210 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 8, 1892. 
garden allotments, which are held and worked by labouring men, 
cannot be said to be as yet very numerous. They are situated in 
three separate districts of the town, in each of which the conditions 
are somewhat different. In one district, known as Cathays, the 
experiment has been made in a large field of good soil, leased by 
the Corporation from the Marquess of Bute, and re let in allot¬ 
ments of 20 poles each to working men. The whole of the land 
available at present has been taken up. In the district of Canton 
and Grangetown the providing of allotments has been connected 
with another instructive experiment. 
In Cardiff, as in other towns, the problem of how to dispose of 
house and road refuse has been the cause of much perplexity. 
Mr. Woosey, the Superintendent of the Scavenger Department of 
the Corporation, resolved to utilise it in making up patches of 
low-lying and comparatively valueless land, and letting it out for 
gardening purposes. In the Canton district the ground so used 
was a piece of common land belonging to the Corporation, and 
there the land is made up to the height of several feet by the 
cartage of house refuse, and covered over with road scrapings, and 
was let out in allotments of 20 or 40 poles to about forty labouring 
men, and has been found to answer the purpose very well, the 
ground being thoroughly cultivated and yielding excellent crops. 
At Grangetown the Corporation had no land to put to use in 
this way, but they obtained Lord Windsor’s consent to use about 
3 or 4 a^res of ground belonging to him near the river Ely, which 
lay so low that it was frequently covered by the tides. The con¬ 
ditions of the arrangement were that the Corporation should have 
the land for seven years for nothing, and at the end of that time 
it should revert to his Lordship. They at once proceeded to raise 
it level to the extent of 4 feet by a deposit of house refuse, which 
they covered over with a layer of road scrapings ; and the land so 
formed they let out to some thirty labourers in allotments of 
20 poles each. This ground has been cultivated by them for the 
last three years, and has been found most productive. On the 
occasion of my visit I found it covered with vegetables of splendid 
quality. Each tenant had stocked his ground according to his 
fancy. All of them had fine plots of Potatoes, Cabbage, Cauli¬ 
flower, Onions, Turnips, and Carrots, while some had Peas, Broad 
Beans, Scarlet Runners, Marrows, Celery, and sweet herbs. One 
man had hundreds, aye, thousands, of young Orange plants from 
2 to 3 inches high in his allotment, and as healthy as if they had 
been growing in their natural habitat. The ground was manured 
with decayed Oranges, the seeds germinated as freely as Oats, and 
the old man did not like to pull them out. In several cases the 
early crop of Potatoes were off, and the ground planted again with 
Broccoli, Savoys, and other crops. Nearly every plot was clean, 
tidy, well cultivated and manured ; some of them had been remark¬ 
ably well woiktd and kept. The cultivation and tending of the 
plants is done chiefly in the evenings, and the labourers who hold 
the allotments appear to take great interest in the work. 
The rent paid for the allotments is Is. per pole, or £8 per acre ; 
and there cannot be a doubt that the holders not only provide 
themselves with abundance of good vegetables for their tables, but 
are able to sell a considerable quantity. While all the allotments 
were managed creditably, the best were those on the plot of made- 
up ground at Grangetown. It may be hoped that the Corporation 
will be able to secure some more of the low-lying land to turn 
to equally profitable account ; and local authorities elsewhere, 
who have waste land in their neighbourhood, might take a hint 
from what is being done in Cardiff.—A. Pettigrew, Castle 
Gardens, Cardiff. 
SOME TROUBLESOME PLANTS. 
There must be as much pleasure in making a troublesome 
plant grow as in taming a shrew (of the former only have I 
had experience), and so, when I hear of a troublesome plant worth 
growing, I get it, and with a little wheedling and coaxing, I stoop 
to conquer. May I tell you how it is done with Heuchera 
sanguinea, that disappointing and yet most beautiful plant? It 
blooms freely with me all the summer, and in May, with a profusion 
of strong stiaight shoots 2 to 3 feet long, it was a splendid 
sight, the envy of the florists about here who fail to induce it to 
flower. I obtained a plant the year Mr. Ware sent it out, and 
now it has a large progeny. I soon found that it was best to pull 
two-year-old clumps to pieces in the autumn and replant in 
heavyish rich soil, and in the gi’owing season to give the plants 
an occasional dose of liquid manure. Plants that make poor 
growth, and have small leaves (a sign that they are starved) do not 
bloom. I am writing with the experience, and therefore with the 
impudence, of a beginner on hardy plants, so I crave the indulgence 
of those who know a “ Deal” better than I do. 
