44 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 19, 1883. 
some cases, but is ruinous in otlTers, simply because it 
encourages gross deep-running roots. 
Amateurs, professional gardeners, or market growers 
ought not to cultivate many varieties. Their aim should be 
to discover which sorts are to their taste, and which also 
succeed in their particular garden. Black Prince is very 
early and prolific, but much too small to please most people. 
Vicomtesse Hericart du Tliury on strong soils, as in our case, 
forms too much foliage, and though heavy cropping is 
comparatively late and small. On light soils it is profitable. 
The old Keen’s Seedling is yet one of the best, and the 
flavour is very distinct and good. Sir Harry with us is a 
much heavier cropper, very early, bright and richly coloured, 
but rather sour. Sir Joseph Paxton grows luxuriantly, 
though not to such an extent as to militate against the pro¬ 
duction of very heavy crops of handsome firm fruits. Presi¬ 
dent is in every respect an excellent main-crop variety, and 
where the delicate Sir C. Napier can be grown it is invaluable. 
La Grosse Sucree is much liked by some as a second early 
•variety, but we do not want it. For the later crops Dr. Hogg 
is unequalled, and probably has found more admirers during 
1883 than ever before. It is sturdy in habit, wonderfully 
prolific, and the quality of the extra large fruit is superior to 
any with the exception of British Queen. The latter is very 
fickle, and is now but little grown. Eleanor or Oxonian is 
late and heavy-cropping, but the quality is seldom first-class. 
In another paper I may discuss which are the best varieties 
for pots, also the best travellers, and offer a few other season¬ 
able notes upon Strawberry culture. — W. Iggulden. 
FEATURES OF A PLAIN GARDEN. 
Among readers of the Journal owners of plain gardens are 
undoubtedly numerous, so numerous as to merit the giving of 
especial attention to their peculiar wants, which are apt to be 
overlooked by those of us in enjoyment of the convenience of a 
well-appointed garden. To cater for their wants one must 
certainly run some risk of being accused by professional gar¬ 
deners, of “writing about things everybody understands.” Let 
me, therefore, bespeak the forbearance of my brother blue-aprons 
in this matter, or rather let me claim their assistance in so good 
a cause, by asking them to read what I shall now write, to note 
any omission which it is in their power to make good, and to do 
so quickly in the pages of the Journal, which are always open to 
every useful hint for gardens great and small. 
“Plain gardens” is a suggestive as well as an elastic term, 
bound by no rules or recognised law, and which may be, and 
doubtless is, applied frequently as individual taste or fancy may 
prompt. But here it is intended to denote a small garden 
having a lawn, shrub groups, trees, a carriage drive, and paths 
with such adjuncts as may be added without requiring the 
subsequent supervision of a thorough gardener—precisely such 
a garden as is fre piently to be met with at a country rectory, 
managed perchance by the church clerk, whose training “ came 
by Nature,” but who nevertheless is generally a painstaking 
trustworthy individual, taking much pride in his charge, which 
is a picture of neatness, and keeping his master’s table well 
supplied with all such fruits and vegetables as come in the way 
-of a plain man. Many such a garden have I seen, aud many 
a lesson have they- taught me. Did not “ Old Wickings,” 
gardener, coachman, and excellent manager of the rectory glebe, 
always astonish the natives at the little village show with such 
gigantic heads of Celery as seldom come within the ken of 
ordinary mortals ? And shall I ever forget the chuckle of 
delight with which, as a special act of favour, I was shown a 
■concealed gutter along which sewage trickled constantly to the 
roots of the special row of Celery ? The worthy old fellow has 
long gone to his rest, but the finest garden of the land boasts 
of no Roses finer than those which used to hang in such rich 
profusion upon his huge Cloth of Gold, or can show better 
Grapes than were to be found every summer upon the one Vine 
in his solitary glass house. Nor will better crops of Apricots 
ever be had than those upon the old tree, which he used to boast 
grew nothing but wood till he root-pruned it and rammed a mass 
of hard stones beneath the soil in which it grew. 
