May to, 1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE. AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
367 
Becond with Sir J. Paxton and Geo. Hayward (bizarres); and Mr. J. 
Thurston third with Sir J. Paxton (bizarres) and a seedling bybloemen. 
For a collection of florists’ Tulips Mr. J. W. Bentley was placed first 
with a well diversified exhibit, containing some very fine forms ; 
Mr. C. W. Needham, with a good selection, being a fine second. 
Mr. J. Walker exhibited a large collection, not for competition, in 
which some fine flowers were noticed, including Geo. Hayward and 
Vivid (bizarres) ; Surpasse Colfuda, Lord Denman, Mrs. H. B. Stowe 
(bybloemens), and some seedling roses. Dr. Hogg also staged 
a collection not for competition, in which Mr. Gladstone, a bybloemen 
of splendid shape, substance, and colouration ; George Hayward, bizarre, 
of exceptional size and richness ; Gouden Bing, bizarre, remarkable for 
its almost black velvety ground and brilliant markings ; George Hard¬ 
wick, a good bybloemen; Mabel, rich rose; Talisman, a bybloemen 
breeder ; Miss Burdett Coutts and Annie MacGregor, rose breeders, 
were amongst the best. 
BUILDING A ROCKERY. 
Building or forming a rockery is probably the starting point from 
which geology is added to the manifold themes of a gardener’s education. 
Unconsciously it may be, rays of light from a science hitherto regarded 
as extraneous to our business creep in, and eventually thought is 
brought to bear on a subject of interest. In the humblest type of 
rockery there are, as with other things, two ways of doing it—viz., the 
right way and the wrong way. 
That rockery we have just completed does not quite come up to our 
ideal. We feel that all is not quite as it should be ; the ingredients may 
be all right (they are not always so) but the formation is all wrong. 
Care has been taken that no foreign substances have crept in, for pre¬ 
sumably not any gardener will use the recipe on which some town 
rockeries are concocted. In some of these “ chanies of childhood ” play 
a prominent part, and a mutilated stucco image fittingly crowns the 
glaring absurdity. These may be dismissed from thought. The time 
may come when county councils will byfesthetic education dismiss them 
from view. Professional rockwork builders are par excellence masters 
of the art. Some specimens are so perfect as to appear like Nature, 
unassisted and unadorned by the hand of man, for— 
“ In framing Artists, Art hath thus decreed, 
To make some good, but others to exceed.” 
These have the deft hands we fain would possess, and perhaps might 
have could we have that " practice which makes perfect.” Home-made 
things are not always the best made, but in many cases if not made in 
this way they are not made at all. 
In a gardener’s earnest endeavours to all-round improvement some 
unsightly nook or bare corner in the garden, grounds, or houses may, 
and often do, suggest something in the way of rockwork. With many 
of the lesser forms of hardy plants this plan can alone display their 
charms, which are lost on the level ground of the herbaceous border. 
By their surroundings is their beauty enhanced, provided those surround¬ 
ings are imbued with that happy touch which blends Nature with Art. 
Mediocrity is not desirable, nor in fact to be tolerated in the garden ; to 
this end there are things one would like to know in order to avoid, hence 
these few remarks emphasised by experience. My first attempts at rock¬ 
work building gave results—happy ones 1 No 1 I could at least point 
out to my friends the way not to do it. In the selection of materials we 
are not likely to err, for in the nearest quarry will be found what 
Nature has provided suitable to the locality. Here the question of 
labour and expense will keep us right, and obviate the incongruities of 
granite in a limestone district or vice versa. In the building is probably 
met the rock that wrecks us. 
The silent teacher has laid down no hard and fast lines. We have 
infinite variety to select our patterns from, and it requires some dis¬ 
crimination in the selection of that method which is to express our idea 
of the beautiful, and adapt itself to the requirements of planting. 
Strata is of necessity the keystone of Nature’s masonry, and must 
have that respect paid to it in the counterfeit presentment it rigidly 
demands. We then require crannies, clefts, and pockets (well filled 
pockets are in all cases satisfactory) ; perhaps owing to this they are apt 
to be overdone, and tend to make really good work puerile. 
At the same time judicious planting can do a great deal to hide the 
builder’s hand where it is too evident. That bond between Nature and 
Art we have to employ—viz., Portland cement, not only should be out of 
sight, but even the suspicion of that necessary evil is as well out of 
mind if possible. To accomplish this desirable object some tact, time, 
and trouble is needed from the amateur rockwork builder, but the 
subject deserves all consideration and some little forethought, these few 
remarks it is hoped may instil into the mind of a novice who aims at 
making his rockery a ” thing of beauty and a joy for ever.” Failure 
can teach as well as success. It is rather to the former than the latter, 
I am tempted to offer these thoughts on a subject “ Rock-ribbed and 
ancient as the sun.”—E. K., Dublin. 
THE HAWKESYARD SPECIMEN PLANTS. 
Foe over forty years the Hawkesyard collection of specimen stove 
and greenhouse plants have had a well earned celebrity in the midland 
districts, and for nearly thirty years the name of William Chapman has 
been closely associated with them as a well known practical cultivator 
and exhibitor. He went to Hawkesyard Park, near Rugeley, the 
residence of the late Josiah Spode, Esq., in November, 1855, when the 
late Mr. William May was gardener there, and who was one of the 
famous brothers May, who were at one time at Ealing Park when 
Mrs. Lawrence’s noted collection of plants was known throughout 
Europe. In the latter part of Mr. May’s career at Hawkesyard the 
collection was considerably extended, and plants were exhibited at 
Chiswick, Regent’s Park, the Crystal Palace, and Reading. At the 
time the Victoria regia was introduced a house was built specially 
for the cultivation of this, and a young plant was received from 
Chatsworth. This plant existed until 1862, when the tank was filled 
and the house devoted to the cultivation of Ixoras chiefly. 
