416 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November £0 1890 
plants ought to be cared for, for nearly all our border flowers 
possess attractions rendering them worthy of cultivation. Seldom 
do we meet with any of this family of plants in our fashionable 
gardens ; a few of them may be seen in choice private collections, 
and can only be looked on as rarities. They are a race of plants 
that will thrive in any ordinary garden soil, but are all the better 
for being liberally treated. Loam and well-decomposed vegetable 
matter, and coarse sand mixed with the soil where they are intended 
to grow (and the ground should be broken up to the depth of 18 or 
- ( 1 inches), will afford them the sustenance they need. They 
should have thorough drainage, and be supplied with water when 
required. Some of them, growing from 2 to 3 feet high, require 
staking to beep them from being broken by the wind. They may 
be increased by division in spring or autumn, and they flower 
towards the latter end of summer and in autumn. 
Helenium pumilum is the dwarfest of the tribe, and is a good 
border plant, having bright yellow flowers, which make a fine 
cisplay when well established. H. Hooperi is decidedly the best 
of the family. . This plant is so seldom seen that it cannot be much 
known to cultivators of herbaceous plants, or I am inclined to 
think it would be more frequently seen. When planted in open 
spaces in the shrubbery in good soil it is extremely effective. To 
see hj in all its beauty the weakest growth should be thinned out, 
and the plants be supplied with liquid manure occasionally. It is 
excellent for exhibition purposes, and continues long in bloom. 
H. autumnale is a fine autumn-flowering plant of taller growth 
than the preceding, and is well adapted for border or shrubbery 
decoration, producing large flower heads, which continue until they 
are destroyed by frost, and it has been unusually attractive this 
season.—Y. 
We have to thank several correspondents for reports of Shows 
and various communications, which are unavoidably withheld until our 
next issue. 
_ -ij-iE weather in the metropolitan district has been unusually 
mild for several days, with slight showers and occasional fogs. It 
is favourable for planting operations and other outdoor work. 
' The Centenary Show at Westminster.— Mr. E. Mawley 
informs us that the total number of cut flowers staged in competition at 
the Centenary Exhibition recently held at the Royal Aquarium by the 
Rational Chrysanthemum Society amounted to 3837, and that there 
were in all 115 trained specimen plants. 
- The Holmes’ Memorial Fund.—A Floral Fete and 
Bazaar. The Directors of the Royal Aquarium having generously 
offered to give a special benefit in aid of the above Fund, it is pro¬ 
posed also to have a Floral Fete and Bazaar, the proceeds of which are 
to be devoted to the same object. A meeting of the Committee will be 
held in the Board Room at the Aquarium to-day (Thursday), November 
2Uth, at 5 P.M., when it is hoped there will be a good attendance of all 
interested in the matter, so that arrangements can be at once made to 
carry the proposal into effect. Members of the National Chrysanthe¬ 
mum Society will be admitted on production of their passes at the staff 
entrance. Suggestions from those who cannot attend may be sent to 
He lion. Secretary, Mr. Lewis Castle, Hotham House, Merton, Surrey. 
- Exhibition of Horticultural Appliances at the 
Crystal Palace.— Arrangements are being made to hold an Exhi¬ 
bition in the Crystal Palace of the numerous and diversified articles 
required in the various branches of horticulture, Tuesday, March 3rd 
to Saturday, March 21st, 1891. The entire length of the nave of the Palace 
will be apportioned to the several exhibitors. There will be two special 
competitions of exceptional interest, the arrangements and regulations 
for which will be sent on application. The first, a lawn mowing com¬ 
petition, to take place in the Crystal Palace grounds, and the second for 
the best spraying apparatus. Medals or certificates will be awarded 
for the above. All correspondence and inquiries to be addressed to 
Messrs. J. F. Peasgood and William Brooks, Crystal Palace, London, S.E. 
- During the past fortnight Chrysanthemums at the 
Grange, Carshalton, have constituted one of the best of the 
periodical displays which Mr. A. II. Smee throws open to the residents 
in the district. That this privilege is very highly appreciated is proved 
by the fact that nearly 3000 visitors have inspected the plants within 
the time named, and by means of the collecting boxes about £1 have 
been secured for the Gardeners’ Orphan Fund. The 700 Chrysanthemum 
plants in 400 varieties are arranged in a long narrow bank sloping to the 
door of the Peach house, and have a capital effect, the plants being in 
excellent health, and in many cases, especially as regards the Anemones, 
the blooms are quite up to an exhibition standard. Mr. G. W. Cummins 
is an indefatigable worker in a good cause, and the result of the stall 
for the sale of fruit and flowers at the Croydon Show is a balance of 
over £7 for the Fund already named. 
