S 74 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 4,1889. 
now we are indebted to Mr. H. J. Elwes for the introduction of the 
living plant, for which he informs us he is indebted to Professor 
Sargent. 
A DAY IN THE ABBEY GARDEN'S, TRESCO, ISLANDS 
OF SCILLY. 
To all lovers of trees, plants, and flowers a day spent in the Abbey 
Gardens is at all times interesting, whether passed in spring time, 
summer, autumn, or winter. It may be well to state, for the information 
of tourists and visitors, that these sub-tropical gardens are thrown open 
at all times free of expense by the lord proprietor, Mr. T. A. Dorrien- 
Smith, and the greatest attention and courtesy are shown by the 
gardeners to all who avail themselves of this kindly permission to visit 
them. Even in winter there are generally ’a few buds of scarlet 
Pelargonium peeping out of some sheltered nook to cheer the icy ides of 
winter, while the foliage of some of the trees is even more beautiful at 
this season of the year than during the dry months of summer. The 
beauty of these trees I shall speak of later on. My especial object in 
visiting the Abbey Gardens on the 24th February was to inspect 
THE NARCISSUS FARM 
(or Lily-ground, as it is commonly called) and the two new forcing 
houses that have been recently erected by Mr. Dorrien-Smith, who is a 
great admirer of the Narcissus family, especially the DaffodT section, and 
who has spared neither time nor money in gathering together a collection 
of about 170 varieties—a floral assemblage such as is rarely met with in 
the United Kingdom. On reaching the farm I was met by Mr. Brown, 
an intelligent young man, who has the care and supervision of the whole 
of the Narcissus department. From him I elicited the following facts. 
The forcing houses were the first to be inspected. These houses, two 
in number, are now in use for the first season. They are built side by 
side, one middle wa'l serving for both houses. The walls are 4 feet high, 
with a pitch roof of 7 feet. A wooden ventilator runs the whole length 
of each house. This can be worked by an apparatus at one end. The 
houses inside have no connection with each other. They are each 
120 feet long and 12 feet wide. There is a pathway of 3 feet wide 
running from end to end. On each side there is a stage about 2 feet 
45 inches high, on which the bulbs, which are planted in boxes, are 
placed for forcing. Water for watering is stored in a tank that runs 
across both houses. It is constructed under the surface, and kept up to 
a certain temperature. The boiler used for heating the houses is a 
tubular horizontal one, and is capable of heating three more, which are 
to be erected for another season. Within the houses a flow and return 
pipe is placed under each stage close to the surface of the ground. The 
temperature at the time I was there was about 75°. The boxes in which 
the bulbs are planted are made of a uniform size—20 inches long, 
12 inches wide, by 6 inches deep—so as to avoid any loss of space in 
stowage. They are capable of holding thirty-six bulbs of Soleil d’Or, 
forty-eight bulbs of obvallaris and telamonius, and from sixty to seventy 
of ornatus. 
The bulbs are planted about the early part of September (the soil 
need not be exceedingly rich) and the boxes are placed side by side, out of 
doors. The first crop, Soleil d’Or, is brought in about the middle of 
November. By the first week in January they are removed to make 
room for the second crop, obvallaris and telamonius. These were cut 
and cleared by the second week in February, when the third crop, 
ornatus and rugilobus, took their place. And on the occasion of my 
visit one of the houses was full of ornatus and rugilobus in full bloom, 
while the other house was occupied with ornatus of a week or ten days’ 
later growth. A quantity of ornatus had been cut that day for market. 
It may be interesting to know the number of bulbs worked in these 
houses within four months. First crop, 46,000 Soleil d’Or. Second 
crop, 48,000 obvallaris and 17,000 telamonius. Third crop, 84,000 
ornatus. The success of the houses has given great satisfaction. The 
-Soleil d’Or did not do well ; but that is accounted for by sufficient care 
not having been taken in selecting the bulbs. 
Mr. Brown then took me through the farm (which is about sixteen 
acres in extent) where the crop looked fair and flourishing in most cases. 
