Deeember 9, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



503 



grown into large plants and be well furnished with flower- 

 budci. It will be necassary to house them before the least 

 frost tonches them, for they are not at all hardy. A light 

 airy house is the place for them, with a temperature through 

 winter not lower than 50". They will do in a much higher 

 temperature and the flowers will then open quicker, but the 

 colours will not be so good and the plants will not last in 

 condition so long. For supporting the flowers I stick birch 

 twigs amongst and around the plants when growing ; these 

 keep them up well and do not look so stiff and formal as 

 stakes. I only keep the plants one season, as they never look 

 so fresh and healthy afterwards. 



The kind which I have found to be the most useful is a 

 bright red one called Belle Hose. It produces its flowers 

 abundantly all through the winter. Purity is the best white I 

 know, and it is highly scented. A good red-and-white-.striped 

 kind is Beauty ; and Miss Jolliffe is a beautiful pink, very free- 

 flowering, and vei-y sweetly scented. This last differs in habit 

 from other Perpetual Carnations. It grows more like a Pink, 

 and an 8-inch pot is large enough for it. 



Green fly is the greatest enemy winter Carnations have, 

 and a sharp look-out should be kept for it ; for if it once 

 gains a footing it has such a chance of hiding itself from fumi- 

 gating and washing that it is extremely difficult to eradicate. 

 — WrLHAM Taylok. 



NOTES BY THE WAY. 



CROYDON. 



One is sometimes reminded by a trivial circumstance of the 

 lapse of time ; and when the other day I shared the hospitality 

 of my friend the Vicar of Croydon, I could hardly believe 

 what on comparing notes I found must be true, that it was 

 twenty years since last I had done so. How many thoughts 

 crowded upon our mind, and what eventful years they had 

 been in our own personal history and in that of our nation. 

 How much, too, had taken place in that little world of horti- 

 culture in which we were both interested, and how much there 

 ■was to talk about on matters connected with some of its special 

 subjects. It was not a time very suggestive of pleasant thoughts 

 in relation to gardening. Heavy floods, cold winds, and the 

 promise of a sharp frost are not kindly reminders of the joys 

 that horticulturists delight in, yet at all times one can tind 

 something to talk aboxit and something to see ; and it may 

 interest some of our friends to read a few notes on what I saw 

 that dull November day in the semi-urban and semi-rural town 

 of Croydon. 



The VicAEiGE. — Situated as it is just outside the town on 

 the Waddon side, and protected by fields which Mr. Hodgson 

 has in his own hands, from being outbuilt, one finds in the 

 surroundings of my good friend a veritable multum in parvo. 

 Time was when he was celebrated for his breed of Cochins, 

 but his love for the garden has overcome that for the poultry 

 yard ; and although he still keeps fowls, yet clearly they have 

 given way to the flowers and fruits ; and anyone who wishes 

 to see what can be done in a small place by one who has a 

 willing heart could find no better place to gain a lesson than 

 this vicarage garden. There is for the size of it a pretty con- 

 siderable quantity of glass, and the structures are used for all 

 purposes. Thus, there is a small stove, on the roof of which 

 AUamandas and Passiflora quadrangularis were giving even 

 then their briUiant and curious blooms ; while beneath were 

 plants of various families — Ferns, Gloxinias, &c., which are 

 useful for house decoration, and are in themselves beautiful 

 and interesting. Then there is an orchard house, in which 

 Peaches and Nectarines had afforded a fine supply of good 

 fruits ; vineries, where the Grapes had indeed been gathered, 

 but where the Vines — and many of them the newer and rarer 

 sorts — gave evidence of health and vigour. And then there 

 was the nattiest little fruit house that can possibly be imagined, 

 the one thing about the place which made me in danger of 

 brealdng the tenth commandment. The garden itself showed 

 the same taste for all things worth having. Strawberries were 

 very fine, and Dr. Hogg was looked upon as about the best. 

