4 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January i, 1894. 
if unable to do the honours of his collection can hand his plan 
over to the visitor, and leave him with the certainty of his being 
in a position to make an instructive as well as enjoyable survey. 
So far as culture is concerned, there is no more trouble in 
growing a collection of Tulips than there is in managing a collec¬ 
tion of Daffodils. Save for the season of planting, the course is 
very much the same. Neither Daffodils nor Tulips do thoroughly 
well on the leave alone system, but if annually lifted, cleansed, the 
smaller sorted out for nursery beds, and the full-sized bulbs then 
replanted, the best results are secured. There is much enjoyment 
to be derived from growing a collection of either of these beautiful 
bulbs, and the fact of operations being carried on in the open air 
means that the work is healthful too. 
It might perhaps be said that there is a serious trouble in 
refining a collection of Tulips, so many sorts having to be eliminated 
that are not up to concert pitch. But is not this task one of the 
great charms of Tulip growing? There is a perennial hopefulness 
in the work. It is scholastic, and gives pleasure to those whose 
thought-tendency is advancement. The grower weeding out 
inferior sorts is like the lapidary who is making a beautiful gem 
from a shapeless “ rough diamond.” His art does more than 
occupy his hours, it gives him keen mental enjoyment and 
intellectual satisfaction. 
Tulip lovers of all grades owe a deep debt of gratitude to the 
devoted band who are striving to lift the Tulip back to its old 
place, and who are working with true wisdom in the groove of 
improvement. The secret of the flower’s decline may not lie 
wholly in the gross corruption of the strains by the wholesale dis¬ 
semination of bad sorts, but unquestionably that had much to do 
with it. A good Tulip—a Mabel let us say, or a Pilot, or a 
Storer’s No. 4—is a truly beautiful object; but many of the 
mongrels have no more claim to comparison with them than a 
street cur has to a St. Bernard. Without pandering to the absurdity 
that everything English must be good, and everything foreign bad, 
it is impossible to deny that the blending of foreign “blood ” has 
seriously impaired the value of the true strains. Many of the 
continental sorts lack cleanliness, and when they crop up amongst 
their purer sisters their appearance at once betrays them. 
Those of the trade growers who are taking up florists’ Tulips, 
will find the advantage of following in the footsteps of the 
private cultivators. Before they trouble much about selling, 
they must refine. There are immense numbers of Tulips either 
masquerading under false names, or hiding a mysterious light 
under the bushel of an unknown one, that are utterly unworthy 
of culture beside the true jewels. These will have to be rigorously 
condemned if growers are to become more numerous. In short 
our dealers must be artists as well as tradesmen, and, to their 
•credit be it said, they are awake to the necessities of the case. 
Then there may be another, and this time a real, source of 
trouble, and that is disease in the collection. While there may be two 
opinions as to whether improving the strain is tedious or pleasur¬ 
able, there can only be one when foul brood finds its way into the 
Tulip hive. Disease is the serpent in the Eden of the Dutch 
growers, and sometimes baffles all their efforts to eradicate it. 
I have seen thousands of plants going off under the eyes of 
life-long cultivators. Growers of choice collections in this country 
will not err by giving a season or two of quarantine to all 
importations, keeping them in a separate bed, and for the rest 
guard against evil by the provision of a wholesome and well- 
drained soil. To pick the lowest spot in a garden for a Tulip bed 
is quite likely to “ entail trouble,” in the form of disease. Without 
doubt one of the great requirements of Tulips is a deep, friable, 
and thoroughly drained root medium ; and with that provided a 
long step has been taken on the road to success. 
The beauty of these flowers is great, their interest absorbing. 
As the eye is arrested by their exquisite markings and pure tones, 
so the imagination is struck by the twofold phase of their bright 
life span. In the self stage they are as children developing under 
the eye of a loving parent into the ripe dignity of a noble 
maturity, or as the tints of dawn deepening into the flaming 
glories of day.—W. P. W. 
THE FRUIT SUPPLY—MARKET TREES. 
Much good advice has been given in the Journal of Horticulture 
relative to the avoidance of cheap bargains in fruit trees, and 
readers have been t(.ld to let market bundles alone. Everyone 
whose advice is asked on buying and planting fruit trees should 
express those views. I bold that the greater amount of inferior 
fruit which is produced in orchards all over the country and sent 
to the markets is grown on trees which have been purchased in 
open markets. Many such trees have been planted that should be 
grubbed up and better varieties from a good source obtained. These 
will produce fruit that, under good management, will bring profit in 
due time. I am aware that trees sold in the markets at the present 
day are better and truer to name than formerly, but they are risky, 
and time and money may be wasted in buying and planting such 
trees. Too often we see fruit trees exposed for sale with a rank 
growth and few roots. These when planted have a lingering 
existence, and inferior fruit is the inevitable result. 
