February i9> i8 9& 



GARDENERS MAGAZINE 



icg 



The Metropolitan Public Gardens Association shows, in its 



fifteenth annual report, a good record of work done during the year 1897. *" _ n , , 



lonipanying map indicates very clearly the work completed by the association sented a report on the Phenological Observations for 1897, from which it appeared 



fat the metropolis, and also shows that since its institution it has carried out or that there had been a marked absence of very exceptional weather during the past 



Seasons and Vegetation.— At the 



monthly meeting of the Royal 

 Meteorological Society on Wednesday evening, Mr. E. Mawley, F.R.H.S., pre- 



successfully aaawivu ... j - o _r o ^_ • 1 j " . ~ .* ' — ww Av.a.uuAwo c*n^^tiug vc^c Let nun Demg tne 



with gardens and open spaces. The successful work performed m i«97 includes persistent rains in March, and the three dry periods of May. July, and October 

 the laying out of three new gardens, the provision of gymnastic apparatus for the Until about the middle of May wild plants appeared in blossom in advance of 



The successful work performed 



phenological year, the most noteworthy features affecting vegetation being the 



drinking fountains placed on three sites, seats placed in twelve 

 bcalTtie?, trees planted in three gardens, and assistance given in the preservation 

 acquisition, or improvement of thirteen open spaces. The association is not above 

 chronicling its failures, and the report states that in six instances the efforts of the 

 body failed to secure various sites for the public use. The association is at present 

 laying out three open spaces, and has agreed to improve four others ; it will lay 

 out or assist in laying out, open spaces at Blackfriars, Dalston, Stratford, Hoxton, 

 Hoxton Square, New Kent Road, Poplar, Fulham, Camberwell, and Deptford, 

 provided their maintenance is secured. In addition to this it is seeking or assist- 

 ing to secure twenty open spaces in thickly populated centres, and to secure the 

 planting of trees in five existing gardens. The report is a perfect mine of infor- 

 mation with respect to metropolitan open spaces. There is a list of one hundred 

 and twenty churchyards and disused burial grounds which are already or soon will high barometric readings and sunshiny days, it is very hard to imagine that we 

 be laid out ; then there is a record of two hundred and three spaces other than have passed through the cold months of December and January without feeling 

 disused burial grounds, laid out as gardens or recreation grounds up to December, the usual inconvenience resulting from dark and dreary and cold days and bitter 

 1897 ; in each case the area is given, in whose possession the land is, the cost of nights, and so now on St. Valentine's Day we are rejoicing in the continual 

 purchase and laying out, who paid the expenses, who opened the space, and the putting forth of the blooms of our old favourites. For instance, I am greatly 

 date of opening. Other interesting remarks follow, and certainly the compilation delighting in a piece of colouring in my front rockery ; this is alongside of the 

 of these lists by the association's secretary is not the least of the many good drive leading up to the house, thoroughly exposed to the south, and sheltered from 



their usual time, but throughout the rest of the flowering season they were all 

 somewhat behind their average dates in coming into blobm. 4 The heavy rainfall 

 in the early spring favoured the hay, which proved the only Wally abundant farm 

 crop of the year. It was owing more to the dry spring and summer, and the sun- 

 less autumn of the previous year, than to the moderate frosts and cold winds of 

 the spring of 1897, that the fruit crop was such a very light one. Apples, pears, 

 and plums, and especially the latter, yielded badly!; while the small fruits were 

 in most districts only an average crops. 



