JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 14, 1690, 
r4 
three days. Where earliness is everything this Pea will be useful, but 
commend me to Early William. This is a great improvement upon 
William I., being so much dwarfer, not being more than 3 feet high : 
whereas William I. is apt to run considerably over 4 feet. The Early 
William is also very uniform in appearance, whereas I always found 
William I. vary very much in pods and growth. Laxton’s Charmer 
followed ; and in this we have indeed a grand acquisition. It is sup¬ 
posed to be from 4 feet to 5 feet high, but this year it has not stopped 
short at G feet. The pods are an intense green, and they hang in pro¬ 
fusion the whole length of the bine. The peas are bright green and 
closely packed to the number of from nine to twelve in a narrow 
curved pod. This is an immense cropper and a poor man’s Pea in all 
respects, there being little bulk of pod and plenty of peas. The quality 
also is all that can be desired. Boston Hero, on the other hand, is all 
pod and no peas, and not worth growing. Autocrat is a splendid Pea, a 
good cropper, with pods of an intense green, carrying a very heavy 
bloom. The peas quickly form, so that even when the pods are thin 
they shell out satisfactorily. The quality is good, and I can strongly 
recommend it. It would also be useful for exhibition. Sharpe’s Queen 
is another good Pea, the pods being longer than those of Autocrat, but 
hardly of such good colour. It is of first-rate quality and a good 
cropper. I found it satisfactory in every respect, and it is not one of the 
hollow-pod monstrosities. Bliss’s Everbearing was kindly sent me by 
Messrs. Henderson of New York, and it is a useful Pea, 2 feet high, 
with shoit thick pods filled with unusually large peas of good quality. 
Bharpe’s Triumph, an old favourite of mine, did not turn out so well as 
usual, but Prince of Wales is just the Fea to have when you want to 
keep picking, for it is a grand cropper. This, also, is all peas and little 
pod. It is so well known that I need add nothing, but it so happened 
that I had never grown it before. 
Since writing the above I have been much astonished to see that 
Boston Hero has obtained a first-class certificate. I enclose you a few 
pods of this Pea for your opinion. These are a fair sample, for 1 have 
had none better, and they will confirm. I think, my opinion of the Pea. 
I also send a few' pods of Laxton’s Charmer, but as they are now old 
you will not have such a good opportunity of judging the merit of this 
really first-class Pea.—H. S. Easty. 
[The specimens received are as our correspondent represents them. 
The pods of Boston Hero are very large, but not half filled ; the pods 
of Charmer are crowded with peas.] 
GARDEN NOTES IN 188 9. 
Alpine and Herbaceous Plants. 
When Queen Rosa holds her court all other things seem to fall into 
the background, comparatively speaking at least; and as from the end 
of June until the middle of July festivals in her honour are continually 
held, and I hold a somewhat responsible position in her court, and have 
to wait on her royal progress, and not only so, but to tell others 
about those festivals, it is no wonder that other matters connected with 
the garden are apparently neglected. During the time indicated many 
things have claimed my attention, but writing about anything else 
but Roses was impossible. Visions of Mr. Pemberton’s or Mr. Lindseli’s 
II.P.’s., Mr. Burnside’s, or that noble army of East Anglian parsons, 
Teas would flit before me and hide everything else from sight. But now 
there is breathing time. Boxes are put away, shades and Zulu hats 
have disappeared from the gardens, reputations have been lost and won, 
one can think and write about other subjects, and I resume my notes on 
some of the herbaceous plants that gave me so much pleasure during 
last summer. 
When the full blush of the early spring flowers is over, when most 
bulbs have died down or are rapidly doing so, there are still a few of 
them to interest and add vivid colouring to the garden. For this I 
know nothing better than the too much overlooked sections of Tulips. 
The Parrot varieties, quaint in form and gorgeous in colouring, with 
the tall brilliant flowers of Gesneriana or Duchesse de Pa-ma, told 
very well for lighting up the masses cf green plants, which were only 
just beginning to send up their flowering stems. There is another Tulip 
which, although exceedingly quaint, is also telling for its colouring, 
cornuta, and a small patch of this was noticeable at some distance. It is 
at that time, too, that I have found the Hyacinth so valuable for giving 
colour and perfume to the garden, and at so very little trouble or 
expense. All who grow Hyacinths in pots, it is well known, find it 
necessary to procure fresh bulbs each year, and the question comes, 
What is to bedone with the old bulbs ? Throwthem away, say most people. 
It is indeed nearly useless to try to grow them successfully in pots the 
second year, but their capabilities for garden work were forcibly impressed 
upon me some years ago by seeing a very beautiful bed of them at Can¬ 
terbury in an amateur’s small garden in Dane John, which was entirely 
kept up by bulbs which had been grown in pots, and instead of being 
turned out had been carefully dried oflf, stored away, and planted. 
I have been in the habit for some years of taking care of my bulbs 
and planting them out, so that in all parts of the garden I have clumps 
of flo vcring roots, which, in their varied hues, planted without any 
regard to arrangement, brighten up the borders. 1 might, possibly, were 
I to take them up, take away the small bulbs and replant the larger, 
have finer spikes of bloom, but I prefer leaving them as they are! 
There is one clump in my Rose border which is the produce of one bulb, 
and I had this year fourteen very fine spikes on it. 
On the rockery at the same time many things claim attention. 
