Maj 18, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOBTIOULTURE AND COTTAGE QABDBNBB. 



893 



glass strnctnres and their contents. The honees are large i 

 light, Bubstantiftl, and are admirably adapted to their several 

 purposes. They consist of live ranges, each range having a 

 length of 250 feet, a range of pits of the same length, and a 

 number of frames. There are also large numbers of minia- 

 ture frames for the protection and acceleration of vegetable 

 crops. Indeed every requisite appears to be provided, and 

 certainly there is not one too many, for every structure is 

 occupied with floarishing crops of flowers, fruit, or vegetables. 



The productions of this garden are immense in every 

 department. When we consider that a thousand heads of 

 forced Asparagus are required at one cutting, and the " come 

 agains" for similar quantities follow each other at close 

 intervals, and also that three hundred French Beans are daily 

 gathered from plants in pots, an idea is afforded of the mag- 

 nitude of the work. Cucumbers of course must never fail. 

 There must not be thousands in summer and none in winter, 

 but every day must produce the required supply fresh from 

 the plants. To meet this supply Mr. Denning has a valuable 

 variety of his own selecting. It is enormously prolific, the 

 fruits being short, handsome, and of superior quality. It 

 appears to resemble the excellent old sort Lord Kenyou's 

 Favourite in all qualities save that of colour, Lord Londes- 

 borough'a Favourite being of a much deeper green than Lord 

 Kenyon'*. They are grown in well-heated, low, half-span- 

 roofed bouses, the plants being in perfect health, clean, and 

 laden with fruit. 



Turning to the fruit department we find the operations con- 

 ducted on the same extensive scale. House after house is 

 filled with Strawberries almost from the floors to the ridges. 

 Many thousands of plants are forced in 48sized pots and 

 excellent crops are obtained. The plants are in saucers, but 

 not in, yet over, water, Mr. Denning having planned a saucer 

 of unusual construction. It is as if a small inverted saucer 

 were placed in each larger one, the small one on which the 

 pot is placed being just above high-water mark. By this 

 plan a moist atmosphere is provided for the plants, and at 

 the same time saturation of the roots is avoided. There are 

 several Peach houses, some trees being trained on trellises, 

 others being grown as standards in and out of pots. The 

 foliage of the trees is perfectly clean and healthy, and the 

 crops of fruit large. The trees are all young, and have not 

 yet covered their allotted spaces. Figs and Melons are also 

 cultivated— indeed all kinds of fruit except, perhaps, Pines. 



Vines are especially noteworthy both for their numbers and 

 splendid condition. It is clear that Mr. Denning can grow 

 Grapes as well as Orchids, and it is extremely improbable that 

 there can be found in Britain Vines of the same age of larger 

 size in better condition, and carrying finer crops than the 

 Vines in this garden. Only two sorts are cultivated, these, as 

 may be anticipated, being Black Hamburgh and Muscat of 

 Alexandria. If I remember rightly the Vines are three years 

 old, but were they double that age they would be in the highest 

 degree creditable to the cultivator. The permanent Vines are 

 planted in outside borders, the nursing canes being inside, so 

 that there can be no fear of the fungus which will probably 

 form on the roots of the latter when the rods are removed 

 spreading to the roots of the permanent Vines. The rods, 

 also the shoots, are trained thinly, every leaf having light, and 

 the wood is strong, and the bunches are not only large but 

 handsome and symmetrical in shape. The foliage of these 

 Vines is scrupulously clean, so clean that it cannot hive been 

 syringed except by filtered water. The probability, however, 

 is that the Vines are not syringed, or syringed very slightly, 

 but that moisture is afforded almost if not quite wholly by 

 evaporation. That water is used with great freedom in the 

 vineries is certain, and where this is the case syringing is 

 seldom found to be necessary. These remarks have reference 

 to the late houses. The Grapes in the early houses have been 

 in use for some time past, the crops being good and the berries 

 in perfect colour. 



The earliest Vines are grown in pots, which are plunged in 

 low houses. The Vines, however, are not trained directly 

 from the pots to the trellis, but the canes are first bent over 

 the pots and pegged to the soil, where a fresh set of roots are 

 emitted. Thus each Vine has two sets of roots to support 

 it — a simple and excellent plan, worthy of mention and more 

 general adoption. Than the Grape-growing in this garden no 

 department is more thoroughly or more admirably managed. 



A little must be said about plants — very little in comparison 

 with the extensive nature of the work in this department. 

