July 1, 1880. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
8 
the medium of a scientific or horticultural committee, with a view 
of obtaining a modification of the Berne Convention, especially 
to claim the revision of paragraph iv. article iii., requiring that 
the roots of all plants must be divested of soil, which is the worst 
feature of the recently enacted regulations, to prevent the spread 
of the Phylloxera. “A Government like that of England, a 
country of first rank for industry and commerce in general, and 
occupying a great position in horticulture, could do much to stay 
the danger in view, more especially as it plays a preponderating 
and influential part in all important questions which eventually 
must be settled through diplomacy.” 
“ We are sure that if all nurserymen of the countries menaced by 
the Convention act in a body our just cause would find many 
sympathetic supporters amongst the influential class, and perhaps 
ward off the blow dealt against our industry. 
“ For the Chambre Syndicate of Ghent Nurserymen, 
“ The President, 
“A. Van Geert.” 
COMMON SENSE IN GARDENING. 
lit a recent number of the Journal of Horticulture of the last 
volume, page 462,1 have been reading an article entitled "Fashion 
in Gardening ” from the able pen of “Wyld Savage,” who recom¬ 
mends us to follow common sense rather than fashion in gardening. 
This is very good advice ; but all gardeners, especially when any 
change of system is adopted, require patience as well as common 
sense ; and if “ Wyld Savage” expected by a large and apparently 
indiscriminate outlay of money one year to reap a glorious 
display of gay bloom the next, it is not surprising that some 
disappointment has been the result. There is an old saying, 
that the difference between a lady and her maid is, that the one 
uses fashion, the other abuses it; and I think if we lovers of 
gardens followed the ladies, we might have our gardens as gay 
and far more beautiful than they are at present. 
The objection to the bedding-out system seems to me, not in 
employing tender plants, nor yet in employing them in masses, 
•—for nearly all flowers look best in quautity—but in sacrificing 
valuable and picturesque plants to them. As regards the geome¬ 
trical system, no one who appreciates the beauties of Nature or the 
smallest affection for his flowers could endure to see his plants 
with every bloom carefully sheared off and the whole patted level 
to resemble a gaudy carpet, so I will leave that system out of the 
list. The herbaceous system on the whole is the most natural, 
and therefore the best. But we need not follow it blindly. Probably 
no two gardens are adapted to exactly the same style; the owner’s 
purse, taste and time for gardening, as well as the situation and 
soil of the garden, are sure to vary. 
My own style of gardening I call the woodland style, my aim 
being to have my garden resemble those very bright little bits of 
wood that we often come upon when there is a little break in a 
forest. The expense and trouble are very small, the result being 
the garden is green and fresh all the winter with Ferns, gay from 
the earliest spring flowers until July or August. Then I confess to 
a short interregnum ; but in autumn we are bright again. At the 
present time as I write looking out upon my garden I do not 
think my list of flowers would equal in number “ Wyld Savage’s” 
despised catalogue, but then they grow in masses. Just opposite 
as I write is a bank golden with the Welsh Poppy, with peeps 
here and there under the Poppies of the Myosotis dissitiflora still 
in full bloom, and above all several favourite old Ferns pushing 
their grand fronds above their surroundings. He calls a Geum a 
poor flower ; let him grow masses of G. cardinalis and flore-pleno, 
and mix them either with yellow Wallflowers or yellow Poppies, 
and he will not find his herbaceous borders look dull at this time 
of the year. 
It used to be the fashion to arrange our flower vases with the 
greatest number and variety of gay flowers that it was possible to 
cram in, making the whole as level as a child’s wool ball; now we 
employ a third of the flowers, arranged as lightly as we can, with 
a few Ferns and Grasses to break the level surface, the result 
being the whole is far more pleasing to the eye, and we can also 
see each individual flower. Now if, instead of giving up the bed¬ 
ding-out plants we employed them in a similar way, we should 
find more pleasure and less expense. Plant clumps of the beau¬ 
tiful old-fashioned Ribbon Grass among your flat Pelargonium 
beds, and edge them with Tropseolum canariense, or any quick¬ 
growing creeper trained over wire hoops bent to form a sort 
of basket to take off the dead flat, and you will find the Pelar¬ 
goniums look as well again, and moreover the Ribbon Grass will 
last through the winter and shoot fresh to be ready to enliven the 
earliest bulbs. 
