May 21, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
415 
“HOW IS IT DONE?” 
That is the question that many will like answering, and here 
is the reply, By common sense and good culture. Azaleas 
cannot be grown in poor peat, forced and flowered every year in 
anything approaching great excellence, so the Belgian cultivator 
brings his common sense to bear on the matter, and only flowers 
them once in two years. He further, during their growing year, 
plants some of them out in a medium composed in a iarge 
measure of the magical leaf soil, thus getting vigorous root- 
action. They are then potted, or rather tubbed, and their vigour 
is maintained by careful waterings and judicious applications of 
liquid manure made from cow dung. Roots, and abundance of 
active fibres as thick as a mat, are first secured, then generous 
treatment is accorded with biennial rest. That is the “ way it 
ss done ; ” and why cannot something similar be done in 
England? “No leaf soil!” It is absent in many places, no 
•doubt, but it is not the less a fact that in country districts 
whei’e old woods abound, there is leaf soil in quantity spread 
under the noses of persons (beg pardon, under trees) if they 
did but know it and would scrape it up ; but they prefer to use 
that which has been produced by fermentation in great heaps, 
though it is poison in comparison with that manufactured by 
Nature under the sweetening influence of the air. 
In the smaller class—twenty plants—the medals went to 
MM. Yuylsteke and J. Yervaene, the former staging plants 
with heads 3 feet in diameter, the latter somewhat smaller. A 
few varieties were noted as very good—namely, Mad. Leonie 
Yan Houtte and Marie Lefebvre, white; Le Superbe, smooth 
scarlet; Johanna Wintler (Schutz), white flaked with clear scarlet, 
like the Clipper Carnation; Flambeau, crimson scarlet, floriferous; 
Brilliantine, bronze crimson, telling; Beauty Supreme, rosy 
salmon flaked, effective; Antigone (Schutz) semi-double, white, 
flaked purple; and a charming semi-double white with some such 
curious name as Sakuntala (Schutz). Yiewing this group 
(Yervaene’s) a critical observer, who knows what is what as well 
as most persons do, remarked, “ The Belgians must look out, or 
this German (Schutz) will run them closely in raising Azaleas,” 
and certainly his productions appear to be very good. 
NEW AZALEAS. 
Medals were awarded for new varieties to MM. Yervaene, 
Yan Houtte, and D’Haene. The first-named raiser staged 
among others Vervaeniana, semi-double, cream, suffused with 
salmon, clear dark blotch, massive, free, and very fine; Dominique 
Yervaene, large single dark scarlet, very glowing; J. Van Eyk, 
orange scarlet, very bright; L’Ami clu Cceur, soft scarlet, semi¬ 
double, smooth, good; Perfection de Gand, rich deep pink, 
single, very smooth; Candulissima, single, very pure and florifer¬ 
ous; Heine Marie Henriette, single, white faintly blotched, 
immense size; and Arlequin, flaked and striped like a Fancy 
Dahlia. From the celebrated establishment of Yan Houtte 
came Theo. Reimers, ruby purple, semi-double, free, and good, 
the best of its colour; Miss E Jarrett, creamy white, single, 
large crimped flower, good habit; Comte de Paris, very large 
single, half scarlet, half white; Senateur Vaucamps, immense deep 
single rose, a bold splendid variety, surpassing the good one, 
with the good name of B. S. Williams; Souvenir de Gordon (pre¬ 
sumably of Khartoum), single scarlet, free, bright, and effective ; 
Czar Alexander III., semi-double, a shade lighter than the pre¬ 
ceding; Mr. G. Schlumberger, single, ruby crimson, distinct 
colour, very large; and the very free, pretty, semi-double creamy 
peach variety Mrs. J. T. D. Llewelyn. The best varieties in M. 
D’Haene’s lot were Baron N. de Rothschild, purplish ruby, semi¬ 
double ; Memoire de Louis Van Houtte, rich rose, semi-double, 
crimped, and Souvenir de Francois Vervaene, creamy white, with 
fringed petals. These are the cream of the new Azaleas at the 
Show under notice. 
AZALEA MOLLIS. 
Three medals were offered for thirty plants of these—the 
most floriferous of all hardy Azaleas, and they were awarded 
respectively to MM. Yan Houtte, Pynaert, and Yan Meighem. 
