4G 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 21, 1892. 
large, of a ricli Termilioa shade, the tube being extremely long. The 
plant requires stove treatment, and succeeds with the culture accorded 
to other Ixoras. 
PENTSTEMONS AND THE LATE MR. GAVIN 
GREENSHIELDS. 
What a pity it is that we never know when a genius is born. 
Could we tell chat how much could the poorest parent do, by 
guidance and education, to pave the way for the march of the 
coming man, so that he might commence his work at once, while 
all his powers would reach their highest development, and not be 
stunted and degraded by unsuitable upbringing. Alas ! too often 
our great men live out their days fighting an uphill battle, and all 
they can do is by a snatch effort at odd times, just sufficient to 
show what might have been done had circumstances been better 
ordered. Then in addition to a bad start, how vexatious it is to 
think of a good man fighting his way in the worst conceivable 
country for the display of whatever peculiar greatness was possible 
to him. 
Gavin Greenshields was a perfect illustration of the truth of 
these remarks, for in his case all the aids to advancement were 
absent. He was late in commencing the growth of flowers, and the 
situation of his garden was one of the worst I ever saw from 
which to expect the best results. To come to the front as he did 
at Glasgow flower shows was a proud feat indeed had he lived 
in Rothesay or in the Vale of Leven, places admirably adapted to 
the highest floricultural excellence ; but to a dweller in a cold 
moorland district, between the uplands of Clyde and Tweed, it was 
actually a marvellous thing for him to wrest the prizes from his 
more suitably located competitors. Indomitable spirit, combined 
with burning enthusiasm, untiring labour, and a true genius for 
floriculture, to direct work and to overcome difficulties of climate 
and soil, were the causes which led to his remarkable success. 
He was born in 1822, and had an ordinary Scotch lad’s 
education at the parish school, but the best thing he learned was 
the desire for learning. This went with him through life, and 
few ever conversed with him without being astonished at his 
breadth and depth of reading, and the keen use he could make of 
it in controversy. As a blacksmith in the parish of Newlands, 
Peeblesshire, he was not content with mere routine work, but 
would undertake anything however difficult, and soon became the 
best horse-shoer in the neighbourhood, while he would repair a 
gun as if to the manner born. An intricate lock was a mechanical 
tit-bit to him, and no matter what was wanted to be done his 
mechanical skill would master it in due time. Then he became so 
expert in curing the diseases of cattle that he was greatly in 
request as a local veterinary surgeon. The Stevenstone blacksmith 
became renowned as a handy man, who could do almost anything 
at his trade, while his favourite recreation for a while was fishing, 
and as an angler he was as keen as an otter over a good pool; 
while as a fisher he threw “a beautiful fly.” If the trout were 
shy he could sit down on a mossy dell and admire the wild flowers 
by the river ; and eventually the flowers reached his heart, so that 
mere fishing was not all in all to him. 
Looking around his home he could see no site fit for a garden, 
but undeterred by obstacles, he set to work and rooted out old 
scrub trees from a stone quarry and began to plant green Kale, &c., 
to clean the place of weeds. Soon his neighbour gardeners 
delighted to help “the smith,” and bits of flowers were set in 
crannies and obscure corners until he felt the inward stirrings of 
the “ old Adam,” the great original gardener, and went into his 
new hobby with all his powers and in the very spite of his 
surroundings. His clchul as a competitor took place at Peebles 
Flower Show, and as he drove home in triumph through the “ auld 
toon” he was greeted by cheers, as if all Peebles rejoiced with him. 
The cause of the uproar was that a wag of a friend had tied his six 
prize tickets on a string, and here behind him, fluttering in the air, 
were the proofs of his skill. 
When about thirty years of age he removed to his native village 
of Broughton in Peeblesshire. Here, pleasantly situated on a 
tributary of the Tweed, called Biggar Water, he had more com¬ 
panions of a like spirit to his own, and had a fairly good garden. 
While hard at business he yet, in his odd hours, found time to 
increase his stock of flowers, and, with others, founded the 
Broughton Horticultural Society, which soon became well known 
as a keen local show, and has been held every year for the last 
thirty years. 
About the year 1867 Mr. Greenshield’s health became impaired, 
and he found it necessary to give up his business as a blacksmith. 
The strength of his character, self-reliant, and conscious of being 
able to succeed at what he took in hand, was shown by the move he 
made. Near the railway station he built a house (Thornbank) anc 
commenced life anew as a grocer. All his flowers were placed in a 
new garden, which unfortunately was not of the best quality in 
any respect. Soil was stony, with a sharp slope, and of course 
subject to drought. To counterbalance these drawbacks he had 
more leisure, and could work or leave it alone, as weather or health 
allowed. He was too active minded to be idle, and his devotion to 
flowers was so keen as to overcome by one resource or another the 
drawbacks of situation. At Thornbank he really earned his fame. 
