160 



THE GABDENEBS 1 CHBONICLE. 



[August 11, 1888. 



NOTES FROM EDGE HALL. 



A few notes on plants now or lately in flower here 

 may be of interest to some readers, especially as the 

 hot dry summer of last year, and the drenching wet 

 of July, have produced some remarkable effects. 

 Himalayan plants do well in a wet summer ; dry 

 sunshine and parching winds always distress their 

 flowers so in English gardens that I am accustomed 

 to ask whether the mountain air of Nepal and Sik- 

 kim is not constantly saturated with wet. 1 take 

 Meconopsis Wallichii and Cyananthus lobatusas typi- 

 cal plants of the Himalayan climate. Both are 

 better than ever this year ; the flowers of the Meco- 

 nopsis expand widely and healthily without the 

 usual difficulty caused by the adhesion of the sepals 

 to the petals, and the flowers last well ; but the 

 anthers seem to make no pollen ; consequently 

 I can never get good seed, and am dependent 

 for plants on the generosity of friends ; but all 

 of them now make the same complaint, that 

 no fertile seed is to be had. Cyananthus lobatus is an 

 excellent rock plant, and always does well here in 

 suitable places, just out of the direct rays of the sun. 

 This year it has surpassed itself. There is no shy- 

 ness about it. It keeps its multitude of beautiful 

 blue flowers wide open day and night, whether it 

 rains or not, but in wet weather the calyx fills with 

 water and no seed is ripened. It is increased best by 

 spring cuttings when the shoots are 2 inches long. 

 Codonopsis ovata, another Himalayan, has less merit, 

 but if it would show the beautiful interior of its 

 hanging balls, and smell less foxy, it would be 

 more attractive. The luxuriant growth of the 

 Androsaces is everywhere attracting attention, 

 especially A. sarmentosa which in many spots 

 here presents a square yard of crowded 

 large leafy rosettes. These, if their growth 

 is not soon checked by planting them singly in a pot 

 and getting them dried off by autumn, will all turn 

 brown and be dead before the end of October. 

 Onosma tauricum will do the same even sooner, 

 many of my plants being drowned to death already, 

 but the flowering of it has been very fine and abund- 

 ant until lately. 



Heucbera sanguinea is now a well-known plant : 

 its flowers, which last a long time, give quite a new 

 colour to the herbaceous garden. It is also very 

 easily increased by striking the tufts. I doubt whether 

 it will prove very hardy on cold soils if we get a 

 severe winter after such a summer as this, but it is 

 too good a plant to run the chance of losing by not 

 keeping a stock in a frame. I lately saw a statement 

 that it is the only Heuchera worth growing, but this 

 is not so, the light feathery plumes of H. micrantha, 

 though in quite a different style, are very ornamental, 

 and one or two other kinds deserve a place in a 

 mixed rorder, if only for their leaves. 



The later-flowering Gentians are no worse for the 

 wet : Asclepiadea and Septemfida are as good as usual. 

