J«ne IS, 18*9. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
473 
penny each the crop realises at the rate of £80 an acre, after 
allowing 25 per cent, as waste through inferior roots. 
Asparagus and Seakale. 
I should like to refer to two other vegetables of which few 
persons have more than they want, thousands not half enough, and 
dens of thousands seldom if ever taste—Asparagus and Seakale. 
Hundreds of tons of Asparagus are imported from France, and 
bunches of it with thick white stems and green tips are sold in 
every large town in the kingdom. Yet it is a British plant, and a 
great deal more ought to be grown in British soil, and may be 
grown in any small garden where the soil is rather light and rich. 
There are spaces between fruit bushes and trees where scarcely any 
ordinary crops can be usefully grown that would grow splendid 
Asparagus. A clump here and there where room could be found 
would injure nothing and give fine heads in spring. Much which 
Domes from France is grown in that way by occupants of small 
plots. Plants are raised from seeds sown in April. They are three 
nr four years before strong stems are produced, but they last for a 
generation. Some of the best beds I know are fifty years old. The 
ground over the roots is covered with manure every autumn when 
the stems wither and are removed. Raised beds are, however, not 
necessary, and the quickest method of raising Asparagus for cutting 
iis to sow half a dozen good seeds in rich and not heavy soil, and allow 
'the seedlings to grow without being transplanted. Three or four 
plants are sufficient for a clump here and there among fruit trees 
;and bushes ; if grown in the open the clumps may be 18 inches apart 
in rows 3 feet asunder, intercropping with August-sown hardy 
Lettuces, Onions, or small early Cabbages. Persons who grow 
Asparagus well find it very profitable, and it ought to be grown as 
well and extensively in England as in France. In the spring the 
French growers draw cones of soil over the crowns, through which 
lihe stems push ; that is why they are both white and thick. The 
more growth they make above ground the thinner it becomes, only 
that below thickening ; therefore our clever friends over the Channel 
pile up the soil, and as soon as the ends push through the stems are 
cut 7 or 8 inches down, and are stout and white with green tips. 
They give liquid manure freely in summer to encourage very strong 
growth, knowing that this is followed by fat shoots in spring. The 
difference, then, between French and English Asparagus is not in 
hind but in culture, and if a thousand times more were well grown 
in this country it would be sold and eaten. The summer growths 
must be secured for preventing breakage by the wind, or the 
spring growths will be weakened. 
Now a few words on Seakale. Everybody can grow it who can 
grow Cabbages, and it ought to be cheap enough for the majority to 
buy in May and early June who have no gardens. It is scarcely 
seen except in the gardens of the affluent, and is forced into growth 
in the dark with the aid of fire heat or manure. But there is a 
simpler and cheaper way. It is quite true that anyone who has a 
box of soil, roots, and a dark, warm cupboard or cellar, can have 
dishes of Seakale in winter. Darkness with gentle warmth are 
essential, and both can be provided, not only in the cellar, but in 
the garden ; the former—darkness—with the spade piling 9 or 10 
inches of soil over the crowns; the latter—warmth—by the sun 
heating the cones or ridges. Growths push through the soil, and 
when the tips are seen the earth is drawn aw r ay, the stems cut off at 
the bottom, and the produce comes out as clean and white as milk, 
also finer than any that is forced artificially. Cartloads are grown 
in that way for the London market, though not even half the 
gardeners who see it know how it is produced. That may be 
termed Seakale growing made easy, and the method will spread. 
Plants are raised by cuttings of the roots and from seeds. 
Rhubarb. 
We must not pass unnoticed the useful homely crop Rhubarb- 
Some persons call it a fruit, others a vegetable. Americans com¬ 
promise matters by calling it “pie plant.” It is a vegetable used 
as cooked fruit. It is indispensable, and if early profitable. In a 
series of careful experiments with all kinds of farm and useful 
garden crops in the north of England some years ago, an account 
being taken of every penny expended in cultivation and received 
by sale of produce, Strawberries paid the best over a period of 
eight years, but Rhubarb closely followed. A rood of it sold for 
£7 the second year after planting, and in five years the sum obtained 
was £90, or an average of £18, and in one year the sa'e equalled 
£68 5s. per acre. Irrigation helped this and Strawberries wonder¬ 
fully. Growth can be facilitated by placing old casks over the 
crowns. If these are painted black outside or tarred (not inside, 
mind) they will last the longer, and absorb much more heat from 
the sun. The first supplies of unforced Rhubarb, though the 
crowns are covered with long stable litter, is the Early Red, known 
also as Early Albert and some other names ; it is followed by the 
very good Hawkes’ Champagne ; then comes the larger, later, and 
useful Victoria. The litter covering is pushed up by the stems and 
affords valuable protection to them in early spring, and facilitates 
their growth materially. 