Here he became famous, and many a friend found him out in his 
retreat, and his house became an upland shrine, to which florists 
anglers, poets, and literary men from Glasgow and other towns 
loved to visit, for however fine the garden, however good the 
trouting, the genial kindly laird was more himself than other 
interests together. 
At this time he turned his attention to herbaceous plants, and 
soon acquired a most varied and interesting stock of them. His 
ungenial soil grew them better than Pansies or Sweet Williams, as 
these invariably died every winter with him, whereas the herbaceous 
kinds succeeded. Delphiniums were to him specially pleasing, and 
came to high perfection. Early Phloxes would not grow, but his 
late ones did splendidly, and for years he took the first prize for 
these at Glasgow shows. Then he took to a good strain of 
Pentstemons raised from French varieties, and which had been 
improved by our Edinburgh and Rothesay seedsmen. 
For the last fifteen years of his life Pentstemons were his great 
hobby. Saving the seed of the best spikes he raised scores of seedlings, 
and exercised an amount of discrimination in his selection of these 
which is hard to put in practice. No slight variation from a 
named variety was allowed to pass. His taste was well defined, 
and chose dark, well-marked throated forms, with long spikes, 
closely set bells, each flower large, open, and symmetrical. An 
indistinct colour he could not tolerate. Over a good bloom, on a 
well-built spike, and fine dark colours he would pause and become 
enraptured. He had not a straggly grower in his collection, nor 
a seedling that was not superior to its parents. Because he had 
raised it was not an argument sufficient to retain a middle-class 
variety. He strove for perfection, and would be satisfied with no 
less, while his unerring judgment was decisive. Nurserymen like 
Mr. Bobbie of Rothesay were glad to have his verdict as to the 
quality of their stock, so that his powers as a judge were univers¬ 
ally acknowledged. To all he saw he brought a “ clean eye.” No 
bias turned a defective flower into a perfect one, whether it was 
his own or another’s. He spoke sharp out like a true man, and if 
contradicted give reasons for his judgment of a kind that carried 
conviction home. 
For some years he had no equal competing against him for the 
Pentstemon prize at Glasgow. Always around his stand the keen 
florists were grouped, as they knew whatever was worth seeing 
would be there exhibited. His seedlings were sought after by 
nurserymen, and glad were they to be able to insert in their 
catalogues such varieties as Annie, Mrs. Cameron, The Provost, 
The Giant, and others. There is a beautiful little dwarf variety 
(raiser unknown) which was named in his honour—Gavin Green¬ 
shields. To many friends this little gem will be an “in memoriam” 
of a much respected and valued friend, whose ever kindly welcome 
and hearty grasp of the hand will never more greet them at 
Thornbank. 
A few years before he died he took up the Auricula. Obtaining 
good plants, saving the seed, he raised many seedlings of merit, but 
never named them. He had the rare knack of having his plants in 
their very best condition on the show day, and was of course 
wonderfully successful as a prizewinner. 
In 1889 that fell disease cancer attacked him, and though he 
had consented to act as judge that year at several shows he was 
unable to officiate, to the general regret “ of troops of friends.” 
For a year he lingered, suffering severely, but bearing his burden 
like the strong souled man he was. He passed away on 28th 
March, 1890. His wife had predeceased him, but he left eight of 
a family to mourn his loss. The spring was opening ; but not for 
him the Primrose prophesied the coming summer, or the carol of 
the birds he so enjoyed foretold the pleasant days to be when the 
trout leaped in the pools, and the friends he held dear would be 
wending their ways to the banks of Biggar Water. His work was 
done, manfully done too, through many disadvantages, and now 
we realise his loss, the floral world seems bereft of a bright orna¬ 
ment, and progress a helper we feel could be ill-spared. 
It is so far cheering to know that others have taken up his 
enthusiasm, especially for Pentstemon culture, and that Mr. 
Tom Robertson at Thornliebank, and Mr. Robert McIntosh, 
Hutchesontown Gardens, Glasgow, are in full possession of the 
best varieties he left behind him, while Mr. Dippie at Caldwell 
has struck in with a power and skill coupled with garden advantages 
of the very highest kind for the raising of seedling Pentstemons, 
which all go to assure us that the future of the flower is not to be 
yet measured by what has been done. 
