484 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 16, 1887. 
ground it is almost too early in the season, and the offices are so well 
and widely known that they do not need description, but in the nursery 
something fresh is found at all times, and there is always some im¬ 
portant feature of interest to horticulturists. Early in the year the 
Primulas and Cyclamens were extremely fine, and visitors to the metro¬ 
politan meetings had an opportunity of seeing the extraordinary exhi¬ 
bition of the former, which gained so many honours at South Kensington. 
Following these came the Calceolarias, which have afforded a brilliant 
display for some time, but are now nearly over, the strong healthy plants 
bearing a fine crop of seed. Now the Gloxinias constitute the feature, 
and shortly the Tuberous Begonias which have received so much atten¬ 
tion from this firm will take up the succession, and then there will be 
a host of outdoor attractions to interest the visitor. It is especially 
pleasing to observe the methodical exactness with which the work is 
conducted, and- the careful thought displayed in all the arrangements, 
the scrupulous cleanliness, and the excellent culture afforded all the 
plants taken in hand, whether flowers, fruits, or vegetables, tender or 
hardy, annual or perennial. A record of the improvements effected 
here in several classes of popular plants, and the mode by which they 
were accomplished, would constitute an interesting and important work, 
and would prove conclusively that success in such work does not come 
by chance, but by keen observation, repeated experiments, and patient 
waiting for results. 
The Gloxinias deserve a special paragraph or two in these notes, for 
these plants are valued greatly at this time of year ; they possess a 
peculiar richness of colouring in their substantial, handsome flowers, 
that must always render them favourites with plant growers, and if 
there ever has been an idea that they are difficult to grow, such fancies 
have been completely dissipated long since. The fact is, wherever the 
heat of a stove can be, commanded an abundant supply of plants can be 
easily had, and a succession of flowers for several months. Nor is it 
necessary to wait so long for the flowers as was once supposed. Six or 
seven months suffices for the production of strong flowering plants, and 
examples of this can be seen in Messrs. Sutton & Sons’ nursery now, for 
vigorous young plants raised from seed in January this year are showing 
flowers freely. For seed-bearing purposes, and that, of course, is the 
chief object at this nursery, they are retained another season ; thus the 
greater portion of the display now provided is produced by plants raised 
from seed in the previous January. Thus they are now eighteen months 
old, most vigorous specimens, with leaves a foot or more in length, 8 or 
i) inches in diameter, completely concealing the pots, and bearing from 
twelve to forty grand flowers. Such plants can bear and mature a larger 
number of large well-filled seed pods, the seeds proportionately well 
nourished, heavy, and matured, the chief secrets of after success as far 
as the seedsman is concerned. 
An astonishing variety of colours, spotting and marking, distinguishes 
this strain. They arc nearly all of the erect flowered type, but a few of 
the drooping flowered sorts are in demand for suspending in houses, &c.; 
and these are retained for that purpose, but it is in the others that we 
have the richest colours and the grandest flowers. Some of these are 
purple, violet purple, blue purple, and purplish crimson in intense 
shades, becoming lighter in throat and towards the margin. The 
crimsons range from the purples to the brightest scarlet, one of the latter 
with a white tube being very brilliant. Then there are some with 
clearly defined white margins and variously tinted centres and tubes. 
Another beautiful group is that containing tb. spotted forms, which are 
most diverse, delicate, and beautiful, and gradually shade off to pure 
white. Two types of the last named have been formed by Messrs. 
Sutton, one with a long tube and the other with a shorter more bell-like 
flower of great substance, both very pure and capital fur decorative pur¬ 
poses. On one plant of the former white variety we counted forty 
flowers, the plant being eighteen months old, and several others were 
but little inferior to this. 
Where such good results are obtained we might be sure that an ex¬ 
cellent system of culture is pursued, and this cannot be better described 
than in Messrs. Sutton’s own words in their useful work on “ The 
Culture of Vegetables and Flowers.” 
“ By judicious management it is possible to have Gloxinias in bloom 
the year through. Those who care for a display at Christmas can have 
it from seed sown in June, and a further sowing in January or February 
should produce plants to flower successively in almost every month of 
the yeai\ The soil most suited to Gloxinias is a light porous compost of 
fibrous loam (or, if that is not obtainable, leaf mould will answer), mixed 
with peat and silver sand in about equal parts. New pots are advisable, 
or old ones must be thoroughly cleansed, and free drainage is essential 
to success. Fill with soil to within half an inch of the top. Sow 
thinly, and sh'ghtly cover the seed with very fine earth. Place the pots 
in a warm, moist position, carefully shading from the sun. A light 
sprinkling of water daily will be necessary. Immediately some plants 
are large enough for shifting lift them from the seed pot by the aid of a 
pointed stick, so as least to disturb the rest, and prick off into large 
fiO-pots in which the soil has a convex surface. Follow this process as 
plants are ready until all the seedlings have been transferred. When 
potting allow the leaves to rest on the soil, but avoid covering the 
hearts. On the first warm day give air on the leeward side of the house, 
briefly at first, and increase the time as the flowering period approaches. 
A clear space between each plant is necessary to prevent the leaves of 
neighbours from meeting. The final shift should be into 48-pots, unless 
extra fine specimens are required, and then one or two sizes larger may 
be used. An occasional dose of weak ■ manure water will prove bene¬ 
ficial, taking care that the foliage is not wetted. A moist atmosphere, 
with the temperature at about G0° or 65°, greatly facilitates the growth 
of Gloxinias. With care, however, they may be well grown in either 
greenhouse or pits heated by hot water. But although the plants love 
a humid atmosphere while growing this ceases to be an advantage, and r 
in fact, becomes positively injurious when the flowers begin to expand. 
