368 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 10, 1870. 



stake a yard high, tying the plant to it as required, and pinch- 

 ing the shootB one joint above the flowers. I have also used 

 one stake in the centre of the pot, and one on each side in the 

 border, at 9 inches apart or more as convenient. This is a 

 good way of training them, but the best plan of all when it can 

 be done is to nail them to the wall, plunging the pots when 

 convenient ; but sometimes when I have had open spaces be- 

 tween the fruit trees on the walls, I have trained the plants 

 over these, but I could not plunge the pots more than a few 

 inches owing to the roots of the trees. When grown on a wall 

 particular attention should be paid to the thinning of the 

 shoots and nailing-in, and where there is room they can be 

 made to cover a great space aDd will look very effective. 



I seldom find manure water required till the fruit is swelling- 

 off, but should rich compost not he at hand, watering with 

 liquid manure is very beneficial. Where fine fruit are required 

 rather than quantity, they should be thinned as soon as set, 

 leaving one, two, or more fruit on a cluster as required. 



I will enumerate the kinds suitable for out-door culture here. 

 The first on the list and the best is General Grant. This is the 

 finest Tomato I have cultivated or seen, single fruit weighing 

 from 4 to 8 ozs., and to these weights I bavo grown from twelve 

 to twenty fruit on a plant. It is not the earliest kind, though 

 I gathered in the first week in August, and the fruit ripened 

 in October are as firm and plump as those first produced ; in 

 fact, its keepiug qualities are good, and the colour beautiful. 

 This variety is a sure cropper, but requires more head room 

 than some. The Old Red comes next in size and quality. This 

 is a well-known variety and is very dwarf ; it is also the latest 

 in ripening, but gives way to General (Jrant in its keeping pro- 

 perties. The Orangefieid is the earliest with me and very 

 prolific ; this should have a place in every garden, for though 

 the fruit is small it comes in remarkably early, is very dwarf, 

 and, as I said before, very prolific. Keve's Early Prolific is 

 very good, but is inferior to the Orangefieid. This variety is 

 known by the peculiar foliage, which has the appearance of 

 sufieriug from want of water. Tomato de Laye is the laBt of 

 those grown by me. This is very dwarf, scarcely exceeding 

 18 inches in height, still I have no doubt it might grow higher 

 with coarser feeding. It is a very useful variety. 



In giving the preceding list I do not for a moment wish to 

 say that they are the only varieties suitable for out-door cul- 

 ture ; no doubt there are plenty, but the above are what I find 

 good. Where the space is limited the Orangefieid for the early 

 crop, and General Grant for the late one, are all that are re- 

 quired. — Stephen Castle, Bent Hill Gardens, Prestwich. 



THE REV. C. P. PEACH'S GARDEN, 



Appleton-le- Street, Yobkshibe. 

 It is not the description of a grand garden or " show place," 

 in the usual acceptation of the term, that forms the subject of 

 my theme ; its title recalls no thought of extensive grounds, 

 no vast rauges of glass houses, hardly any of the charac eristic 

 features of gardens of note, and yet I doubt not that it will be 

 read with interest by all caring for a flower garden, and who 

 have, like myself, profited by reading Mr. Peach's excellent 

 communications in these pages. It was through one of those 

 exhaustive papers on bedding Pelargoniums that I first became 

 aware of the merits of Violet Hill Pelargonium. I had never 

 seen it ; but so convincing were Mr. Peach's notes on it and 

 certain others, that I felt no hesitation in ordering those kinds 

 which were perfect strangers to me, and certainly I have found 

 most of them to be all that he has said of them. I qualify 

 this last sentence, because some kinds of sterling merit do not 

 succeed so well with Mr. Peach, or, rather, I should say, in the 

 climate of Yorkshire, as they do iu the south of England. As 

 nn instance of this I will take Crystal Palace Gem, which in 

 Kent and in the neighbourhood of London far surpasses r11 

 others of its class that I have seen, being very compact in its 

 habit of growth, with its finely shaped foliage so stout in tex- 

 ture that it Dever burns, but retaining its deep rich yellow colour 

 in all its purity and freshness throughout the hottest summer, 

 no matter how exposed it may be, thus proving a great acqui- 

 sition ; for who that has had much experience of bedding plants 

 has not had to endure the vexatious loss of foliage in Golden 

 Chnin, the whitened Eurface or scalded margin of 'hat of Cloth 

 of Gold, or the vulgar gloss of Golden Fleece? But, unfortu- 

 nately for Mr. Peach, Crystal Palace Gem is anything but a 

 gem with him, as it becomes so green as to be almost worthless. 

