190 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 81, 1S76. 



are well represented, and every tree is in the best possible 

 oondition. I hardly know which deserves the greatest meed 

 of praise, the wall trees or the vegetable crops : both bore the 

 impress of superior skill. I was much struck with a flat of 

 Sutton's Queen Broccoli, which was invaluable as a very late 

 Broccoli. Many of the heads measured 36 inches and upwards 

 in circumference, and they were close and compaot. A flat 

 of Hicks's White Cos Lettuce was something wonderful, the 

 Lettuces were so large and fine. The Strawberries promised 

 abundant crops of fruit, a large quarter of the old Black Prince 

 being grown for preserving, and Sir J. Paxton and Eclipse are 

 good for table purposes. Early Prolific was not very promising 

 in the open ground, but as a forcing Strawberry Mr. Gadd 

 considers it without an equal. Strawberries are forced ex- 

 tensively, and at the time of my visit (Jane 17 th) they were 

 a grand sight. On the south wall there is a raEge of lean-to 



houses 480 feet long, divided into eight compartments of Peach 

 houses and vineries, and every available spot was occupied 

 with French Beans and Strawberries. These houses were in 

 the same good keeping as the rest part of the garden. 



At the west end of the kitchen garden there is another block 

 of useful span-roofed houses ; the first being a Pine house, 

 60 feet by 13 feet, and well furnished with young Pines in 

 luxuriant health. The second is a Melon house 30 feet long, 

 the fruit in various stages of growth. The chief varieties grown 

 were Read's New Hybrid Scarlet-flesh, a beautiful netted variety 

 of most delicious flavour ; and Eastnor Castle Green-flesh, 

 a hybrid between Beechwood and Victory of Bath, a delicious 

 variety, the plant being a free grower and setter. There 

 was also in this house a miscellaneous collection of stove 

 plants. The third house, 30 feet long, contained Cucumbers. 

 Rollisson's Telegraph and Pearson's Long Gun appeared to 



Fig. 24.— WOLLATON HALL. 



be relied on for the main crop j but there were several plants 

 of the Duke of Connaught and Tender and True, the latter 

 proving a first-rate Cucumber. Two or three days before my 

 visit Mr. Gadd cut three fruit from a plant of Tender and True 

 which measured 7 feet. In the Palm house I noticed in par- 

 ticular a fine Passiflora Buonapartea blooming in great pro- 

 fusion, and a Clerodendron splendens. In the show house, 

 which is 75 feet long, there were huge Brugmansias, Tree 

 FernB, MuBas, healthy Orange Trees, &c, and from the roof 

 were suspended Climbing Devoniensis, Gloire de Dijon, and 

 MarSchal Niel Roses. The Fern stove was furnished with a 

 fine oollection of healthy well-grown Ferns interspersed with 

 Gardenias, which filled the house with the most delicious 

 odour. On the roof were Hoya carnosa, Jasminum Sambac, 

 Bhynchospermnm jasminoides, and Stephanotis floribunda. 

 In the large plant house there was a large collection of Pelar- 

 goniums of the greenhouse section, and the same may be said 

 of the Zonals. The New Holland house was filled with 

 hardwooded plants, Ericas and Epacrises predominating. 

 The pillars were draped with Tropasolums of the Lobbianum 

 section. The stove, 35 feet long, was crowded with such 

 plants as are used in the present style of dinner-table and 

 house decoration, all in excellent health. The last house I 

 entered was a successional Pine house. 



Behind the range of vineries and Peach houses there is a 

 very commodious potting shed heated with hot water. It is 



rare in noticing gentlemen's seats that the potting shed comes 

 in for a note of observation, but that at Wollaton is well 

 worthy of imitation. In a shed of this description plants 

 may be brought from warm structures in cold weather either 

 to be repotted, sponged, or staked, and the work can be per- 

 formed without danger to the plants and with comfort to the 

 workmen. There is also a convenient place for fumigating, 

 which must be a great advantage when only a few plants are 

 infested with insects, or when it is not convenient to fumi- 

 gate them in the house in which they are growing. The fruit 

 room is also a model of perfeot arrangement. All the trays 

 are moveable, and fifty bushels of fruit can be stored away 

 in single layers. On a bed of coal ashes I noticed a fine baton 

 of Chrysanthemums. Mr. Gadd grows these plants on single 

 stems ; they are never stopped from the time they eome from 

 the cutting pot, and he succeeds in produoing flowers of pro- 

 digious size. 



I have dwelt longer on these gardens than I intended, and 

 now the notice is very imperfect, there are so many objeots of 

 interest deserving to be recorded. I wended my way across 

 the park and kept by the Lenton lodge. From the mansion 

 to the lodge it is about a mile and a quarter. There is a noble 

 avenue of Limes about three-quarters of a mile long — " tall 

 ancestral trees" — planted on each side the oarrriage drive, the 

 branohes meeting overhead and forming a leafy arch of great 

 beauty. From the Limes to the lodge there is an avenue of 



