December 4, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Several fruit houses—viz., vineries and Peach houses—are being 
cleansed, the borders seen to, and the trees pruned, &c., in readiness for 
being force! later on. In the late vinery I noticed some admirably 
finishei bunches of B'ack Alicante and Mrs. Pearson Grapes, and in 
another house close by the last of a good Melon crop—fine fruits of Hero 
of Lockinge. 
In concluding the foregoing remarks, which are merely a synopsis of 
the place, and written entirely from memory, I need only sa)' that Mr. 
William Igguldon presides over the gardens and grounds at Marston with 
credit to himself and satisfaction to his employer, and that he there 
practises, so for as circumstances permit, that which he has from time to 
time so lucidly described in the pages of the Journal of Horticulture, 
—H. W. Wakd. 
RETURNING CHRYSANTHEMUM BLOOMS. 
“ F. H. G.,” on page 162, recommends Mr. J. Freeman to give away 
his blooms after exhibition, and asks, Why want them back ? 
The question of returning cut flowers after exhibitions are over is to 
be looked at in more ways than one. I grant with “ F. H. G.” tha.t it is 
a great—I had almost written the greatest—pleasure to give away the 
blooms after exhibition, but certainly there are limits to this. Let me 
just note a few position®. “F. H. G.” alludes to Roses. All Hybrid 
Perpetual Roses would be useless to an exhibitor after standing the test 
of a few hours’ exhibition. Not so some of the Teas; these stay better 
than their relatives, and have before now lived to fight and win at other 
exhibitions. Hence it appears to me that unless leave has been given to 
the secretary to give away the blooms they should be returned. Should 
the exhibitor be present in person, by all means I recommend him to give 
away all Hybrid Perpetuals; their brilliancy and beauty will be gone, and 
only the wreck of past greatness is to be seen on the following day. 
They will be cared for by the recipients far more than by the owners, 
who like to view their favourite flower in the first blush of beauty ; but 
there may be Teas that the exhibitor might desire to retain in hope of 
again exuibiting, and without the permission to give I think they are 
better reserved. Far be it from me to encourage a niggardly spirit in 
giving flowers. In my own case I daily cut all blooms of the Rose (with 
rare exceptions) and, reserving a few, send out to others less fortunately 
situated a basket of what a recipient once called “lumps of delight.” 
Yet I can believe that in the matter of some flowers the practice of 
secretarial giving should not be carried out. 
The question has cropped up apropos of Chrysanthemums. I have 
no great experience of them, but I judge that they are far more staying 
than Roses, and that many of the blooms exhibited to-day might with 
success present themselves in competition to-morrow. Never having 
exhibited them I cannot say, but if I am right it is possible that the 
exhibitor might find himself beaten the following day by some of his own 
flowers ! Unfortunately, as I know all the askers for blooms are not 
“ modest young men and maidens ” ignorant of flowers, but are occasion¬ 
ally keenly alive to personal advantages—to wit, the possibilities of 
re-exhibition, or in the case of Rose blooms the possiSsle buds that maybe 
obtained. 
Take another flower, the Aster. This, certainly in the case of German 
Asters, is capable with careful treatment of enduring two or more exhibi¬ 
tions. Further, if a German Aster be thoroughly opened it will perfect 
its seed after exhibition if properly attended to. Hence if such blooms 
were given away an irreparable toss might be inflicted on the owner. 
I think I have written enough to show that giving away the blooms 
after exhibition should never be done by the secretary except by permis¬ 
sion of the owner, and as I have written, perhaps, somewhat egotistically, 
which I could hardly avoid, let me subscribe myself on this occasion as—■ 
A Lover op Flowers. 
CHILWELL NURSERIES. 
Like many others interested in Chrysanthemums I was last week 
induced to pay a visit to the old-established nurseries of Messrs. J. R. 
Pearson & Son®, at Chilwell, near Nottingham, and there found a bright 
and beautiful display of that autumnal flower, nearly every shade of 
colour being represented in the many striking and valuable varieties 
grown, upwards of one thousand plants being tastefully arranged in one 
of the large span-roofed plant houses, which was indeed well worth 
seeing. Exceptionally good were many of the Japanese varieties, Source 
d’Or being very noticeable. Amongst the Pompons Model of Perfection 
and Snowdrop may be specially mentioned as being well grown and 
flowered. These are two charming varieties for affording plenty of flowers 
for cutting, as well as being exceedingly I'ght and effective for grouping. 