Early Spring Flowers.-Our coadjutor "H. H. D\" writes: It seems 



almost difficult to write about the opening spring when we have had no winter, 

 for without any frost worth speaking of and without hardlv a flake of snow, with' 



works to be placed to its credit. 



principal 



the north by the shrubbery and trees. It was here that some years ago I placed a 



relating to Open Spaces, Preservation of Commons, &c, are added to the leport few bulbs of the hardy cyclamen, either Coum or Atkinsi. I failed with them in 



as an appendix. 



other parts of my garden, and having read somewhere that they rejoiced in such a 



Cut versus Whole Potato Sets.— At Lickhill, Calne, some experi- situation, I placed them here. The results exceeded all my expectations ; not 

 ments were conducted last year by the Wilts County Council with a view to onl y have the bulbs greatly increased in size, but they have seeded all over this 

 determine the relative values of cut and whole potato sets. One plot was planted P art of the rockery, which now for several square yards is full of them, their 

 with whole seed of Reading Russet, and another plot of the same size with cut beautiful marbled leaves and pretty flowers of various hues of colour affording a 

 sets of the same variety, the weight of seed per perch and the application of rich treat to the eye. Associated with them is a quantity of aconite, with its 

 fertilisers being the same in each case. The yield from the cut seed was at the bright yellow flowers, snowdrops, and a few crocus, the whole forming a very 

 rate of seven tons five hundredweight twenty-two pounds per acre, and frcm the pretty picture. I believe the success of the cyclamen is due to the very sheltered 

 whole seed the crop was at the rate of seven tons eleven hundredweight per acre, and sunny position which it enjoys. The corms are thoroughly baked in the 

 a difference of five hundredweight ninety pounds. A similar experiment was made summer, rand I believe that this is the one great element of success for many bulbs ; 



I am sure it is with freesias when grown in pots, and I do not think that daffodils 

 ever do so well when there is heavy rain at the time of their ripening off ; and I am 

 quite sure that if any one has had difficulties (as I know many have) with the 

 hardy cyclamens, they may ensure success if they can find a spot in their gardens 

 something similar to that I have now mentioned. 



Mr. Charles Mason, surveyor to the vestry of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, 

 has become a partner in the old-established business of Messrs. Foster and Pearson, 

 horticultural builders and heating engineers, of Beeston, Notts. Mr. Mason's 

 resignation was accepted with much regret at the recent meeting of the vestry, 



Sanctuaries for Birds. — In an interesting communication on the in- 

 creasing scarcity of rare birds, in the current issue of Nature Notes, Mrs. Brightwen 

 states that she cannot see how their destruction is to be prevented unless land- 

 owners can be induced to make their estates, in some measure at least, sanctuaries 

 for such of the feathered tribe as are scarce and interesting. For the last twenty- 

 five years on her place there has been no shooting, save to keep down rabbits, 

 and this is the result : Although it is of small extent, only comprising a hundred 

 and seventy acres, and situated within eleven miles of London, the fields and 

 woods are fully tenanted by several kinds of owls and hawks, the green and 

 greater spotted woodpeckers, nightjars, lapwings, and a great variety of the smaller 

 species of birds. Nuthatches abound ; we have five species of titmice, gold crests, 

 blackcaps, tree-creepers, and nightingales. The woodcock is sometimes seen in the 

 spinney, and snipe, both in the running water of the park and along the edge of 

 the wheat-fields. There is no lack of warblers and finches to make the woods 



with Early Puritan, and resulted in a gain of one ton seven hundredweight ninety 

 pounds from the use of whole tubers. 



Shropshire Horticultural Society. -The results of the year's workings 



u ^ «? 5?°" thC members of this societ y at Shrewsbury last week, Gen. the 

 Hon. W. H. Herbert in the chair. The financial results are eminently satisfac- 

 tory, the recap* amounting to ,£4,517 4 s. The subscriptions amount to £±V7 

 «M the takings at the gates on the first day ^752 os. 3d., and second day 



in! 25 S ? Cap tickCtS t0 thC am ° Unt ° f ^550 were sold previous to the 



show. The expenditure amounted to ^3,384 10s. 3d., out of which prizes, &c, 



the\^ a T ntmg £98 °' ThG pr ° fitS {which > like the ' €cei P< s > were 



he largest the society has received) amount to over £1,130. The Fruiterers' 



a r T* the Vdtch Memorkl Trus,MS Kce > " ed he "* 



IwtS *T T C f Pmes ' T ' R K y nne ^y> Esq., of Leighton Hall, was 

 elected president for the ensuing year. 9 



ite Mons 



Horticole. 