 Magnificent fruit is gathered from it every year, and the beds 

 looked most healthy and promising. Eoses, too, were fine, 

 and here as elsewhere I found the seedUng Briar highly spoken 

 of, and it seems likely to become a very popular and useful 

 stock. The Pear and Apple, pyramids and bushes, were in 

 excellent order. Fine samples of that grand November Pear 

 Doyenne du Cornice were in excellent eating order, and the 

 fruit room displayed a goodly number of Pears and Apples 



gathered from these trees ready for future use. Lilies, too, 

 came in for their share of attention, and seemed from the 

 flower stalks I saw to have done very well. Then Mr. Hodgson 

 is a devoted lover of the Gladiolus. He has been an exhibitor 

 and exhibited well and successfully, and it was a pleasant 

 thing to talk over the flowers we had grown and compare our 

 notes together. I fear that while, like many, he has to deplore 

 the disease amongst his bulbs, he does not believe in the 

 degenerating theory. There are some kinds more diflioult to 

 keep free from disease than others, but they are not those which 

 are higher bred than many which we can keep free from it, while 

 also it makes its appearance immediately on seedlings which 

 have never bloomed. A new site has been selected for the 

 beds this year, and I should imagine that they will be likely 

 to do well. 



Waedon House. — The name of Mr. Philip Crowley is well 

 known amongst the horticulturists of the metropolis ; and 

 those who have known him will not be furprised, I imagine, 

 to hear that his place is brimfuU of valuable and rare plants. 

 It is one of those old manor houses which were at one time so 

 abundant in the neighbourhood of our great city, but which 

 are being gradually improved off the face of the earth. I could 

 see that the place itself with its well-kept lawn and good 

 shrubberies would be worth seeing. As it was, I had to con- 

 tent myself with going through the houses. Adjoining the 

 mansion is a very handsome conservatory, over the roof of 

 which rambled in wild profusion the lovely Tacsouia Van- 

 Volxemi, for ever blooming, and then full of its beautiful 

 crimson parachutes hanging down all over the house — the very 

 perfection of conservatory climbers. The conservatory is ter- 

 minated by a fernery, the floor of which slants so as to give 

 the idea of a natural cavern, and is composed of large flat 

 stones, such as one might expect to see on the Devonshire 

 coast. It is heated ; and the Ferns, with here and there a 

 Begonia intermixed, seemed to luxuriate in their abode. The 

 range of glass is extensive, and both in stove and greenhouse 

 were to be seen many of the plants which have been introduced 

 of late years, all of them seeming to be well cared for and ia 

 fine health. An orchard house was in course of erection, while 

 the Vines were evidently in sound health. 



I regretted that Mr. Crowley himself was absent and that 

 my time was so hurried, or I might have been able to glean 

 something more worthy of notice ; but if any of the readers of 

 the Journal should, during the course of next year, be visiting 

 Croydon and be really interested in horticulture, they would 

 find in both of these places a good deal to interest them, and 

 I am sure would meet with a kindly reception from both Mr. 

 Hodgson and Mr. Crowley. There is no greater pleasure in 

 horticulture than to go over one's garden with anyone who 

 thoroughly loves the pursuit, while those who only come to 

 pass away the time are a great bore and may easily be bowed 

 out after a short visit. — D., Deal. 



PEACHES AND NECTAEINES. 



Diamond (more properly Dymoud) was raised by Messrs. 

 Veitch of Exeter. I do not possess it. 



" A. W." (page 484) asks if anyone can recommend a later 

 Peach than Noblesse that will ripen in the midland counties. 

 I recommend for that purpose Barrington and Rivers' Necta- 

 rine Peach. Mine is a very cold and exposed garden, and 

 they will ripen hero. Lord Palmerston and the Princess of 

 Wales require to be gathered and placed a few days under 

 glass; then pare them, slice them, and eat them with sugar. 

 So used they are good. 



A good selection of Peaches would be Early Louise, Early 

 York or Early Alfred, Dr. Hogg, Early Ascot, Grosse Mignonne, 

 Royal George, Noblesse, Bellegarde, Barrington, and Nectarine 

 Peach. 



A good selection of Nectarines would be Lord Napier, Eh-uge,. 

 Downton, Violette Hiitive, Rivers' White, Emmerton's White 

 (later than the previous one). Rivers' Orange, Pitmaston 

 Orange, and Pine Apple to finish with it. 



If "A. W." would put some chalk or lime into his soU it 

 would greatly improve it. Stone fruit like chalk and Ume. — 

 W. F. Radclyffe, Okeford Fitzpaine. 



Stellakia r.KAMiNEA AUKEA. — In reply to " Onwaeds " I have 

 grown Stellaria graminea aurea this season for the first time, 

 and am highly pleased with it as a carpet bedding plant, and 

 for that purpose it will undoubtedly supersede the Golden 