I am glad to see that many orchards, particularly in the West of 
England, are being planted with well selected trees of approved 
sorts of fruit. I have previously mentioned in the Journal of 
Horticulture an instance of many cheap market trees having been 
planted, which I predicted would be of little value. This has since 
proved true. Several of the trees have died, and the ground is 
now planted with new trees from a good source. No doubt the 
cost of standard fruit trees is taken into consideration by the 
tenant farmers. In some instances the price is as much again from 
a nurseryman as that paid for trees in the market, and with the 
present depression in agriculture and other industries, the farmer or 
small holder, unless he is told the difference, and what the results 
are likely to be from the rank growth and dried roots of the 
market trees, buys these trees as his father did before him, and 
then if he eventually has fruit, wonders why it is not so large and 
good as his neighbour’s, who procured better trees of useful varieties 
from a nursery. 
I believe that well-rooted, healthy, standard fruit trees can be 
purchased from £7 lOs. per 100 trees true to name, and if their 
selection is left to a nurseryman of repute, and he has a description 
of the soil, varieties will be sent that will succeed, and give 
pleasure and profit to the buyer if properly attended to when 
received, carefully planting and staked, also protected from rabbits, 
and mulched with manure. When tenant farmers or small holders 
cannot procure trees I think the owner of the land should purchase 
them ; surely no right thinking tenant would object to pay interest 
on such outlay. I know on some estates (Madresfield Court, for 
instance) where trees are supplied to the tenant farmers and 
cottagers by the owner. We see planted healthy young fruit trees, 
which are giving pleasure to the possessors and increasing in value 
every year. The example practised on that estate is worthy of 
being followed. Private enterprise can do a great deal to further 
the object we all have in view without in any way doing injury to 
the trade : it would rather a benefit to it, as the example alone 
mentioned has encouraged other people to purchase and plant 
who otherwise would not have done so.— John Chinnery. 
AN BAST LOTHIAN GARDEN IN 1893. 
{Concluded from page 570, last vol.) 
Among flowers I think the outstanding one has been the 
Carnation. I had about a thousand plants together out of doors, 
and when these were in full flower they presented a beautiful 
sight, while individually the several varieties, many of which were 
tried for the first time, gave much pleasurable interest. In addition 
to the above we had 500 yellow-flowered kinds and a few hundreds 
on trial, which were later than the majority of the plants, and, 
therefore, prolonged the display for a long period. Last year and 
the year preceding that Carnations flowered so late that the time 
of their beauty was greatly curtailed, therefore they were all the 
more welcome this season. The new varieties in Carnations are 
being distinctly overdone. What with Continental and English, 
not to say American varieties, which appear to have characteristics 
of their own, it is impossible to try many of the newer kinds. 
Some of Benary’s sorts are very good, and they have generally a 
strong fragrance. These are kinds which ladies like :—Emilia 
Gallotti, Mignon, Jessica, Brockhaus, Holbein, Meta, Fireball, 
Madonna, Schleiben, Cordula, and Superba. Of English sorts 
Ketton Rose was in particular very beautiful ; the want of scent 
is, however, a drawback. Out of a large number of white varieties 
I liked Niphetos best of all. It is good in all respects, and is dis¬ 
tinctly Clove scented. Another grand border Carnation from the 
same raiser is Aline Newman; a red variety with a sweet fragrance. 
The older sorts—Germania, Raby Castle (a variety of several 
aliases), and Mrs. R. Hole—are still unsurpassed. I notice a 
marked improvement in the strain of Marguerite Carnations. “ Mal- 
maisons ” were not in general so good as usual. The intense heat 
seemed to take the colour out of the flowers, and the growths were 
so much ripened that plants intended to flower in the spring have 
produced an abundance of bloom during the autumn and winter. 
At present the flowers are darker in colour than I have ever seen 
them. I am, of course, referring to the dark pink form. 
Next to Carnations the spring display of Fancy Polyanthus, 
Tulips, and Narcissus was perhaps the most interesting. A bed of 
the Giant French Ranunculus yielded much pleasure. Irises of all 
