August 9, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



Ill 



as he had a good deal of the toil he onght to have some of the 

 reward, he wrote to the secretary to say that it would be better 

 to forward him a eheqne for the amount of his prize money. 

 This was quite impossible, not from its large amount but the 

 reverse, as it amounted to 9d. — somewhat different to his last 

 Manchester winnings, which amounted to £70. Still, perhaps 

 that " miserable ninepence " was the spur to urge him on. 



During the four years the present range of houses has been 

 erected and further alterations are in progress. These houses 

 are filled with plants, every one of which is a specimen in 

 itself, and they are interesting to those who know the excel- 

 lence of culture which is required to bring plants to this per- 

 fection ; and here are to be seen those giants by which his 

 renown as an exhibitor has been obtained. 



Amongst the plants for which Howick House is famous the 

 Gleiohenias hold a foremost place, and I am not quite sure but 

 that they are the favourite plants of the owner ; nor will it be 

 too much to say that such a collection is nowhere to be seen. 

 The grand masses of G. semivestita, flabellata, speluncaa, pec- 

 tinata, rupestris, circinalis, <fec, were in vigorous health, most 

 of them 7 and 8 feet in diameter, and not the least surprising 

 fact is the short time in which these grand masses are deve- 

 loped. When in two or three years plants fit for exhibition 

 can be obtained it must be clear that their culture is well 

 understood. The plants were also perfectly clean, no appear- 

 ance of thrips or any of the ills to which plants, are subject, 

 and not a little of this is to be attributed to the fact that they 

 are grown in a much lower temperature than is usual. Because 

 they come mostly from the southern hemisphere they are 

 treated often as if they were tropical plants; but Australia, 

 New Zealand, and Tasmania are not tropical countries, and if 

 plants indigenous to those countries can be kept in a lower 

 temperature free from frost they will do well. The climate of 

 the Genoese Riviera, as Dr. Bennet tells us, is favourable for 

 all Australian plants, and so Mr. Shuttleworth is but following 

 nature when he refuses to treat the greater portion of them 

 as stove plants. Cyathea dealbata with its silvery fronds is 

 very fine, and so is Cibotium princeps, one of the grandest 

 of Ferns. Then Todea superba is in such condition as it is 

 rarely seen in — magnificent fronds of the liveliest and brightest 

 green. But Mr. Shuttleworth's love for Ferns is not confined 

 to exotics ; he has a choice collection of British Ferns, many 

 of them of large size, which have already gained exhibition 

 hot.uurs, and doubtless are destined to do so again. In the 

 sj.uie house are two grand specimens of Cordyline, one of which 

 IB I suppose unequalled. 



And what magnificent stove and greenhouse plants are to be 

 found in all directions ! Here is a plant of Phormium tenax 

 variegatum so large that it has to be kept tied in. Then the 

 Staticss with their masses of lavender-coloured flowers were 

 especially gay, preparing, too, for contest in another field. 

 Then there are plants of Croton marvels of beauty, amongst 

 them a fine plant of Disraeli with leaves nearly 2 feet long 

 with golden yellow midrib and a few scattered spots of the same 

 colour ; Croton spirale with its curiously twisted leaves, and 

 many others. Here again are fine plants of Dipladenia amabilis 

 with its lovely pink flowers, also of Dipladenia Brearleyana, a 

 most floriferous kind, with the flowers of a much deeper crimson 

 than in any other variety, diff using its delicate perfume through 

 the house. There are also grand plants of Eucharis amazonica, 

 and of the, if possible, still more useful Eucharis Candida — 

 more useful because smaller, and therefore more suitable for 

 bouquets, as I have seen many otherwise very beautiful spoiled 

 by a centre flower of Euoharis amazonica. Seldom, too, have 

 I seen a more beautiful specimen of Maranta Veitchii. Larger 

 I have seen, but they have too often been ragged and dis- 

 coloured: this was clean and sound. Heaths, too, which we 

 do not often see now well grown, are here in capital condition. 

 Two lovely plants of Erica Parmentieri and Parmentieri rosea 

 in full flower make one sigh over those days when they were 

 so generally grown and exhibited in such perfection. One of 

 the finest plants of the lovely Lapageria alba that I have seen 

 is here, a plant, I think, only three years old, with six strong 

 suckers from it, and likely soon to be a mass of beauty. Then 

 there are Zamias, Dions, Dracaenas, &c, all in first-rate order, 

 and all grown for exhibition. The Azaleas are grand in size 

 and in rude health, the masses of Anthurium Scherzerianum 

 in magnificent flower ; and it was with some interest I saw 

 the place where the seeds of this plant did unquestionably 

 settle the rats — a too valuable cure, I fear, to be used generally, 

 but apparently most effectual. Camellias too are in fine order, 

 and in fact to enumerate the plants would be simply to go 



through the lists of those stove and greenhouse plants which 

 we see on all great occasions ; and I am convinced that, both 

 at Carlisle and Preston, whoever crosses swords with my good 

 friend will find that they have something to do to beat him, 

 for the cleverest plantsman will find him a foeman worthy of 

 his steel. 



