JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 4, 1872. 



some do, with broken spar, and brick, and gravel, and ashes, and 

 all that kind of — well, to use a strong word — rubbish. There is 

 no growth to watch, no changes to take place, no interest to 

 keep up. When once you have seen a winter garden there is 

 no variation, unless it may be a little more or less snow, or a 

 little more or less slush ; so that I think one fault which is 

 found with the bedding-out system — that the beds are empty 

 during the winter — is comparatively a trifling one, because, if 

 the form or plan of beds is good, and if they are properly dug 

 over and kept tidy, they do not look in the least out of harmony 

 with the general aspect of the winter months ; moreover, if 

 a certain amount of hardy edging plants are used, especially 

 ha the larger beds, in the general planting-out in the summer, 

 such as variegated Arabis, Golden Feather Pyrethrum, varie- 

 gated Periwinkle, Cerastium tomentosum, Coprosma, &c, these 

 beds will always have a good deal of colour, and these edgings 

 can, to a great degree, be made permanent. 



I will not, however, take up your time with more observa- 

 tions upon winter or spring gardening — the latter would require 

 a paper to itself. I will confine what few remarks I have to 

 make on summer bedding-out only. 



I have already said that summer bedding-out has often got 

 into disrepute because so many undertake it without proper 

 appliances, and that is not only the case with those who have 

 only small gardens and no glass, but also in large places where 

 bedding-out has, as it were, been superadded to the existing 

 state of things, and gardeners to noblemen and country gentle- 

 men have to supply thousands of bedding-out plants without 

 any additional means being given them. This is, perhaps, 

 one of the worst features of what I call the makeshift system. 

 Plants have to be housed during the winter how and where 

 they can, not according to the requirements of the plants, but 

 according to the means at a gardener's disposal ; and the plants 

 are reckoned at bedding-out time not \>j their quality but by 

 their quantity. It is no uncommon thing to hear one garden 

 compared with another merely by the number of plants that 



are put out. " Oh ! my Lord A 's garden must be better than 



Mr. B 's garden, because his head gardener plants out 



100,000 Geraniums, while Mr. B - has only a few hundreds ;" 



whereas Mr. B 's few hundreds, if carefully grown in houses 



suited for their winter growth, not crowded together in boxes 

 or in cutting pans, or stuffed under the stages of vineries, or 

 eking out a miserable existence in cold frames protected with 

 mats and straw, but grown with plenty of light and air and 

 heat and moisture, put into separate pots, properly pinched 

 back, and, in other words, looked after and tended during their 

 growth — these plants, few though they may be, will be far more 

 worthy of feeing called bedding plants than the thousands be- 

 longing to Lord A or the Duke of C , if only grown on 



the makeshift principle. Another great fault, too, in many 

 large gardens is that there is not sufficient variety of plants 

 used — three or four different sorts of flowering zonals, many 

 thousands of each kind being grown; a few thousand tricolors 

 or white variegated ; two kinds, perhaps, of Calceolaria ; one 

 kind of Lobelia ; and so on. The selections may be good, 

 perhaps, of their kind, but when they are grown by the thou- 

 sand it becomes monotonous, and the eye tires of seeing large 

 beds of the same kind repeated over and over again. There is 

 no interest. When once one has seen a bed of 500 Tom Thumb 

 Geraniums, or 500 Mrs. Pollock, one does not very much care 

 to see it again, unless it may be at a certain interval of time, 

 to see how much they have grown. 



I do not always blame the gardener, because many employers 

 see great masses of flowers and plants, reckoned perhaps by 

 tens of thousands, in other gentlemen's and noblemen's gardens, 

 and then they expect their gardener to do the same without 

 giving proper houses or additional hands, or even giving him 

 liberty to buy new plants ; so that they have to go on increasing 

 their stock every year from the old sorts, and perhaps every 

 year being ambitious to bed-out a greater breadth of ground ; 

 the plants at bedding-out time each year instead of being better 

 are rather worse. What is the result ? Why, the beds are not 

 properly filled at first. Plants that have been drawn up in 

 vineries or crammed in boxes in cold pits do not recover till 

 nearly half the season is over, and instead of the garden being 

 gay and interesting from the first day it is planted, it is often 

 many weeks before there is any effect produced. It is not, 

 however, only in large gardens, as I have said before, that we 

 find this evil ; anyone who attempts to rely entirely, in small 

 gardens, on what are usually called bedding-out plants, without 

 jproper means at his disposal, and neglects other plants on that 

 account, is bringing the bedding-out system into disrepute 



quite as much as the man who beds-out his thousands irrespec- 

 tive of their quality. He had far better do his best with 

 perennials carefully attended to, such as Phloxes and Pent- 

 stemons and Pansies, Carnations, &c, and then put in a few 

 Geraniums, tender annuals, and other things amongst his- 

 other plants, to add variety and interest. 

