4G0 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 5,189(7V 
Texillarium in many varieties constitute a charming floral display. 
This beautiful Orchid is a source of trouble to many am.iteurs who 
admire it, and have undertaken its culture in the vain hope of pro¬ 
ducing something like what they have seen in the leading nurseries. 
Healthy plants are purchased, and for a season perhaps they give a 
return of their delicately beautiful flowers ; then it is found the 
plants are infested with thrips or other insects, the foliage assumes 
a yellow sickly hue, and they dwindle into miserable objects, the 
destination of which is the rubbish heap or the stokehole fire. One 
of the chief secrets in the culture of these charming Orchids is to 
keep them free from insect pests, and in some large establishments 
frequent dipping or fumigating is resorted to to accomplish this. Mr. 
Oinnon, however, finds he can dispense with such artificial aids, and 
i le clean, vigorous, healthy condition of the plants, the abundance 
and size of the flowers, indicate that he has succeeded in no ordinary 
degree. About 800 moderate sized plants are arranged upon low 
siages near the glass at the sides of the house, over cement shelves 
covered with water. From some single pseudo-bulbs as many as 
three spikes are produced, with five to nine flowers each, one such 
plant having seventeen fine flowers expanded or expanding. Nearly 
every plant is flowering, so it can be imagined that two handsome 
banks are formed which will continue attractive for some weeks. 
The variations also are very numerous, both in size, form, and 
c )lour, ranging from white to the deepest rose, with much diversity 
i 1 the markings of the lip. There is also considerable difference in 
the proportion of sepals, petals, and lip ; in some the last-named 
i 1 of great size and the other divisions small, while the reverse is 
the case in other instances. It is, in fact, most interesting to note 
the variations in a collection like this, formed ot imported plants 
scarcely two alike, and probably, therefore, all wild seedlings. 
But the growth of the plants is surprising, and no doubt this is 
the result of the keen attention paid to their several requirements 
and a common sense mode of procedure throughout. In the first 
place air is admitted most freely whenever the weather permits, 
and at this time of year the ventilators are open night and day, as 
Mr. Cannon does not believe in the close but unwholesome atmo¬ 
sphere that some seem to consider necessary. The winter tempera¬ 
ture is kept as near 60° as possible with 55° as the extreme 
minimum, no resting period is allowed, and a frequent gentle 
dewing of the foliage by the syringe is preferable to an occasional 
drenching. Then the best peat and sphagnum are employed as 
campost, and the surface layer is kept in healthy growing condition 
as an important guide as to the requirements of the Orchids. 
Lastly, but really of first importance, conventional cement and tile 
paths and floors are avoided, earth or cinders form a perpetual 
moisture-holding medium under the stages ; all the cinders form a 
good path of a similar character. This point has often been in¬ 
sisted upon, and no small degree of success in large and noted 
collections is due to the avoidance of an arid atmosphere by 
similar means. 
Odontoglossum vexillarium is not, however, the only Orchid well 
grown at Avenue Lodge ; a house is devoted to other members of 
that genus, comprising 0. crispum, 0. Pescatorei, O. Edwardi, 0. 
maculatum, and others in many varieties, all capital healthy plants. 
Masdevallias, too, are making fine growth. A long house is full of 
select Cypripediums. There are some fine plants of Lmlia pur- 
purata which have been very successfully grown there, but owing to 
a slight change of treatment—namely, their elevation on a stage in 
the centre of a house, they deteriorated somewhat. They are now 
restored to their former position over water, and they are rapidly 
recovering. 
The establishment is full of interest and well kept, containing a 
neat lawn, a good collection of Roses, an herbaceous garden with a 
collection of Irises, Lilies, Pyrethrums, and scores of other plants, 
proving that Mr. Cannon possesses broad horticultural sympathies, 
and derives considerable pleasure from his model garden.— 
L. Castle. 
GARDEN NOTES IN 1889. 
Alpine and Heebaceous Plants. 
To a lover of a garden there is enjoyment to be had—enjoyment at 
all times. If he have a greenhouse, however small, he can find something, 
if he be a good manager, to cheer him in the dullest months of the 
year. As anyone can guess who has ever taken the trouble to read 
what I have written in the pages of the Journal, I am pretty well 
omnivorous as far as flowers are concerned, and I get enjoyment from 
them from the early to the last months ot the year. I have my special 
pets—Auriculas, Roses, and Gladioli, and these all suffice for a time; 
but for enduring and constant gratification from early spring on to late 
autumn there is nothing that can equal those plants which I have 
classed under the above heads, including amongst them flowering bulbs 
and tubers. They do not, of course, belong to any one tribe, but to all, 
and their blooming is, therefore, not only varied but successional. A 
visitor comes to look at your Auriculas or Carnations or Picotees, and 
he says, “ Dear me! how very much alike they are 1 How can you» 
distinguish them?” But he makes no such observation on your alpine- 
garden or your herbaceous border ; hence they are flowers for all sorts* 
and conditions of men, and one of the greatest pleasures connected with- 
them is that you can be always distributing them. Auricula growers* 
know how difficult it is to get up a stock of anything good as to be able- 
to give to one’s friends ; but herbaceous plants, at least most of tbem,- 
increase rapidly, and there is no difficulty in giving away to one’s- 
friends. 