In the incurved section all the leading varieties are grown, and many fine 
examples of good culture were noticeable. Another interesting feature in 
connection with this establishment at the present time is a long lean-to 
house (100 feet in length) filled with flowering Pelargoniums, wh'’ch as 
regards profusion and high colour of flowers surpass anything of the kind 
I have ever seen, even at midsummer. They consist of what is known as 
the Chilwell strain, having nearly all been raised there. The trusses of 
many of them are nearly as large as the crown of a man’s hat, and many 
of the individual blooms show a considerable margin when placed under 
a half-crown piece. The plants, though not arranged very closely together, 
are wholly concealed beneath the mass of blooms, and when viewed from 
one end of the house to the other there is nothing approaching sameness ; 
the colours are so artistically blended that the most capricious as regards 
such matters would have pronounced the displiy faultless. No such 
variety of colours could be found in any other class of plants, either in or 
out of doors, at this season of the year. White, red, pink, Llac, rose, 
rosy-red, scarlet, light and dark crimson, magenta salmon, and purple 
crimson are only a few of the shades which might be enumerated. Such 
a display as that indoors at Chilwell would quite compensate anyone fer 
any trouble taken to produce it. Many of the new varieties yet to be sent 
out are superior to any of the varieties distributed. A large number cf 
unnamed seedliiigs are prominent in this splendid collection. I cannot 
refrain from saying a word upon the splendid Dendrobiums which are 
to be found. They consist of Dendrobium crassinode, D. Wardianum, 
D. Devonianum, Ac., all remarkably well grown in small shallow pans. 
The pseudo-bulbs are of large s'ze, and being thoroughly ripened, owing to 
their being suspended close to the glass, and promise to produce flower 
spikes from every joint. Odontoglossums, Eucharis amazonica, Eucharis 
Candida, and Eucharis Sanderi are well grown, as are also Uardenias. 
—J. H. Walker. 
WQKK.foiitheWeEK.. 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 
Work in the vegetable garden is not now very pressing, and where 
there is much to be done elsewhere, such as in the pleasure grounds, 
where cutting and planting may have to be done, the kitchen garden 
hands may be employed without interfering with the work here. 
New Ground .—Where new vegetable gardens have to be formed or 
additional poitions taken in, now is the time to push on with such work. 
Old corners which may have been neglected and become overgrown with 
weeds should have the surface grubbed up, burned, and then trenched to 
the depth of 2 feet or more. Such ground as this never fails to produce 
good vegetables for a number of years. All alterations in the existing 
quarters should be proceeded with, such as throwing two small pieces into 
one, shifting a pathway from one place to another, and the walks 
should also be attended to. No kitchen garden walk should be 
narrower than 6 feet, but it is no advantage to have them much wider 
than this for practical purposes. Where they have been much used 
during the summer they may have become quite flat in the centre, and 
when wet it may be difficult to find a dry place to walk on, and in such 
cases the centre should be raised from I inches to 6 inches higher than 
the sides. A good mode of doing this is to pick the whole surface of the 
walk up, throw the good surface material to each side, then round up the 
middle with rough clinkers, broken bricks, or stones, and put the surface 
material back again. We do not like walks with sharp ridges along the 
centre, but prefer them rounded for comfortable walking. Stone edgings 
or tiles, which may require putting straight, should have attention before 
the path is done. Where the edgings are of wood renew decayed parts, 
and Box should be taken up and relaid if it has attained any great size. 
Of all edgings in a vegetable garden none harbour the slugs so much as 
Box, and the larger it is the better it is for them, but when kept in 
narrow and dwarf lines the evil is not so great. 
Burning Refuse. —This is a portion of our December work, as the 
ashes are so useful for many vegetables in the early 8{ riug. Prunings are 
carefully collected for the purpose, and so are all the old vegetable stems 
which will not decay for manure, and besides these-there are always 
quantities of refuse which can be disposed of by burning better than in 
any other way. When a fire has once been set going a few barrowloads 
of soil or clay put round or over it will become charred and make a most 
valuable addition to the ashes. Indeed, a mixture of this kind is often as 
beneficial as some of the artificial manures. 
Protection.—Vroiectin^ material must now be at hand to place over all 
half-tender vegetables, but it is much better to take it off or on as the 
weather may dictate than have permanent protection. The hardier all 
vegetables can be kept the better if they have to be preserved until well 
into spring. 
Lettuce, Endiee, and CauUfloivers. —These and other plants in frames 
should have the lights taken off on fine days and be well ventilated all 
night when there is no frost. Where any of the plants show a disposition 
t) damp off put some sharp dry ashes around the stem®. When mats are 
placed over the glass at night do not allow the coverings to remain on flu- 
into the day or put them on before it is becoming dark at night, as the 
days are so very short now and the nights so long that to increase the 
t'me of darkness by covering when it is not wanted will make the plants 
tender. 
Forcing Vegetahlcs. —This will now be general, and good batches of 
Rhubarb, Seakale, and Asparagus should be put into heat at once if the 
produce is desired by the end of the month. The best modes of forcing 
have been so often detailed in these pages that we will not enter fully into 
the mat'er here, but wherever good roots can be used it will be found that 
one and all can be forced freely, and will prove very remunerative. So far 
we have found roots force wonderfully well this autumn, and this we are 
inclined to attribute to their being so thoroughly matured. Kidney Beans 
are now almost at a standstill, and we do not look upon them as a profit¬ 
able crop this month. 
Tomatoes. —Where no young plants were propagated from cuttings and 
early ones are wanted a pinch of seed should be sown now. Fill a dozen 
