14 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 6, 1894. 
full of them in their season—the size, so suitable to their purpose ; the 
training, so arlmirable; the blooms, so near perfection. Take a few 
examples. Mignonette, six to eight giant trusses in one small pot; the 
Pelargoniums, a mass of bloom ; the Fuchsias the same. Only try to 
grow them yourself, and then you will see to what extent the market- 
grower is a master of his art. Then take single stalks with heads of 
bloom, say. Hydrangeas, or Liliums, or Arums ; or take the perfection to 
which Ericas are grown for market, to say nothing of the commoner 
flowers, such as Marguerites, Pelargoniums (especially Ivies), Calceolarias 
and others, huge banks of which are daily to be seen. Then, again, in 
winter time and early spring, the pots of Lilies, Hyacinths, Tulips. 
These, with others, form a never-ending succession. The second division 
of foliage plants are also marvels of fitness for their purpose. Palms of 
any size. Ferns, Ficus, Crotons, and Dracmnas are ever present, in quan¬ 
tities equal to any call upon the trade. Solanums form a special market 
feature in their season. 
There has lately sprung up quite a new business field in foliage 
plants. I allude to small thumb pots of assorted goods, about a dozen or 
fifteen, each in small wooden boxes. These find great favour with pur¬ 
chasers who have cool greenhouses where they can grow them to fair¬ 
sized plants. Nearly 1000 boxes a day, of fifteen pots in a box, have 
been sold by one grower. It is curious to know how many boxes are 
obtained—Tomato boxes, Pine boxes. Orange boxes, old ones utilised 
for this purpose after the fruit is sold. 
Before leaving the box trade I must speak of the early spring bedding 
plants. Many thousand boxes of blue Lobelia, struck cuttings of Calceo¬ 
larias, Fuchsias, seedling Asters, Stocks, Pansies, Mimulus, Musk, Nas¬ 
turtiums, plants for edgings, plants for bedding, and taller-growing 
varieties for backing, both annuals and perennials, are daily sold. 
These are often grown by small jobbing gardeners under very primitive 
frames, and are brought in small loads and sold in the Area in Tavistock 
Row. This is really the cottaeers’ market. 
Now for the cut flowers. Difficult as it is to convey any adequate 
notion of the pot trade, the cut flower trade is more difficult still. 
People do not replenish boxes of window plants very often, or plant out 
their gardens every day. Many have no garden to plant, and do not 
keep window boxes. But with cut flowers it is quite another thing ; 
with great care and attention they can rarely be kept fresh many days 
and require constant renewal. Then they are used for so many purposes 
where pots could not serve. Everybody can find a place for cut blooms 
the table, the sideboard, the mantelpiece, the buttonhole, wreaths, 
baskets, and bouquets. When you think what the daily consumption of 
cut flowers in London amounts to, and look at the number of florists’ 
shops, and the barrowloads of the street hawker, and baskets of the 
flower girls, you must think what Covent Garden cut flower trade is. 
When we consider again that market growers not only supply London, 
but send many hundreds of boxes of cut bloom daily into the large 
provincial towns, you will get some notion of the importance of this 
branch of the business. 
Now, this cut-flower trade is divided into two sections like the pot 
trade, viz., the regular daily flower grower, and the occasional or season 
grower. In addition to these, we have the amateur or gentleman’s 
gardener, who uses the market for surplus. There are also distant 
senders who supply the market with goods, for cut flowers can be sent 
almost any distance. These distant and occasional senders have 
necessitated the commission salesman as a stand-holder in the market. 
Another personage also finds employment in the cut flower trade, viz., 
the *‘higgler or middle dealer. The London market in flowers, as in 
fruit, is practically open to receive any produce which can reach it in a 
saleable condition ; and many thousand packages arrive from France, 
Italy, Holland, Belgium, Germany, the Channel Isles, Scilly Isles, and 
every nook and corner of the British Isles. These often arrive at a time 
when the flower market is closed, and if in bulk are sold by auction, 
generally on the bye-day, to the higglers, who retail to buyers on market 
mornings.— J. Assbee, Covent Garden, 
(To be concluded.) 
EASTERN LILIES. 
There can be no question that the Lilium is rapidly becoming a very 
popular flower, and that its cultivation in Great Britain, especially in 
sheltered gardens, is constantly increasing. In all ages it has been 
accounted, and that most justly, the rival of the Rose. It has not indeed 
the exquisite fragrance of the queen of flowers ; nor has it the same 
marvellous variety of complexion: but in splendour and majesty the 
Oriental Lily is imperial ; in dignity of aspect it reigns supreme. 
In my own garden which has two inestimable advantages—great 
variety of soil, and absolute immunity from cold and withering winds. 
