114 



JOUKNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE QAKDENER. 



[ Aagast 5, 1876. 



four yeara under a cultivator of Bome of the best plants which 

 have been exhibited at the London shows entirely converted 

 me to their use. Every year I was permitted to use a limited 

 number of dirty pots for every kind of plants, which were 

 grown in quantity. Since then I have always used clean pots, 

 and I am sure I should not have been at the trouble of clean- 

 ing them had 1 not been conscious of the advantage of doing so. 



I am acquainted with the plants of Dalkeith, and can testify 

 as to their excellence, yet I venture to believe that if Mr. Dunn 

 received a new and rare Orchid demanding special care that he 

 would not put it in glass, nor if he had a Heath of great value 

 that he would grow it in a vessel of iron. I have the utmost 

 respect for the practice — general and special — of Mr. D. Thom- 

 son, but what he can do everybody else cannot. His work is 

 very familiar to me, for, like Mr. Simpson, I am proud to have 

 been drUled in the school which Mr. Thomson has done so 

 much to make famous. Possibly between Mr. Simpson and 

 myself there may not be much difference of opinion as to what 

 each of us would do under given circumstances, but between 

 that and recommending a principle for general adoption there 

 is a great difference. 



It is not what can be done as a feat of skill, but what is the 

 most safe and reUable practice for the great body of skilled and 

 unskilled cultnrists that I prefer to keep in view when speak- 

 ing of and recommending a mode of practice. For instance, 

 while I can read a book almost as well wrong end upwards as 

 right, I do not recommend that practice to be taught in schools. 

 I much prefer the "general practice," for which, in gardening 

 matters, I am sorry to see that Mr. Simpson has so little 

 respect. The general practice under which the plants, fruit, 

 and vegetables are produced by British gardeners which adorn 

 our principal exhibitions is, I hold, worthy of great respect, and 

 is more authoritative as an example to follow than is a special 

 feat under special circumstances, and by special skill which 

 happens to be worthy of notice. 



I quite believe Mr. Simpson when he says that his bedding 

 plants in dirty pots are as good as those of others in clean 

 pots, but I interpret that as a greater compliment to the man 

 than the pot. I do not recommend clean, well-finished, and 

 well-burnt clay pots because plants will not grow in any others, 

 but because these I prefer are the safest and the best, and I 

 believe they will so prove themselves after another fifty years of 

 practice. I thank Mr. Simpson for his letter. — Ex-Exhibitor. 



For some years past our garden pots have been painted 

 inside and out with creosote in a boiling state. The reasons 

 why I adopted this plan were three : Firstly, to prevent eva- 

 poration and cooling of the surface ; secondly, to prevent 

 fungus growing on the outside ; and thirdly, to strengthen 

 the material by filling up the pores. The colour after 

 creosoting becomes of a rich brown, and not unsightly. My 

 pots are made on my own pattern — shallow, to facilitate 

 applying fresh material on the surface. I think there is no 

 valid reason for imagining that a plant requires a porous pot. 

 — Obseeveb. 



OUR BOEDER FLOWERS— GEUMS. 



Tnonan the Geums are a rather numerous family we seldom 

 meet with many of them in cultivation. In looking along our 

 hedgerows we often see Geum urbanum, but being so common 

 it is passed by without much notice, except by some of the 

 collectors of herbs ; but not so with Geum rivale, for some 

 think it worthy of a place in the herbaceous border, and look 

 upon it as a rarity. It is improved in stature under cultivation , 

 but I always admire it most in its own native habitat, for to 

 see this plant in a moist plantation on the limestone near a 

 river, covering the ground with its leaves and graceful pendant 

 flowers, is a sight not soon to be forgotten. 



Wlieu we tarn our attention to what may be termed garden 

 varieties, and look on Geum coceineum, we see one of the 

 brightest-coloured flowers that eyes can look upon. It is of 

 rather pleasing habit, continuing long in flower. Geum atro- 

 sanguinea approaching to dark crimson in colour is also a 

 charming border flower. Geum pyrenaicum, a yellow-flowered 

 variety, is desirable for change of colour. Geum album, 

 though an old plant, is seldom met with. Geum graudiflorum 

 is one of the finest of the tribe, and ought to be in every 

 garden. Geum triflora, a dwarf kind with yellow flowers, is a 

 desirable plant for the rockery, and is a very pretty plant for 

 the front row in the border ; it does not object to partial shade 

 nor a moist situation, but should not be saturated with water. 



