1874. ] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
185 
single-stemmed plants should be a most effective subject for table decoration, as 
well as for the ornamentation of plant-liouses. — T. Moore. 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
®he principal Horticultural event of the past month has been the Midland 
Counties^ Horticultural Exhibition^ which took place at the Lower Grounds, 
Aston, Birmingham, on the 7th of July and following days. The weather 
during the whole period was glorious, and the show being exceedingly 
good, large numbers of visitors, both professionals and pleasure-seekers, were drawn together 
on each successive day. The show was got up entirely by Mr. Quilter, at a risk of some 
' £2,500 for prizes and expenses, the whole of which we should hope, with a handsome margin 
of profit, was recouped, and we believe that such was the case. It was, however, a heavy 
undertaking for one person, being so entirely dependent upon fine weather for success, and 
Mr. Quilter will probably hesitate to incur the risk another season, unless supported by a 
considerable fund, subscribed by the townspeople. Perhaps it is not even desirable to hold 
so large a show annually, as the interest is apt to flag unless the display is extended year 
after year, and in this way such matters are apt to grow into unmanageable dimensions. It 
would probably be better to have, perhaps, a couple of smaller summer or autumn shows, 
just largo enough to keep up the general interest, and then to hold the larger show at inter¬ 
vals of three or five years, as may be thought best. In this way more variety would bo 
obtainable. On the present occasion, there was a grand display of the usual foliage and 
flowering plants to be seen at this season, including the summer-flowering varieties of 
Clematis in all their splendour; a magnificent show of Eoses, probably the best that had been 
held this year ; a good exhibition of fruit, including a grand array of pine-apples, and some 
marvellous grapes from Eastnor; and a very excellent show of vegetables. It was really a 
monster show, and good in most of its departments. 
- ®HE following Bedding Pansies, from tlie collection grown at Chis¬ 
wick, were approved by the Floral Committee of the Eoyal Horticultural Society, 
on the 15th ult., all excepting Chieftain (which received marks equal to a Second- 
class), receiving the equivalent of a First-class Certificate:—Dicksons’ Golden Gem, bright 
yellow with radiating eye ; Dicksons’ King, lilac-purple with dark eye; Dicksons’ Queen, 
white with dark eye ; the Tory, dark purple, with rich dark eye; and Chieftain, lilac-purple, 
with rich dark eye, all from Messrs. Dicksons and Co., of Edinburgh. Tyrian Prince, purple 
self; Imperial Blue Perfection, deep bluish-lilac; Blue Bell, small bluish-lilac, but very free; 
Lily White Tom Thumb, white with radiating eye; Miss Maitland, white with radiating eye ; 
and Mulberry, mulberry-pm-ple self, all from Mr. R. Dean, Ealing. 
- ®wo particularly effective beds of Evergreen Shrubs^ amongst many 
others planted a couple of years ago by Mr. Standish, in the very interesting 
Lower Grounds, Aston Park, Birmingham—a public garden, where Mr. Quilter’s 
most successful essay in spring gardening finds its tens of thousands of admirers—were the 
Retinospora Jilifera and Retinospora leptoclada. Like all the other Retinosporas, both these 
plants are perfectly hardy; the first, with its thong-like branches arching out on all sides, 
and the latter, with its dense little cones of the deepest green, produced two of the most 
charmingly effective groups we have ever seen. They are evidently capital subjects for a 
garden or parterre of evergreens, and in situations where they will thrive as well as they do 
in this suburb of Birmingham are much to be recommended. 
- ^HE Red Valerian, Centranthus ruber^ is at this season an object of 
great beauty along tbe cbalk cuttings of tbe North Kent Railway, near Greenhithe 
and Northfleet. The growth is very dense, and the patches of colour remarkably 
striking, the old rosy-red fonn having mingled with it a bright crimson variety, much darker 
in hue than is generally seen in gardens, and well worthy of being cultivated as a border 
plant. 
- ®HE so-called Double-Jloivered Poinsettia may shortly be expected to 
be seen in this country. The dried specimens show this to be a very splendid 
R 
