100 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 24. 
long while, but now we gardeners see plainly enough 
that it has fulfilled the ends proposed, and that there is 
no use nor reason for continuing prizes for single speci¬ 
mens at the present day, because every other plant all 
over the tents is a full and fair “ specimen plant;” then, 
if one plant is entitled to a prize, why not give single 
jdant prizes to one-half of the plants exhibited? Being 
an old gardener, well-known, and now having more time 
to spare than any gardener or nurseryman whatever, i 
have better means of collecting or receiving the opinions 
of our craft than most people would believe. Add to 
this, a free and independent spirit of the Rob Roy class, 
and you see how people of all opinions will trust me with 
their thoughts, although I constantly say, that I shall never 
keep a secret, if I think any good will come of telling 
it. All this is to show that it is not my own individual 
thoughts or impressions only that I often put forth in 
my writings, but rather the collective opinions or sug¬ 
gestions of many gardeners and amateurs; but to take 
the whole responsibility on myself, I write in the single 
personal pronoun, instead of the we. 
Well, then, on this footing, I think that the two great 
societies are entirely wrong in allowing duplicate speci¬ 
mens in the collections, both small and great, thus limit¬ 
ing the May, June, and July flowering plants to a mi¬ 
nimum, instead of endeavouring to increase the numbers 
as much as possible, in order that their country sub- 
i scribers should benefit as largely as possible by attending 
their exhibitions, to see as great a variety of plants as 
gardeners could manage to flower at the time, then they 
would be able to make good selections for their plant- 
houses in the country; thus the shows, the nursery 
trade, and the plant establishments all over the country 
would be benefited, and certainly there is no stint of 
medals or money to prevent all this and more besides 
being done. Instead of all this, however, we are doing 
exactly the reverse—encouraging purse-gardening on the 
one hand, and the easiest style of gardening on the other. 
Whoever has most money can put up the largest houses 
to grow plants in to an enormous size, and then the 
fewest plants and the easiest to grow will suffice to fill 
these houses, and win the prizes. If a. b. and c. represent 
three plants which require a great deal of judgment, 
care, and forethought, to grow and flower them well, and 
n. stand for another plant, which a cottage gardener 
could easily manage if he had room for it, an exhibitor 
is allowed to choose n, and put up three plants of it in 
one collection, and in one day, too, if he chooses, and a. 
b. and c. may go to the wall. They have excluded Cocks¬ 
combs for many years from these shows, aud so they 
ought; but I know there is more real merit, or real good 
gardening iu growing a Cockscomb to perfection, than in 
growing many of the plants iu the “ large collections." 
On the other hand, it is four to one more difficult to get 
up an Oleander to au exhibition trim, than a Stephanotis, 
or Alamanda , Ixora, Cyrtoceras, Franciscea, and Clero- 
dendron ; so an Oleander is never seen there, but the 
others are never absent, and they come in duplicates and 
triplicates almost at every show. I have even seen such 
common stuff as the pink Coleonema in duplicates, iu 
full collections, and that not long since; and after all 
this, the most difficult thing in the world is to win a first 
prize in these days, the societies having allowed exhi¬ 
bitors to grow the very commonest plants, and to put up 
as many of one sort as they like. It has come to this pass 
at last, that all the plants have equal merit; all the collec¬ 
tions the same; aud all the judges in the world can find 
nothing at all in the plants, or in the collections, to 
represent the differences which the different values of the 
medals would lead one to suppose. It is very likely, how¬ 
ever, that if we had had a fine day, and the garden had 
been full of people, gardeners would have found some 
better amusement than running over such things; aud 
I wish they would, for not one out of ten of them have any 
idea of the difficulty that is encountered in the private 
management of these large concerns. 
Rhododendrons. —The display made by these, under : 
an immense tent, without any sunlight, and under a 
torrent of rain, with only here and there two or three 
people moving slowly along, and owing to the judicious i 
way the place is laid out, the whole of this is seen under 
the eye from one or two points; I say, the display 
made, and the effect produced on the senses, was sin¬ 
gularly striking: it was like being in a dream, walking 
in a fairy laud, and conscious that it was only a dream, 
but still clinging to the idea of being awake ; it was, to 
me, melancholy grand. Everybody in the kingdom 
ought to see this tent of rhododendrons before they are 
out of flower, so 1 shall say no more of them now than, ! 
that some of the standards looked at a distance like I 
apple-trees covered with scarlet Nonpareils, and from j 
this size down to that of a sixpenny geranium, every 
other size, form, and colour peculiar to the family was 
to be seen in every group, or bed, or border, for they 
are all planted in the ground. 
There were a few specimens on a stand, by Mr. 
Standish himself, of the new Sikkim Rhododendrons, 
which are little more than two years old. One called 
Falconerii had the largest leaves, aud they looked as if 
made up of the leaves of the Chinese Medlar (Loquat) 
and an European Sorbus, with a whitish down on tlio 
under side. Niveum had the next largest leaves ; they 
were long, large, and leathery, with a white down 
beneath : if these had been shown without the plants, few 
gardeners would think them to be rhododendron leaves, 
while Argenteum, the third largest-leafed kind, could not 
be mistaken; the leaves of this have no down nor rust 
on the underside. Ciliatum, the one which flowered so 
early, and which I have mentioned as being exhibited 
in Regent Street, was the last on the stand; it belongs 
to the Azalea section of the rhododendron, and to the 
Chinese section of the azalea, and when all the Sikkim 
and other rhododendrons come to be collected into one 
place, I think they will be found to run in a natural 
and easy gradation from the tree rhododendrons, of JO 
to 40 feet high, down to Azalea amcena, which does not 
rise to half so many inches, and that some of each of 
all the sections will interbreed with each other, so that 
it cannot be said where the old rhododendrons end or 
the new azaleas begin. Of the Chinese azaleas at this 
show, decora, vivicans, and exquisita were the best. 
Tall cacti, as they are now called, have been very 
i sparingly brought out this season; only one collection, 
1 and that, I think, by Mr. Green, both here and at Chis¬ 
wick. The cactus called Epiphyllum crenatum , anybody 
might grow who can manage any of the old window 
sorts, and it gives the nearest idea of the night-blowing 
cactus of all the sorts requiring little skill to grow them. 
There were two kinds of crenatum in beautiful bloom 
here; the second one called crenatum grandifiorum, a 
I bad name by the way, as there is not the slightest dif- 
i ference iu the flowers, but the grandis of the thing is in 
the growth of the plant, which is much stronger, and 
more like some of the old flat-stemmed sorts than the 
true species ; it deserves extended cultivation. 
Pelargoniums. —I had another close survey of all 
that were exhibited, and those who prefer distinct 
colours, or shades, or well-marked soils, to the best 
florists’ flowers, will not be disappointed if they beg, 
borrow, or purchase from my selection, beginning with 
the highest-coloured ones. Basilisk, a new seedling, is 
the very best yet seen, call it number 1; Incomparable \ 
is next; 3, Prince of Orange ; and, 4, Salamander. 
Hoyle’s Magnet is as good as any of these, with the 
additional advantage of being a real florists’ flower. 
These five geraniums would break the usual sameness 
of geraniums in the largest conservatory in the country. 
Of whites, we had here three excellent ones; the best is 