 Setting aside for a moment the Orchids, the cut-flower and 



decorative-plant business is on such a scale aa is equalled 

 by few private establishments. What would many gardeners 

 think of having to supply eight hundred blooms of Gardenia 

 florida a-week ? Yet this number has been cut for some time, 

 and will so continue to be produced. The plants are planted 

 out in shallow beds, and are highly fed and freely syringed. 

 There is no mealy bug, but rich foliage and wax-like flowers. 

 Eoses are also produced on the same scale, the Teas being 

 planted and pegged down in heated pits, and produce their 

 blooms summer and winter. 



Plants for room-decoration are grown in extraordinary num- 

 bers, more than a thousand— often twelve hundred — a-week 

 being sent by vans to London and other places where the 

 family require them. Probably nine-tenths of these are killed 

 — indeed, many of them last only a few days in beauty, and 

 by their nature are of no further use. Mignonette is grown 

 by thousands of pots, the plants possessing the greatest luxu- 

 riance. All kinds of annuals are similarly cultivated — Nemo- 

 philas, Clarkias, CoUinsiBS, Linums, &a., and especially plants 

 and flowers which are pleasantly perfumed, one of the most 

 useful being Daphne Cneorum. One house was filled with 

 Geraniums in brilliant bloom, Vesuvius and Christine being 

 the sorts mainly relied on for a supply of scarlet and pink, 

 and Madame Vaucher for white flowers. These good old sorts 

 are grown by hundreds. Such is a brief sketch of the deco- 

 rative and cut-flower department of this celebrated garden. 

 But a sketch of it would be incomplete without an aUnsioa 

 to the 



Orchids. — The collection of these plants, as is well known, 

 is extensive, and they are as healthy and vigorous as they are 

 numerous and rare. They are grown in large span-roofed 

 houses on iron stages surfaced with gravel, the latter being 

 covered, however, with Lycopodiums, Panicnms, and other 

 trailing stova plants, which not only impart an ornamental 

 feature to the bouses, but which preserve moisture around the 

 pots and blocks of the Orchids, and thus utility is blended 

 with beauty. The plants, many of which are exceedingly 

 fine, are grown in pots, pans, on blocks, and in baskets, tho 

 roofs as well as the stages being occupied. Here is to be 

 seen the hundred-guinea specimen of Dendrobium Wardiannm, 

 also several others of equal value and many still more rare. 

 The splendid display of Cattleya citrina has been noticed, 

 and amongst others fiowering at the same time were Odonto- 

 glossums Halli, hystrix, gloriosum, luteo-purpureum, oorona- 

 rinm (grand), triumphana, roseum (charming), oordatum, 

 oitrosmum, also vexillarium and Roezlii in splendid varieties 

 and superb condition. Of Dendrobiums were densiflorum, 

 crassinode, Wardiannm, lituiflorum, infundibulum, Jenkinsii, 

 sanguinolentnm, and some others. Epidendrums were repre- 

 sented by orassifolium, bicornutum, onemidophorum, auran- 

 tiacum, &o. Of Cattleyas several fine examples were seen. Cat- 

 tleya speciosa had flowers 9 inches in diameter, and C. Skin- 

 nerii was remarkably high-coloured ; Lrolia Lindleyana was 

 also blooming ; Vanda CBrulescens had twenty-nine flowers on 

 one spike ; lonopsis panioulata was attractive by its purity ; 

 Utricularias were flourishing in baskets, and Phalfenopses, 

 including P. Porteana, were in vigorous health and fine 

 bloom. 



This noble collection of plants is at any time worthy of a 

 visit. What strikes the vieitor is the pleasant temperature of 

 the houses. There is no stifling atmosphere, no oppressive 

 closeness, no waste of coals, and the plants are the better 

 for it. 



Such is an outline of this renowned garden — a garden o£ 

 thorough gardening, a garden which demands and receives 

 skilful superintendence and continued and unremitting atten- 

 tion to preserve it in high state of keeping, and to provide an 

 ever-flowing stream of products of extraordinary extent and 

 variety. Well is it that we have such noblemen as Lord 

 Londesborough to provide so liberally for the practice of 

 horticulture, and well also that we have such able men as 

 Mr. Denning to carry that practice out so assiduously and 

 successfully. — J. 



GBIMALKIN versus NEMOPHILA INSIGNIS. 



I BOWED last year a shilling's worth of blue Nemophila, but 

 my cat, a most inquisitive large black Angora, and those of 

 my neighbours of various breeds, persisted in nibbling and 

 rolling on the young seedlings directly they appeared, so that 

 very few plants reached maturity. This year I have deter- 

 mined to raise a good crop, and my cat is equally resolved I 



