December 14, 1871. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HOBTXGDLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDE MEB. 



463 



gether, but plotted systematically. In No. 1 plot we see all 

 the dwarfs, type Little Gem ; No. 2 plot, type Veitch's Per- 

 fection ; No. 3 plot, type Champion of England. Mr. Lixton'a 

 garden is full of interest to both the professional and amateur 

 gardener. — B. Gilbeei, Burghley. 



SELECT GLADIOLUSES. 



Havino taken great delight for a good many years in growing 

 the Gladiolus, all the remarks which have appeared in your 

 Journal bearing on my favourites have been eagerly scanned to 

 find something new regarding them. 



Like many of your other correspondents, I have found Gla- 

 diolus cultivation very perplexiag ; indeed, some years ago I 

 lost my entire collection. Shortly after that I had another 

 garden, where they grew very well, but still not without many 

 failures. From my experience, and the experience of others 

 in the same locality as my first garden, I should say that in 

 some soils they will not succeed at all ; our subsoil was a cold 

 heavy clay, and although deep digging and mixing sand and 

 moss were resorted to, all would not do, and in similar soils no 

 one should try any but the cheapest varieties, so that they 

 could be renewed every year. 



It was with much pleasure I read the reports of " D., Deal" 

 and Mr. Douglas on some of the new varieties, and perhaps 

 your readers might like to hear the experience of one living in 

 a different locality. From some of the kinds named by " D." 

 and Mr. Douglas as the best, proving with me only indifferent, 

 we must conclude that certain varieties succeed much better in 

 one locality than they do in another, notably Le Titien, James 

 Veitch, Marie Dumortier, Eeine Victoria, and Madame Bisse- 

 ville. All these I have grown, but I could never obtain from 

 them a good spike. 



Amongst last year's new kinds Aramis was with me very fine, 

 and produced the largest spike I ever grew. It is a good 

 variety, and when at its best there were fourteen blooms open, 

 and the spike was fully 20 inches long. I do not know what 

 length the spikes attain in the south, but here such a length is 

 exceptional. Another cheap new variety was Colbert, tall, 

 strong-growing, in the style of Horace Vernet, and not greatly 

 inferior. Conde had a very showy spike, although the shape 

 of the individual blooms was not all that could be wished. 

 Horace Vernet is first-rate ; of it I need not say more. Talis- 

 man is very good. Phedre would be beautiful if it made a 

 strong spike, but I fear it is delicate. Sir John Franklin was 

 very good, but I failed in getting a long spike through the 

 lower blooms failing too soon. 



Of the varieties of the year before, Delicatissima carried off 

 the palm : it is rightly named, because of the delicate tinge of 

 lilac suffusing the white and the delicate streaks of the same 

 colour; it has a strong-growing massive spike, and no one could 

 wish for a finer variety. Armida is also a fine flower, but it 

 did not equal the preceding. Of Elizabeth I did not think 

 much. La Candour I grew the first year it was sent out, and 

 I consider it was nearly as good as that old variety John Ball. 

 Eosa Bonheur was very fine, producing a long spike, and being 

 new in colour — a lilac, instead of the common carmine or pink 



Of older varieties, Cornelie has a fine long spike, and is good 

 in style, and Isabella is a fine white with a large dark carmine 

 stain. Of Li Favorite I had several very fine spikes ; it is a 

 strong grower, and a very distinct variety, the petals rather 

 pointed, but altogether there are not many better. Li Fiancee 

 is the purest white grown, has a good spike, but is hardly so 

 robust as could be wished. La Poussin is a very good old 

 variety, and, as I saw it exhibited this year, very large and hand- 

 some. Lord Kaglau is an old favourite here, and often very good. 

 MacMahon and Neptune are two very old varieties, but still so 

 good that I had them in a stand of twelve, which took a first 

 prize, despite a pretty strong competition. Michel Ange had 

 the finest spike I exhibited ; it produces a large spike and large 

 blooms, and its colour is a beautiful contrast to the paper white 

 under petals. It has a fault in the flowers not being at right 

 angles to the stem, but growing upright ; I had to put some- 

 thing behind each bloom to press it downwards, so as to meet 

 the eye. The individual blooms on the same spike are like- 

 wise not all alike, some having only one segment white, others 

 three, and one bloom had no white division ; the blooms with 

 three white divisions were the best. I am doubtful as to 

 its constancy, for last year it was not nearly so fine as this ; 

 last year's bulb was imported, this year's was of the previous 

 season's growth, but I am afraid that the same bulb's produce 



will never flower owing to the disease. Semiramis I have 

 tried to grow for two years, but unsuccessfully ; it is evidently 

 a very shy variety ; I must try it again, as I have seen it twice 

 very fine. Thunberg is a very good sort, fine spike of a pleas- 

 ing colour. 



