470 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 3, 1891. 
ready for forcing, the pots should be brought into the house, and receive 
two or three waterings with warm water so as to thoroughly soak the 
soil. Plunge in the frame, or wherever they are to be placed, up to the 
rims of the pots, and cover the surface of the pots over with moss. 
Every morning water each pot with warm water, and until the crowns 
have grown about 2 inches keep them in the dark, then gradually inure 
them to the light, keeping them well watered. 
After the crowns have grown 3 inches or so, stand them out in the 
house, but where the temperature does not fall lower than 70° or 75°, 
and take care to keep them well supplied with water ; indeed, this is the 
main requisite for insuring success. If the above treatment is followed 
foliage as well as flowers will be produced at the same time. If clumps 
are used for later batches, a lower temperature can be allowed. Fig. 87 
represents a pot of Lily of the Valley treated as described, the en¬ 
graving having been prepared from a photograph.—A. Young. 
SWEET WILLIAMS and the LATE MR. THOMAS 
HASTIE. 
The Sweet William may be called everybody’s flower, as, being 
easily grown and cheap, it is within the power of the poorest 
cottager to have a bed of it. The heads are somewhat stiff, it is 
true ; but then for cut flowers its rigidity is valuable to keep up 
flowera with weak stems, while its glowing colours set off the 
quieter looking blooms to advantage, and from a bed many 
varieties in colours are obtained. It has been grown for many 
generations, but, strange to say, never seems to have been made 
the subject of anyone’s peculiar care until almost our own day. 
Seeds were sown with regularity, but little seems to have been 
done to improve the flower by careful selection of the good and 
resolute destruction of inferior kinds. Fully thirty years ago, 
when I began to get fairly interested in flowers, “ Hastie’s ” Sweet 
William was commended most highly in the West of Scotland. 
Many seasons passed ere I knew who Mr. Hastie was ; but still, 
wherever I went and chanced to see a good strain of Sweet William 
the proud possessor would explain the reason of its excellence by 
saying, “ Yes, it’s very fine, it’s Mr. Hastie’s.” At length, escorted 
by a mutual friend one autumn afternoon, I found myself in 
Strathavon, Lanarkshire, some fifteen miles south-east of Glasgow. 
About a mile beyond the curious old town the beautiful River 
Avon is crossed, and just at the bridge, on the east bank, Craigmill 
stands. The owner, Mr. Thomas Hastie, joyfully gave us welcome 
with true florist’s delight, showing us over the fine garden and 
greenhouse, which he had planned and brought to rare perfection 
up in the moorlands. Thinking only of his interest in Sweet William, 
it was quite an astonishment to see a great square entirely filled 
with many hundreds of the finest Roses in cultivation, and again, 
another great square of late Phloxes, marvellously well grown, and 
all carefully named. Then the very long border of choice her¬ 
baceous plants, where many a gem graced this upland Eden. 
Between the Roses, and at the back of the hardy flower border, a 
narrow path divided, and along this were very fine Delphiniums, 
ranging from 3 to 8 feet high, and of every shade of blue. Here, 
strange to say, the Gunnera scabra was growing with magnificent 
spreading leaves as big as umbrellas, and a cone flower over 
18 inches in length. All the protection given in winter was a great 
square of turf (grass side turned down), laid over a little leaves 
or straw about the crown of the plant. Eryngium amethystinum 
shone with a steel-blue glitter and a profusion of spikes, which I 
have never seen equalled elsewhere. 
In a large bed were what I had come to see, his famous Sweet 
Williams, but almost out of bloom, only a warm invitation to come 
and see them next year, and meanwhile I noted the few flowers 
still appearing, which for colour were dazzlingly bright, the deep 
blood red being kept apart to preserve the strain. Among the 
varieties were very light reds set off with pure white eyes and 
white edges. Deep carmines were, however, the finest of all, and 
when seen the following summer with immense heads of bloom in 
sparkling sunshine gave an idea of what careful cultivation could 
do to what had hitherto been left to the mercies of bee-fertilisation 
and careless growing. 
Mr. Hastie said that years before he had tried to save seed only 
from the best, but always poor sorts would assert their presence 
till he ruthlessly drew them out whenever their common ragged 
character appeared. By continuing this practice he eliminated all 
the tooth-edged sorts as well as those with the colour run into the 
white. Every year he had a new bed of seedlings to scan, from out 
of which some would come almost perfect. These he carefully 
saved, taking cuttings from them as well as saving the seed. 
After many years he attained to the standard of perfection, the 
white lacing smooth and unbroken by rays of run colour, with the 
outmost edge uncut or rose petal like ; saw-like edges were not 
tolerated. Then the band of colour was solid, as if drawn with a 
brush, and the richer the colour the better. The centre or eye was 
pure white, while the heads were very large, being grown on rich 
soil. For years I had the pleasure of seeing the blaze of colour far 
superior to a bed of Stocks or Asters, while otherwise the garden 
was always beautiful. 
