October 18, 186-L ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



311 



it is a stock adapted better for poorer and lighter soils, 

 which can be highly manured. Mr. Hedge does not encou- 

 rage autumn blooming. His object is to obtain flowers in 

 the Rose season, and not afterwards, and hence he says 

 that he prefers not to bleed his plants by shortening the 



, shoots to procure an autumn bloom. Especially is this the 

 case in a dry season like the present year. He says the 

 plants require all the vigour they can for themselves, and 

 therefore he would not allow even the blooms to be picked cff. 

 With regard to the removing of Roses, he does this as a 

 rule every three years, although some are left for five ; but 

 he considers that they ought to be removed every three 

 years. By having his beds of different ages they are not all 

 removed at the same time, and so great an amount of labour 

 as that of replanting all his stock is avoided. What is the 

 amount of this stock ? will naturally be asked. Well, I 

 believe not far short of 5000. But then these are not all 

 planted out in beds. Many are in two large squares, while 

 there is a large border of dwarfs containing some on the 

 Manetti stock, which, as I have said, is but sparingly used. 

 It is manifest that Mr. Hedge, having so large a stock, and 

 budding a considerable quantity every year, from whence he 

 can get maiden blooms, stands on a great vantage ground 

 above common mortals. Any one who has noticed his stands 

 must have remarked the splendour of the Teas and the 

 variety in his boxes. To obtain the former great care is 

 taken. He has a large stock of old parasols and umbrellas, 

 and these are opened out over the trees as the buds are 

 expanding, and they are thus preserved from the influence of 

 the weather; and there, in that little sheltered corner of 

 the house, is the Banksia, budded on which those wondrous 

 blooms of L'Enfant Trouve, Mr. Cant's Rose, are found — 



, those glorious blooms, which have made many a Rose- 

 grower open his eyes widely ; in fact, everything that skill 

 and experience can suggest has been done to make this a 

 very paradise of Roses. 



Mr. Hedge is no great lover of novelty. He waits to see 

 a Rose well proved before he puts it down as Al ; but such 

 flowers as Charles Lefebvre, Francois Lacharme, Alfred de 

 Rougemont, and Baron Adolphe de Rothschild he cannot do 

 without, and when once he adopts a Rose he propagates it 

 largely. Nor amongst the notabilities of his garden should 

 I omit Walter, as good a judge of a Rose well nigh as his 

 master, and as enthusiastic in bringing them out in good 

 order for exhibition. Will not Walter sit in a luggage-van, 

 all night if need be, so that the boxes shall not be capsized ? 

 Will he not regulate the pace of the van that takes them to 

 the Palace or Kensington? — aye! will he not sit up five 

 nights in the week when showing is in season, and more too 

 if needed ? 



