130 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 25. 
an early hour, to have a long ride to the train by which 
a friend and I purposed going to Northampton. The 
crops everywhere were looking beautiful after the rains, 
and many a pretty gem of a garden by the way-side, 
told most emphatically that happiness and peace would 
reign in those homes, where so much industry, associated 
j with the useful, the orderly, and the beautiful, were 
i manifest without. Erom the people I saw employed 
1 before six in the morning, and the traces of fresh labour 
j existing, it was evident that many had been doing a 
j little to their gardens before they went to their usual 
| avocations. I have met with several employers of labour 
\ who objected to their work people having large gardens 
j on this very account, because they wasted their physical 
j energies on their own ground, and were unable to work 
| properly for them. No doubt, when labourers obtain 
large allotments, more than they and their families can 
cultivate in their own time, there may, at certain sea¬ 
sons, be some reason for this complaint. So far as my 
own experience is concerned, I have never met with an 
instance. I know what even a wearied man is capable 
of doiug, when, after a little rest and refreshment, he is 
conscious he is working wholly for the benefit of himself 
and family, the man most diligent in his garden at 
home is just the man I would place the greatest de- 
pendance upon in every emergency, and for general 
trustworthiness. Judging from the past, I knew that 
many at Northampton would be astir at an early hour 
that morning. Having “fore-gathered” with our friend, 
Mr. Appleby, and other gardeners, we were enabled to 
compare notes on passing events, and chiefly on the late 
disastrous frosts. 
It is not my purpose to enter into the minutiae of the 
exhibition, or to give those details of objects and prizes 
which are generally fully chronicled in the local papers, 
but merely to mention a few salient points, interspersed 
with remarks likely to be generally useful. 
the Show, as a whole, was a good one. If there were 
but few articles that were wondrously superior, there 
was scarcely an object in the place that was not worthy 
of standing on an exhibition table. I was sorry to find 
that some of the largest and oldest exhibitors were not 
present, but glad to perceive several new ones coming 
out in great force, such as Mr. Brown, gardener to Sir 
C.Knightley. The prizes seemed to be more than usually 
well divided, and that made exhibitors better satisfied. 
Ihis was nothing owing to the discrimination of the 
judges, but to the salutary practice of exhibiting in 
quality rather than quantity. A man who would be 
first or nothing, now sees there is more honour in being 
first in a four or an eight, than nowhere in a twelve or 
sixteen pot. The consequence is, that the prizes, and 
the satisfaction they bring, are more equally divided. 
Plants. —Among a nice lot of plants, exhibited by 
Mr. Jeyes, nurseryman, were two compact specimens of 
Medinilla magnijica, which I understood were not des¬ 
tined to return to their former quarters. It is seldom 
that country nurserymen can afford room to grow speci¬ 
mens for exhibition. If a certain number of plants are 
shown, judges must treat them according to their real 
and relative merit. The success of country exhibitions 
is, however, greatly dependant on the efforts of nursery¬ 
men, and gaps in an exhibition could be easily filled up 
from their resources. In this close-cutting age, nursery¬ 
men cannot be expected to continue such a practice if it 
terminates in all trouble and no grist. Societies should 
see that their kindness be repaid in something more 
substantial than small prizes. 
Among private growers, the chief contest was between 
Messrs. Mackie, Gardiner, and Brown, who were in turns 
victor and vanquished. Many of the Azaleas, such as 
| variegata of Mr. Mackie, and lateritia and variegata of 
| Mr. Gardiner, were beautiful specimens. Climbers and 
| twiners were arranged in trellises, where a monotonous 
outline was broken, and the frame-work hid from view. 
With one or two exceptions, there was not a plant in 
the room that showed that the cultivator had any faith 
in the beauty of a forest of sticks, however white and 
nicely whittled. 
In Cinerarias, Messrs.' Gardiner and Mackey were 
again alone. The plants were compact and well grown, j 
Some said they were superb; to our fancy, they wanted 
the brilliant massive effect this tribe presented two or j 
three years ago. Perhaps distance has lent to my eye a ' 
magnifying glass, as well as “ enchantment to the view;” j 
or, it may be, that since then, other folks have reached j 
the Northampton standard. At that period, the finest ! 
shown about London were but pigmies in proportion. 
The prettiest things exhibited were Bessy, Rosalind, \ 
Loveliness, Fair Ellen, Estella, Marianne, and Prince 
Arthur. The latter is a beautiful self, but producing 
its blooms too thrifty for a good exhibition flower. 
Altogether, I do not think the Cineraria is getting im¬ 
proved for decorative purposes. What is gained in new j 
varieties in symmetry of petal, seems often counter- j 
balanced by a diminution in general massiveness and j 
robustness. 
A similar remark applies to Calceolarias. I used 
to grow and raise well-formed flowers. I can now 
get nothing up to the old standard. Mr. Kinghorn 
seems to have reached the heights of perfection in this 
flower. Even from seeds saved from beautiful kinds it 
is very common to obtain seedlings on which a florist’s 
eye would not for a moment linger. After a certain 
refinement, there seems either a tendency to revert to 
the original type, or a debility becomes the attendant of 
that refinement. On the present occasion, three groups 
were shown, none of them, in point of form, up to the 
old standard. Mr. Brown, however, exhibited a pretty 
collection, distinguished for large, beautifully-marked 
and spotted flowers—dwarf, robust, and compact in 
habit, with foliage as healthy as that of an out door 
Cabbage. With patience and perseverance, superiority 
in form may be added to the other desirable qualities; 
but, just as they are, such pretty, marked, large blooms, 
joined to a robust, compact habit of plant, will ever be 
desirable acquisitions for the greenhouse, where not one 
in twenty ever stops to examine a flower critically with 
a florist’s eye. 
There was one peculiar feature among plants that 
created great zest here among exhibitors and visitors, 
namely, the three best pots of Mignonette in bloom. 
Among a number of competitors, the chief contest was 
between Messrs. Mackie and Gardiner; the latter gentle¬ 
man being something like a week behind his rival, 
though grown equally well. Do not imagine that the 
ladies linger over pots some six inches in diameter; 
these pots are above, or somewhere about, a foot in dia¬ 
meter; and the mass of bloom high in proportion to its 
width, was, in some of the pots, more than thirty inches 
across. In fact, each pot plunged would have made a 
nice little bed of that general favourite. It requires no 
little care to produce such specimens in the beginning 
of May. If desired, I have no doubt but either of these 
gentlemen would, as heretofore, transmit the outlines of 
their treatment for this work. I have understood, that 
the seed is sown in small pots in August; and then 
several of these are transferred to a large one in March. 
To those who did not know all about it, so symmetrical 
was the whole, that each mass might be taken for a 
single plant. I am doubtful if, upon the whole, this 
massing system, howover effective, such as that now 
generally practised with Achimencs, &c., shows the 
relative claims of superior culture so well, as where not 
more than one plant of any thing is exhibited in a 
single pot. 
Perhaps, two of the most beautiful plants in the room 
were two Azaleas, dwarf and compact, looking like j 
