14S 



JOTJENAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ August 23, 1877. 



who, as a general rule, score blanks at the shows. " Cease to 

 show," perhaps someone will suggest ; " if you are always being 

 beaten it shows that you have no idea of growing and show- 

 ing Eoses, so you had better retire." By no means, I answer; 

 never say die, never give in ; provided that you have the will 

 you will find the way. Love mocks at all obstacles, and will 

 obtain its object in the end. 



My advice is not to aim at too great things ; be oontent with 

 moderate results. And why ? Because it is evident that a 

 large proportion of the exhibitors of the queen of flowers must, 

 in some way or other, be placed under great disadvantages. 

 They are what I may call handicapped, it may be as to time, 

 or Eoil, or distance from the shows, but handicapped they are. 

 By time I allude to inconvenient trains. Hercules at Heavi- 

 tree begins to cut his blooms at 7pm., at which time I am 

 well on my way to London. At the National and London shows 

 many exhibitors cut their blooms the same morning. Now it 

 is evident that the latter have a great advantage over those 

 who are obliged to cut twenty-four hours earlier. 



Then as to soil : some of our most successful exhibitors have 

 splendid Eose soils. Mr. Jowitt at Hereford has one of the fineBt, 

 not in England alone but I should say in Europe ; Mr. Baker also 

 has a rich red marl, the very sight of which puts you in a good 

 humour. The same may be said of many other exhibitors ; 

 while, on the other hand, a great number have, like myself, a 

 most miserable light, flinty, hungry soil, which is for ever 

 crying, Give, give, and gives nothing in return. It does not 

 stand to reason, then, that we can show on equal terms with 

 men who enjoy all the advantages that we lack. So that we 

 should be content with a less prominent position and do our 

 best to secure not first, but second, or even third prizes. I 

 am quite content if I get second to Mr. Baker at any time, 

 and at the National was overjoyed at getting even a fourth. 



But if first must be won by hook or crook, and nothing but 

 the blue ribbon will satisfy, then I would recommend any 

 ambitious exhibitors who are suffering from certain drawbacks 

 or disadvantages to confine their attention to one class in the 

 schedule, and let them have that class in their mind's eye, 

 not only when they stage, but all the season through, and 

 even the winter before. Let them buy their Eoses so as to 

 suit the class. If they are wise they will leave forty-eight 

 distinct varieties to giants like MeBsrs. Baker, Jowitt, and 

 Hole ; and even thirty-six I would recommend them to leave 

 alone. Twenty-four singles, or when obliged twenty-four 

 trebles, is the class to suit them. In the autumn let them 

 decide on the Eoses which they purchase, not from the cata- 

 logues but from experience. Let them only buy those Eoses 

 which they know do well in their soil, and let them buy these 

 in large numbers. However tempting Marquise de Morte- 

 mart or Madame Furtado, or any other weak growers may look 

 on paper, let them not be induced to buy them. A man who 

 wishes to show twenty-four trebles well ought to have about 

 fifty good plants of thirty sorts (not including TeaB). These 

 should be planted with the greatest care, and great attention 

 should be paid to the requirements of the various Eoses. 



Light Eoses.such asMarguerite de St. Amand.Mdlle. Eugenie 

 Verdier, Baronne de Eothschild, and the like, should be planted 

 where they can have the most sun ; but dark Eoses, such as 

 Baron de Bonstetten, Pierre Notting, Prince Camille de Kohan, 

 and others, which are apt to burn and shrivel under a fierce 

 sun, should be placed where there is partial shade. 



Every conceivable attention should be paid to these plants 

 throughout the season. They should be mulched soon after 

 planting, for I do not approve of digging-in rank manure at 

 the time of planting, as I once loBt a whole season's purchase 

 by so doing ; but the manure should be placed on the ground, 

 leaving the winter rains to wash its virtues into the soil. In 

 the early spring the ground should be lightly forked over, 

 but care must be taken lest the roots, which then are just 

 beginning to grow, be disturbed. About the middle of 

 February the plants should be pruned, and, excepting the very 

 strong growers, I recommend exceedingly hard pruning. After 

 pruning the second dressing of manure should be applied, and 

 about the first or second week in May the guano Bhould be 

 brought into requisition, but it must be sown with the very 

 greatest care, and be used with great caution. It would per- 

 haps be wiser for anyone who doubts as to the quantity to 

 avoid sowing it at all, but to reserve it for liquid manure. It is 

 so very easy to overdo it, as I know to my cost. During May 

 and June when the weather is dry liquid manure of some kind 

 or other must be frequently applied, and remembering that one 

 good Boaking is better than two or three insufficient waterings. 



