44d 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENEK. 



I JuQO S, 1876. 



np to May. Its flowera are produced in loose spikes, and when 

 seen in a mass have nothing less than a beautiful effect. The 

 growth is in a suitable position and soil very free, the plant 

 sending out runners very extensively, extending a considerable 

 distance in a season, and in that respect is good as a surface- 

 covering plant. It appears to delight in a light open soil well 

 drained, evidently preferring vegetable soil to any other. My 

 plants are in light loamy soil top-dressed with leaf soil and a 

 portion of short manure, for which the plants, by the free 

 growth and ample bloom, appear grateful. It appears not 

 only to require shade in summer, but also warmth, and not 

 having seen it bloom other than sparsely in positions not 

 inclining well to the south, with shelter to the north and east, 

 as that of a bank, rock, or evergreen, with in summer shade 

 afforded by deciduous shrubs, which, leafless in winter and 

 spring, admit sun, and at the same time afford a kind of 

 shelter. In any shaded nook or warm corner this plant will 

 thrive in light sandy soil ; and amongst deciduous shrubs or 

 sunny banks, spreading itself far and wide amid the deposit 

 of vegetable matter, it cannot fail to please all loveis of bright 

 blue early flowers. — G. A. 



CORNISH NOTES. 



Rhododendrons. — I wish my experience could confirm the 

 many testimonies given in your paper as to the hardihood and 

 accommodating disposition of these plants. I have never been 

 able to grow a creditable specimen without the aid of peat, and 

 I have, moreover, taken some pains to ascertain how the case 

 stands in several of the principal places of this county where 

 these plants are cared for, and nowhere can I find the natural 

 soil producing satisfactory plants unless it be a peat one. 

 Where they have the rich black earth stripped from the old 

 granite hUls and sparkling with sharp granules of the decom- 

 posed rock they look happy, but otherwise very inclined to 

 " strike." 



The following list of good kinds will not add much to the 

 information already given, but some of the names have not as 

 yet I believe appeared in your pages : — Blandyannm, Brayanum, 

 Ciliatum,Atrosangmneum, Augustus, Currieanum.Hendersonii, 

 Everestianum, Lady Eleanor Cathcarf, Madame Masson, 

 Minnie, John Waterer. Mrs. John Waterer, Nero, Roseum 

 grandiflorum, Titian, Vandyke, Victoria, Nobleanum, The 

 Indians, Falconeri, Barbatum, and seedlirjgs from them crossed 

 with Thomsonii are also growing well, but have not as yet 

 flowered with me. These latter — coming as they do from the 

 stock of a gentleman who in his lifetime, assisted by Dr. 

 Hooker, succeeded in establishing one of tho most interesting 

 collections of Rhododendrons in England — I have great hopes 

 of. If they never flower they would be worth growing for the 

 tropical beauty of their foliage ; but in spite of the necessity 

 of peat and its expense in many cases few lovers of flowers can 

 well abstain from growing Rhododendrons. la there any 

 chance of propagating them without peat ? 



One of my most pleasant pilgrimages ia an annual one, 

 early in May, to " Penjerrick," to see a fine specimen of 

 Thomsonii blooming in the open ground there. This lovely 

 plant, and the Embothrium coccineum, a tree some 2.3 feet 

 high, with its thousand blooms of rich coral-coloured Honey- 

 suckle-shaped flowers, to say nothing of the many other rare 

 and beautiful objects in this uniquely pretty place, well repay a 

 visit. 



The Embothrium coccineum I cannot find in any of the 

 nurserymen's lists. The two specimens in this county — the 

 one I have referred to, and a larger one growing in the grounds 

 of Soorrier House — are said to be the only specimens known 

 save a small plant or two struck from these parent trees. Can 

 any of yonr readers give any information about this tree ? It 

 must surely be more wide-gpread than is alleged. That at 

 Scorrier is probably :iO feet high, and is at present estimated 

 to be covered with at least three thousand blooms. 



Glapioh. — Not being satisfied with the constitutions of my 

 Gladioli I tried last winter the somewhat Spartan plan of leav- 

 ing them in the ground, and I have been agreeably surprised 

 at the result. The losses are fewer than when I stored them, 

 and the swords, now well up, arc certainly more vigorous. A 

 neighbour of mine took his up in November, gave each bulb 

 (some two hundred) a pot, filled the pot with sand, and 

 wintered them in a cold frame. He tells me the spawn he has 

 turns out more than three thousand, and the bulbs are much 

 fuller and firmer than when he stored them on the old plan_ 

 I think the secret of having a vigorous stock is, if possible, to' 



keep the bulb always growing. I cannot think the dead-alive 

 plan of storing them dry is other than injurious. 