I recently saw one of these gardens surrounding the house 
hard by the village church, and with a public road passing its 
boundaries. A short drive led from the entrance gate to the 
door, in two curves like an elongated S, by means of which and 
some judicious grouping of shrubs the house was hid to view 
from the road. A lofty Ash heavily clothed with its beautiful 
foliage overhung the gate ; and near the house a fine Beech, the 
pride and glory of the garden, stood out upon the lawn, so as 
to show the full beauty of its graceful proportions, its lower 
branches sweeping the turf and its upper ones towering aloft 
above the housetop. A few other deciduous trees interspersed 
with Conifers, all bearing unmistakeable evidence of careful 
selection and great care, were not untastefnlly dispersed about 
the garden. Circular flower beds of a size admirably in keeping 
with the position assigned them were arranged in parallel rows 
alongside a central walk ; a more ambitious group of beds of a 
geometrical design filled a sunken panel, and another sunken 
panel was deyoted to lawn games. Advantage had been taken 
of a raised bank, made to shut out some outbuildings, to make 
a fernery, the face of the bank being covered with pieces of rock 
with plenty of pockets among them for the Ferns. Parallel to 
this bank, but far enough from it to afford space for a path, 
another lower bank gave considerable scope for tasteful treat¬ 
ment ; and this had been well turned to account by making many 
nooks and corners, all of which had become the home of one or 
more Ferns, of which a numerous collection had been gradually 
accumulated and named with much care. On the lawn side the 
inner bank followed no formal line, but advanced boldly into 
promontories at various points in graceful flowing curves, all 
much shaded by trees, but all agreeably clothed with greenery 
in the attractive guise of fine specimens of Lastrea Filix-mas 
and other familiar common Ferns. 
It will thus be seen that this particular garden is un¬ 
doubtedly a plain one, which, ajrnrt from trim keeping, might 
be almost left untended, and, perhaps, some will say uncared for. 
But its worthy owner really cares for it, and wishes for im¬ 
provement, not of the too common kind which aims at instant 
transformation, but rather of a gradual nature, feature by 
feature, so that while the garden grows yearly in beauty it may 
not be regarded as a finished work to or from which nothing 
can be added or taken without spoiling the whole. So far his 
attention has been given to good purpose to the fernery and the 
trees, in both of which he has been so successful that it is 
reasonable to suppose other things taken in hand with caution 
and treated with care will answer equally well. 
The first step towards improvement which appears to me 
most desirable is the introduction of dwarf flowering shrubs and 
choice perennials into the beds of the sunken panel garden, not 
necessarily to the entire exclusion of spring and summer 
bedding plants, but rather as a partial rich permanent clothing 
for the beds to render them attractive throughout the year, 
instead of only a month or two in autumn, as it is inevitably the 
case where small bedding plants scattered thinly over the surface 
take months to grow into beauty. Of shrubs which occur to 
me for such a purpose the Spiraeas take a leading place, Thun- 
bergi, callosa alba, Billiardi, Douglasi, californica, arisefolia, 
and Nobleana being among the best. Then there are 
Hydrangea paniculata, H. liortensis, Deutzia crenata flore- 
pleno, D. gracilis, Berberis Wallichi, B. dulcis, Gum Cistus, the 
Pernettyas, Escallonia inacrantha, Mahonia aquifolia, Erica 
codonoides, E. mediterranea, E. Alportii, E. vagans alba, and 
the bright pink early-flowering E. c-arnea. The Japanese Rose, 
too, is admirably adapted for such a place. Of perennials all 
common kinds should be excluded, and only such treasures, rich 
and rare, allowed a place as Hypericum patulum, Aquilegia 
chrysantha, Funkia Sieboldiana, Papaver orientalis, Anemone 
japonica alba, Spiraea palmata, S. japonica, select kinds of 
Paeonia, Phlox, Pent temon, Pyrethrum, Potentilla, and Cam¬ 
panula, to which subsequent additions might be made. 
Flowering shrubs of all kinds ought to enter largely into the 
composition of such a garden, and for real interest and intrinsic 
beauty rock beds with alpine plants are an unfailing source of 
attraction and amusement; but such beds require much atten¬ 
tion, and must, therefore, be limited well within the means of 
keeping them in order.— Edward Luckhurst. 
DO FLOWERS EXHAUST PLANTS ? 
In Mr. Stephen Castle’s interesting account of Cucumber¬ 
growing at page 530, last volume, I observe one little mistake. 
It may be only a slip of the pen. He says that in the non¬ 
ventilating system his fruits would not set. If it is meant that 
fertilisation would not take place, then I must say that ferti¬ 
lisation is unnecessary in growing Cucumbers for the table, and 
that both plants and fruits are very much better without it. 
For this reason many growers, while the p’ants are not over¬ 
strong, pick off all the male blooms before they expand, and by 