botan 



Linden are 



^ LJW1J >, ui mis aoie traveller, 

 Several of the principal plants introduced by the late M. T. 



reprlclVSt ^ ^ ™ ^ ° f . the deceased > 



to is nf *w-n^*: 1 • . issue referred 



krge measure 



present 



w j 1* ^ivai l-JcXU, itllU 1X1 a 



progress of horticulture during the greater part of the 



900 



industries ™ 7/ Y CxniDition to be held in Paris in 

 ^Z\X^ h0niC f UltU ' e ' and the fine ^ be represented. To 

 ^ bfluential R tl, ^ °^ P T ring ^ f ° rwardin S exhibits a large 



The Prin Ce o AZL ^T^T^ ^ aPP ° inted - The commissioners are : 

 Major-Genei S' O^l^ ^ F 'A^ Si ' George Birdwood, 



List 



Lord 



Lord 



ttt er, Sir lohn T „• i i c X J oir Trevor Lawrence, 



*5.i Sit p 0 ^ \ s " Cle r ° ts Markhim - Mr - w - 1 L P '«<*. Mr. E. 



to the 



has 



ft* 



and prospects of th. ^ omm *sion appointed to inquire into the condition 



F «* the summarv o? ^^ W1 ?* and other industries in the West Indies. 

 ,ct "> that the ^L^^T™ at Whkh the Conimisrioners arrived, we 



in some eS^^w? WeSt ^ " in dan S er of reduction, 

 of relief Z TJ e( * ulvalent ' or aImost equivalent, to extinction. The 

 of land as JJSf ? the settlement of the labouring population on small 

 *e encour^ P r r °P»etors, the establishment of minor agricultural indus- 



F-* of * loanTo^^ ? trade in ffuit Wkh Ncw York and L °Adon, and the 

 &Ct0r *inBarba«S Imperial Exchequer for the establishment of central 

 * year for f.. . S : lhe c °st of the special remedies is **h***mA of r„ 



vocal in spring and summer. This Mrs. Brightwen very justly claims to be a 

 highly satisfactory result of protective care. In reply to the petition of the 

 Guildford Natural History Society, praying for the preservation of Wolmer 

 Forest as a sanctuary for wild birds, thus constituting a national memorial of 

 Gilbert White, of Selborne, the Marquess of Lansdowne states that, while he is 

 fully in sympathy with the aims of the memorialists, he considers the continuance 

 of the system now in force would, so far as it is in the power of the War Depart- 

 ment, best promote the objects of the society. Enclosed with the reply was a 

 copy of a report made by Captain A. H. Cowie, R.E., who has had the Govern- 

 ment ground in question under his management since 1895. In this report it is 

 stated that since that year all birds had been strictly protected. No birds, except 

 game birds, had been allowed to be shot. All hawks, owls, and o'her birds had 



irefu lly preserved, as far as possible. The heronry had graduallv increased 



been 



early 



herons flew from the nests in 1897. 



** ^tion Jf COSt t0 be bo ™e by the 1 



S of ^ t0neS iS eStimatcd at ^120,000 



"cuicb is estimated at £ 27,000 

 »ther country ; and the loan for 

 For other purposes, an imme- 



OOO for flV<* VMrc owo 



Cannes Battle of Flowers, the other day, was held under eminently 



favourable climatic conditions. The weather was perfect, the carriages were for 

 the most part decorated with much taste, and the beautiful sea drive was lined with 

 upwards of twenty-five thousand persons. It is computed that about ten tons of 

 flowers were used in the battle, these consisting chiefly^of acacia, anemones, pinks, 



violets, and wallflowers. 



The Kew Guild annual general meeting is to be held on the 24th inst. in 



Lecture 



Eight o f c!ock is the time of meeting. 



Gate 