At that time, also, the liquid manure should be discontinued.” 
To the other specialties we can only casually refer now, as they will 
be worth reverting to at a later period. An interesting series of Cucumber 
trials has been undertaken, about thirty varieties or strains being tested 
in one house. Melons are to have a similar testing this season.. Out of 
doors a large number of Tomatoes are again planted out for trial, while 
a splendid stock of seedling Hollyhocks are growing vigorously and 
cleanly. Early in the spring a good mulching was given over the roots, 
and the plants are now starting away most strongly. In preparation for 
the Royal Counties Agricultural Show this month are a number of boxes- 
of lawn grass seedlings, as level and dense as green velvet, though only^ 
sown a month or six weeks. This Show takes place in the “ Jubilee 
week, and it will be an uncommonly busy time for Reading if the weather 
is favourable.—X. 
FLORAL BOUQUETS. 
In an account of the Queen’s Drawing Room the other day, reference 
was made, says the Daily News, to a new style of bouquet introduced 
recently by a West-end house. “ Which was the West-end house- 
referred to ?” was the question put to several florists at the West end of 
town. With one accord they all answered “ This is it.” The Covent 
Garden florists do not come within the designation of West-end houses. 
As they were clearly out of it-, they were satisfied with denying that any 
house had recently introduced what it appears is known as- the posy 
style of bouquet. It is at least two or three years old, say they, and’ 
indeed it would not be very reckless to assert that the style must be 
pretty nearly as old as the flowers. The “ posy,” as it is now understood, 
is a bunch of flowers all of one kind, as no doubt it was when every 
flower had its significance, and it was the fashion in presenting a bouquet 
to present a copy of verses with it. The blossoms R of a kind, 
and they are 'so disposed as to display the natural ch&ojaetc. ics of each 
flower individually. The fashionable “ posy,” therefore, is a mere fling 
back to nature from the elaborate artificiality oif Qie modem bouquet, 
which crowds all sorts of blossoms into a closely-packed .bunch of 
symmetrical form. “ We get flowers specially cut for posies,” said one 
Covent Garden florist. “ These Carnations, for instancy.—for bouquets- 
we want nothing but the blossoms. We can do better without any 
stalks. A bit of wire is more convenient. It allows the blossom to be 
more readily adjusted, and as in a close bouquet the stalk is not seen it 
is of no consequence. In a posy it has to be shown, and blossoms with¬ 
out stalks are of no use. The stem of the flower has, however, to be 
wired in order to keep it in position.” 
“ Any kind of bouquet factory ? Well no,” continued the same 
authority. “ We haven’t, or anybody else that I know. We haye 
about a dozen hands regularly employed during the busiest of the 
summer ; but there is nobody makes up bouquets on a very large scale.. 
It is a very extensive business, no doubt; but it is a very local sort of 
thing, and is necessarily carried on at a good many centres. Florists in 
the provincial towns mostly make up for themselves, because you see 
they are bound to have their flowers fresh. The trade in dried flowers 
is different, of course ; but that is mainly confined to memorial wreaths 
and that kind of thing. They are not used for bouquets or posies. 
Nothing will do for them but fresh flowers, and in whatever style they 
are done up they are all done by girls or women. Special training !' 
No ; nothing particular. We bring them right along from the beginning. 
We set them in the first place to wiring the flowers—putting the wire 
stalks to them, that is—and by degrees they pick up the knack of putting 
them together. Some, of course, turn out more deft and.tasty than 
others, to them we entrust the more important bouquets,” “ Yes,” said 
our Covent Garden tradesman, “ of course we do posies when they are 
asked for, and in fact we do a good many of them, and we can do floral 
lyres and harps and that kind of thing as they are doing up the West- 
end. Nothing is easier ; but after all it’s rather a stupkl idea. For the 
next three months,” he continued, “ we ought to be very busy, and no¬ 
doubt balls and drawing rooms and Jubilee festivities of all sorts will 
make things more than usually brisk.” 
The trade generally seems to be anticipating great things this summer, 
and indeed have already been at high pressure. The backwardness of 
the season exerts no appreciable influence whatever on the fashionable 
flower business. Every tiling is now grown under glass, and, whatever 
the temperature of the open air may be, Roses and Lilies, Mignonettes 
and Bouvardias, Cloves and Lilacs are always to be had for the ordering. 
This Whitsuntide they are certainly in immense profusion, and open 
posies, though not exactly new, appear to be a special feature of the 
season. At the “ Wild West ” the other day the Queen had presented 
to her one composed exclusively of white Orchids. Nothing could be 
more beautiful than this, except, perhaps, a delicious bunch of Roses 
such as were to be seen in the hands of some of the ladies at the- 
Botanical Gardens last week, arranged in “posy” style. This new 
departure in the character of bouquets has found favour no doubt from 
two causes chiefly. The real beauty of the “ posy” consists in the fact 
that it is a nearer approach to the ideal beauty of Nature than that of 
the formal bouquet. That is one cause of its favour, and the other is 
that a bunch of flowers all of one kind may be made more effectively to* 
contribute to the beauty of a dress than one comprising all sorts of 