I had fine examples of many others named by " D." and Mr. 

 Douglas, but I will give a list of those I think good and well 

 worth growing, although some may be cheap old sorts. I have 

 marked with an asterisk (*) those which are extra fine : — 

 *Aramis, Colbert, Conde, *Horace Vernet, Sir J. Franklin, 

 Talisman, Adanaon, *Armida, Delicatissima (very fine), Or- 

 pheus, Eosa Bonheur, Argus, Cornelie, Diomede, Dr. Lindley, 

 Burydiee, Homer, Horace, Isabella, *La Favorite, La FiancSe, 

 Le Poussin, Lord Eaglan, MacMahon, Madame Desportes, 

 Madame de Vatry, Madame Fartado, Madame Vilmorin, *Mare- 

 chal Vaillant, *Mary S'Aiart, *Meyerbeer, Michel Ange (very 

 fine), *'M. A. Brongniart, *Legouve, Mozart, Neptune, Princess 

 Mary of Cambridge, Eacine, Shakespere, Sir J. Paxton, Sir 

 W. Hooker, Thomas Moore, Thunberg, Velleda, and *Virgile. 

 — Ayrshire Amateur. 



HARDY HEATHS. 



If the individual flower of the Heaths is of less size than 

 that of the Pelargonium, Calceolaria, Verbena, and other plants 

 used in massing, the number of the bells, their exquisite 

 beauty, gracefulness, and diversity of colouring are ample com- 

 pensations. No one would think much of a plant of Lobelia 

 speciosa in a mixed border, but where a number of plants are 

 required to form a line or mass, the individual flower is of 

 little consequence ; we judge them by the great mass of bloom 

 produced, and the distinctness of colouring. Than the Heath 

 there is no more profuse-flowering shrub, nor one which in 

 my ojinion is better suited for arrangements for effect. Taste, 

 of course, differs, and I may be set down as having " very 

 limited views " of what a massing plant should be, but those 

 who form their ideas from seeing Heaths in a mixed arrange- 

 ment have no conception of the efl'ect produced by such plants 

 when in a mass of as many square feet or yards as the in- 

 dividuals composing it cover square inches. Everybody knows 

 the effect of the Heath on a moor. I am within easy distance 

 of one of very many (too many, for some of the soil is fit for 

 agricultural crops) square miles in extent, I believe the largest 

 in these islands, and to produce an effect like that, but of 

 coutse on a very much less scale, ia the object of this paper. I 

 may say that we have cultivated clumps of Heaths in varied 

 forms and sizes, ranging in extent from a square rod to a 

 quarter of an acre. 



Very effective beds, nay, Heatheiies, may be formed by 

 selecting those hardy Heaths which bloom at the same time, 

 and planting each separately in beds of almost any design, for 

 design is not so material as the arrargament of the plants as to 

 height, colour, and period of bloom. 



Hardy Heaths are also extremely ornamental as bands or 

 borderings to clumps of American plants — as Ehododendrons ; 

 and they have one other recommendation — they endure the 

 smoky atmosphere of towns. Within three-quarters of a mile 

 of the centre of one of our largest manufacturing towns, I have 

 grown a collection amounting to upwards of fifty species and 

 varieties of hardy Heaths. 



They prefer a sandy peat soil well drained, but if the latter 

 condition is secured the former is not imperative ; for they 

 will grow well in a soil containing vegetable matter, or such as 

 may be found in most woods of some standing, where Fox- 

 gloves abound, mixed with an equal quantity of very sandy 

 loam. They flourish in a humus soil, but are impatient of 

 stagnant water, and if the site is low and wet — which is any- 

 thing but good for them, as they delight in fresh air, and the 

 cutting blast — put on a layer of stones as rough as possible, 

 and about 6 inches deep, not raising them into a cone in the 

 centre but with a gentle rise, and cover with from G to 9 inches 

 of soil. To the soil may be added one part in four of stone, 

 and if the soil is not sandy, add one part of sand to four of the 

 compost. This may be used rough, but the surface should be 

 flue and not rise more than 1 foot in 3. I know it is a practice 

 to raise rockwork for these plants, and it is all very well to do 

 so where there is an unlimited supply of water to prevent the 

 plants dying from drought, which they are apt to do on rock- 

 work. On low rockwork they succeed fairly, but on well- 

 drained soil gently raised they do far better. Whatever soil be 

 used let it be sandy, for silica is essential to the healthy growth 

 of the plants and their profuse blooming. 



