201 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 12, 1872. 



as proved sorts — viz., Anna Alexieff, Charles Lefebvre, Duke 

 of Edinburgh, John Hopper, Jules Margottin, Madame Charles 

 Wood, Madame la Baronne de Rothschild, Madame Victor 

 Verdier, Marquise de Mortemart, Princess Christian, Victor 

 Terdier, and William Griffith. — J. Douglas. 



STRAWBERRIES ON A HEAVY SOIL. 



Pekhaps a list of the varieties of Strawberries grown here, 

 with the dates of their blooming and ripening this year, may 

 not be out of place in " our Journal." As so much has been 

 asked of late about early and late sorts, I have placed them 

 in the order that the first dish could be gathered off each 

 variety. 



From this list, after three years' trial, I have discarded The 

 Lady, May Queen (?), and Elton Pine, and have added to it 

 for next year, Lucas, Marguerite, Alexander II., and Admiral 

 Dundas. 



All those marked " extra " were first-rate. Eleanor is, I 

 think, one of the best late Strawberries grown. 



The soil here is a good strong loam on a clay subsoil. .Ele- 

 vation 567 feet above the sea level. Rainfall up to August 1st, 

 21.22 inches. 



Varieties. 



Black Prince 



Vicomtesse Hericart 



de Thury 



Keens' Seedling 



President 



The Amateur , 



May Queen (?) 



Mr. Radclyffe 



Sir J. Paxton 



British Queen 



Jeyes' Wonderful 

 Bicton 'White Pine 



Oscar 



Dr. Hogg 



Elton Pine 



Empress Eugenie 



JJimrod 



The Lady 



Sir C. Napier 



Eleanor 



Date of Blooming. Date of Ripening. Remarks. 



May 1st 



„ 1st 

 1st 



„ Srd 



„ 1st 



„ 1st 



„ 6th 



„ 10th 



„ 14th 



„ 8th 



„ 20th 



„ 11th 



„ 8th 



„ 8th 



„ 20th 



„ 22nd 



„ 25th 



„ 10th 



„ 25th 



June 19th 



24th 



26th 



26th 



July 1st 



1st 



1st 



1st 



1st 



4th 



5th 



5th 



6th 



6th 



6th 



12th 



12th 



15th 



20th 



Good 



Extra 



Good 



Extra 



Extra 



Poor 



Good 



Extra 



Good 



Extra 



Extra 



Good 



Extra 



Poor 



Good 



Good 



Poor 



Good 



Extra 



-H. Habeis, Naseoy Woolleys, Northamptonshire. 



THE ROCKERY. 



It is not without considerable hesitation that I address my- 

 self to this subject, as I am fully aware that the views which I 

 shall put forth will be at variance with those of many who 

 consider themselves authorities on such matters ; but as the 

 columns of the Journal are as free to them as to me, if it be 

 thought by anyone that I am in the wrong in condemning cer- 

 tain works on which a great amount of labour has been 

 bestowed, and possibly a like amount of artistic skill, I am 

 open to conviction, and will at once retract. 



But to the matter in hand. Fortunately, it is not so momen- 

 tous as the building of hothouses, nor the difficult problem 

 of which is the best heating boiler ; but it is one more difficult 

 to define by practical rules than either of these, for it is only 

 by those arbitrary maxims that govern what is commonly, but 

 often erroneously, calied " taste," that the merits or short- 

 comings can in the present case be judged. We all know of 

 what a convenient material " taste " seems to be made, for, 

 to take it to task for the commendation it has given to only 

 one article of attire — let us say ladies' bonnets — during the 

 reign of her present Majesty, it would certainly require a 

 considerable stretch of the imagination to pronounce them all 

 alike good, convenient, and tasteful. The same vagaries may 

 be met with in other things, and I am not sure but the present 

 mode of distorting plants of a peculiar growth, so as to make them 

 assume one of a contrary description, thought to be a grand 

 feat at horticultural shows, may not hereafter be exposed to as 

 much ridicule as the young lady of the present day bestows on 

 the bonnets of 1S35 or thereabouts. There is, however, in 

 the matter about to be entered upon this advantage, which ab- 

 surdities in dress cannot lay claim to, and that is, "Nature 

 steps in and amends what deformities we make in the case." 

 This compensating nfluence is the all-important one ; and as 

 the mechanic with a leer remarks that a coat of paint often 

 covers a multitude of sins, so Nature, in a like manner, obli- 

 terates faulty work, and that, too, in a more substantial manner 

 than the painter. 



