424 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



June 8, 1912 



unreasonable suggestion Avhen one considers 



how many different classes of working gar- 

 deners there are, ranging from the man 

 who includes boot and knife cleaning 

 amongst his duties to the individual who 

 is head of a pretentious gardening estab- 

 lishment. After describing at some length 

 what the education of the working gar- 

 dener ought to consist of , the " Times " con- 

 tends that it can best be obtained during 

 a long apprenticeship in a garden under a 

 gardener where up-to-date methods are em- 

 ployed, and where opportunity is given for 

 a boy of improving his knowledge by study 

 or attending classes or lectures which may 

 be available in the district. Fnless I am 

 mistaken, the first part of the suggestion 

 is only a ca^e of history repeating itself, 

 and no better gardeners were ever trained 

 than in the old days of the apprenticeship 

 system before the door of gardening ad- 

 mitt-ed all and sundry, and before so many 

 so-called gardeners w^ere made by a method 

 than can only be called drift. It is this 

 custom of pushing every Tom^ Dick, and 

 Harry who obtains employment as a boy 

 in a garden, to become a gardener, that 

 is so fatal, and it only ends in a futile 

 attempt to fit round pegs into square holes. 

 As for scientific knowledge, no matter how 

 desirable it may be to the working gar- 

 dener, I am afraid he does not get much 

 encouragement to acquire it ; in the first 

 place, because the possesssion of knowledge 

 other than that w'hich is practical does not 

 assist the working gardener much in the 

 matter of salary, and there are actually 

 employers who are averse to emplo^dng 

 what may be described as educated gar- 

 deners on the grounds that the latter are 

 too good for their rquirements. Vntil 

 employers give distinct preference to men 

 who liave those extra qualifications which 

 the Times suggests, there will be little 

 enoomagement for young gardeners to ac- 

 quire them. I might add that there is an- 

 other important essential to the making of 

 a successful gardener that is not altogether 

 a matter of education. The world calls it 

 force of character, or the capacity to get 

 on, and it has been the means of carrying 

 men Avho liave never had any facilities for 

 education from the lowest rung of the 

 ladder right to the very top. There are men 

 who will get on under any circumstances, 

 though they may not l>e endowe<l with the 

 heaven-sent gift which men call genius, 

 and these are the individuals who will bene- 

 fit most by any improved methods of edu- 

 cation or training. Any improved methods 

 then, will be welcomed, even if they are 

 only a means of assisting thase who possess 

 the capacity for getting on. 



ption to the suggestion as a 



For the young market gardener, the 

 Times suggests that he should begin 

 at a horticultural college, and then go for 

 at least two years to a thoroughly success- 

 ful grower, and in his training he should 

 get hold of as much science as will enable 

 him to grapple with problems of manuring, 

 insect or fungus attacks, and so forth, but 

 the article adds this scientific knowledge is 

 no use unless it is read into commercial and 

 business methods. I agree with this, and 

 take no 



whole, but I should put the training in a 

 commercial establis-'hment first, and if the 

 college training is desirable, it had better 

 come after, when the young man w^ould be 

 at an age when he would be more likely to 

 appreciate the advantages it had to ofFer 

 him. 



In the matter of teachers, the ''Times'' 

 deplores the absence of really w^ell-trained 

 efficient horticultural experts. The article 

 enlarges on the shortcomings of the men 

 who were made teachers and lecturers by 

 Ck^unty Councils some years ago, but with- 

 out giving these very men credit for having 



done more to advance rural horticultural 

 education than anybody else, simply be- 

 cause they w^ere practical and experienced, 

 and by these qualities did more to win the 

 confidence of the people whom they were 

 sent out to teach than any college graduates 

 could ever hope to do. Perhaps these early 

 pioneers in horticultural education lacked 

 polish, and were not so grammatical'^ as they 

 might have been, but they possessed com- 

 mon sense, they understood the people they 

 were teaching, they have obtained results, 

 and I question if there is any class of rural 

 teacher who has more to show for his work 

 than the horticultural instructor. All 

 honour, then, to the men who were first 

 in the field in the matter of horticultural 

 teaching. They had the spade work to do, 

 it was for them to break down the local 

 prejudices which they would never have 

 done if they had not been practical, and 

 they have paved the way for the type of 

 lecturer that the " Times suggests. 



According to that authority, he will cer- 

 tainly want a good deal of training. He must 

 first be an efficient practical horticulturist, 

 with experience and knowledge gained 

 xmder the best and widely different condi- 

 tions. Added to this he should graduate in 

 science, and his knowledge of chemistry, 

 botany, and zoology should be acquired by 

 systematic work in lecture-room and labora- 

 tory. Thirdly, he shoiild be trained in 

 piiblic speaking or lecturing, and I would 

 add, what is as equally important as any- 

 thing else, he should have a knowletlge of 

 human nature. 



