December 12. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
in a soil tolerably moist at the first, and instantly j 
plunged over-head in damp coal-ashes—than which 
nothing is better—they will scarcely require a drop of 
water until the pot is three parts full of fibres; indeed, 
none until they are introduced to heat; but the pots 
out-of-doors must be covered nearly six inches deep in 
the ashes. 
When in blossom, or opening, they require liberal 
waterings, and enjoy weak and clear liquid-manure ; and 
care must be taken to apply as much water as will fairly 
moisten the soil all through. 
The Narcissi consume much water, especially when 
three in a pot, as they ought to be. Crocuses, also; i 
and, since the latter have been brought to such a high 
degree of excellence, they form—simple as they are— 
an excellent adjunct to decorative flowers in the dreary 
months of December and January. 
R. Errington. j 
MEETING OF THE HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY.— December 5th. 
Although a rough, windy morning, and a wet after- 
noon, yet the room was pretty full of visitors ; the large 
and small Chrysanthemums made the greatest show of 
flowers; but there were some very good grown plants 
' on the table, and some interesting modes of training, 
and the ne plus ultra pots of China-ware and crystal- 
glass. We can now grow our pet plauts for the mantle- 
piece in glass tumblers, or in glass anything, with an 
escape-hole in the bottom, after the manner of the old 
garden pots. 
Magnificent Grapes, very good Pine-Apples, and j 
good dessert Apples; most noble Pears, and plenty of: 
them, and Pears which w r ere not worth looking at. I j 
shall not mention names to-day, but I must remark, 
that people should not attempt to send Pears to London 
until they have learned the art of packing them. A 
poor widow woman, who keeps an “ Apple-stall” at the 
corner of Grub-street, might be excused for a little 
bruise, here and there, on her fruit; but if she were to 
take, as a gift, nine-tenths of the Pears and Apples 
which were sent to the first Meeting of the Pomological 
Society, and full fifty kinds of Pears at our meeting, to¬ 
day, from one county, the police would take her to “ the 
station” for vending unwholesome fruit. 
I often think it is “ hard fate” not to tell a man, who 
may be hundreds of miles off, why his things did not 
get a prize at this or that show, or meeting; and a great 
deal of misunderstanding and ill-feoling, to my own 
knowledge, are thus engendered aud kept alive against 
Pomological and Metropolitan Societies for the en¬ 
couragement of garden pursuits. Beautiful Pears, and 
delicious, no doubt, if one could stomach them, were so 
knocked about in their travels, through bad packing, 
that they looked black and blue and bruised, and fit for 
I nothing else than the hog-tub; their owner, all the while, ! 
expecting to hear of a prize for them by the next post. 
Then, because the prize never came, nor the reason why, 
the exhibitor brews and broods, at home; tales and tattles 
supply the yeast; and fermentation, sooner or later, boils 
over the heads and ears of the Pomological, the Horti¬ 
cultural, and the Floricultural Societies ; and all this, for 
the want of telling him, in plain English, that his 
plants, or fruits, were not packed right. Good packing 
is as difficult to learn as good gardening; and bad 
, packing spoils good gardening, good tempers, and turns 
reporters into critics, at the risk of displeasing both 
parties. If I had been a good packer, I should have 
joined the Pomological at once, and teach people the 
art as well as I could. As it is, however, all I can do is 
to tell the truth, not caring how it may tell for the 
present moment. 
197 
Pompone - Chrysanthemums. — I shall begin with 
them, as they were the prettiest. I have a large dish of cut 
flowers of many kinds now on the table. They are 
stuck in wet sand, and look extremely nice: some on 
long stalks, some on short, and some" on middle-sized 
stalks. The shortest stalk is four inches long ; two of 
which are out of the sand. I am thus particular, be¬ 
cause I believe this is the best way to show them off in 
cut flowers; and I have only to shake the table, as 
gently as I choose, and they are all on the move, like 
painted fairies—and such beauties ! They did not appear 
to me to be half so gay in the room in Regent Street, 
and on the plants. Some of them are as fickle as French 
fairies in their shades of colour—now of this tint, and 
then of that—peach, pink, French-white, blush-white, 
and white all over, are some of the degrees in the virgin 
class; while brown-stout, snuffy-brown, foxy-brown, 
buff, fallow-buff, huffish, and real buff, with lemon, 
orange, and citron yellows, and yellows of no name, up 
to canary and fawn-yellow, run through the buff and 
yellow sorts, at different stages of the same flower ; and 
also according to the ways a given kind may have been 
grown. I had to learn all this, as well as the names, 
this autumn. 
Before Pompones were introduced into the eastern 
counties, I was turning inside-out of the garden, and 
so missed them on their first appearance. It was not 
till this season that I could devote the necessary time 
for studying them properly. I have now eighteen of 
the best sorts for myself: but I shall call mine Michael¬ 
mas Daisies. The only good Catalogue I have of them, 
where they are well described, is that of 1853, by 
Edward G. Henderson and Son, Wellington Road 
Nursery, St. John’s Wood, London. This is a carefully 
got up catalogue, in which the foreign names are pro¬ 
perly spelled—a great treat to us here, as the foreign 
florists’ names are much more difficult to know, what 
they are, or what they mean, than the language of 
botany. From these sources, and from my nearness to 
London, where one can see them everyday of the season, 
I am now well up in the fancy; and having taken a great 
fancy to them myself, I want to inoculate the taste to 
the farthest extremities of the three kingdoms, and as 
far beyond as we can push it. 
The first prize for Pompones was taken by Mr. Robert¬ 
son, gardener to J. Simpson, Esq., Thames Bank, 
Pimlico, and Surbiton; for we get all the best men from 
London to come down here. Mr. Robertson had eight 
or nine Pompones, and two large kinds.— Annie Salter, 
the best of all the yellows, and Fleur de Marie, tho 
clearest white of those called Anemone-flowered. This 
kind requires good management to fill up well in the 
centre, and keep off the bull’s eye; but nothing of tho I 
sort was to be seen in these flowers. His Pompones 
were Ashmodee, a reddish-brown outside, and the centre 
opening of a clear yellow. Bijou de l'Horticulteur, a 
fine, large, creamy-white flower, with a tinge of blush 
all over it. Colobri, (but is it not Colibri ?) a very fine 
large trusser, showing four full blooms in each head; 
orange-buff round the outside, and the centre a good 
brown-yellow; this flower is now in my baud, as are all 
the rest of them before me. Daphne, a dark purple, 
with a tassel of quilled flowerets in the eye; a fine 
kind. Drine Drine, another large trusser, having four 
or five blooms in a head, and all of the clearest lemon- 
yellow; a capital sort, and keeps a long time in perfec¬ 
tion. La Gitana, a changeable kind ; nearly pure white, 
when full blown; but at first opening, and at dying off, 
it has a blush tinge all over it. My own flowers of it, 
from the open air, are regularly tipped with cherry. 
Model, another changeable kind, white and blush. 
Nelly, a still more changeable kind, and varies much 
in the shape of the flower as well. I have it as 
round as a Bachelor’s Button, and as flat and large 
