896 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 26, 1892. 
-Death of Me. Edmund Cole.—T he death of Mr. Cole took 
place at Althorp Park, Northampton, on May 9th, at the age of fifty- 
two, from chronic Bright’s disease. This well-known gardener entered 
the service of F. W. Dolman, Esq., Alverstoke, Gosport, and proved 
himself a most successful grower and exhibitor of plants, fruits, and 
vegetables in the neighbourhood of Gosport, Portsmouth, and Fareham, 
his most successful exhibits being his well-known stove plants. He was 
also very successful with Grapes, and was the first to exhibit pot Vines 
at the Southsea Exhibition, his black and white Grapes in pots on 
arches being the principal feature of the Show. In January, 1878, he 
entered the service of Earl Spencer, K.G., at Althorp Park. In 
1882 he introduced the now famous Potato Cole’s Favourite, 
raised at Althorp, it having taken the prize of 10 guineas at 
the Northampton Seedling Potato Exhibition for the best three 
qualities — viz., heaviest cropper, best table, and best disease- 
resisting Potato then on trial, and was awarded a certificate of merit 
from the Royal Horticultural Society. In 1887 he introduced the 
Althorp Marrow, a splendid white wrinkled Pea, sent oat by Messrs. T. 
Perkins of Northampton. He was also a very successful exhibitor at 
the Northampton Horticultural Society’s Shows, his Grapes there 
being seldom beaten. In August, 1891, he won the silver medal for a 
collection of fruit at the Northampton Society’s Show. He was an 
active and useful member of that Society, and one of the first to form 
the rules on a sound basis. Mr. Cole had gained a wide circle of friends 
in the gardening world, and he was much valued and respected by his 
employer and those under him. He has been a member of the 
Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution fourteen years, and also of the 
Gardeners’ Orphan Fund since it started. He leaves a widow and six 
children to mourn his loss. 
- “ S. A.” sends us the following cutting from a daily paper :— 
“ Tomato Disease in the Canaky Islands. — A correspondent, 
writing from Teneriffe, states that with the practical disappearance of 
the cochineal industry, killed as it was by the discovery of aniline dyes 
from coal tar, the commercial prosperity of the Canary Islands received 
a blow from which for many long years it never recovered. The 
adaptability of the soil and climate to the growing of Tomatoes, many 
hundreds of tons of which leave the islands every season, must have 
compensated largely for the loss occasioned by the failure of the 
cochineal trade. For a considerable time past, however, rumours have 
been rife concerning a disease which has attacked the plant, rendering 
its produce in many instances quite unfit for exportation. Every 
endeavour has been made to localise the mischief, but without success, 
and it is reported that crops in all parts of the Canary Islands are 
seriously affected, and that growers view the prospect of the approaching 
season with considerable apprehension.” 
- West End Window-boxes. —Now that the ladders of the 
painters are beginning to vanish one by one from the walls of Belgravia, 
says an evening contemporary, flower-boxes reappear. For some weeks 
the porticos in front of the house where Lady Warrender resides have 
been fragrant with Mignonette. Mignonette and crimson Stocks adorn 
the lower sills of Lady Beauchamp’s mansion. Marguerites are, as 
usual, favourites ; sometimes they are to be seen alone, as in front of 
Lady Shaftesbury’s windows ; oftener they are to be found in combina¬ 
tion with other plants. There is a fine display of them in Sir John 
Lubbock’s windows, where they wave gaily above rows of drooping 
Cytisus and hanging grass. Lady Cotterell mingles yellow Cytisus with 
red “ Geraniums.” Some of the finest boxes are to be seen in the front 
of the Earl of Sefton’s, where Pelargoniums, Fuchsias, Nasturtiums, and 
Marguerites vie with the liveries of the flunkeys in magnificence. 
Cytisus and Mignonette form another favourite combination. A pretty 
effect is produced in Cheyne Walk by rows of yellow Tulips, only a few 
of which are placed on each sill, so that the irregular outline of each 
flower stands out in striking contract with the gloom of the interior 
when the windows are opened. 
- Balsams. —It is more interesting than pleasing to learn how 
Balsams seem to have gone out of fashion either as pot or bedding 
plants. Probably the introduction of Begonias with some other rich- 
flowered and easily grown pot plants has much to do with this dis¬ 
appearance of the once highly favoured Balsam ; and something may be 
tlue perhaps to that love for change and variation in flowers inherent in 
us all, and yet we ever found a well grown and floweied Balsam of a 
fine double strain to be a beautiful object and presenting a very 
pleasing variety to ordinary pot plants. Then it is very much in 
favour of Balsams that we can have fifty or double that number of good 
strong plants in 6 or 7-inch pots raised from seed in but two or three 
months and blooming finely for at least six weeks without any winter 
trouble, simply by sowing seeds in April and growing the seedling plants 
along in simple fashion and in a comparatively cool temperatnre. 