 The large medicinal G. lutea, of which I have many 

 plants raised from seed at least five years ago, has 

 flowered here this year for the first time. Its associa- 

 tions give it interest, but it has little other merit as a 

 garden plant. A new Gentian, G, Weschnikowi, 

 sent to me in spring by Professor M. Foster, seems 

 easy to cultivate. It is unlike any Gentian I have 

 seen before, having flower-stalks of a curious 

 fasciated appearance, carried up to a height of 

 more than a foot by a series of bifurcations, with 

 blue flowers the size of a harebell, the edges deeply 

 and unevenly lobed. Gentiana purpurea is also 

 flowering well. Campanulas have been and are 

 very fine, the best of the large kinds being persici- 

 folia. In nurseries we are offered all kinds of 

 deformities of this beautiful plant, some having 

 nearly flat flowers, or looking as if the bell had been 

 tnrned inside out ; others are in the shape of a cup 

 and saucer ; but the normal form, with the large 

 handsome bell, is the best. Seedlings of this plant, 

 which come up all over the garden, and are easily 

 recognised, should be allowed to flower, as they pre- 

 sent great variety of colour, from deep blue to pure 

 white, some of the intermediate shades of lavender 



being amongst the best. I should advise the same 

 with seedlings of C. turbinata, though these rarely 

 follow the habit of the parent, and degenerate 

 towards the coarse growth of C. carpatica, but occa- 

 sionally a plant of very good habit may be obtained 

 in this way. I have by it a very dwarf plant with 

 pure white flowers, not as large as those of tur- 

 binata, but very good for all that. I have tried 

 to improve this plant by raising seedlings, but 

 out of three crops not one plant has been worth 

 keeping. Of yellow Composites Coreopsis lanceolata 

 is perhaps the best, and no other Coreopsis out of 

 six I have tried is worth growing in this soil, for I 

 have given them a fair trial, except C. grandiflora, 

 which I do not think is in cultivation in England ; I 

 always receive C. lanceolata under the name, though in 

 leaf the two are quite distinct. Probably C. grandi- 

 flora, being from very hot parts, would not be hardy. 

 For brilliant golden colour Heliopsis Levis is quite 

 unsurpassed, though there are good and bad forms 

 of the plant, some being too lanky for gardens. My 

 best were raised from seed selected for me from 

 wild plants in Minnesota. 



Senecio japonicus, which has a synonym too 

 long to write, is very showy, and seems to want 

 a wet season to bring it to perfection. In dry 

 weather it sheds its buds ; both leaf and flower make 

 it worth growing; it is very fine just now. Two 

 Sedums are now especially good ; one is S. kamts- 

 schaticum, perhaps the most showy of all the tribe 

 at this season, and never shabby, the abundant 

 and conspicuous orange flowers being succeeded by 

 dark brown seed-vessels. The other is a scarce 

 plant on rockeries — S. pulchellum, and produces large 

 bunches, like inverted bird's feet, of flowers of a soft 

 rose colour; but as it flowers from every point, it 

 perishes if not propagated by breaking off and 

 inserting shoots when young. 



I will end these notes with a word about Lilies, 

 all of which have done or are doing well this year, 

 except L. auratum, which I have quite given up. 



Last summer seems to have caused L. giganteum to 

 flower while still young; I have had seven flower-stalks, 

 mostly below the average in size, having from thirteen 

 to eight flowers on each. On the other hand L. par- 

 dalinum is making some remarkable flowers : I 

 measured a solitary flower to-day — I think on a 

 seedling — which I caught just at the time of its 

 greatest expansion, and which proved to be fully 

 8 inches across. The flowering of L. testaceum is 

 also as good as I ever saw it. This is one of the few 

 Lilies which is better for being meddled with. If 

 the small bulbs which form on the crown of the 

 large bulbs are taken away and planted by them- 

 selves they make grand flower-heads in two years, 

 and surpass the old bulbs, which deteriorate if left 

 alone for several years. L. Humboldti, a capricious 

 Lily, is making some very fine heads in the open 

 border. The entire absence of red-spider from plants 

 usually liable to it helps to compensate for the wet 

 weather. C. WoUey Dod, Edge Hall, Malpas, July 28. 



Vegetables. 



LATE BROCCOLI AND EARLY CAULI- 

 FLOWER. 



It is rather late now to talk or be writing of 

 spring Broccoli, as the season is past for sowing, but 

 it is a good time to compare notes now that the 

 respective kinds have had a fair trial, although it 

 should be borne in mind that sorts which did not 

 turn in till the end of June this year may, and 

 most likely will, do so considerably before that date 

 next season, as everything has been quite a fortnight 

 later than usual. 



I have not, as yet, grown Gilbert's Victoria, 

 noticed in a recent issue, and highly recommended 

 therein, but I have most of the older varieties, and 

 the best of them with us has been Veitch's Model, 

 which does not belie its name, as it is the model of 

 what a nice table Broccoli should be. In growth 

 and habit it is very dwarf and compact, and the 



heart is close, white, and slightly conical, and as the 

 leaves fold tightly over, the heads are well protected, 

 and therefore maintain their colour till quite ready 

 to cut. 