Nor are Roses the only tilings cultivated here. Here is a 

 .square of Dahlias from which grand blooms will be cut 

 which shall carry off cups, and there some splendid Asters 

 which shall take away first prizes too. Peep, too, into that 

 greenhouse ; see those pots of Japan Lilies. Did you ever 

 see anything more full of bloom, or more densely packed 

 than they are ? Will they not astonish the Colchesterians 

 next week at their flower show ? (this was in August). And 

 here are greenhouse plants well done and ready for the 

 earlier shows next year ; then in that cool vinery see the 

 magnificent Black Hamburghs, and even Muscats, lying 

 , in rich abundance ,- look even at the vegetable garden, 

 and see the vigour of growth, and order, and regularity, and 

 then say whether good gardening is not practically carried 

 out. And now suppose that, having made your petite tour, 

 you enter inside the hospitable walls of Reed Hall. Let me 

 tell you, if you are not a teetotaller, that you will find there 

 as good a glass of wine as is to be had in England, and that, 

 whatever you are, you will get as hearty a welcome as is to 

 be had from John o' Groat's to Land's End — aye, or even in 

 the dear old green isle herself, around whose name cling 

 many sweet and pleasant memories; and as you sit there 

 listen to your host as he descants on Roses, their characters, 

 their caprices, their triumphs ; if no hairbreadth escapes 

 by flood and field, there are midnight journeys by railways, 

 and contretemps which it required a good courage to over- 

 come. And then you may hear racy stories of the doings 

 of the pompous officials of the Imperial Society of Toadyana, 

 and of the brilliant offer of a 2s. 6d. prize for bringing up a 

 box of Roses in September to, let us say, Timbuctoo; and 



if you have your ears open and your wits about you, you 

 may hear many a wrinkle that will be as gold to you by- 

 and-by — at least this was my experience. I had no recom- 

 mendation to Mr. Hedge but that I loved flowers and knew 

 something about Roses ; and yet I was treated with a hos- 

 pitality so genial, and a courtesy so truly that of an old 

 English gentleman, that amongst my sunny recollections 

 I have to put down in the tablet of my memory my visit to 

 Reed Hall.— D., Deal. 



TEITOMA TJVAKIA CULTUEE. 



In your Number of October 4th, which has only just come 

 under my eye, Mr. Robson asks for the practice of others in 

 reference to this ornamental plant, and I willingly give the 

 experience of an amateur in a small way. 



The Tritomas are especial pets of mine, and I think I may 

 claim success for them this year, inasmuch as the spikes 

 have all been between 5 and 6 feet in height, the last four- 

 teen inches being densely clothed with bloom, fully expanded 

 to the very tips. The flower-stems began to shoot up in the 

 beginning of August, and by the third week of that month 

 were in all their glory. The plants have never been watered 

 at any time during the season ; and my own idea is that 

 the peculiar nature of the soil, which is a pure loam, is in a 

 double sense at the root of the matter. All bulbs, in fact, 

 succeed well here, and Crocuses and Snowdrops are grown 

 by the acre in this neighbourhood for the London market. 

 A strong confirmation of this opinion I find in the fact that 

 when I resided in Middlesex, the soil being a gravelly clay, 

 the same plants never did well with me, showing blooms of 

 only half the height, and often only in time to be nipped off 

 by the frost before they expanded. As soon as I removed 

 here and transplanted them into this soil all trouble to 

 induce vigour ceased, the plants rapidly increased, and 

 the flowers have always appeared some weeks earlier than 

 before. 



Some time ago it was recommended in this Journal never 

 to meddle with their foliage. I have followed out this ad- 

 vice, and find serious injury always follows its infraction. 

 This constitutes a great drawback to the ornamental cha- 

 racter of the plant, as the long leaves look very untidy in 

 the winter and spring. A plant that was " trimmed " a bit 

 last autumn " to make it look tidy," as my man called it, 

 before I had time to interfere, totally vanished in the winter, 

 and a few suckers are all that is left of it now. 



I usually protect them in the winter by a thick coat of fine 

 ashes laid round the crowns. The variety glaucescens ap- 

 pears to be the most hardy here, and the flowers are brighter 

 and more showy than the grandiflora, but the foliage being 

 narrower gives a less graceful habit to the plant.— George F. 

 Barbell, Spalding. 



SOME HAEDY FEENS PEEFEE A HIGHEE 

 TEMPEEATUEE. 



I live in a land of Ferns, some, indeed most, of the 

 varieties, British ones, being indigenous to this county. It 

 may be interesting to other growers of Ferns to know that 

 some species which are found in this county will thrive 

 far more luxuriantly in the hothouse than in their own 

 habitat. As to Asplenium marinum, I believe this is already 

 known. On the seashore near this place it grows sparingly 

 and with no great luxuriance. In the stove here it flourishes 

 most luxuriantly. Asplenium lanceolatum is found in great 

 abundance near Barmouth, in this county. In the stove its 

 character is totally altered. Instead of being a small 

 shrivelled plant, it grows with such luxuriance that at first 

 sight it may be taken for Asplenium adiantum nigrum. 

 Lastrea recurva grows equally well in the hothouse. 



I may also mention Asplenium septentrionale. Till I in- 

 troduced it into the stove I kept a plant for two years 

 lingering during the winter with a frond or two. It is now 

 looking healthy, with many fronds ; and in the last month I 

 obtained a healthy plant from Snowdon, which was potted, 

 and placed near the other, and not a frond has changed its 

 colour. 



Of Polystichum lonchitis I cannot speak so favourably ,• 



