230 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 20, 1884. 
Minerva .—An imposing variety ; flowers rosy crimson, 8 inches in 
diameter. Four in a head. Bold and rich in colour. 
Brutus .—Very neat flower ; bright scarlet, and vigorous in habit. 
Pickmiek .—A strong and free-flowering variety, with two spikes, each 
having three flowers ; crimson streaked and netted on a white ground. 
Bayard .—Intense scarlet; the outer petals tipped with white, which 
affords a striking contrast. The plant has two spikes and two flowers 
each. 
Clarinda .—A well-formed flower, very delicate and pretty. The 
petals are white, the upper ones tinged with red. 
Pollentia .—Of great size and substance ; 8 inches across ; rich bright 
crimson, fine warm colour, and.with a very narrow margin of white. 
Many other varieties are advancing, and will be noted as they develope 
their characters. 
PRIMULA HARBINGER IN POTS. 
Mr. Abbey (page 202) is right in his estimate of this beautiful hardy 
Primrose, grown as it is produced at Burghley and flowered in pots under 
glass. For conservatory and greenhouse decoration it is at the least 
equally effective with the best Chinese Primulas, and in the estimation of 
not a few surpasses them by it simple, yet massive, beauty. Harbinger 
is more of a Polyanthus than a Primrose. Its flowers are much larger 
than those of the common Primrose, also rounder, smoother, and nearly 
white ; while they are borne in huge bunches, larger, and looser than 
ordinary Polyanthuses. No doubt the plant is quite hardy, and will grow 
and flower freely in the open air ; but flowers exposed to the wind and 
rain must necessarily be deficient in size, form, and purity as compared 
with those on plants having the shelter of glass. A cool, light, well 
ventilated house is a suitable position for Harbinger, or a frame from 
which frost is excluded will answer well. Crowded amongst other plants, 
far from the glass in a rather warm house, it would probably not be 
satisfactory. Planted out in rich soil in a shaded position in the summer 
and potted in the autumn would presumably be a successful mode of 
treatment, and certainly so easy that no one having even a small green¬ 
house need not deny himself the pleasure of growing this very attractive 
spring-flowering plant.— Traveller. 
NOTES FROM MY GARDEN IN 1884. 
GLADIOLUS. 
“ The whirligig of time ” seems to turn more rapidly as we get older. 
It may be that the consciousness that there are not many more rounds of 
the clock for us to observe makes it appear to do so ; but certain it is 
that time does seem to move more rapidly, and I can hardly believe that 
I have again to record the successes and failures of another year. Yet so 
it is ; and as the time for dealing with the Gladiolus is now at hand I 
cannot do better than record my experience with this most noble yet 
puzzling flower. 
Notwithstanding the opposition which was shown to my theory that 
the cause of such frequent failures and so many losses in their culture 
was purely and simply disease, and that no theory of bad culture or 
degeneration could account for it, I find that it is now beginning to be 
generally acknowledged, though I am not as yet prepared to admit that 
it is contagious. Various reasons have been assigned for this disease, 
which is certainly more prevalent in England than on the continent as 
far as my experience goes ; but I do not think that it is very difficult 
to account for. Soil itself seems to make no difference. I say itself, hut 
soil combined with climate certainly has much to do with their successful 
culture. 
The present innumerable hosts of named varieties are the product, 
I believe, of two or three species—floribundus, natalensis, and opposi- 
florus. Gandavensis and brenchleyensis, which have been largely used 
in hybridising, are, I believe, garden hybrids. Now these parent species 
are natives of Natal and Madagascar, and hence they have the very 
different climate of these islands to contend with, more especially as to 
the ripening of the corms. It is well known that after the flowering time 
is over long herbage covers the ground, and then comes a hot scorching 
time, when the corms become thoroughly matured, the foliage having all 
withered away. Contrast this with our ripening time. Defer it as 
much as we will, we can never take up tbe corms before the foliage has 
died down, consequently they must lose the force it would otherwise 
acquire from the decaying stem, and weakness is thereby engendered ; 
moreover, the high breeding of some of the varieties makes them more 
susceptible. In stating all this, I do not in the least profess to 
write scientifically, but I am not a bit frightened by that; and when I 
see what is now written on the subject of glazed v. unglazed pots I can¬ 
not suppress a smile at the utter dogmatism of scientific men. Why, 
there was nothing more impressed upon us in pot culture than that we 
must have pots as porous as possible, for, in the words of an American 
writer in “ Harper’s,” “ the roots need a circulation of air and the free 
exhalation of moisture as truly as the leaves and yet such scientific 
gardeners as Mr. Thomson of Drumlanrig advocate their extensive use. 
However, this by the way. I may be wrong in my science, but I think 
common sense is on my side, and that the disease is no way unaccountable. 
The comparative freedom of the French growers from this disease is due, 
I think to their climate, and more especially to their finer and drier 
autumns. An autumn which will ripen the Chasselas de Fontainbleau 
Grape in the open is very different from ours ; and, although they lose 
their roots, they do not do so to anything like the same extent that we 
do. For the same reason I should imagine that they would do well in 
some of the eastern States of North America. 
