1874 .] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
209 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
T the Royal Botanic Society’’s Evening Fete^ on July 8, Mr. W. Paul supplied 
a novel exhibition of Cut Boses, which may possibly be utilised at future 
exhibitions. The idea, which was successfully carried out, was to show 
the effect of groups of beds of Roses on grass, with due attention to 
harmony of colours. In most cases each bed was occupied with one variety only, but beds of 
mixed colours were occasionally introduced for the sake of variety. In some groups strong 
contrasts were arrived at, in others harmony of colouring, shade softening into shade. The 
flowers were placed in short stone bottles, in which the flowers were loosely arranged with 
buds and leaves as they grow naturally on the bushes. The extent and completeness of the 
arrangement may be .surmised from the fact that about 6,000 trusses of flowers were used. 
The varieties employed were those best suited for planting in masses, such as General 
Jacqueminot, Firebrand, Madame Victor Verdier, crimson; Marquise de Castellano, Peach 
Blossom, Mademoiselle Th^r^se Levet, ro.se-coloured ; Madame Plantier, and Mrs. Bosanquet, 
white; Madame Falcot, yellow ; and most of the leading Roses, new and old, of every colour 
and shade. The plan, we understand, was furnished by Mr. .John Gibsou, juu. 
- ®HE Gardeners’ Chronicle gives its usual reports on the Condition of the 
Fruit Crops, from which we learn that Apricots have yielded generally an average 
crop, though the fruit has been small; Apples have furnished a moderate and partial 
crop, good in sheltered places; Pears are, generally speaking, plentiful; Plums have yielded 
a good average crop ; Strawberries were plentiful, but owing to the hot weather at the time 
they were in season, they were soon over ; (7Ae?'rtes furnished an average supply, and Morellos 
a plentiful one; Peaches and Nectarines, speaking generally, have ripened fairly well, and in 
places are abundant; Figs are generally scanty; Small Fruits, including Raspberries and 
White and Red Currants, have been plentiful; but Black Currants have been deficient, and 
the bushes have suffered severely from insects. Nuts of all kinds are below the average. 
The cold weather in March was followed by a period of unwonted heat, during which fruit- 
trees made great progress ; but in May, and even in June, late frosts occurred, which did 
much damage to some things, leaving others unaffected, probably because the fruit was well set. 
- ^HE returns of the Potato Crop, published in the same paper, show that 
there is a good average crop, and very little disease. The tubers are often small 
and in some cases are grown out or ‘ super-tuberated,’ but taken as a whole the 
crop is a good one, especially in Ireland. 
- ^ purple variety of Clematis Flammula, which it is proposed to dis¬ 
tinguish by the name of C. Flammula roseo-purpurea, has been raised by Mr. G. 
Jackman. Several plants have been observed in a bed of transplanted seedlings 
of the sweet-scented Clematis, which had been raised from seeds ripened in contiguity to 
plants of some of the pm*ple-flowered forms of C. Viticella. The novelty has, indeed, 
quite the appearance of being an accidental hybrid between C. Flanmmla and C. Viticella, 
though in regard to free vigorous habit of growth, abundance of flowering, and strongly- 
marked Hawthorn-like fragrance, it partakes moskstrongly of its mother-parent, flowering 
also at the same season—from the middle of July onwards. This will be a fine acquisition 
amongst hardy climbers, and will be welcomed, not only for its well-marked purple colour, 
but also for its delicious perfume. It is quite unlike the fragrant C. coerulea odorata both 
in habit and flowers, being a true Flammula in its growth and leafage. 
- JTew annuals are better worth growing than the beautiful hardy Chilian 
Salpiglossis, a plant which is unquestionably in the front rank of the aristocracy 
of hardy annuals, the large, handsomely-marked flowers, representing hues quite 
fantastic in character, from a creamy-white to a black-blue and purple. A large bed of this 
fine annual is always one of the features of Chiswick during summer. The seed is sown in 
March in the open ground, and all that is needed is a little thinning-out where the plants are 
thick, and the pulling out of inferior types if they present themselves. During August the 
bed is a mass of bloom. 
T 