There are a few varieties that show signs of a weak constitution, but 
that may, by proper care and attention, be overcome. I particularly 
noticed the quantity of young stock planted. It fully showed that the 
proprietor meant business, not for the export of flowers alone, but of 
bulbs also. I was also struck with the cleanness of the ground throughout 
the whole of the farm. There were not weeds enough to fill a gallon 
measure, and every plant seemed as if it had its position pricked off by 
square and compass. Although there had been a slight frost and a fall 
of snow that morning, I found in bloom of the Ajax section—Golden 
Spur, Edward Leeds, obvallaris, Yellow King, rugilobus, Tottenham 
yellow, maximus, spurius, major, minor, Empress, cyclamineus, lobularis, 
princeps, tortuosus, cambricus, pallidus praecox, corbularia citrinus, 
scoticus, and cernuus pulcher. In the Incomparabilis section—Sir 
Watkin, Leedsi, Cynosure, albidus, odorus, and a number of other 
unnamed seedlings. The Polyanthus section embraced Soleil d’Or, 
Scilly white, paper white, gloriosus, Newton, and Grand Monarque. 
In preparing the flowers for the market the greatest care is taken. 
Each variety is kept separate and put up in bunches, one dozen spikes in 
a bunch. All flowers with the least blemish are packed as seconds. 
The packages, which are chiefly made of wood, are carefully lined 
round with soft paper, and the very choice sorts are placed so that one 
bloom shall r.ot rest against another. If care is exercised in packing 
they will come out well, though the distance be to the extreme north of 
Scotland. After having made notes of all that I had seen I returned to 
the Abbey Gardens proper, where I met Mr. Dorrien-Smith, and, on his 
courteous invitation, accompanied him to inspect his Anemone planta¬ 
tion. Of this I will give you an account another week.—J. C. Tonkin. 
IMPORTED ORCHIDS. 
During the past two years many hundreds of Orchids have 
come into my hands in a rough state—that is, just as they have 
been imported, and the work of getting them established has been 
to me an interesting operation ; not, however, so difficult to accom¬ 
plish as my earliest experience of Orchid growing called to my mind. 
Years ago, no doubt, more difficulty was experienced, and the per¬ 
centage of losses arising from an imperfect knowledge was much 
higher than at the present time, owing as much perhaps to the bad 
condition in which importations reached this country, as to the 
imperfect knowledge of the treatment of this class of plants. But 
now that all is changed for the better, and Orchid growing has 
become general, it will be well for us not to forget the lessons that 
experience has taught us. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
By way of general remark I should say that when it is decided 
to form a collection of Orchids by direct importation, a good and 
reliable agency should be secured, whose collectors can be depended 
upon for careful packing and quick transit ; then if the delicate 
species come to hand in good condition, the more robust growers 
are almost certain to be right. This would be an important point 
gained towards their future well doing. But however good their 
condition when they arrive, there will be variations in health and 
plumpness, according to the state of the plants, whether quite at 
rest or partly so, and the structural strength of the different species 
at the time of collecting ; but with all of them much patience, a3 
well as care, is necessary in getting them to “ plump up ” pre¬ 
paratory to potting or blocking, for I believe it is a mistake to 
start on this operation immediately they arrive. 
STARTING THE PLANTS. 
The first thing to do after unpacking is to sort the plants and 
separate them according to their condition, and ticket them accord¬ 
ingly, as some may be found much shrivelled, and others may have 
started a bud or two during their confinement but no roots, there¬ 
fore these need the greatest care, and must not be unduly excited 
by strong heat. Proceed to cleanse the whole of them with tepid) 
water and sponge, besides cutting away all broken and decayed roots, 
but no growth of any kind that shows signs of life. Lay them out 
singly on a layer of damp moss for a week or two in moderate heat 
and shaded from the sun, but they must always be kept moist. 
After this time a thin layer of moss should be placed over the roots 
of each plant, this also to be kept moist. In due time some of 
them will begin to alter their condition for the better. These 
should be the first to operate upon in the way of potting, blocking, 
or basketing, as the case may be. In this work, however, I must 
remind young beginners of the great risk they run of losing several 
by overloading them with material about their roots, especially at 
this, or, in fact, any time, as so many plants are lost through this 
error. It should be understood that the pseudo-bulbs are the 
principal, if not the only agents in sustaining life in imported 
plants until new roots are formed, so that what is needed is to 
fasten just sufficient material around them to make all firm in their 
position—a very important point—and retain sufficient moisture to- 
induce the plants to form roots and start their dormant buds. 
POTTING. 
This operation, as applied to Orchids, has a wider significance 
than that of the ordinary potting, as generally understood, and 
must therefore be duly recognised. No one would or ought to 
think of hard potting for Orchids, and even loose potting, such as 
for ordinary bedding plants, would be too firm ; therefore as these 
plants live and thrive as much by the air and moisture permeating 
among their roots as in the atmosphere, it will be apparent that the 
material ought to be of the best and most suitable kind, and laid 
about their roots in the most c ireful way, but not laid upon them 
in quantity, for in most Orchids the growth precedes the roots,, 
