May 28, 1874. ] 



JODBNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEU. 



417 



WALLFLOWERS. 



HIS, one of the oldest, hardiest, easiest- 

 grown, and sweetest flowers of spring, is 

 worth cultivating if it is not worth writing 

 about ; yet it is worthy a hne in this .Journal 

 if it is worthy a place in the garden ; for 

 what is the garden press but gardens con- 

 densed, the spii-it of which the garden itself 

 is the practical expression ? I will not apo- 

 logise, therefore, for taking the Wallflower 

 for a theme, nor will I admit that I am 

 stooping to notice a plant too insignificant for a due meed 

 of attention. " Stooping," have I written ? It is an 

 anomaly. There is no such term that can be justly 

 applied derogatory to any plant, or root, or flower that 

 is sent to enrich this wonderful earth, to give food to body 

 and mind, to awaken our sympathies, to gratify, to enjoy. 

 Does some one mutter, " Sentiment and poetry ? " because 

 if he do, let me tell him he is not practical, and has not 

 thought, observed, or worked to any purpose that does 

 him honour or credit. Have not most people observed 

 that as youth gives way to mature age the judgment 

 becomes more just, and decision goes on innate merits, 

 not swerved by mere fancy, fashion, or enthusiasm ? Let, 

 then, the young imitate the old, and put aside all fashions, 

 notions, and prejudices, and look at the Wallflower on its 

 merits alone. Surely that is practical enough. However, 

 if it could serve no practical pm-pose it would have no 

 place here. But it can and does, and that is the answer 

 to any who doubt its usefulness, and the reason that, 

 simple and common as it is, it is elevated to a niche in 

 garden literature. 



The Wallflower is a very old friend indeed, having pro- 

 bably had a place in English gardens for upwards of three 

 hundred years. It is surprising how many people have 

 a — yes, " strongness "' is the correct term now — "weak- 

 ness," having got the cold shoulder editorially — for old 

 things. Let none regret if this strongness grows yet 

 stronger. It is a healthy sign. One can generally repose 

 confidence and put trust in him who can revere an old 

 church, cherish an old castle, esteem an old tree, value 

 an old flower, and honour an old man. This inherent 

 affection for old things is a national characteristic, and 

 befittingly so in an old historical country like our own. 

 Do we see one who would laugh to scorn the hoary 

 relics of the past, and speak of the mind matured as 

 " fossilised V "' Keep him at arm's length. He is not safe 

 as a guide, adviser, or friend. 



But to the WaUflowers. They have a long history 

 behind them — yes, and a long future before them, for 

 they will not be driven away. They cling to old gardens, 

 old bmldings, and cottage walls from generation to gene- 

 ration. It is no wonder that their pertinacity has found 

 them a friend here and there, sometimes — perhaps oft- 

 times — humble, sometimes noble, yet friends all, and, 

 what is more, friends increasing. See Wallflowers where 

 y/e may in early spring, they compel a pause to inhale 

 their delicious fragrance and admii'e their native colour 



Ho. 687.- Vol. XXVI., New Series. 



and beauty. See their power in adding a charm to such 

 places as Chveden and Belvoir, to hundreds of gardens of 

 less note, and thousands of cottagers' plots made sweet 

 and cheery by their presence. This cosmopolitan cha- 

 racter of the flower is a great advantage. If the per- 

 fection of legislation is effecting the greatest good to the 

 greatest number, surely a flower having corresponding 

 qualities is worthy of care, especially where this care is 

 of the simplest and easiest, and within the means of 

 everyone having a garden readily to bestow. For two 

 months — Apvfl and May — it takes the first rank in any 

 flower garden, and fills a place which nothing else can uo 

 to the same purpose and with the same effect. Tet if we 

 find it done justice to, and turned to any real decorative 

 purpose in one garden out of ten, that is the outside. 

 True it is that Wallflowers are often enough seen in perhaps 

 most places, but the spindly straggling plants too com- 

 monly met with are only a mere apology for the effects 

 well cultivated plants of a good strain are capable of 

 achieving. 



Furthermore, attention has, perhaps, latterly been given 

 to the double and semi-double German varieties offered 

 in seed with glowing pedigrees attached, and which in 

 innumerable instances have not come up to the high — too 

 high — standard anticipated, and the whole race has fallen 

 into disfavour from the shortcoming of a particular type 

 whose virtues had been over-estimated. A fair proportion 

 of doubles may come good by seed, but as a whole this class 

 only very occasionally gives any real solid satisfaction to 

 the cultivator when planted to create an imposing effect 

 in lines and masses, their habits being too diversified. 

 Dotting them here and there in isolated clumps, without 

 any regard to height, shape, or colour, is the best way of 

 doing justice to the type, and used in this way they often 

 please ; but as doubles they fall far short of the old- 

 fashioned perennial class of Wallflowers which the grand- 

 parents of fledgling gardeners of the present used to 

 delight to honour. If doubles are wanted, grow these. 

 There are two or three shades of red, as blood red, light 

 red, and purple red, also striped and full-blown yellow. 

 The first and the last are the best, the yellow being 

 especially effective for in-door flowering early in spring. 

 These are far before the German hybrids, and can only 

 be perpetuated by slips or cuttings. These, if put-in in 

 May under a hand-light in light soil, or even in the open 

 au' on a shaded border, will root freely ; but a far quicker 

 and better plan is to put them in heat after the manner 

 of Verbenas, using the young shoots as cuttings, in con- 

 tradistinction to the half-ripened stubby side shoots as 

 slips. 



For real usefulness, however, give me a first-rate strain 

 of singles of unifoirm height and habit, broad-petalled. 

 and of decisive colours. These are the plants for spring 

 gardening. They flower early, last well, and are off in 

 convenient time for summer bedding. One of the most 

 useful introductions of recent years is the Tom Thumb 

 single yellow Wallflower, so bright, compact, free, and 

 especially so constant from seed. This has already 3 ielded 

 sub-varieties, the Belvoir Castle being reputed as the best, 



No. 1SS9.— Vol. LI., Old Sekles. 