The term is comprehensive, and is now made to include bulbs, tubers 
and roots of various kinds, perennials and biennials, and therefore it 
gives one a wide range of subjects, and affords a continuous object of 
interest for many months of the year, from the time the Cyclamens* 
begin to bloom in the midst of snow and dreary winter weather, until- 
frost cuts down the Chrysanthemums which we have placed out of 
doors. Some have indeed a very doubtful claim to hardiness, but are yet- 
numbered amongst them. I shall, however, in noting those which have- 
done well with me the past year, refer only to those which are un¬ 
doubtedly hardy in East Kent, assuring the readers of the Journal of a 
fact people are slow to believe, that this part of our county is very cold,, 
being fully exposed to east and north-east winds, which swoop down- 
upon us direct from the German Ocean. 
The very earliest flowers that I have had this year were those of 
Cyclamen vernum and Atkinsi. I sometimes read complaints about this- 
sturdy and vigorous little plant. I had tried in various parts of my garden,, 
but with scantsuccess, but seeing that it liked a warm place in the summer,, 
and in places where the roots of trees passed through the soil, I planted 
some a few years ago in the borders of the shrubbery on my drive, about- 
tbe hottest spot I have. Here it has done immensely well, has seeded alb 
over the border, and in very early spring it makes quite a gay appear¬ 
ance, coming on long before even the Snowdrop, of which I have both.' 
the common sort and Elwesi, which is certainly finer and earlier. The- 
other varieties of Galanthus, plicatus, Imperati, &c., I do not grow, my 
object being rather to grow a selection of things than a collection, for- 
which I have not room. The same rule causes me to confine my 
Narcissi to some forty or fifty sorts, which I grow in along border facing 
east, and where they have done very well. I have some in other parts*- 
of the garden, but these form the principal portion. Unquestionably 
one of the choicest things I have, not for its rarity, but its extreme- 
beauty, is 
Chtonodoxa Lucili^. —It ought in gratitude to me to do well, for- 
it -was through my means that it was first largely introduced into- 
England, and a great portion of the large quantities now grown were 
from roots which I obtained from Smyrna, some 60,000 for Messrs. 
Veitch, Ball, Backhouse, Smith, Dicksons and others ; and can any thing be- 
well more lovely ? I am not insensible to the beauty of Scilla siberica. 
or Scilla bifolia, but the coerulean blue of Chionodoxa surpasses them 
all in its soft loveliness of colour. I have a border running in front of 
my greenhouse which is about 30 feet in length. The whole front of 
this, about a foot in width, is now one mass of Chionodoxa, and when in¬ 
full bloom it is a “joy for ever.” When my friend, Mr. Ewbank, came 
to see me 1 had a sort of dread of showing my poor little garden to one- 
who grows to such perfection everything herbaceous or alpine. Happily 
he came to see me w-henthe border of Chionodoxa was in flower, and it- 
received his unqualified admiration. The border is edged with flint 
stones, and I last year planted close to the stones some bulbs of 
Anemone stellata. These continued in flower from the end of January 
to the end of April, and formed a pleasing contrast to the blue of 
Chionodoxa, although, perhaps, it was a little too strong. One of the- 
grandest of spring flowering plants is 
Doronicum Harpdr Ceewe, for I prefer to associate this grand 
plant with that genial and much lamented amateur, and the name is- 
raore easily remembered than its correct one, plantagineum excelsum.. 
In every way it is about twice the size of the very pretty and useful 
D. austriacum, and succeeds it in time of flowering. My plant of it has- 
been in flower fully two months, and I have no doubt I shall again get 
blooms of it when I cut oS the stems, as it is one of those herbaceous!- 
plants which often reward us as some of our Roses do, by giving us a 
second bloom. 1 have at last, I hope, got a place which suits 
Hepaticas. —I remember as a boy seeing these growing in all sorts* 
of places and under the most varied conditions of soil, &c., but it is never¬ 
theless true that many persons (I amongst them) failed. I tried them- 
in various places, and except with angulosa was very unsuccessful ; but- 
I have them now in a border facing north, and shaded, and there they 
seem to be quite at home. They are very pretty, but I do not see my 
way to going into some raptures over them as some do, and even to- 
flower at any other season of the year, I do not think people would rave- 
about them. In the same border I have at last found a place suitable- 
for 
Christmas Roses. —These also have been a failure before, but here- 
they are growing away splendidly. One clump is quite 3 feet across,, 
and I must prepare to place a frame over it for the autumn in order to- 
preserve the purity of the flowers. I last year placed here also some- 
of the spotted varieties as well as altifolius. The former I do not think; 
can ever be compared in beauty with the niger varieties. I have found 
it to be a good plan to once or twice during the growing time to give- 
them a good soaking of liquid manure. This increases their vigour and- 
of course tends to their greater freedom of flowering ; and, coming on< 
as they do at the end of the year, they are worthy of all the care we can 
bestow upon them. 
Primulas are great favourite ith me, both the species and the 