A Broccoli like this that will come in later will 

 be even more valuable, as there is, unless under very 

 careful management, always an interregnum between 

 the last cuttings and the tima when Cauliflower 

 comes on ; but with earlier sorts of these, which are 

 now making their appearance, and later Broccoli, we 

 may soon hope to bridge over the space. As the 

 season for sowing spring Cauliflower will soon be 

 here, a few words from some of your correspondents 

 as to the kinds they have found the best will be of 

 much value. My favourites are Veitch's Pearl and 

 Early Erfurt, and as we cannot accommodate many 

 under handlights, our practice is to pot up a quantity 

 in the autumn in 60-sized pots. This we do by 

 putting a handful of half-decomposed leaves at the 

 bottom of each pot, and then filling up with light rich 

 mould, after which the plants are stood or plunged 

 in cold frames with their heads well up to the glass, 

 and they always have plenty of air during winter to 

 keep them sturdy and strong. In March, as soon as 

 the weather is favourable, they are planted out in a 

 warm sunny situation, and as they receive no check 

 by any disturbance of the ball or roots, they start off 

 to grow at once, and it is very rare that any bolt 

 unless sown before the middle of August. To suc- 

 ceed with these we sow a box in February, and place 

 the same in gentle heat, and prick out the plants, 

 when ready, under glass, and plant in the open in 

 April. J. S. 



Scarlet Runnebs foe Maeket. 

 I have been much interested in the method by 

 which Messrs. C. Steel & Sons, the well-known 

 market gardeners of Ealing, grow their Scarlet 

 Runners. In the first place, they give then good 

 soil, and a piece of ground which had carried Collards 

 and Curled Scotch Kale, was loosened by means of 

 a stirrer worked by steam, which loosened the ground 

 to the depth of 18 inches without turning it over 

 as a plough does. This was done athwart the 

 ground and longways, it was then harrowed, well 

 manured, and ploughed to turn the manure in. When 

 thoroughly prepared it was planted with Scarlet 

 Runner plants. The Beans had been previously 

 sown in dung pits, two Beans in a 48-sized pot, and 

 whert 9 inches or so in height they were planted out 

 in lines, the rows about 4 feet apart, and the twin 

 plants 2 feet apart in the lines. Then three strong 

 stakes were placed to each plant — the stakes are 

 about 4 feet or so in length, and they are tied 

 together at the top. This done the plough was 

 sent along the lines, earthing the plants up on 

 either side. The ground being rich, and the soil 

 moist, the plants soon began to grow rapidly, they 

 have sent up shoots already 2 and 3 feet in 

 length. The plants have bloomed, and still 

 flowering freely, and pods are already formed. It 

 appears to be the practice to pinch out the leading 

 shoots after they have reached a certain height ; this 

 causes the plant to make lateral growths, which 

 bloom. The extra cost incurred by clearing the 

 plants in pots, and staking them, appeared to be met 

 by the earlier and larger crops they produce ; gather- 

 ing is done without any danger of injuring the 

 plants, and sun and air can circulate among them 

 better than when nothing else is done, but simply pinch- 

 iag out the leaders. The cold rains have had the effect 

 of causing the older leaves to turn yellow, and slugs 

 and snails have attacked the plants. As a pre- 

 cautionary measure a good dressing of soot has just 

 been given, shaken well over the plants, and on the 

 surface of the ground. If only bright sunny weather 

 were to follow, each group of Beans would present 

 to view a dense pyramid of flower. No particular 

 value appears to be attached to varieties, for the 

 Scarlet, the Painted Lady, and the Giant White 

 types, appear in the rows. The Painted Lady is 

 said to be the earliest, and the Giant White" the 

 latest to bear; so there is perhaps an advantage 

 in mixing them together. In another month this 

 plantation, which is fully exposed on all sides, will 

 well repay inspection. II . D. 