- Hardy Fruits. —It has been arranged that Mr. Joseph Cheal 
of Crawley, as a representative of the British Fruit Growers’ Association, 
shall read a paper on Hardy Fruits at the next meeting of the Croydon 
Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Mutual Improvement Society, of which Mr. 
Stanley B. Baxter, Woodside Road, is the Hon. Secretary. The meeting 
will be held in the County Tavern, West Croydon, on Tuesday, 
November 25th, at Sp.m. It is hoped that Mr. Philip Crowley will 
take the chair, and a large attendance is expected. 
- Lambeth and Southwark Chrysanthemum Amateurs.— 
The sixteenth Exhibition of these pioneers who endeavour to grow 
Chrysanthemums in the very heart of our metropolis was held at the 
Horns, Kennington, last week, and, considering the difficulties under 
which the exhibitors labour, it was a very creditable show. Trained 
plants and groups were alike very creditable, while the several classes, 
numbering forty - five, were nearly all filled. Though the cut 
blooms were not large they displayed throughout a keenness for neat¬ 
ness and variety. In one stand we observed a fairly good bloom of 
Mrs. Alpheus Hardy. Messrs. Filmont and Williams were the principal 
exhibitors of trained plants, and Davidson, Roberts, Williams, Sharpe, 
and Hillier in the cut bloom classes.—M. 
-- Mr. W. J. Godfrey, Exmouth, writes:—“ITerewithlbeg to send 
a bloom of Japanese Chrysanthemum Lucrdce. I regret I did not 
send it before, but I exhibited a stand of these at our local show and 
Exeter, and the bloom has been knocked about. I may say that I do 
not “ go in ” for large blooms generally, but this is a very good one for 
the purpose, as it makes large leathery leaves, very robust, and about the 
same height as Avalanche. It is a French variety (1888), and I had it 
under the name given above. We grow from five to eight blooms on a 
plant.” [The bloom sent had evidently been a very handsome one, but 
it suffered in transit ; the variety must be well worth growing.] 
- Hammersmith Horticultural Society. —The fifth annual 
Exhibition was held on the 13th inst. In the group class for Chrysan¬ 
themums, first honours were awarded to a bright collection staged by 
Mr. Hodge, gardener to J. J. Ford, Esq., Park Side, Ravenscourt 
Park, W., who also showed cut blooms successfully, as did Mr. J. R. 
Wood, gardener to Mrs. Sanderson, Duke’s Avenue, Chiswick. The 
premier position for Apples and Pears was taken for excellent 
samples exhibited by Mr. J. Addison, gardener to Mrs. Lloyd, 
Merton Lodge, Chiswick. Good non-competitive groups of Chrysanthe¬ 
mums were contributed by Mr. May, gardener to the Marquis of Bute, 
Chiswick ; and Mr. Chadwick, gardener to E. M. Nelson, Esq., Ealing. 
- Grape Growing and Grape Keeping.— Under this head¬ 
ing (see page 400) Mr. Scott relates his practice, which he especially 
recommends to those who have lately taken upon themselves the 
responsibility of a head place. It will be equally as interesting to those 
who took a similar charge forty years ago, if Mr. Scott would kindly 
explain to us the utility of those nostrums he prescribes for Vines in¬ 
fested with insects. To me the prescription is very familiar, and readily 
recalls to my mind the days long since passed, when I was a practiser of 
the fine art, commonly termed a Vine smudger. My experience in the 
use of it on Vines is that what remains on the Vines which has not been 
bespattered on to the glass, and may be a fresh painted house, by the 
use of the syringe forms a warm protection to the surviving insects, and 
should they be the mealybug, they perfectly revel under it in the minute 
crannies into which such a compound could not possibly enter, and that 
I think should be sufficient reasons for its discontinuance. Until Mr. 
Scott can produce to gardeners, both young and old r some counter¬ 
balancing influences which are not generally understood, the policy of 
cleanliness is the best to be trusted.— Richard Westgott. 