If all this eare is taken and the season is moderately favour- 

 able, the man who shows twenty-four singles or even trebles 

 from such a patch of Eoses as I have named will, to say the 

 least, not be a disappointed exhibitor. 



Bat, if after all our labour the competition is so great that 

 we find ourselves again left out in the cold, let not that fact 

 dishearten us, or, what is still more to be dreaded, sour our 

 tempers. I do not think we often find at our shows men who 

 cannot stand defeat, but we do sometimes at very rare inter- 

 vals meet with them. I have heard of exhibitors, and leading 

 ones too, being so annoyed at their defeat as to threaten re- 

 moving their boxes. Others, too, seem to think a personal 

 wrong haB been done them, and determine never to show again, 

 at that place at all events. But for the most part old exhi- 

 bitors take the matter of defeat as calmly and as pleasantly as 

 if they had won the first prize, and that is the only way if we 

 are to have pleasant meetings and happy faces. We cannot, 

 perhaps, help feeling disappointed, but we can hide our feelings, 

 or at all events not let our faces proclaim them. — Wyxd Savage. 



STEAWBEKKIES. 



Which are the best kinds of Strawberries ? is the query of 

 many a puzzled beginner just now, and the answer is but too 

 often preceded by an inquiry about the soil, as if certain 

 sorts would only answer in certain soils, the fact being that all 

 kinds grow strongly and bear fruit abundantly in a rich loam, 

 or in soil that is brought by cultivation as nearly as may be 

 into a similar condition to it. If, therefore, your soil be of a 

 very light and sandy nature do not despair of growing fine 

 fruit, but stir it deeply, mixing a heavy dressing of rich ma- 

 nure with every part of it, striving gradually to give " body " 

 to it by such dressings of heavier soils as may be forthcoming. 

 If, on the contrary, it is a heavy clayey soil, drain it thoroughly, 

 mix as much leaf soil and rough gritty matter with it as you 

 can obtain, so as to enrich, lighten, sweeten, and disintegrate 

 it, and you will have an excellent Strawberry soil. But if, 

 having a heavy soil of a close adhesive nature, and therefore 

 very retentive of moisture, you do nothing more to ameliorate 

 its crude condition than to dig-in a dressing of manure, you 

 certainly establish no stronger right to assert that the sorts of 

 Strawberries which fail in your mismanaged soil are only suit- 

 able for light soils than does the man who cultivates such light 

 soil in a similar slipshod fashion to say that his failure arises 

 from the planting of sorts that require a heavy soil, and I 

 shall be glad to iearn if anyone can advance any reason beyond 

 the fact of their own failures in support of assertions that are 

 calculated to puzzle and also to mislead. 



Turning now to the special object of this note — a compari- 

 son of the relative value of different sorts new and old. The 

 points of excellence which have most weight in making a selec- 

 tion are in the fruit sweetness, aroma, size, and form ; in the 

 plant fortuity, a robuBt free growth, and hardiness. The early 

 kind in which these points are most strongly developed is 

 Vieomteese Hericart de Thury, otherwise known as L6on de 

 St. Saumer and Duchesse de Trevise. This is a wonderfully 

 robust and hardy variety, cropping most abundantly, always 

 having plenty of well-ripened medium-sized fruit in its season, 

 very good in flavour, and a sure kind for preserving. It is 

 quite the best sort for a small garden possessing no special 

 facilities for high-class culture, and I strongly recommend it 

 to your amateur readers, very few of whom can afford space 

 for experimental gardening. Next in earliness come La Grosse 

 Sucrtie. and Sir Joseph Paxton, both of much excellence ; and 

 as a midseason variety I must claim a leading position for Dr. 

 Hogg, which under good culture is certainly our best kind in 

 point of full rich flavour and size of fruit, which is very large, 

 flat, and wedge-shaped. It answers admirably in pots aB a suc- 

 cessional crop to the early forced kinds ; but I can only advise 

 its use for pot culture in a large establishment having plenty 

 of spare space under glass. Lucas is another fine-flavoured 

 kind, old, but not half so well known as it ought to b9. I 

 have this season been through a very extensive collection of 

 Strawberries containing very many old standard kinds and all 

 the latest novelties, and I have to record that Lucas bore away 

 the palm from every one of them for sweetness — sweetness 

 which was most pleasing to the palate and quite devoid of in- 

 sipidity. Frogmore Late Pine still holds the first place among 

 late kinds; its abundant fruit is wonderfully juicy, sweet, and 

 yet having a brisk acidity most grateful to the palate. I can 

 hardly suppose ' ' Amateub " of Cirencester has the true variety, 

 as it is quite as late and infinitely superior to Elton. 