Aod now to my own collection, which does not exceed, including 
seedlings, some 500 or 600 corms. I had one large bed 33 feet long of 
French-grown roots ; another of nearly the same length of my own 
harvesting, containing also a few of Mr. Kelway’s varieties ; a bed of 
seedlings, and a small nursery of young corms saved from those of the 
previous year, generally known as spawn. I did not last year take the 
same trouble in planting that I had done—namely, making a hole for 
each bulb, but contented myself with drawing drills and planting them 
in the rows. I was quite satisfied with the result, and certainly never 
had a more healthy-looking or vigorous bed than that of the French varie¬ 
ties. They everyone came up. All threw up spikes of bloom, some of 
them magnificent, but-then disease began to manifest itself, the 
foliage turned brown, and I suppose quite one-fourth of them were 
useless. My own harvested corms were not so good : I had some fine, 
but also some weakly spikes, and I suppose I lost fully one-third of 
these. The seedlings, as is the way of youth, were vigorous and strong ; 
but even amongst these there were diseased roots, which had to be 
thrown away. The cormlets or spawn had increased in size, and some of 
them will, I hope, bloom next year. I did not top-dress this year with 
manure as I had previously done, but with cocoa-nut fibre, so as to pre¬ 
vent evaporation, and the character of the season was such that I had not 
occasion to water the beds once. One of the most curious facts that I 
observed was this : it is now ten years or more since I planted some 
where I now have my Boses. As is always the case in taking up, 
some cormlets are knocked off in harvesting. Every year some of these 
have made their appearance, and have often fair good spikes of bloom ; 
but this year one, which was evidently Antigone, threw up three 
splendid spikes, and I harvested three sound corms. It will be remembered 
that during this time we have had the two severest winters of late years, 
and the series of wet and unfavourable seasons culminating in 1879, and 
yet they flourished all through these seasons. This might suggest the 
leaving them in the ground all the year, but a trial I once made of this 
did not encourage me to try it again. It is one of those things which 
“ no fellow can understand.” I have noticed also again this year that 
a plant which has thrown up two stems and formed two fresh corms, one 
of them has been diseased and the other sound. Just as with Potatoes ; 
you will find on the same haulm some utterly bad and others perfectly 
sound, while seedlings that have never bloomed also oftentimes decay 
and are lost. 
Taking these things into account I must still hold that the growing of 
the Gladiolus is a perfect lottery. I have seen and heard of most of the 
collections grown in this country, and the only person who seems to me 
to be thoroughly successful is “ W. J. M.,” of Clonmel; and yet, knowing 
the rainy character of the Emerald Isle, I should not have thought it 
favourable. I know how many growers have suffered there, and thereby 
“ W. J. M.” is exceptionally fortunate. He attributes a great deal of his 
success to storing ; but if a corm is sound when lifted it keeps so, if 
unsound nothing will cure it. 
I have before alluded to the cutting the corms previous to planting, so 
as to increase the stock. I did so again last year, and found that 
some of the largest were those formed on the cut corms. I would, there¬ 
fore, advise all intending planters to examine them, taking off the 
outer jacket, and, when two fresh eyes are observed, cutting the corm in 
two, so as to secure one for each piece, precisely as would be done in the 
case of a Potato ; and in the case of new or scarce varieties it commends 
itself especially to those who cannot afford to purchase more than one 
bulb of a sort. 
As to varieties, I have lately given a list to a relative who wanted to 
order some, and it is astonishing, in looking through the list of French 
sorts, how few come up to the standard of excellence one has set. I give 
the list:—Baroness Burdett Coutts, Rayon d’Or, Murillo, Horace Yernet, 
Archduchess Marie, Christine, Shakespeare, Madame Desportes, Le Ve- 
suve, Dalila, Jupiter, Africain, Flamingo, Norma, Pasquin, Caprice, De 
Merbel, Victor Jacqueminot, Flamboyent, Opale, Comice, Mdlle. Marie 
Verdalle, Madame Marie Mies, De Lesseps, Mabel, Mount Etna, Eclair. 
Of those of in 1882 and 1883 the following are, I think, the best:— 
Abricote. —Very fresh apricot colour, lightly shaded with lilac ; 
somewhat late in flowering, vigorous and hardy. 
Arabi Pacha. —Very lively scarlet, with large white spot. 
Grand Rouge. —Splendid spike of scarlet-red flowers with small 
violet spot. A magnificent and effective plant. 
Nereide. —Long and close spike, large, of a shaded rose colour. 
Magnificent and delicately coloured plant. 
It is with no disparagement of Mr. Kelway’s flowers that I have not 
enumerated any of his, but in truth I know but little of them. Duchess 
of Edinburgh is a grand but very late flower. Lady Bridport is a good 
useful exhibition flower. But his varieties are so numerous that one gets 
bewildered amongst them, and the varieties brought out last season were 
probably exhibited some six or seven years ago, I have only written of 
that which I know.—D., Beal. 
NOTES ON SARRACENIAS. 
The present time is the proper one for repotting these plants 
preparatory to their being placed in a warm house to make their 
growth. If the plants are healthy and strong, and the compost in 
which they were planted last year is in good condition, a top-dressing 
of fibry peat and sphagnum moss will be sufficient for them this year. 
In most cases, however, it will be found that the effect of copious and 
