312 
April 19, 1889. 
JOURNAL CE HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
When each trellis was completed we trained the young shoots 
so as to cover as much of the framework as they would. The plants 
were then kept in a vinery for a few weeks, afterwards transferred 
to a greenhouse, and in June placed in a sunny position in the open 
air, the flowers being kept picked off throughout the summer, and 
the young growths regularly trained-in. When the shoots were 
likely to become crowded before other parts of the trellis was 
covered they were occasionally thinned. In September the plants 
were placed in a cool vinery, where they were kept till the house 
was started, by which time the trellis was evenly covered. The 
flowers, which had up to this date been regularly picked off, were 
then allowed to develope. Just before they began to unfold, the 
shoots were all stopped and tied-in here and there as required, and 
the plants placed in a light position in the conservatory, where they 
receive plenty of water at the roots, and a weekly sprinkling of 
Beeson’s manure, and in return for the labour bestowed upon them 
are dady unfolding fine trusses of their charming flowers. 
It may occur to careful readers that the time taken to cover the 
trellises above described was rather long for these go-a-head days. 
True, we might have covered them with growth in little more than 
half the time, but our object was to secure very short-jointed 
growth, which would yield a mass of flowers at a given time. 
The following varieties are all good and reliable :—Fiirstin 
J. von Hohenzollern, Abel Carriere, Jeanne d’Arc, Comte Horace 
de Choiseul, Isadore Feral, Comtesse Horace de Choiseul, A. F. 
Barron, and Sarah Bernhardt.—H. Dunkin. 
EARLY RHUBARB. 
I HAD better work off my remaining notes about Rhubarb. It 
would be a pity to mar the lines of the Editor’s face by frowns. One 
point I would like to urge is, that the Royal Horticultural Society have 
another trial of Rhubarbs. I say it with all respect, but with all faith¬ 
fulness, that their last trial only landed many of us into a Rhubarb 
country of fog. Instead of there being light given us there was only a 
half light, which led us to grope about trying to find something real, 
and failing. It was only concerning the really positive varieties of 
Rhubarb that the Society’s report was sound. I am speaking only for 
myself now, let it be understood, though my reading of the gardening 
papers at the time and since convinces me that I was not singular in 
my conclusions. I would suggest that everyone with a positive variety, 
either old or new, send up specimens to Chiswick, that these specimens 
be grown for not less than two years, and better three, and that a sub¬ 
committee of Rhubarb expeits be appointed to watch and note the 
varying characteristics of each variety. This would be no disparage¬ 
ment of the Fruit Committee. Mr. W. Divers’ letter on page 299, 
shows that he is one of those who did not place much confidence in the 
last report on Rhubarb sent out by the R.H.S., and he cannot have 
read the Vicar of Yaxley's description of his Rhubarb when he thinks 
the Early Red or Pontic Rhubarb is the one which the Vicar is sending 
out. 
Another point about Rhubarb I wanted to bring out, and that is as 
to the pulling of it. As a general rule Rhubarb is pulled too old. 
Nothing requires more judgment than does this operation. For house 
purposes it should never be pulled after the crimpiness has gone out of 
the young leaf. For market purposes the demand governs the pulling, 
but even for this purpose it would be better for the consumer and better 
for the Rhubarb plants if the young stems alone were pulled. Let 
those who are sceptical try this way of pulling; they will soon find out 
its merits. 
Finally, though Rhubarb is a lowly plant it would be interesting to 
know what high claims it has upon mankind. It can claim to be an 
esculent which satisfies the refined tastes of the well-to-do, and supplies 
the poor with a wholesome and palatable article of food. It can claim 
that, though a vegetable, it has the inestimable, salutary, and attractive 
qualities of the finest fruit.. It can claim to be no unimportant member 
in the subtropical garden as a plant of much stateliness and beauty, 
especially when in flower. It can claim to be a medicine of some 
three thousand years’ standing ; and in addition to all these bond fide 
claims it can claim that it is one of the most accommodating of plants, 
adapting itself-to almost every variety of climate, soil, and position. 
What other plant can boast such a record ? and what other plant with 
such a record has been so neglected ? Those days are past.—N. H. P. 
DAHLIAS. 
The above are readily increased in various ways—viz., by cuttings, 
division of the roots, grafting, and seeds. The way in general 
practice is by cuttings, by which manner good varieties can be pro¬ 
pagated in large numbers, and the sorts kept true to name. The 
Dahlia ripens its seeds in September and October. These should be 
selected from the best formed and best coloured blooms, which should 
be covered two or three days previous to their expanding with a fine 
gauze net, in order to prevent accidental fecundation taking place. 