“Wyld Savage” has given us some most enjoyable accounts 
of the woods this spring, and after all our best teaching must 
come from them ; and to those whose only Ferns are grown in 
their own garden, and who rarely see a wood, far less a hill, such 
descriptions are a real treat, and 1 wish that by common sense and 
patience his garden may some day be worthy to compare with 
the woods.—C. A. K. 
GOOD NEW VEGETABLES. 
Carters' Defiance Extra Early Cauliflower. — The Messrs. 
Carter are quite justified in describing this new production as 
“extra early,” it being, in my opinion, the earliest Cauliflower in 
cultivation. On March 14th last I sowed seed of it in a cold frame. 
When the plants became large enough to handle they were planted 
out in rows on a south-east border. They were never protected 
after being planted out, and the heads were ready for cutting 
three months after the seed was sown—viz., June 14th. It grows 
so compact that the plants might stand 1 foot apart without 
being greatly crowded, and the heads are very firm, pure white, 
and about 4 inches in diameter. Wherever choice extra early 
Cauliflowers are valued this variety is the one which should be 
largely grown. 
Suttons' Champion Shorthorn Carrot. —This is the most useful 
early Shorthorn Carrot anyone can grow. Many are too ready 
to think when they have one variety of Horn Carrot they have as 
good as any, and need trouble about no other. This is frequently 
a mistake, as the varieties vary very much. On February 24th 
I sowed Suttons’ Champion Shorthorn, Early English Horn, 
Early Nantes Horn, and Intermediate, on a south border. All 
have grown well, but at the present time the first named has 
roots double the size of any of the others, being about 4 inches 
in circumference round the crown, of fine shape and splendid 
quality.— J. Muir. 
LEEDS HORTICULTURAL SHOW. 
June 23rd, 24th, and 25th. 
“ Fine at York, wet at Leeds,” was a remark often heard on the 
Show ground at Leeds last Wednesday, and it appears to correctly 
express the character of the weather that usually prevails at the two 
great annual floral gatherings. At York this year the weather was 
brilliant on the occasion of the fete ; at Leeds on the opening day of 
the Show it was little short of miserable, but it cleared towards 
evening, when large crowds visited the Exhibition in the Horticul¬ 
tural Gardens. The second day—the “ money-taking day ”—opened 
with a downpour, which continued with little intermission through¬ 
out the day. This is the more to be regretted, since the Society is 
in a very great measure dependant on gate money, only a com¬ 
paratively few of the great and busy town being annual subscribers. 
It is abundantly clear that if the earnest and hardworking directorate 
of the Society were supported m a manner at all commensurate with 
then - efforts, that an Exhibition worthy of the town and county 
would be produced, and Leeds Show would undoubtedly become one 
of the finest of provincial gatherings. 
The Show, as in former years, was arranged in a monster marquee 
—wide, lofty, and nearly 400 feet in length, for the principal plant 
classes ; and two side tents, one for fruit, Orchids, Roses, Ac., the other 
for Pelargoniums and Ferns. Every section of the Show was good ; 
that devoted to groups of plants arranged for effect grand; un¬ 
questionably the largest and finest competitive display of the kind 
ever seen in England. The groups did not, of course, equal in rich¬ 
ness the collections of our great nurserymen as exhibited at the 
principal London shows ; but the thirteen cone-like masses of fine- 
foliaged plants and flowers, arranged with much labour and consider¬ 
able taste down the centre of the large structure, had a unique effect. 
The centre of the tent was furnished with specimen flowering plants, 
which were excellent, arranged on a circular stage, the sides of the 
marquee being occupied with Fuchsias, Ferns, Ac. Grand as this 
tent undoubtedly was, it is a question if it would not have been 
still more imposing had a few collections—specimen plants, Ferns, 
Fuchsias, Ac.—been arranged down the centre at wide intervals, the 
“ effect ” groups being in the form of semicircles down the sides of 
the tent. Than of the form indicated no mode of arrangement is 
more effective and more easily earned out by exhibitors ; but what¬ 
ever the form decided on by committees of shows for groups, it should 
if possible be stated in schedules. 
Groups of Plants. —The effect groups, as constituting the chief 
feature of the Show, demand primary attention. There was an open 
class for plants not to exceed 300 feet of space, the prizes being 
£15, £10, and £5 j a 150 feet class for amateurs in the county of 
York, the first prize being a timepiece, value £10, offered by the 
Mayor of Leeds, Alderman Tatham ; and a 100 feet group also for 
amateurs of the county. In the open class there were seven com- 