Mr. Chapman was for ten years the foreman under Mr. William May, 
and suaceeded him, and has been head gardener there for quite twenty- 
eight years. Until very recently he attended as an exhibitor annually 
for twenty-six years at the Regent’s Park, Crystal Palace, and South 
Kensington. His specimen plants were also seen at the Earl’s Court 
Exhibition in 1892. In conversation with him as to flower shows in . 
the past, he often referred with modest pride to his winning the fijrst;, 
prize, £26, for twelve stove and greenhouse plants at the opening,, of ;'4 
the Royal Aquarium some years since. Mr. Ward, gardenerto 
Mr. Wilkinson, Leyton, Essex, was second, and Mr. Tudgey third on 
that occasion. ^ 
Ixoras were always a speciality at Hawkesyard, and for many 
years past, about this period of the season, nearly eighty plants of- 
various sizes, some of them grand specimens, were to be seen in bloom. 
On account of the decease of Mr. Spode not long since, the entire 
collection was sold by auction recently by Messrs. Pope & Son of 
Birmingham, several exhibitors from various parts purchasing. Seventy- 
seven specimen Ixoras of leading kinds were in the catalogue, besides 
specimen exhibition plants of Azaleas, Crotons, Clerodendrons, Alla- 
mandas. Bougainvilleas, Medinilla magnifica, Stephanotis, Pancratiums^ 
Anthuriums, including a very large A. Schertzerianum, with from eighty 
to a hundred blooms upon it, which realised £10 lOs, A number of 
specimen Eucharis amazonica, some forty-eight plants, realised good 
prices. 
Hardwooded plants were objects of peculiar interest to Mr. Chapman, 
and some grand specimens were to be seen at Hawkesyard, such as 
Statice profusa, 5 feet through ; Leschenaultia biloba major, several, 
specimens of Pnoenocoma prolifera Barnesi, averaging 3 feet in height 
and diameter, one specimen being feet each way; some fine 
Eriostemons. one realising £3 15s. ; Aphelexis in variety, 4 feet by 
4 feet; some grand Ericas, one E. profusa, 3^ feet by 3| feet, fetching 
£4 5s. There were also Pimeleas, GenetjIlls, Boronias, Bpacrises, 
Tremandras, Chorozemas, Acrophyllum venosum, Dracophyllum gracile, 
and others ; 310 lots of specimen plants were catalogued, and it is a 
source of great regret to me that such a fine collection had been broken 
up ; for in viewing them my thoughts were carried back to old Chiswick 
and Regent’s Park days, when Mrs. Lawrence, Messrs. Fraser, William 
Cole, Barnes, Green, Dodds, Peed, and others were great cultivators and 
exhibitors. In those days hardwooded plants were in the ascendant, 
and it would be a treat to some of us of the old school to see such, 
Gompholobiums, Pimeleas, Leschenaultias, Chorozemas, Boronias, Hovea 
Celsi, and Adenandras at present-day exhibitions. ,, 
There are still excellent cultivators about, and very fine specimens 
are met with. Mr. Cypher of Cheltenham takes first rank as a plant 
cultivator, and then there are Mr. Letts in the north, Mr. W. FinchiOf 
Coventry, and others who still show the young gardeners of the present, 
day what specimen plants should be. One grand old plant grower, who 
made his mark a number of years since, is still spared to us—Mr. 
Thomas Baines, one of the very best of our older plant growers. Mr. 
John Fraser of Lea Bridge, too, is still amongst us ; both, together with' 
Mr. Chapman, are honoured representatives of the older school of plant' 
growers. —W. D. _ -' 
SYRINGING “MALMAISON” CARNATIONS. .o; 
The practice of syringing set forth by Mr. H. Dunkin to check the 
spread of fungus will, I venture to predict, make the enemy far more 
distressing. If growers who are troubled with the disease place their 
plants nearer the glass, and expose them to more light and air, the 
disease will soon disappear. Admit air on all favourable occasions 
night and day, as anything approaching a damp confined atmo¬ 
sphere is very injurious to the plants. I am inclined to think (his 
and the sodden state of the soil are points in the culture which 
frequently escape notice and cause many failures.—C. B. Elliott, 
Lunevil le, Torquay. _ 
I ASSURE Mr H. Dunkin (page 349), when I asked (page 327) if he 
really syringed the plants of “ Malmaison” Carnations I had no wish to 
exalt myself, but sitpply to express my opinion that the new system of 
syringing is wrong, and non-syringing the right way. I am still of that 
opinion, unless fungus is on the plants, then they may be syringed once 
with, say, kilmright. I know some small growers who have their 
“ Malmaison ” Carnations very fine but never syringe ; others buy clean 
plants every autumn, and have good houses, but still fail to keep the 
plants free from spot. Why? Because they syringe the plants. One of 
the largest trade growers for the flower markets writes complimenting me 
for my short article, saying, ” I do not syringe my plants, and who ever 
does will soon have to take his plants to the stokehole.” What is the 
experience of other gardener’s who grow in bulk and those who grow 
them mixed with other greenhouse plants?— Jas. Hamilton, Byrhley, 
Burt on-on-Trent. 