Then with a camel-hair pencil, or with what answers equally as well, 
a rabbit’s tail placed in a quill, take the pollen and touch the floret, 
repeating the operation for three successive days. When the seeds are 
ripe they should be carefully dried and preserved during winter, and 
may be sown in February or March. They may be sown in pans or 
boxes filled with light loam and leaf mould, covering the seeds with 
a little sand. These may then be placed on a hotbed or in the propa¬ 
gating house. As soon as the seeds germinate keep the seedlings close 
to the glass, giving a good supply of water. As soon as they are large- 
enough they must be transferred to small 60-size pots, growing them 
as quickly as possible. They may be next transferred to 6-incb 
pots, gradually hardening them to plant in their permanent situations- 
in the latter part of May. 
If they are grown from cuttings, which-is by far the best and most 
general way, place the stock tubers in a bottom heat of 65°, covering 
them with a little loam or leaf mould. The young shoots will soon- 
appear, and when these are large enough remove them from the parent 
with a heel attached, cutting them with a sharp knife, inserting them 
in thumb pots filled with a light soil chiefly composed of sand, and the 
shallower they are inserted the better. They should be plunged into a 
brisk bottom heat, keeping them moist and well shaded from the sun, as 
if allowed to flag their chances of rooting are diminished, and they also 
take twice as long as they would otherwise do. In about a fortnight’s- 
time they will be found to be sufficiently rooted to admit of a little air 
being given, which must be done by degrees. When they have been 
sufficiently hardened they may be transferred to larger pots, using a 
richer compost, and gradually hardening them. They may be placed in 
a cold frame till the early part of May, when they must be accustomed 
to the open air, so as to allow of their being planted where they are to- 
flower by the end of the month.—A. G. Fuampton, Brocldey Hall 
Gardens. 
GARDENERS AND GARDENERS. 
Having been for a number of years a constant reader of your 
valuable paper I have been much interested in the various articles that 
have appeared therein at different times anent gardeners. I wish to- 
endorse all that Mr. Hugh Dale said in his evening notes, with the 
exception of certificates, and I cannot see how they are going to benefit 
the craft generally. I have lived for the last fifteen years in a district 
where hundreds of gardeners are employed in every branch, from the 
kid glove man down to the one-day-a-week man, and also the groom 
and gardener, as well as the one who has a knowledge of cows and 
poultry. Perhaps Mr. Bishop is not aware that there are many men 
who are grooms and gardeners, not through preference, but through force- 
of circumstances—men who have filled good situations as head gardeners 
and foremen. I have known many who have been obliged to accept 
such situations or nothing—men who have fallen on evil days, and 
through no fault of their own. A man often finds himself cast upon his 
own resources with a wife and a young family : the nurseries are all 
full, and after waitiDg and watching, and having spent what little he 
may have been able to put by in fruitless search, he is at last compelled,, 
though very reluctantly, to accept the position of groom and gardener, 
or give up the business altogether. I have known many really good and 
well-trained men do this, and that is one reason why I am against this 
hard and fast line being drawn, and the adoption of certificates. I think 
that in many cases certificates are not worth the paper they are written 
on ; and as Mr. Bishop quotes two instances I will also quote two, which 
I know to be true. The first is a very respectable man, who has been 
foreman in one of our largest and best places over a dozen years, where 
prizes were and still are taken by hundreds annually all over the- 
country. This man is now a head gardener in a place of very moderate 
dimensions, though quite large enough for anyone to biing out his 
abilities, and a very poor figure he presents as an all-round gardener, 
and his employer told him not long since he would be obliged to have a 
change unless he altered. Here is another instance. Some few months 
ago I had occasion to call upon a gentleman, and in speaking of his- 
gardener he said he came with a strong recommendation, but did not 
suit him, as he had spent all his time in the houses, pulling to pieces,, 
dividing, and propagating little bits of things by the hundred, when 
they only wanted half a dozen or a dozen, as the case may be.—• 
A Working Gardener. 
Mr. Alfred Bishop finds himself in a dilemma. He made an ill- 
considered charge against nurserymen and others—viz., that they 
frequently sen! Cabbage growers with a knowledge of cows, pigs, and 
poultry to fill situations for which they are not fitted. The original- 
sentences (page 74) containing the remarks to which I take exception 
are only capable of one interpretation if they are to convey any mean¬ 
ing at all ; and that is, Mr. Bishop intended your readers to understand 
and believe that nurserymen and others are in the habit of sending men 
who have not received even a fair training in gardening to fill important 
situations. 
On page 172 Mr. Bishop makes a lame attempt to bolster up his un¬ 
founded charge by citing two cases, one implicating a nurseryman, and-, 
the other a head gardener, and he asks his readers to accept his own 
testimony as to the merits of these two cases, one of which is cited for 
self-exaltation —for, besides other details, he is careful to tell us how 
many firsts there were among the fourteen prizes, and he is exact as to 
the class and number of prizes and opponents of his successor ; the other 
is a case in which a head gardener found a situation for a man who did 
not give satisfaction in the situation he then held. Neither of these 
cases justifies in the slightest degree the charge made by Mr. Bishop.. 
The first is a case in which his late employer is likely to be the most 