 (To be continued.) 



THE POPLARS, 

 The Residence of F. G. Wilkins, Esq. 

 The name that stands highest on the list of prizetakers at 

 the metropolitan exhibitions is that of Mr. John Ward, the 

 gardener at this place near Leyton. His Show Pelargoniums 

 are allowed to be the most perfect productions of their kind, 

 ever exhibited ; he holds the highest position with Cape- 

 Heaths; for Orchids, wherever he has exhibited, he has taken, 

 the first place. As regards stove and greenhouse plants he 

 succumbs to Mr. Baines, the redoubtable champion of this 

 class, although only in the size of the individual specimens ; 

 but in these as objects of culture and skilful manipulation I 

 think the one does not excel the other. 



One day this week, having business at Leyton, I thought an 

 hour with Mr. Ward would be well spent. I therefore paid 

 him a visit, and noted a few of the most striking points for 

 " our Journal." 



Excepting one house, which is devoted to the largest speci- 

 men plants, the others are not large, and, with one or two 

 exceptions, are span-roofed. The houses in which the Heaths 

 and Geraniums are grown are admirably adapted for the pur- 

 pose for which they were built. The Heath house is 28 feet 

 long, 14 feet wide, and 9 feet high, a platform being in the 

 centre, with narrow staging down the sides and ends. The 

 Geranium house is of the same description, except that it is 

 11 feet high. These houses are span-roofed, and run north and. 

 south. The ventilation is provided principally from the sides,, 

 the air passing over the hot-water pipes. Very little brick- 

 work is required, as the wall-plate is only about 1 foot above the 

 ground-line. The rafters and bars are exceedingly light, and 

 the panes of glass large ; the plants are also placed close to> 

 the glass, and the internal arrangement admits of viewing the 

 plants to the best advantage ; Mr. Ward told me that if he 

 had another opportunity of building houses for this class of 

 plants he would have them done on a similar plan. I can 

 truly say that I have not yet seen a healthier or better-grown 

 collection of Cape Heaths than there is here. The most notable 

 species in flower on the 11th of June, the time of my visit, 

 were Erica tricolor elegans, E. tricolor Wilsoni, E. elegans, 

 E. obbata very fine, E. ventricosa grandiflora, E. Cavendishii, 

 and E. depressa. 



Amongst stove and greenhouse plants there are numerous 

 examples of skilful culture. Aphelexis maerantha purpurea is 

 the best, and of it there is a notable example. Dracophyllum 

 gracile formed a compact mass of its snow-white trusses of 

 flowers. Statice profusa is a fine species of very dwarf habit, 

 and has abundant trusses of purplish-blue flowers. ' Hedaroma 

 tulipiferum is a distinct plant, with peculiar drooping bell- 

 shaped flowers. Phnmoconia prolifera Barnesii is one of the 

 best for exhibition, and of it there is a grand specimen, pro- 

 bably the finest in the country. Among stove plants nothing: 

 surpassed the Dipladenia amabihs in brilliancy of colouring. 

 Clerodendron Balfourianum is very striking, and one of the 

 best for exhibition. Anthurium Scherzerianum had very fine 

 spathes. In the stove I noticed a very fine form of the Aus- 

 tralian Bird's-nest Fern, Neottopteris nidus, with large, broad, 

 massive fronds. Mr. Ward related a singular occurrence 

 which happened to this plant. In moving it from the show 

 tent to the van the wind caught the plant, and broke it over 

 close to the surface of the pot as cleanly as if it had been cut 

 with a knife. The upper portion was potted in a small pot, 

 and soon established itself as if nothing had happened. This, 

 I think, is a " wrinkle " worth noting. I have often served 

 Pine plants in this way, but had not thought of trying it withi 

 the Neottopteris. 



As already intimated, the stage Pelargoniums are a special 

 feature. The plants have often been noticed in this Journal 

 in terms of high commendation. The show plants are perfect 

 sheets of bloom, from 4 to 6 feet across. Very few of our 

 readers will ever try to grow such plants, but many will grow 

 the varieties for the decoration of then- greenhouses and con- 

 servatories. I therefore noted a few of the best and most dis- 

 tinct for this purpose. They are as follows : — Rob Roy, Con- 