The zonal Pelargoniums grown for exhibition are grown in 

 a low span-roofed structure, the sides as well as the roof being 

 of glass, the plants raised up close to the top so as to give them 

 abundance of light and air. This had resulted in the produc- 

 tion of plants of large size, great freshness of foliage, and 

 abundant promise of bloom, and in them, as everywhere in 

 this plant, excellence of oulture is the rule. Of course it is 

 not everybody who has the inclination, and I may add the 

 means, to enter so largely into the growth of exhibition plants ; 

 and I could not help thinking as I walked through the houses 

 and surveyed these plants, how much do the promoters of 

 flower shows owe to such enterprising growers. It is commonly 

 thought that the balance is on the other side, but I am con- 

 vinced this is incorrect. A gentleman of Mr. Shuttleworth's 

 tastes might very well do without flower shows, but flower 

 shows cannot do without him ; and if committees were to con- 

 sider these things a little more they would perhaps endeavour 

 to make themselves more agreeable to exhibitors instead of 

 imagining that the exhibitors ought to be vastly obliged to 

 them. 



I have endeavoured to give some little idea of the character 

 of this place, but, as I have said, it is in transition ; and if 

 any of the visitors to the Preston Show next year find their 

 way to it, as I have no doubt many will, they will find it much 

 altered. Mr. Shuttleworth has a thorough knowledge of plants 

 himself and is a really practical gardener ; but it would be 

 unfair not to bear witness to the intelligence and zeal displayed 

 by his head gardener Mr. Thornber, for to him must be attri- 

 buted in good measure the excellence of the collection. Master 

 and man work well together, and success is the result ; and I 

 may, without injury to others, wish more of that success to the 

 hearty, genial, and hospitable master of Howick. — D., Deal. 



EOSES IN SCOTLAND. 



" A Rose bud by my early Tvalk 

 Adown a corn-enclosed bawb, 

 Sae gently bent its thorny stalk 

 All on a dewy morning." 



" It's a far cry to Loch Awe," and eo it is from Galloway to 

 Fleet Street, but as you have had news of Welsh Roses per- 

 haps you can find room for a few notes from Scotland. Year 

 by year the culture of the Rose is extending rapidly in this 

 country, and nowhere perhaps more rapidly than in this south- 

 west corner of the " land of brown heath and shaggy wood." 

 I live (is it not written in the book of " D., Deal ? ") in the 

 very windiest spot in Britain, an.d I try to grow Roses, and my 

 friends and the local prize lists say I succeed. If, then, it be 

 of any interest to your readers here is a list of Roses which are 

 " certainties," even in such a trysting place for rude Boreas 

 and his kindred crew as this wee garden of mine :— -La France , 

 Marquise de Castellane, Cheshunt Hybrid, Alfred Colomb, 

 Jules Margottin, Baronne de Maynard, Marguerite de St. 

 Amand, Baroness Rothschild, BesBie Johnson, John Hopper, 

 Duke of Edinburgh, Maurice Bernardin and his confreres 

 Francois Michelon, Mdlle. Eugenie Verdier, Marie Finger 

 (these two are here certainly distinct in colour, and the latter 

 superior to the former), Centifolia Rosea, Anna Alexieff, 

 Madam9 Lacharme, Madame Knorr, Homere, Souvenir de la 

 Malmaison, Marie Baumann, Princess Mary of Cambridge, 

 Madame Berard, Senateur Vaisse, Thorin, Vicomte Vigier, 

 Comtesse d'Oxford, and Thomas Mills. On a wall I find 

 Belle Lyonnaise facile princeps, then Devoniensis (both 

 kinds), Rubens, Bougere, Goubault, Duchess of Edinburgh, 

 Madame Willermoz, Safrano, Catherine Mermet, and Triomphe 

 de Bennes do best, though I find the blooms on the last- 

 mentioned Rose very small this year. The Marechal after a 

 three-years trial I give up. I admit he is a glorious Rose, 

 but the swirl round the corners of my domicile is too much for 

 him, "D., Deal," says, Grow Reve d'Or, and so I will. I 

 grow many other kinds, but the names given are those which 

 do best here, and doing well here they will do anywhere in 

 Britain. 



OJ new Roses I find the following do admirably here: — 

 Madame Ferdinand Jamin, Miss Hassard, Mdlle. Marie Cointet, 

 Monsieur E. Y. Teas, The Shah, John Stuart Mill, Villaret de 



