684 Calls at the Nurseries 



Art. IV. Calls at the Nurseries and Suburban Gardens. 



As soon as the afflicting circumstance which recalled us suddenly from 

 our tour would permit, we began to visit the principal London nurseries 

 and suburban gardens, to see if any thing remarkable had taken place 

 during our five months' absence. We cannot say that we found much 

 change. Kewley's mode of heating by hot water is spreading rapidly. 

 The mowing-machine (noticed p. 611.) will be found, when known, 

 an important accession to garden implements. In almost every nursery 

 the georginas are splendid to a degree never before observed since the 

 plant was introduced. The finest display we saw, we think, was in 

 Dennis's New Nursery, King's Road ; at Messrs. Rollisson's, Tooting ; 

 and at the Epsom Nursery. We were rather disappointed in finding many 

 of the autumn species of aster prematurely in bloom, and even beginning 

 to decay ; the cause being the uncommon mildness of the autumn. With- 

 out the georginas, there would have been few flowers in the open air this 

 November, because the chrysanthemum, which has succeeded so ill out of 

 doors during the last three or four seasons, has now ceased to be much 

 planted or cared for. The best collections in pots appeared to us to be 

 those of Mr. Lee and Mr, Henderson. 



With respect to house plants, we found those of the green-house de- 

 cidedly better grown than usual ; from the same cause, the past season. The 

 winter-flowering heaths are coming finely into bloom, and the camellias 

 are covered with blossom buds, which, in the white and some other sorts, 

 are beginning to expand into flowers. The frequent rains during October 

 have been favourable to the production of weeds ; and this circumstance, 

 with the others attendant on the approach of winter, prevents gardens, 

 even under the best management, from displaying that high order and keep- 

 in" which they do in the beginning of summer. Upon the whole, how- 

 ever, the keeping of the London nurseries this autumn may be designated 

 as highly respectable. Garden seeds, with the exception of peas and onions, 

 have ripened well this season. The young wood of fruit and timber trees 

 and shrubs is also plump and mature ; and we never saw the nurseries 

 better stocked with saleable articles of every kind. 



Hairow Road Nursery. — Oct. 20. This new establishment displays a 

 good dwelling-house and two spacious green-houses, one at each end ; the 

 gable ends to the road, and the fronts to the east and west. The greater 

 part of .the grounds is now covered with dwarf georginas in the very height 

 of their beauty. 



Westbourne Green Nursery. — Oct. 20. This also is a new establishment, 

 combining a tea-garden, a labyrinth of hornbeam hedges, and a good col- 

 lection of pelargoniums. 



The Enham Nursery, Mr. Russell. — Oct. 22. A splendid display of 

 georginas, with some phloxes, asters, liatrises, and other autumnal flowers ; 

 the whole in good order. 



Tooting Nursery, Messrs. Rollisson. — Oct. 22. The display of georginas 

 is finer than has ever been known. The salvias are also very fine, particu- 

 larly S. Grahami, Part of a wall is covered with Ipomoe"'a coccinea, nailed 

 close to the wall, in order that it may ripen its seeds, Stktice sinuata, an 

 old neglected plant, is very finely in bloom, O'xalis Bowm, one of the 

 finest species of the genus, and also several other very ornamental species, 

 are in flower in a narrow border close under the front glass of a greenr 

 house. In the stove, Cypripedium insigne has eleven flowers, all expanded, 

 and is a very splendid specimen. Messrs. Rollisson are attempting to 

 flower PontederM! cra&sipes by growing it out of the water in moist soil. 

 The heaths and other green-house plants are newly replaced under glass, 

 and the former are about to be repotted, the soil being supposed to be a^ 



