April 19, 1888. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
SI9 
cannot be solely because they have been highly stimulated, because those 
that are retained by the market growers to supply larger-sized plants the 
following year do not share the same fate ; but 1 should not like to 
suggest in the case of Mr. Coombe that his treatment was unsuitable. 
If he will give me further particulars about the experiments he men¬ 
tioned, with different kinds of manure applied to a pasture, telling us 
the time of the year the.se manures were applied, if all at the same time, 
and what kind of manure, if any, had been applied for a year previous, I 
will do my best to arrive at a correct solution of the problem he has 
given me.—H. Dunkin, The Ganleiu, Longford Ctmtle, Salishurg. 
NOTES ON GLADIOLI. 
GLADIOLUS DISEASE—I-MMATURE CORMS. 
When your old time correspondent, “ D., Deal,” adopts any 
theory he keeps to it with delightful consistency. The Gladiolus disease 
is a case in point. At page 295 he brings it forward again “ with some 
degree of satisfaction.” It is needless of course to say that the Gladiolus 
is not subject to a disease, but though there is a disease which attacks 
the corms, your correspondent may rest a.ssured that many growers are 
not troubled with it. In my own case I know hardly anything about it, 
but I do know that the great difficulty with many of the later-growing 
varieties is found in the shortness of our seasons and the inability of 
the plants to produce matured corms in the time they have to grow. 
Mr. Murphy,’ with a longer sea.son, not only grows but flowers such a 
beautiful late variety as Duchess of Edinburgh, but here it only begins 
to show its spike when the season closes. Anyone who knows the 
Gladiolus will see at once the impossibility of growing this variety a 
second year, for the simple reason that the corm has had an insufficient 
period in which to grow and mature. Last year, owing to the ex¬ 
ceptional season, very few immature corms were produced, and, as I 
noted in a previous communication, all the later varieties were well 
■started in boxes before jilanting out, thus securing a longer season of 
growth. Mr. Kelway’s dictum, that “ seasons govern results,” accords 
entirely with my experience. Some varieties I have grown for fourteen 
years, but they are early flowering, all the later ones dying through 
immaturity in the “ bad ” years. The last few years I have again ■ 
worked up large numbers of some sorts, and if good seasons rule I 
expect no difficulty in continuing to do so. 
HARVESTING THE CORMS. 
With regard to the time of harvesting, I find it a safe rule to lift the 
earlier varieties directly the corms are finished. This will be seen by 
the foliage beginning to turn yellow. The danger of leaving these is to 
be found in rains, after a season of dryness, causing the corms to throw 
out roots. Ijate varieties are best left as long in the ground as jiossible, 
and I like to have some soil attached to the roots in the case of these. 
CUTTING THE CORMS. 
With regard to cutting the corms I quite agree with your correspon¬ 
dent. As instances of its very powerful tendency to cause growths to 
start, I have Enehanteres.se with' three growths, Th^rose de Vilinorin 
with four, and a large number of others with from three to five growths 
from one corm. 
The following I do not see in the list of varieties given by “ I)., Deal.” 
They are so fine that their omission is 8trange :—Dictateur (188(i), 
Amiti6, Eugene Souchet, Phidias, and Teresita. The following I shouhl 
not care to go without, although not so good in some respects as the 
alx)ve :—Diamant, Le Phare, Orph^e, Panorama, Sylvie, and Penelope. 
Some of those in the list at page 296 do not succeed here ; such are 
Andre Leroy, Colbert, L’Unique Violet, Jupiter, Madame Desportes, 
Murillo, and Grand Lilas.—B. 
DEATH OF MR. J. WOODBRIDGE. 
With deep regret we have to announce the death of Mr. John 
Woedbridge of Syon House G.irdens, and the news will afford a 
piinful surprise to his numerous horticultural friends. Mr. Wood- 
bridge was attacked by a cold on April 7th, which resulted in 
congestion of the right lung ; other complications arose, from which 
he was too weak to recover, and he succumbed on the morning of 
Fjiday, the l.^th inst., in the fifty-seventh year of his age. The 
funeral takes place at 2 r.M. to-day (Thursday), at the isleworth 
New Cemetery. 
Mr. Woodbridge was widely known and respected ; Ins career 
as a gardener has been varied and successful, and his ur.o'drusive 
kindliness of manner won him many earnest friends. He was 
burn in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, and commenced his gar¬ 
dening career at the Rectory of that town. A love of his calling 
wis early developed, and his knowledge extended by periods of 
service as a young man in the gardens of the Marquis of London¬ 
derry, Fulh.am ; of Lord Chelsea, Putney Ile.ath; and of the Hon. 
C C. Cav^endish, Latimer, Bucks. From the last-named garden he 
removid to that of Lord Boston, Hedsor, Maidenhead, and there, 
under Mr. Davis, gave considerable attention to fruit and Pine 
culture. Mr. Woodbridge subsequently passed some time at Gun- 
nersbury Park and at Syon House ; he was also engaged with IMr. 
Forest in laying out the Surrey Gardens, and in iMessi-s G iraw.iy 
and May’s nursery at Bristrl. 
His first appointment as head gardener ■woas in the service of W. 
Tothill, Esq., Stoke Bishop, where bo gained more than local 
fame as an exhibitor both of plants and fruits. Four years were 
afterwards spent at Kiddington Hall, Oxfordshire, and he was then 
appointed to the charge of tire Orchid and Heath department in 
the Royal Gardens, Kew. 
In July, 1870, he was engaged by the Duke of Northumber¬ 
land as head gardener at Syon House, and so vs’ell were his services 
appreciated that he was promoted to the office of stewaird and 
agent in 1882. He there deservedly acquired the reputation of 
a careful thoroughly practical gardener, whose varied experience 
had rendered him conversant with all departments of horticulture, 
and he justly claimed to have gained some special knowledge in 
nearly every one of his situations. 
During the past sixteen years Mr. Woodbridge was a member 
of the Fruit or Floral Committees of the Royal Horticultural 
Society ; he was also a member of the Apple and Pear Congress 
Committees, and in February of the present year he Tvas 
elected on the Council of the above Society. He was one of th 
Fig. U.—aiR. JOHN WOODIiRIDCE, 
most earnest workers on behalf of the Gardeners’ Orphan Fund, in 
which he took a deep interest, and at the time of his death was a 
member of the Executive Committee. He also frequently acted 
as a judge at metropolitan or provincial shows, and occasionally 
contributed to the horticultural p.apers. 
A description of Syon House Gardens was recently given in this 
Journal (Feb. 2Brd, 1888), and for the portrait of the late Mr. 
Woodbridge now published (fig. 41) we are indebted to the Editor 
of the Gardeners’ Magazine. 
VINCAS. 
These pretty stove perennials arc not so often seen in gardens 
now as they were twenty years ago, y< t they flower freely from the 
points of the young growths during the summer months. They 
may be increased from seeds sown in a mixture of sifted s-indy 
loam r.nl leaf soil, covered lightly with the same compost, watered, 
and ph.ee 1 in heat, where, in due time, the young plants will 
appear. As soon as large enough they should be pricked out thinly 
in a ran, subsequently placing them singly into .8-inch pots 
employing* a mixture of three parts fibry loam and one of ieai 
mould with a little sharp sand. Return the plants to heat, giving 
