April 1. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION. 
S 
whom we claim consanguinity with old Argus himself, 
should have missed Standish’s Scarlet Ivy-leaf?” 
It may be as well to state the truth about this matter 
at once, and that is, that public writers are all but 
agreed that the public themselves are never sufficiently 
; wide awake ; and, therefore, if you want to press any 
I subject on public notiice you must advertise it over and 
| over, again and again ; and here is a practical illustra- 
I tion to the point. The Messrs. Standish and Noble ad¬ 
vertised the Scarlet ivy-leaf Geranium so industriously 
as to saturate the public mind, as it were ; whilst I, who 
had only occasion to mention it twice, although I spoke 
of it far more highly than ever they did, made no im¬ 
pression even on the minds of our very best gardeners, 
who are constantly on the look out, Argus-eyed, for all 
novelties for the flower-beds. Now, turn to page 290, of 
the 8th Vol. of The Cottage Gardener, —the volume 
for the summer of 1852,—and read that “ it was exhi¬ 
bited that summer at Chiswick, and at the Regent’s 
Park,"—that I thought it “ for some gardens, the best of 
the season;” and, farther, on the same page, that “I 
could not hear to whom the New Scarlet Ivy-leaf be¬ 
longed ; but having seen it twice, there can be no mis¬ 
take about it. It must be the most valuable seedling, or 
sport, for the terrace and geometric flower-garden that 
has been got these ten years;”—that is, in the section of 
Ivy-leafs. For we can never compare one Geranium with 
another from a different strain ; but“ Fortune favours the 
brave ;" and having been fortunate in that estimate of 
this Geranium, I shall now hazard a prediction on it. 
No one, in the United Kingdom, shall be able to raise 
a better seedling than this, in the same section, for the 
next ten years to come, unless the writer chooses to enter 
the lists! 
When I wrote my estimate of the Scarlet Ivy-leaf, in 
1852, I was as confident that it was not a seedling as 
I am at the present moment; but if I had so written, I 
should have injured the sale to no good purpose; and as 
the advertisers, like our great gardeners, over looked my 
description, I held my tongue and my pen free from it 
for the same reason. 
A good sport is just as good as a good seedling, and it 
may happen to be better than the best seedling of its 
class; but the public do not understand so much as that 
about novelties, and would rather pay more for a bad 
seedling than for a good sport. “A most valuable seed¬ 
ling, or sport,” would please both the public and the 
writer; they, for being put on the wrong scent, as to the 
origin of a really good bedding plant,—and lie, who 
ought to know better, thus insured the credit of the 
cloth by merely surmising the probability of a sport. 
That all may be as wise as the rest, some day or other, 
as far as seedlings and natural sports, or variations from 
a natural type, are in question, I have undertaken an 
experimental garden at last, which will hold 2,000 Gera¬ 
niums, and a proportionate number of all other bedding- 
plants to begin with. Here I shall go over all those 
hints, suggestions, and general rules, which have ap¬ 
peared, from time to time, in these pages, on the subject 
of crossing and constraining crosses to sport; and, in 
addition, 1 shall have an opportunity of proving auy 
new seedlings which may be sent to me for an impartial 
judgment; but I shall not undertake to raise seedlings, 
except of my own saving; and every seedling must be 
of a flowering age before I can take to it for experi¬ 
ments. As all this is only for my own amusement, and 
for the good of others, I cannot afford to be out of 
pocket by it; neither do I anticipate a single farthing to 
balance the account for or against me. I merely say, 
that I shall bo much obliged to all who will assist me to 
make up a collection to start with,—that as I have no 
pretension to the character of a florist, his class of 
flowers would be only lost upon me. 
Verbenas and Fuchsias we both claim and make use 
of; but, being on the strongest side, I can dispense with 
both of them; yet, when a real blue, or a yellow Verbena 
seedling appears, I should like to have the judging of it 
in reference to the flower-beds. A hundred, or a hun¬ 
dred and fifty baskets, or parcels, of plants in one season 
might cost me from twelve to twenty pounds in carriage, 
which would be paying dear for one's whistle, whereas, 
so many pence would suffice for private individuals. A 
couple of shillings would cover, or ought to cover, the 
expense of forty or fifty bedding Geraniums in carriage 
over 200 miles of rail, if the plants were shook out of j 
the earth, and the roots packed in a ball of damp moss, 
and their roots and top to be packed in one page of the 
Times, or any other newspaper of equal size. If you 
pack the bare roots of each Geranium in a ball of wet 
moss, as big as a cricket ball, then envelope the ball only 
in a faded Rhubarb-leaf, without a stalk, and put the 
whole plant and ball in three or four folds of a news- 1 
paper, tying top and bottom tight, I undertake to 
send 100 such packed Geraniums, in the months of 
April and May, in a strong wooden case, either to New 
York or Constantinople, by steamer, and I shall forfeit ! 
my claims to the experimental garden if every one of 
them does not arrive in the far east, or far west, as fresh 
as larks. So that if you should consider me daft, and 
the experimental garden a mad scheme, you have 
learned a secret between us which is known to very 
small number of your fellow subjects; but by that 
simple way of packing I have had Geraniums on the 
way for three weeks, which were as fresh as the day they 
were packed. In less time, however, we can now send 
and receive plants to and from all places in the kingdom 
with very little risk. Any thing addressed to me at 
“ Surbiton,near London ,” or “ near Kingston-on-Thames,” 
will reach me as regular as the post. 
In my next letter 1 shall name all the bedding Gera¬ 
niums that are mentioned in The Cottage Gardener, 
or other books; how I mean to use them; what other 
modes of arranging them in beds, different from the 
usual way, which have occurred to me, or have been 
suggested by others, since I left off growing them on a 
larger scale, and so on with most other bedding-plants ; 
so that, although you may take no interest in my ex¬ 
perimental garden, you will be very much accommodated 
by having all those lists collected into one place, or 
number, for ready reference, besides the chances of see¬ 
ing something worth imitation in the various distri¬ 
butions of them, which I shall suggest and put in 
practice if I am well supported. Meantime, as my 
present stock is more curious than useful, and is little 
calculated for a grand display, the experimental garden 
is fresh and open for whatever comes first to hand. 
Last year I mentioned a new Petunia, at one of the 
shows, which struck me would supplant my own seed¬ 
ling, the Shrubland Rose, but that is to be proved, and 
I should like to have a finger in the pio. It was exhi¬ 
bited at Chiswick by Mr. Westwood, of Acton, but I 
forget if I heard the name of it. I mentioned another 
magnificent new purple seedling Petunia, last year, from 
Mr. Walton’s garden, of which I long to see a bed. It 
was raised by Mr. Jackson, of Kingston, and I can have 
any plant he has for asking. The name is Lady Alice 
Peel; it is, unquestionably, the best pot Petunia we have. 
Mr. Walton’s old plant is now a real beauty, showing 
flower. I do not know a better White Petunia than the 
Shrubland White, as it was called by the gardeners at 
Kew, and Royal White at the Crystal Palace. Any other ! 
white, or purple, or Rose Petunia, will be welcomed for 
ray new undertaking; but all fancy shades are not to 
my taste at all for beds, therefore, my prejudice might 
tell against them, and I would rather have nothing to 
do with them ; but every shade in the seedlings of Del¬ 
phinium sinense I could manage to put in their proper 
places, after once seeing them in bloom together; and I 