There are little patches of Gentiana verna and G. acaulis, the former 
the most lovely of all blue flowers I think, yet often baffling the efforts 
of cultivators, as it has often puzzled myself. I have it now on a 
northerly aspec L , and have allowed Arenaria balearica and Mentha 
suavissima to form a sort of carpet for it to grow upon, as I have 
seen it on Alpine pastures, although we cannot imitate the Alpine 
winter which keeps them warm and dry. Then there are masses of 
Aubrietia, gay with their profusion of bloom, especially the variety I 
claim as a reminiscence of a pleasant visit to Belvoir many years- 
ago. It is, however, eclipsed in beauty by the very remarkable variety 
which we owe to Mr. Max Leichtlin, and named after him. It is in¬ 
teresting as having a decided tint of crimson in it, quite distinct from 
the prevailing colour of the family—lilac ; and it is possible that it. 
may be the precursor of other and still more brilliant forms, but it is 
in itself a most lovely plant, and in large masses will be most effective. 
Then, too, some of the Androsaces are showing their pretty flowers, some- 
of them, like carnea, difficult to grow; at least I rarely find it doing well 
with “ herbaceous men.” You can grow it in pots, but I confess to not 
having much regard for Alpines which require to be thus treated, 
although my dream—a dream not to be realised—is that of a well con¬ 
structed rockery under glass, where all the spring gems could be 
cultivated, and the lights taken off during summer. In such a place, 
we might be able to grow these plants to perfection. Some of them, 
such as A. sarmentosa, grow freely, and there is one, A. villosa, which is 
very free in flowering, and which also retains its flowers in beauty for a 
considerable time. 
And Ms there a prettier flower on the rockery than the delightful 
dwarf Pink, Dianthus alpinus? Its large (1£ inch across) flowers, 
lying c’ose down on its dwarf foliage, which they completely cover, make 
it an object of beauty not easily eclipsed. Our native and well-known 
Cheddar Pink, D. cmsius, flowered also very well with me ; but pretty and 
sweet although it is, it cannot equal its Alpine sister in beauty. There 
are other kinds which I grow, and which flower about the same time 
—D. fragrans and D. neglectus—but I do not think that any of them equal 
the Alpines. I have had D. Atkinsoni very brilliant in colour, but evidently 
a biennial. I have had it several times, but after it has flowered it ha3- 
disappeared. And what glowing masses of colour are made by the 
dwarf early Phloxes. I had some grand clumps of them this spring when,, 
in conjunction with Iberis corifolia and Aubrietia Ingrami, they made 
that part of the rockery most attractive. I have never quite unravelled 
their nomenclature, but have them under the names of setacea, 
purpurea, and Nelsoni, and no more satisfactory plants can be placed, 
on the rockery. 
In the herbaceous border, that most beautiful and interesting class 
of plants, to which such great additions have been made of late years, 
the Aquilegias next begin to assume their beauty and to delight 
us with their varied forms. The old common Columbine of our cottage 
gardens is not to be despised, and this is especially to be said of the 
white form, which is very fine and makes a conspicuous object in the 
garden, but the newer varieties claim our attention especially. They are 
ad easy of cultivation with the exception of one or two, and where a 
number of them are planted together the agency of bees and moths 
will be sufficient to produce any number of varieties ; indeed this is one 
difficulty in their cultivation, that it is almost impossible to keep them 
true, and often have I been disappointed when I had taken, as I sup¬ 
posed, the greatest care in isolating a plant from which to save seed, to- 
have found when the seedlings came up that they were of a very mixed 
character. There is one species with which I have failed, Aquilegia 
glandulosa. I had plants of it from many quarters, including Grigors of 
Forres, but after a year or so they departed. Can it be that this is a 
biennial ? The species which have given most of the many varieties 
that abound in every garden where such plants are cultivated are ccerulea, 
chrysantha, canadense, and Skinneri. A. coerulescens is a dwarf growing 
species, very beautiful in the colour of its flowers and large in size ; it is 
earlier than most of the others, and my plants this year were very 
strong and healthy. A. chrysantha is, I think, the finest of all ; its- 
brilliant yellow flowers, its long spurs and stately growth, combine to 
make it a very beautiful plant. A. californica or canadense i3 scarlet and 
yellow, and it will be readily seen what capabilities there are- 
for variation where these colours get intermixed. I wish it were 
possible for me in my small garden to give them more space than 
I do. I have a border some 12 feet long by 3 wide planted with 
them ; there they are free to seed as they like, and the result has 
been a wonderfully beautiful set of seedlings of the most varied tints 
and habits. Most of them, indeed, are tall, partaking of the habit of 
A. chrysantha. This, by-the-by, is the easiest to keep true ; it blooms- 
until late in the season, when the other kinds are all past, and if some 
of the later flowers be reserved for seed purposes the plants raised from 
them will be pretty sure to come true. 
Inula glandulosa is a plant whose praises I have more than once 
sounded in the Journal. It was very beautiful with me last year, the fine 
weather suiting it and many other herbaceous plants admirably. The 
plant is about 18 inches high. The flowers rise up to about 2£ feet. 
They are of a very rich yellow, the florets hanging down like golden 
tassels. The plant is very easy of cultivation, and can be readily in¬ 
creased by division of the roots. It is a good thing to cut off the flower¬ 
ing stems, for then the plant will be likely to send up some later blooms 
as mine has done this year. There is another plant somewhat like it in 
colour and form of flower which comes in later, but is coarser and taller, 
and lacks its softness ; I mean Telekia speciosa or Bupthalmum cordi- 