In spring the Primroses of all shades and varieties, the Daffodils 
Hcrsefieldi, Sir Watkin, and other fine sorts, with Lychnis viscaria 
fl.-pleno, &c, made a picture not often seen, even in gardens 
situated in warmer localities, or superintended by skilled gardeners, 
with assistants to boot. For a long time the rage for double flowers 
of every description was quite shutting out the improvement of 
single blooms. The fashion for single Daffodils, Marguerites, &c. r 
has now set all the other way. Many double Sweet Williams have 
arisen, most of them neither showy in colour nor pretty in them¬ 
selves. Exception to this general condemnation must be made in 
favour of Murray’s double dark crimson, which is superb in colour 
—a dark rich velvet, and of good form and dwarf habit. It was 
raised by the late Mr. Murray, Superintendent of Paisley Cemetery, 
and for a ribbon border of a permanent kind is unsurpassed. To 
see it on a bright day puts all other flowers into the shade, while a 
patch of it a yard across makes any garden look much above the 
common. Of course, propagated by cuttings. 
A fine bed of Columbines were an especial delight, as the single 
varieties chrysantha, coerulea, Witmanni, &c., had been crossed by 
the bees, and innumerable varieties had resulted and were per¬ 
petuated. Go where you pleased, the large garden was in fine 
order, the vegetables, Cauliflowers, &c., splendidly grown, while 
every week visitors came long distances to see something or other 
in bloom. Hospitable in the extreme, without fuss, Mr. Hastie 
gave most willingly to those he esteemed cuttings and plants of all 
the rare things he had collected in a long lifetime. When he 
visited others he expected the same treatment, and was not pleased 
when he did not receive it. In his youth he was very active, of & 
spare habit, but untiring as a worker. Fully 6 feet in height, he 
thought nothing of walking out twenty miles to see a friend’s 
garden, have a “ crack ” and walk away home again, proud of any 
new thing he had obtained. Latterly he became somewhat deaf,, 
and friends had to speak loud to enable him to hear. 
Once, while admiring the blaze of his greenhouse, with Fuchsias, 
Pelargoniums, &c., of which he had a large and expensive col¬ 
lection, I asked how he managed to keep everything in such order. 
He answered that his “ better half ” did the better half of it, and 
it was true, as in Mrs. Hastie he had a helpmeet indeed. But for 
her, Peaches and Grapes would not be the grand crop they were, as 
now he could not take enough patience with them. Then, when 
he would go to the Kipe Hill, several miles to the south, where 
he had grouse shooting, everything might be scorched ere he 
returned. 
Three years before his death he bought many pounds’ worth of 
stage Auriculas, which he set out in a long brick frame, eschewing 
pots, and certainly the blooms of them were extraordinary, and 
for size of trusses unequalled. One drawback, however, existed 
in this planting-out in open frames : the plants could not be lifted 
to the eye and examined at leisure. As a set-off, the reduction of 
trouble in watering was very great, while poor growers, as Lanca¬ 
shire Hero, became vigorous, and he delighted in a well-grown 
plant. 
Born in 1808, in Forland, Dalserf, his father shortly thereafter 
took an orchard farm near Carluke, and here, while but a boy, his 
strong taste for flowers manifested itself. He used to laugh over 
his first attempt at grafting, as it arose over seeing the operation 
performed while he was very young on the farm orchard. He 
imitated the process on an old Cabbage stalk, and great was the 
mirth of the household over Tom’s ingenuity. 
In the year 1832 he came to Craigmill as a miller, and carried 
on the business for fifty-six years. He transformed the whole 
place, rebuilding and extending, planting trees, laying out the 
garden, and building greenhouses, &c. He spent some hundreds 
of pounds on Roses alone, and no finer or more extensive or 
better grown collection could one see in a private garden. All he 
grew had to be first-class, and I remember well taking a Highland 
friend once in to call as we passed up the riverside, when the 
Pelargoniums were at their gayest, and the utter astonishment of 
the kilted gentleman was delightful to us all, while Mr. Hastie 
said, “ They could grow more than Heather and Grass up in the 
moors.” 
He kept several bee skeps, and here the “ Lanarkshire Bee¬ 
keeper ” was always welcome, but for new fangled ways of keeping 
bees in boxes Mr. Hastie would prefer the old straw methods of 
his fathers. Even a visit to his friend, the “ Renfrewshire Bee¬ 
keeper,” where the Stewarton octagon system improved was seen 
at its perfection, could not alter his preference for straw skeps. 