Geum montanum is of rather taller habit, and is very desir- 

 able for the rockwork or borders. There are many others of 

 this family that are interesting, but are seldom met with ex- 

 cept in some very extensive collections. 



They will thrive in most ordinary soils, but a little extra 

 care will not be lost upon them. They delight in a rich 

 tenacious loam, with a little well-decomposed manure or leaf 

 mould and sand added. They are easily increased by seed or 

 division after flowering. Some of the taller-growing kinds 

 require staking to prevent them from being broken by the 

 wind. — Veritas. 



EARLY WRITERS ON ENGLISH GARDENING. 



No. 6. 

 JOHN BOSE. 



The next writer following in the chronological order is John, 

 Rose, whose little volume, the only one for which he furnished 

 the materials, appeared first in 16C6, and subsequent editions 

 in 1672, 1675, and 1691. I was misled once to mention him as 

 the alleged author of an essay " On the Admirable Virtues of 

 Coral," but I then doubted, and am now of opinion that it 

 was not his production. 



The volume which certainly owed its birth to him is " The 

 English Vineyard Vindicated, by John Rose, Gardiner to hia 

 Majesty at his Royal Garden in St. James's. Formerly Gar- 

 diner to Her Grace the Dutchess of Somerset. With an address 

 where the best plants are to be had at easie rates." Such is 

 the title-page of all the editions, and the work is bound usually 

 with Evelyn's translation of " 'The French Gardiner." 



Rose says that it was " the supremest glory " of his pro- 

 fession to be the King's gardener, and he dedicates his book on 

 " the Prince of Plants to the Prince of Planters," a title the 

 King deserved on account of his " magnificent and emolu- 

 mental encouragement of the culture of trees and fruit." 



The origin of the book is thus told by Mr. Evelyn : " Being 

 one day refreshing myself in the garden of Essex House, and, 

 amongst other things, falling into discourse with Mr. Rose, 

 then gardiner to Her Grace the Dutchess of Somerset, and 

 particularly the cause of the neglect of vineyards of late in 

 England. He reasoned so pertinently upon that subject (as, 

 indeed, he does upon all things which concern his hortulan 

 profession) I was easily persuaded to gratifie his modest and 

 charitable inclinations to have them communicated to the 

 world." The result was that Mr. Rose gave the information, 

 and Mr. Evelyn reduced it to writing. 



For vineyard culture Rose recommends the Black Cluster, 

 White Muscadine, Parsley-leaved, Muscadella, (not the Mus- 

 cadine), Black and White " Frontiniaqnes," and "anew white 

 Grape, ripe before the Muscadines, which I found in his 

 Majesty's garden at St. James's, with a red wood and dark 

 green leaf, and ripening as soon in standards as against some 

 walls." 



Mr. Rose must have had permission from his royal employer 

 to rear and sell Vines, for at the conclusion of his cultural in- 

 structions he states that he had " furnished himself with so 

 plentiful a stock of sets and plants of all those sorts which he 

 chiefly recommended, that those who desire to store their 

 grounds might receive them of him at very reasonable rates." 



We have no means of judging what Rose's taste was in 

 ornamental gardening, but probably it was not differing from 

 that which prevailed at the time. One of his fellow servants 

 of the King, Hugh May, controller of the works at Windsor, 

 told Pepys that " having the best walks of gravel in the world, 

 and the green of our bowling alUes excelling, we need only 

 a little mixture of statues or pots, which may be handsome, 

 and filled with another pot of such and such a flower or green 

 as the season of the year will bear ; and then the flowers are 

 best seen in a little plot by themselves, besides their borders 

 spoil the walks ; and then for fruit the best way is to have 

 walls built circularly one within another." 



The title-page I have copied only tells that Rose had been 

 gardener to the Duchess of Somerset ; that was at Essex House 

 in the Strand, and there also he was gardener to the Earl of 

 Essex, as he had subsequently been to the Duchess of Cleve- 

 land at Dorney Court in Bnckinghamshire. 



We have more than one evidence of the liberal, not to apply 

 the severer term lavish, payments made by the Duchess of 

 Cleveland, not only upon her own residences, but upon her 

 dependants whom she specially approved. Rose was one of 

 these, and she probably obtained for him the royal gardener- 

 ship, for he was promoted to it whilst she was the prime royal 