Pyeetheums. — Last year and before I have been much dis- 

 satisfied with these. Some four years ago I saw them shown 

 at South Kensington, and I thought they deserved greater popu- 

 larity. This year my established plants — named kinds from 

 Messrs. Kelway, such as Princess Beatrice, Mr. Gladstone, 

 Uzziel, Gustave Hertz, and others — are really lovely. The dry 

 wind and bright sun seem to suit them exactly ; the blooms 

 are wonderfully compact, and many of them measure more 

 than .S inches in diameter, and the colours are striking. I shall 

 certainly multiply them. 



The spring ribboning I have used this year has been mora 

 effective than I have ever succeeded with before — Variegated 

 Aubrietia, Myosotia disaitiflora, Cheiranthus Marehalli, and 

 Silene pendula. The bright orange of Cheiranthus with the 

 choice blue of the Myosotia is very telling. 



P-EONiES. — One wonders more is not written about them. 

 The massive rich ruby flowers of the old-fashioned kinds now 

 blazing away amongst my shrubs I could ill dispense with. 

 Will someone who has made a speciality of these flowers tell 

 us something about them? I have some good light lemon- 

 coloured French kinds that are pretty. 



Fecit. — The early Pears set well. The later Peara will be 

 a wretched crop. The long continuance of north-easterly 

 winds and the frost during this moon have played great havoc. 

 Apples promise a fine yield. I was glad to see " Wiltshiee 

 Eectok" doing justice to the Hawthornden. It is handsome, 

 useful, and hardy, aa far aa my experience goes. Some years 

 ago, when going over the collection of a fine old fruit-grower, he 

 pointed to this Apple and said, " When I was in the service of 

 Lord Poltimore the famous Soyer was cook there, and his in- 

 structions always were, ' Bring dem Hawthorndens in for de 

 sauce.' In his opinion there was no Apple for ' de sauce ' 

 equal to them." Reading " Wiltshire Eectok's " happy 

 description of this Apple, although not quite bo good as eating 

 it, waa uncommonly like the process. I quite agree with him 

 in the wish for a list of dessert and cooking Apples found to 

 answer best in the several districts throughout England, upon 

 the same plan as the election of Rosea. It would wonderfully 

 help beginners, I am sure. I know from experience what 

 pleasure apiece of orchard ground can afford, and that pleasure 

 will generally be, if not in a direct ratio to the real value or 

 otherwise of the fruit produced, still considerably influenced 

 by it. In spite of the high repute of our special Comifh 

 Apple the Gilliflower, it is most difficult to grow and ripen it 

 satisfactorily out of a favoured district or two. In some of 

 the sheltered plaftes on the river Fal, especially in the district 

 where our well-known horticultural authority the Hon. and 

 Rev. J. T. Boaoawen lives, it is found at its best, and is then 

 matchless; but ordinarily it faila to ripen, keeps badly, end 

 then its leathery toughness is a match for the stomach of an 

 ostrich. The Ribston Pippin cankers. Cox's Orange Pippin 

 I should venture to head a list with ; it bears well, ia healthy, 

 and the flavour I think preferable to the Ribston. The Blen- 

 heim Pippin, the Pearmains (Herefordshire, Green, Scarlet, 

 and Golden), Margii, and some other standard sorts, with 

 Winter Peach, the Junnettings, &^., aa summer kinds would 

 soon moke a safe catalogue of dessert sorts. For kitchen 

 purposes Hawthornden, Lord Snffield, Blenheim Orange, Cellini, 

 Alfriston, Keswick Codlin, with a few others it is impossible 

 to go wrong with. This is of course a rough way of putting it. 

 My object is to strengthen the suggestion of " Wiltshire 

 Rector" and others who have mooted the fruit-election list. 

 What lovers of horticulture want as data to work upon is not 

 isolated eases of success and failure here and there, nor an 

 individual opinion here and there, but a systematic wide-spread 

 comparison, such aa this project would embrace. Then, too, a 

 comparison might be instituted of the relative value of the 

 different forms of growth for the different leading sorts — 

 whether dwarf, pyramidal, trellis, or the old-fashioned orchard 

 form best suited them. — Cobnubia. 



GLOXINIA CULTURE. 



This plant by regulating its resting period may be brought 

 to bloom at almost any time. I generally keep the plants 

 while resting under the greenhouse stand or late vinery, or 

 any place convenient where the temperature is between i.j' 

 and 65° ; if it is much lower they are apt to decay ; if higher 

 they start into growth. 



When stowed away the pota ahonld be laid on their sides, as 