As to Eremurus Bungei, which was so much admired in my 
stand of thirty-six bunches at Chester, I do not think I shall find 
any difficulty with it or with E. himalaicus, which Mr. Ware says 
truly is “ one of the most majestic and beautiful of hardy plants,” 
at least I find it so. My spike was about 6 feet long, with about 
2 feet of creamy white flowers at the top, each flower nearly as 
large as a shilling. E. robustus is like it, rather stronger in growth, 
and with pale pink flowers. E. Olgse I have, but cannot write 
about it, my plant, I imagine, being too young to reveal its 
capabilities. I do not know how many years these plants take to 
come to maturity, but the lowest priced ones will disappoint the 
purchaser who looks for bloom year after year, and finding none, 
will associate it with Heuchera sanguinea, and declare it a fraud. 
There are two difficulties in the way of growing the Eremuri— 
subtraction from one’s purse, and the attraction the plants have for 
the insidious slimy slug, which finds its way into the crown before 
ic gets above the ground. My E. robustus was spoilt this year by 
this creature. I do not think as some do that moving them hurts 
them—the plants I mean, for my slugs are generally injured in 
removal. My plants did not bloom, though they made a feeble 
attempt to do so. They were rather exposed to winds, and this 
they cannot stand. I carefully uncovered their long fleshy roots 
last autumn, a difficult and nervous thing to do, for the roots strike 
deep and are long and brittle, and replanted them all in a spot 
sheltered from winds in good deep soil 4 feet at least, and they 
could not have done better. Autumn is the time for planting, now 
if possible. 
Then, Tropseolum speciosum favours my righteous dealing in 
two places, one in the Rhododendron bed shaded from sun by a 
Laurel hedge ; the other in front of a window (my wife’s store¬ 
room window, so it does not matter). I never thought when 
planting that it would grow all over it and among the Ivy above 
and on the side. This faces east, and the south side of the house 
keeps the sun off for the greater part of the day. It seems to me 
that all it needs is shade, heavyish soil, and plenty of moisture. 
Then, again, Zauschneria californica grew rampant in a sandy 
sunny border, blooming gloriously, till I thought to decorate my 
rockery with it, with more thought for the rockery, I am afraid, 
than my plant, and so it sulked. It wanted all the glory and all 
the 3un it could get, and did not like to be put in the shade ; but 
now it is happy again in the old sunny spot. 
Aquilegia glandulosa has been in the same place, on the edge of 
my little bog garden, for some years, and does not deteriorate. 
It seems to like moisture and partial shade, the same as Trillium 
grandiflorum, its close neighbour. 
I suppose no one finds a difficulty in growing Ramondia pyre- 
naica alba who has tried a stony bank or even on the level, provided 
it is kept moist and out of the sun. I have a nice lot of seedlings, 
but when will they bloom ? Growing these must be like planting 
trees for one’s successor. Ah! says my florist brother, how 
about Gentiana verna? Well, I have not got it to bloom yet. I 
have not had it long enough, but some day I shall report progress. 
I have learned and practised all that the Journal has told me, so it 
is thriving. Now you may grow anything if you go the right way 
about it, but this means patience, perseverance, and sometimes—my 
wife says “ sometimes ” is not the word for it—expense. 
About judging herbaceous flowers I agree with Mr. Garnett that 
too many bunches or spikes of one variety weaken a stand, and 
only when they are quite distinct should they be included in the 
same collection, but they are admissible. The arranging, of course, 
is a matter of taste, but it must not be forgotten that it is an exhi¬ 
bition of flowers, not a table decoration. What more beautiful 
exhibition of cut flowers can there be than a stand of thirty-six 
bunches as shown by Mr. Burrell of Cambridge? There is 
this to be said in favour of Mr. Garnett’s plan, in which he 
displays consummate taste, that you have not to denude your 
garden of flowers. In East Anglia the competition in these classes 
is very keen. A few years ago we used to wrangle and quarrel 
as to the interpretation of both “hardy’’and “herbaceous,” but 
the question seldom arises now, not because we have grown better 
tempers but because we grow flowers better, and in improving the 
one it follows, I hope, that the other must improve. At Diss we 
have classes for bunches and also a class for twenty-four hardy 
perennials, one or two spikes of each variety, and a very interesting 
and instructive class it is, but of course you don’t get the grand 
mass of colour that you do with bunches. — F. Page Roberts, 
Scole Rectory. 
JUDGING HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
I HAVE been interested in reading the articles on the above subject, 
as I think it is one requiring attention. In my opinion many mistakes 
and complaints arise from the word “ herbaceous” not being thoroughly 
understood by many exhibitors ; nor are some good judges of other 
garden produce capable of giving a satisfactory decision when judging 