Lilium auratum, the most beautiful of the noble Archelirioa family, 
grows stronger and more prolific every year. I am free, however, to 
confess that I am very generous to this Lily, giving it every spring 
when it is beginning to appear soil which some months previously had 
been highly manured. I know from observation that many Liliums do 
not appreciate manure ; but I also feel assured that Lilium auratum and 
L. giganteum are notable exceptions to this general rule. 
The Persian Lilium Szovitzianum, often called “ colchicum,” refuses 
to grow vigorously unless it is grown in clay. That element, at least, 
must be incorporated in the soil in which it has been planted, if it has 
not existed originally there. Until I had made this important discovery 
I could do nothing with Szovitzianum. This Lily is a native of Western 
Asia ; it is a notable member of the great Martagon family, possessing 
the same graceful pendulous habit, and is assuredly one of the most 
beautiful of them all. It is extremely fragrant, and its fragrance is 
attractive. 
Of the davuricum or umbellatum race, commonly known as Isolirion, 
to which croceum, the brilliant " Orange Lily ” of Scottish gardens also 
belongs, my supreme favourite is the dark apricot-coloured “ Incompara- 
bile,” which is here at present in magnificent flower. It forma a striking 
contrast to L. davuricum erectum, which is of brightest orange hue. 
The most valuable of the speciosums, all of which are exceedingly 
artistic in appearance, is L.s. Kraetzeri, a richly perfumed Lily of snowy 
feathery whiteness, with most exquisite green axils radiating from the 
centre with splendid effect. Among pure white Lilies it has no rival 
save Lilium longiflorum Harrisi, the latter of which was originally a 
native of Japan, but has been made absolutely faultless in its 
beauty by tropical cultivation. I am nevertheless perfectly willing to 
concede to enthusiastic admirers of the fair Madonna Lily, which 
luxuriates in every portion of my garden, that Lilium candidum, called 
thus by the poet Virgil, and argenteum, or the Silver-hued Lily, by 
Propertius, is hardly in queenliness inferior to the speciosum and longi¬ 
florum beauties to which I have referred. 
L. nepalense and sulphureum or Wallichianum superbum cannot be 
cultivated, at least in Scotland, in the open air. These Lilies, which are 
of Burmese extraction and tropical constitution, and which are at 
present growing rapidly in a warm window with a western aspect, I had 
in the first place to force in a conservatory. Both of these are much 
more distinguished by Eastern splendour than productiveness. They 
are very expensive luxuries, and not too effusive of their handsome 
blooms. For this special reason I cannot recommend their universal 
cultivation. Excelsum, a stately hybrid between candidum and 
chalcedonicum (the Scarlet Martagon) is almost equally impressive in 
its beauty, possessing the fairest characteristics of its parents, is not 
beyond the reach of the humblest cultivator, and can be grown in any 
garden. He who has excelsum, Martagon album, or longiflorum 
Harrisi need not envy the possessor of nepalense. 
It has been asserted by Sir Edwin Arnold in his “ Light of the 
World,” also by a graceful writer in a recent number of the Journal oj 
Horticulture., that the Scarlet Martagon was the Lily that was immortal¬ 
ised by Christ. As Sir Edwin, who has travelled much in the East, 
possesses an intensely reverential nature, and is manifestly an ardent 
lover of flowers, he may be reckoned an authority upon such a subject. 
This at least is absolutely certain, that the Scarlet Martagon grows and 
flowers profusely in the valleys of Syria, and especially in Palestine.— 
David R. Williamsoh. 
AMONG THE PEONIES. 
Numerous as are the many Lardy flowers which demand attention 
a place should be reserved for a few Pfeonies. During the early summer 
months no plants are more beautiful or produce a more striking effect; 
and yet it cannot be said that they are very largely grown. As a 
matter of fact they are not seen so often as they should be, and as their 
undoubted merits deserve. It is difficult to suggest the cause of this. 
It cannot be the culture, for no plants are easier to manage ; nor can 
it be expense, for they may be bought very cheaply at the present time, 
a dozen excellent varieties being procurable for an outlay of a few 
shillings. They require little or no attention after being planted save 
for a mulching of manure in the autumn if flowers of large size are 
desired. It is necessary, however, to afford them a deep rooting medium 
or they will never give the fullest satisfaction. , 
New varieties are constantly being introduced into this country by 
the various trade growers, and amongst these Messrs. Barr & Sons, King 
Street, Covent Garden and Long Ditton, must be given a high place, for 
it is to them, with others, to whom the credit of increasing the popu¬ 
larity of the Chinese Pseonies is due. Almost all the varieties are tried 
at their nurseries, and the plants in flower of both new and old varie¬ 
ties now number several hundreds. As may be imagined, they cover 
a very large area of ground, and very bright and cheerful they look as 
one passes on the railway on which the nurseries abut. Thousands of 
flowers may be seen from the train, all shades of colours, from pure 
white to the richest crimson being readily discernible. Let travellers 
take notice the next time they are journeying down the London and 
South-Western Railway from Waterloo on the left side a moment or two 
after passing Surbiton, and they may see for themselves. Or, better 
still, they might detrain there, and walk fifteen minutes for a closer 
inspection. They may be assured of a courteous welcome from 
Mr. William Barr, and will be amply repaid by the many beautiful 
flowers they will see ; not alone Paeonies, but also Spanish and other 
Irises, Violas, Alliums, and many others. 