I cannot dwell on salad crops beyond saying they constitute 
important summer food, not always plentiful and fresh. August 
and September sown plants of the Hardy Bath Cos and Hardy 
Green Cabbage Lettuces that stand the winter are valuable for use 
as the first crops of the year ; and a successional supply may 
usually be maintained by sowing a little seed, and often, after the 
end of February, and growing the plants on strips of ground 
between other crops in spring and summer. So also may be that most 
wholesome vegetable Spinach, which a celebrated London physician 
told me he considered one of the most valuable of all crops medi¬ 
cinally, and he was astonished it was so little appreciated. 
Before finishing with vegetables it may be useful to give an idea 
of the time some of the different kinds take to grow. The infor¬ 
mation will be of particular value to persons who “go in” for 
showing for prizes. It must always be remembered, however, that 
seasons vary, some being cold and others warm, and the crops are 
either a little behind or before time accordingly, therefore one 
sowing must not be depended on. Mr. YV. Iggulden, who has won 
many prizes at the best shows, has at my request ascertained the 
time required by vegetables to arrive at maturity after sowing, and 
I am not aware the information has been given in such compact 
Here it is :— 
Peas in ... 
... 14 or 15 weeks. 
Broad Beans 
,,, 
... 13 or 14 „ 
Kidney ,, 
... 
... 11 or 12 „ 
Runners ... 
12 „ 
Horn Carrots 
• •• 
16 „ 
Turnips. 
... 7 to 8 „ 
Beet 
12 „ 
Lettuces. 
... 
... 11 to 13 „ 
14 weeks. Autumn Giant, spring sown, fit to cut in 
24 weeks. Autumn sown ready in July. 
White Celery in 26 to 23 weeks ; Reds a fortnight later. 
Cabbage, spring sown, fit to cut in July, or 16 to 18 weeks ; 
autumn sown, ready in April and May, according to 
varieties and weather. 
Vegetable Marrows in 10 to 12 weeks from the time of 
(To be continued.) 
HARDY FLOWER NOTES. 
As has been generally remarked, bulbs and tubers have thi3 
year been inferior, having failed to ripen properly in the abnormal 
coldness of last summer. This is specially notable with the genus 
Iris. Never have many of this fine tribe been so poor with us as 
they have this seasoD. A bed of the great netted Iris (susiana), 
which last year yielded more than a score of fine blossoms, this 
year yielded none. Iris dalmatica—last season brilliant, stately, 
and profuse of blossom—is this year meagre and ill-coloured. The 
beautiful Iris iberica has behaved as ill as its giant relative from 
Susa, above referred to. Even the accommodating Iris germanica, 
never known wholly to fail, are strangely “ sulky,” and show of 
blossom as little as they can consistently with maintaining their 
reputation for adaptability. Iris tingitana and some others are 
wholly failing to blossom. The exquisite Iris Juncea (strangely 
little seen, looking to its extraordinary beauty in texture, and in its 
rich deep yellow colour) is in bloom only because and when it has 
been treated to glass. Iris cristata is doing fairly, being seemingly 
a bog-loving species. 
Eritrichium nanum.— I have been fortunate this season in 
blooming, and I hope permanently establishing, this rare little 
exquisite from the High Alps. A plant bought two years back I 
lost from, I think, overwatering, and keeping confined in a pot. 
All essential to its well-being is the most perfect and rapid drainage. 
I suspect the want of this is the explanation why so few succeed 
with this plant. Last year I received from a friend from Switzer¬ 
land another scrap of the plant; wintered with Alpines in an ash 
bed, and planted this spring in a position on the rockery which is 
worth describing, it has bloomed well and is rooting freely. The 
spot in question is a perpendicular fissure between large stones, this 
fissure having been made simply by the stone having been rent 
asunder by frost through its whole depth. This “ abyss ” I 
crowded with light soil of no very special character until it over¬ 
flowed, therein I planted the Alpine in ordinary fashion, its root3 
carefully deployed deep below, its crown as carefully placed well 
outside the fissure. Puny though it looked at the start, it was in 
bloom in a fortnight, and is growing well and fast. With the rest 
of the rockery it gets an almost daily sprinkling, and next winter it 