The ''Times'' thinks that the demand 

 for men trained on the above lines should be 

 considerable, and their influence on the 

 progress of the horticultural industry 

 would be most valuable. Just so, but I am 

 reminded here of a story I heard from the 

 lips of a well-known old Yorkshire gar- 

 dener. The authorities of a certain 

 borough were contemplating the appoint- 

 ment of a superintendent for their parks 

 and public gardens, and one of the members 

 of the Corporation, a tradesman, by the 

 way, was favouring the old gardener with 

 his opinion as to the qualifications the man 

 appointed must possess. He went on to 

 great lengths, and in reply the old gar- 

 dener said : Yes; it would be a good 

 thing to get a man with all those qualifi- 

 cations; I hope you'll be successful, and 



when you've got him, I should advise you 

 to have him 'stuffed,' because I'm quite 

 sure you'll ne.v^r see another like him." 

 If there is any parallel between this story 

 and the ideal horticultural instructor of 

 the Times, perhaps the reader will see 

 it, but it is n<>t the easiest matter in the 

 world to get or train men whose work and 

 recommendations, to quote the " Times," 

 must satisfy both the scientific and the 

 practical man, and his qualifications and 

 experience must enable him to speak with 

 authority to both, apart from being trained 

 in public speaking. When men possesse<l 

 of all these qualifications have been trained 

 and are forthcoming, it is to be hoped that 

 the salaries will be better than the miser- 

 able £120 a year that some education autho- 

 rities offer when advertising for a horticul- 

 tural lecturer, minus, of course, house rent 

 and other perquisites that the majority of 

 head gardeners enjoy. H. 



Hydrangea Mdlle. E. Mouil- 



liere. — This is a white-flowered form of the 

 common hydrangea, being of equally free 

 P-rowth and bearing large massive heads of 

 flowers First slxown in 1910, it is now exten- 

 sively grown. Well over thirty years ago 

 the variety Thomas Hogg made its appear- 

 ance, and is still much grown, though its 

 position is now assailed among varieties ot 

 this tint by the newer form.— S. W. 



AMONG THE ALPINE 



FLOWERS* 



" Never, ah, never. 

 Since Eastward in Eden God planted a garden 

 W as ever a garden that blossom'd. like ours' 



With dreams from the shadows 



Of wind-winnowed meadows 

 Haunting the alleys, and sun on the flowers.'' 



—Laurie Magnus. 



Few words better express the thoughts 

 in the mind of the lover of the alpine 

 flowers in a season such as this^ when, pro- 

 bably the rock garden is more full of beauty 

 than at any other time. Yet it is hard to 

 draw a comparison beween the seasons of 

 the alpine flowers as we know them, for 

 they keep coming and going, one succeed- 

 ing another, in loveliness of flower or in 

 charm of leafage, until we feel that we 

 echo and re-echo the words of the poet each 

 season of the year. With the writer it is 

 a bountiful year of flowers, and never be- 

 fore has he seen his alpine plants more 

 beautiful than now. Even after the rich 

 feast of beauty shown at the great Chelsea 

 Show one feels glad indeed of one's own 

 flowers, with all their glowing of chaste 

 beauty in the beginning of the "merry 

 month of June." From among the array 

 of beauties let us seek to choose a few for 

 notice, not as being the best, but as giving 

 points of beauty worth recalling and re- 

 cording, 



Ramondia. pyrenaica alba. 



Not new, by any means, but still scarce is 

 the real white variety of the Pyrenean 

 Rosette Mullein^ Ramondia pyrenaica alba. 

 Very beautiful is it now, with its pure white 

 flowers on the deep green w^'inkled leaves, 

 which look so w^ell in a crevice of the rock 

 garden. The true white variety is more 

 beautiful than some of he plants sold as 

 " white/' and my plants have more than 

 a passing interest to me, seeing that they 

 serve as a reminder of that true lover of 

 flowers, the late Max Leichtlin, who sent 

 me this ramondia some years ago. For 

 this and other rosette mulleins there seems 

 no better place than the noilh side of the 

 rock garden or a wall with plenty of soil 

 l>ehind it and with a similar exposure. It 

 is a lesson in cultivation to see how quickly 

 these ramondias wnll shrivel up in continued 

 dry weather, and with even a mode^ite ex- 

 posure to the sun. Coming, as they do, 

 from the crevices of cliffs shaded from the 



sun, these flowers hate the full sunlight 

 and the heat it generates on the stones. 

 Lovely as are the newer ramondias, there 

 is nothing more beautiful than the virgin 

 beauty of this white variety of R. pyre- 

 naica. 



Oxalis enneaphylla rosea. 



Of all the wood sorrels for the rock gar- 

 den Oxalis enneaphylla is the most beauti- 

 ful. The type, with its charming silvery 

 leaves and satin-like white flowers, with 

 just a tinge of blush about them, is a dia- 

 mond of the first water. It is a flower 

 which has been in my garden for years, 

 and now it must have a companion in the 

 exquisite variety rosea, which receive<l an 

 Award of Merit at the International Horti- 

 cultural Exhibition. The type and this 

 variety form a duet of true harmony in- 

 deed, and we cannot but rejoice in their 

 loveliness. It is a true rose, this variety, 

 and is one of the most charming of all the 

 wonderful race of flowers we call the 

 oxalises, lovely indeed as most of them 

 are, though some are not free from a some- 

 what aggressive magenta tone. O. ennea- 

 l)hvlla i-osea is absolutely devoid of this, 

 and is a flower to be coveted and grown 

 in any good place in the rock garden, thong* 

 it apparently prefers some shade with us. 