When sturdy, robust, and with branches thinned out, what charming 
plants Balsams make when the stems are covered with huge double 
flowers. What variety there is to be found in them also. Seedsmen 
will give us still from twelve to twenty diverse colours or markings in 
the flowers—seifs, striped, and spotted—all exceedingly beautiful. Out 
in the open ground Balsams have suffered most in the past from 
improper culture. They have been too highly fed, and as a consequence 
have made luxuriant growth and leafage, which have served to hide 
the flowers rather than expose them fully. It is better to dibble 
seedling plants after they have become strong direct from the seed 
bed into the open ground than to first pot them, then turn them 
out with balls of soil attached, as the result is undue growth rather 
than flowers. 
- Bulb Cultuke at Home.—T he severe injuries done to the 
Hyacinths in the bulb fields of Holland, as pourtrayed by Mr. A. H, 
Pearson, shows that here at home we, at least, are better placed, so 
far as weather is concerned, than are the Hollanders ; for I do not 
know of any instance where home-grown Hyacinths have so suffered. 
It is thus seen that weather at home presents no obstacle to successful 
bulb culture. On the other hand, we can show some cases—that of 
Mr. Walker of Ham, for instance — where bulbs can be grown in 
England as well as, if not better than, in Holland ; and if Narcissi can 
be produced in such fine form, why not Hyacinths, Tulips, &c. ? 
That we have plenty of soils as good as the Dutch there can be no 
doubt. The chief requirements seem to be effective irrigation and 
abundance of manure. These are elements not at all difficult to 
furnish, especially as now we pour sewage into the sea enough 
to irrigate hundreds of thousands of acres of bulb land effectually. 
Then our land at home, even of the best, does not seem to be nearly 
so high rented as it is in Holland ; and if labour be more costly, as 
Mr. Pearson shows, at least we have the evidence of Mr. A. J. 
Balfour, M.P., as well as of many authorities, that eight hours’ English 
labour is worth ten hours’ labour on the Continent; and therefore, 
labour at home, if better paid, is, after all, cheaper than is that of the 
drudger of Holland. We in England pride ourselves on a detestation 
of sweating labour. If, as Mr. Pearson says, the miserable labourers 
of the Dutch bulb fields have to work fifteen hours per day for 
2s. 6d., then every honourable upright man who purchases Dutch 
bulbs is aiding a system of labour sweating which is little less 
than infamous. I say we can, if we will, grow as good bulbs as 
the Dutch sweaters can at home, and as profitably, with fairly paid 
labour.—A. D. 
- Eaely Tomatoes, Late Cheysanthkmums, and Apples.— 
For the last ten days we have been cutting some very nice Tomatoes 
from a couple of old plants of last year. They are more than a year old, 
so to speak, as these last year’s plants were from cuttings put in in the 
autumn of 1890. The plants were just alive this spring, and as they 
were at the end of the early vinery the plants seemed to soon spring 
into life all over as the temperature of the house increased. Seeing this 
I thought I would let them have another chance. Flowers soon showed 
on the numerous laterals, the points of the shoots were stopped at each 
truss, and the result is that I counted between fifty and sixty fruits in 
various stages recently, and I send you a couple of fruits with this. 
In a case like this it seems a decided advantage to keep an old plant 
to be of good service for early fruiting, as I think they are quite 
a fortnight earlier, and a fortnight in earliness is an item of import¬ 
ance in a private garden. I also send you herewith two flowers of 
Mrs. Alpheus Hardy Chrysanthemum. A bunch of these flowers in 
May may be considered quite a novelty. Instead of throwing away 
the old plant, which did not flower in winter, it was kept, and, taking 
its luck in the greenhouse during the winter, at the end of the shoots 
in spring I noticed that flower buds were formed. I do not think 
it an advantage to have Chrysanthemums so much out of season 
as this, still the occurrence may be worth noticing. I also put in 
the box a sample Apple of Alfriston (?), which is a very good keeper. 
Last August I was very nearly able to exhibit a plate of this sort 
at our local show for a plate of Apples grown in 1890. I could find 
four fruits, but five were wanted, so I had to gather a dish fresh 
from the trees.— ROBT. Mackellae, Cheadle. [The Tomatoes were 
very good ; the Apple, which is correctly named, was a fine specimen 
of a useful variety.] 
