most 

 fully confirmed by the marvellous success of tho great Inter- 

 national Exhibition which has just taken place: aud, yet, must 

 all bear iu mind that this is exceptional — it is no more to bo 

 expected every year than the Great Exhibition, on this site of 

 which it was erected, is to be annual. In the opinion of all who 

 know anything of flower shows, and iu the jiulgmont of our 

 foreign visitors, never before has such an exhibition been held ; 

 and we hope that it may inaugurate as great an improvement in 

 all branches of horticulture as did the Exhibition of 18.'>1 in 

 manufactures. There is this to cheer us, we think, in our 

 horticultural shows^that whereas we, in 1851, had to leam 



how far behind foreigners we were in onr ideas of taste and 

 elegance, we may perhaps reverse it now by saying that the 

 foreigners will ascertain from us that in perfecting the pro- 

 duotione of natui-o they have from us many lessons to leom. 



And now v.'hat shall wa say, or how attempt to dei^cribo, this 

 marvellous display? There are thousands of the readers of 

 TiiK .loiiiNvL oi" Hoi'.ticvltuhk who will not have been able to 

 .-ee it, and who would gladly know what it was like. One 

 would want an essence made of all the F.oee leaves in the 

 lixliibition to dip one's pen in to give that roseate hue to one's 

 description that it ought to have. Of what use ia it to t«U 

 them that there were three acres and a half covered with 

 canvas, making a teat 503 feet loug by 293 broad — that the 

 skill of one of the ablest landscape gardeners we have, Mr. 

 (iibson, of Battersea Furk, aud his accompUshed son. had been 

 called into requisition to lay it out — that not only tho most 

 celebrated growers of our own land, both amateur and pro- 

 fessionSl, had made tho most wonderful efforts to outrival one 

 another, but that the celebrated names of Linden, Yerschafielt, 

 Thibaut and Keteker, and other foreigners were to be found 

 amongst the exhibitors — that Madame LegreUe d'Hanis sent 

 some of her productions— that the Director of the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew fonvarded some magnificent specimens — and 

 that the Crystal Palace Company were also competitors with 

 some of their noble tree Ferns ? All this to those who were 

 there will afford some notion of what it was ; but we fear 

 that to make it at all intelligible to those who have not seen it 

 is a difficult task indeed. If any of them have ever seen the 

 Botanic Society's shows, then we may say. Multiply that 

 twentyfold, and you may form some notion of what this great 

 tent was. On entering you were at once met very wisely, not 

 by a grand outburst of colour and beauty, but by a screen of 

 Pines, Yews, pyramidal Box, &c. ; and on going round this, 

 on either side, itself being a good deal raised, you then obtained 

 a view of tho iiiagnificont display. Everything had been done 

 to give effect to the Unit rnsemblc. Eockwork had been raised, 

 over which water trickled, aud ought to have had an outlet 

 to keep it clear, while on the rockwork were placed some of 

 those fine specimens of British Ferns which Mr. Ivery knows 

 so well how to produce ; then there were little valleys of Rho- 

 dodendrons, which were planted in the soil ; while all around, 

 on grass mouuds aud terraces, were placed such gorgeous 

 masses of bloom in Azaleas, Geraniums, and Hoses; such won 

 derful variety of form and colour in the different classes ; that 

 it was impossible to take iu all at once, or indeed at all. You 

 were continuiJly stumbling upon something you had overlooked, 

 or beeu drawn off from by some " maniac ' to admire a special 

 hobby of his own. iVnd then when one passed from this great 

 central tent into the Orchid tent, where were placed not only 

 these valued and valuable flowers, but all the new introductions 

 of Linden aud Verschaffelt, of Veitch, and Bull, and WilUams, 

 how difficult not to feel that satiety which comes after such a 

 visual feast as this, as does the same sense to the aldermen of 

 St. Thomas Backchiuch after my Lord Mayor's feast, when 

 callipash and callipce, and salmon, and venison, fat cajrons, 

 itc, have been laid under contribution ! j\jid then what a de- 

 lightful rrunioii it was to meet men from all parts ; some who 

 had known a smooth-faced boy, and could hardly believe he 

 was "grandpapa;" othei-s whose hospitality he had shared 

 abroad, and with whom he had had many a jileasant cliat iu 

 their homes — Linden, and Verdier, and Verschaffelt, Arc. ; to be 



seized by one friend, who would s.ay, ■' I must let you aud 



know one another ;" to be accosted by lovers of flowers that we 

 had never seen, but who kuew us ; to meet those with whom 

 one had fired a long-range shot, and to find th.it a hearty shake 

 of the hand dispelled all the fogs and mists that too often arise 

 about one's writing, because we will attach meanings to one 

 another's words they were never intended to bear. There are 

 some days which we mark as "special," for one reason or 

 another. We think few lovers of flowers but will say that the 

 22ud of May, 18G6, is one to be marked with the very whitest 

 of white chalk. 



Aud we hope no general plant-lover, who wonders at the be- 

 nighted ignorance of our florists, will say, •' It's like their im- 

 pudence,'' when we assert that to them the main beauty of 

 the Exhibition was to be attributed. We do not by this mean 

 for a moment to detract from the merits, the great merits 

 of Mr. Gibson, to whom, above all others, we believe the main 

 success of the Exhibition, as such, is due ; bnt what would 

 Mr. Gibson have done without the "Florists?" Would 

 he not in despair have looked on the task before him, if 

 he were told no Azaleas, Geraniums, or pot 'Roses were to ha 