 Need I point the moral ? Well, I may just observe that severe 



criticism would frequently assume a much milder tone if the 

 effect of different climates, aspects, and soils on other things 

 as well as on bedding plants were borne in mind. 



To Bhow how careful Mr. Peach is not to mislead the public, 

 I may mention seeing a plant of Pelargonium Crimson Nosegay 

 growing along with other noveltits in a little trial garden, and 

 upon my inquiring why favourable mention had not been made 

 of it, Mr. Peach replied that he thought it a good variety, but 

 as he had not seen much of it he refrained from assigning it a 

 place in his list, which I can confidently say it folly deserves, 

 for it is one of the most distinct and splendid sorts we have. 

 Its very compact yet spreading habit of growth is all that one 

 could desire, while the light blotch on its foliage causes its 

 profusion of flowers, of a deep rich liquid crimson, to appear all 

 the more striking. 



The chief feature of interest in this garden is a long sloping 

 curved border, partly enclosing a pretty flower garden in front 

 of the vicarage; it is on this border that a number of the 

 leading kinds of bedding Pelargoniums are grown and their 

 merits compared. It is divided into maDy compartments in a 

 very tasteful manner, with broad lines of Arabia alpina varie- 

 gata so arranged as to form a band of diamond- Bhaped spaces 

 along the entire length of the border. Each diamond contained 

 a distinct sort of Pelargonium, and thus each variety fully dis- 

 played its good or bad qualities, and, by comparison with its 

 neighbours, afforded the fairest test of its relative merit. A 

 border of this description mutt be such a constant Bource of 

 interest throughout the entire summer as to be far preferable 

 to the most brilliant ribbon border, however perfect. ; and by 

 introducing suitable plants in the Vandykes or half-diamond 

 spaces along its sides, it is rendered as attractive an object in 

 its way as it is possible to conceive. Moreover, by Buch an 

 arrangement a much fairer idea of the real merit of new varie- 

 ties is to be had than could ever be gained from a sight of the 

 single plants of our exhibitions, and which are generally all the 

 material that a Floral Committee has on which to found its 

 decisions. 



It is not my purpose to give a detailed statement of the 

 varieties of Pelargoniums grown by Mr. Peacb, as he has al- 

 ready done so, but I may observe that among many new kinds 

 of the Gold and Bronze section Crown Prince and Imperatrice 

 Eugenie appeared to be the best; and from a fine batch of 

 specimen pot plants of the Nosegay class in one of the green- 

 houses I selected Mrs. Laing, a remarkably free-floweriDg orange 

 scarlet ; Godfrey, of a similar shade of colour, but brighter 

 and with very large trusses ; Gloire de Corbeny, of a fine salmon 

 shade ; and Ne Plus Ultra, with immense trusses of bright 

 piDk flowers. 



A mass of deep-ooloured Beet surrounding some Centaurea 

 in the flower garden had a tolerably good tffect, but its vulgar 

 glossy foliige will, I think, prevent its ever becoming a general 

 favourite for such a purpose. A very compact-growing dwarf 

 blue Lobelia named Little Gem was very good indeed ; it is a 

 lovely free-flowering variety, worthy of a place in every garden. 

 Nor must I omit to mention a fine bed of mixed kinds of Ver- 

 benas enjoying a prominent position ; and very worthy of it 

 they were too, for to my mind there was not a more attractive 

 bed in the entire garden. I never can understand what is meant 

 when we are told that many of the best show varieties of Perry 

 and Eckford are not good bedding plants. Planted thickly in 

 deep, rich, cool soil, and with a little care in training and 

 pegging, they form a lovely and interesting mass of bloom, which 

 is quite certain to attract and please the most fastidious eye. 



The glass houses are moderate-sized span-roofed structures, 

 very compact, and with every inch of space turned to account. 

 The plants which they contained were in a very healthy and 

 creditable condition. 



Some low portable frames, very useful and wonderfully cheap, 

 were shown to me, and as they must be very serviceable for a 

 variety of purposes I will give a slight sketch of them. They 

 are made in two shapes; one is a regular span-roof, and the 

 other a half-span. The span-roofed frames are undoubtedly 

 the more useful of the two; they were 9 feet long by 3 feet 

 wide, 11 inches high in the centre, and 3 inches high at the 

 sides ; there is a wooden division across the centre to which the 

 sides are nailed, and so tbey are kept from warping. The 

 panes of glass are moveable ; they fit into a groove in the Bide 

 of the ridgebar, and are kept securely in their places by a 

 crooked pin at the bottom of each pane. The panes measure 

 16 ioehfis by 20, and it takes seven of them along eatih side of 

 the span. The cost of these fourteen panes is 8s 6d. The 

 boarding costs 3s , the painting Is., and the making 3s., and so 