A lady from the West of England writes for instructions 

 about making an Alpine garden. Now, I apprehend many who 

 assume to be garden artists would say there is a good oppor- 

 tunity for a display of artificial ruins or rockery, and here we 

 meet the stumbling-block at once. Artificial ruins are rarely 

 well constructed; most of those I have seen possess one and 

 the same fault — i.e. , they are overdone. Too much is attempted ; 

 too many lancet or other ornamental windows ; too many 

 clustered columns and carved corbels, and the like, and show- 

 ing too little the damaging influence of time to cheat us into 

 the belief that they are real ; besides which, they are some- 

 times placed where there seems to be the least of all likelihood 

 of their ever having been, while other incongruities render it 

 advisable to hide them with plants as soon as convenient. Now 

 let us turn to what is called rockwork. We now and then see 

 this and so-called ruins blended together — a great monstrosity 

 — but this is not often done, and the best examples of artificial 

 rock are very creditable. But the site is often ill-chosen. Ire- 

 member some years ago seeing a huge block resembling an 

 irregular cube of sandstone as large as a small haystack, quite 

 isolated on the lawn in front of a mansion near Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne, the owner of which occupied a high position in the 

 engineering world. The workman who manufactured this 

 huge mass had performed his duty well, as it was a good 

 imitation of sandstone, but the placing of a large mass of 

 stone in front of a brick house in a level clayey district was 

 more than open to criticism — it was decidedly bad. I have 

 seen artificial rockwork put up in other places also liable to 

 the same censure. How often do we see an incongruous mass 

 of flints, scorise from a glass or iron furnace, bits of spar and 

 granite, brick burrs, and the like, piled up against an Italian 

 house, concealing its plinth, and, possibly, some other features 

 on which the architect bestowed some pains to render them 

 ornamental, but the miscellaneous character of the materials 

 confounds the whole. There is, however, one place where 

 sometimes such a pile as that alluded to may be tolerated 

 near such dwellings, and that is near a suburban villa, where it 

 is advisable to afford some shelter to the front door or other 

 exposed part of the house, by erecting a bank against one 

 corner to break the wind, and, if necessary, this bank may be 

 fronted by something of the kind referred to, encouraging at 

 the same time the growth of such trailing plants as are likely 

 to run over it quickly. I am inclined to advise an earth bank 

 in such places where immediate shelter is wanted, in prefer- 

 ence to planting shrubs, as it is not always easy to get them 

 to grow well in the position reierred to. 



Let us now take a peep at some of the artificial rockwork 

 prepared by practised hands, where very often Ferns are the 

 plants mostly intended to be cultivated ; and here I expect to 

 encounter no small amount of opposition, for my purpose is 

 to attack much that is done, quite as freely for its lack of 

 utility as for incongruities in the matter of taste. Of the 

 latter I will not say much, as that has been already done in 

 describing how often things of the kind exhibit too much 

 intricacy, but in the matter of utility they are plainly faulty. 

 I was painfully struck with this a short time ago on visiting 

 the garden of a gentleman who devotes large sums to the 

 embellishment of his glass houses and grounds, and who a 

 year or two before my visit had a mass of artificial rockery 

 put up out of doors for Fern-growing, employing an artist 

 of high repute in such matters. The mass formed a sort 

 of embankment by the side of a walk, and the workman- 

 ship, in an artistic point of view, was thought to be well done ; 

 but what was the working of it ? Masses of stone coated over 

 more or less with Portland cement afforded very little hold 

 for vegetation when exposed to the drying influence of the 

 open ah- : hence the impossibility of covering them with Ferns 

 without almost continually watering them, and this in a 

 neighbourhood where water was not at all times plentiful 

 entailed a duty impossible to perform. Hence the grotesque 

 projections and recesses had to remain in their naked loveli- 

 ness or ugliness, whichever name was the more suitable, 

 until Ivy and other creepers started from the bottom and grew 

 up to hide them, so that only a few of the most robust 

 Ferns could be grown. This is no overdrawn picture ; the 

 matter of after and continuous waterings seems to be taken as 

 a perfect certainty by those to whom the erection of ferneries 

 is often entrusted, and as in dry seasons such watering is not 

 always possible, failure takes place, much to the chagrin of 

 the owner, and causes no httle unpleasantness to the working 

 gardener. It is all very well to aarjiire a Fern planted on a 

 sort of table or shelf of the hardest stone, propped up from 