In contrast with the green banks of majestic Palms they had a 
telling effect. Yan Houtte’s bushes were monsters, some of them 
weighing nearly half a ton, and it must have been no joke to 
transfer them from Ghent. They were, in fact, pleasure ground 
bushes 5 to 7 feet in diameter, established in large flat hampers, 
and such specimens would brighten the surroundings of English 
homes. They were not named, and for a brief selection of 
varieties the excellent group of M. Pynaert must be “ requi¬ 
sitioned.” These were newer, hence necessarily smaller and very 
beautiful. There is considerable similarity in the varieties in 
this section, but the following are distinct—Louisa Pynaert, clear 
soft yellow ; M. A. de Cock, bronze yellow; M. Ed. Pynaert, buff 
pink ; M Francois Devos, rosy buff; Col. Kutzinski, dark bronze 
red ; Professor Rodigas, straw colour, free; Empereur de Russie, 
deep rosy orange; and Baron Osy, primrose, free. These 
Azaleas contributed powerfully to the effect of the Exhibition. 
ORNAMENTAL-FOLIAGED PLANTS. 
Belgium is justly famed for stately Palms and other plants 
remarkable for the beauty of their foliage, and Madame Legrelle 
d’Hanis occupies a high position among Belgian amateurs as the 
possessor of splendid specimens. By acclamation medals were 
awarded to her for a group of fifteen species, also for a collection 
of Rhopalas and Aralias, and of these it must suffice to say that 
every plant was a credit to the cultivator. The same must be 
said of the Palms of MM. Spae-Yander Meulin, and d’Haene, 
for which honours were worthily granted. The collection of the 
first named exhibitor contained what is probably the finest plant 
in Europe of Coco3 Bonneti, an elegant specimen, 7 to 8 feet 
high, with divided leaves resembling those of a Phoenix in minia¬ 
ture, very distinct and elegant. Medals were awarded to M. 
Auguste Van Geert for handsome specimens of Chamaerops 
Fortunei, Zamia Yan Geertii, and Phcenix canariensis, and to 
M. Pynaert for the last-named Palm, to M. De Srnet for Cala- 
diums and Palms, to M. Charles Yan Geert for stately Coryphas, 
which added greatly to the effect of the Pavilion; and to M. 
De Beucker (gold) for a collection of fifty varieties of Funkias, 
many of them new, the dark form, Sieboldiana coerulescens, 
having round leathery leaves, dark green with a sheen of violet. 
Several of the varieties were not markedly dissimilar, still the 
collection was highly meritorious, and the plants fresh and well 
cultivated. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Rhododendrons were effectively arranged and the specimens 
good, the chief medals going to MM. De Smet and Yuylsteke. 
Roses, in comparison with the fine group of Messrs. W. Paul 
and Son at South Kensington last week were inferior, the 
Belgian plants lacking vigour, and, as a rule, are not pruned, as 
we think, with adequate severity. M. Yan Houtte far excelled 
with Imantophyllums, receiving the gold medal, and the newer 
varieties are extremely fine, one seedling having a head of 
twenty-six grand flowers. The prize-medal Cinerarias of M. 
Lawers were very dwarf and good; Mignonette from M. 
Everaerts, vigorous and fine, dwarf bushy plants J 8 inches in 
diameter; the same exhibitor also had very good Strawberries 
in pots, silver medals being awarded for both collections. The 
gold medal of honour offered by the City of Antwerp to the 
exliibi or who contributed most to the splendour of the Show 
was awarded to M. Peeters of Brussels. This is a sketch of 
what is regarded as a small show, to which forty jurymen were 
summoned to adjudicate, including three from England—Dr. 
Masters, Mr. Bull, and Mr. Wright, but only one of them could 
attend. The great Show of August 2nd is the one that British 
gardeners should visit, and what with one exhibition and another 
they will find enough to satisfy them. 
Besides the Great General Exhibition first referred to there 
is an International Show of the pictures of living artists con¬ 
tiguous. It is very extensive and rich, England being represented 
by some valuable works. John Chinaman, too, has an exhibition 
of his own. It came about in this way. On John ascertaining 
the cost of space for his products in the great building, he cal¬ 
culated that with the addition of a few hundreds of francs he 
could purchase all the land he wanted just outside, abundantly 
recompense himself by the “ takings ” during the season and 
have the land into the bargain, the general opinion in Antwerp 
now being that “ the Chinese are wide-awake people.” 
HOY TO GET THERE. 
If gardeners and others desire to know how to get to the 
congeries of exhibitions, I can inform them that the Harwich 
steamers run alongside within five minutes’ walk of them all, and 
as there is now direct communication from the midlands and the 
north by the joint line of the Great Eastern and Great Northern 
Railways there is no transit difficulty, and the cost, which can be 
ascertained, is not serious. The steamers are fine sea “ boats,” 
most comfortably appointed, every berth in the “ Ipswich ” 
having an electric light, under control, while everything that is 
needful can be procured out at least as cheap as in hotels; and 
visitors leaving Antwerp had better not waste time in dining on 
shore, as they can get a dinner afloat at six o’clock in every 
respect excellent, and no reasonable man can grumble at the 
price. As this is the kind of information that would once have 
been useful to me, I impart it to others, to some of whom it may 
possibly be serviceable before the season is over. In a future 
