100 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 20, 18G0. 
Hermine (properly Hermione), Piutus, PioNono, Anaxo, 
and sucli middle-season flowers almost as large again as 
they were shown this week. Prince Albert was the best 
kind for a specimen plant there, and the most telling at a 
distance. Christine was the most variable in the shade 
of colour—some a rich pink, the best style of it, and 
some at other degrees of light, lighter, lightest; and there 
was an excellent buff-red new sport from it, named, too 
liberally, Golden Christine. 
Among the Pompones, Mrs. Dix and Golden Cedo Nulli 
were the two greatest strangers. The seedling plant of 
Mrs. Dix I described three years since from Mr. Salter’s 
collection ; it is a gem of a plant for a specimen, and the 
Golden is just as good as the old Cedo Nulli, which is 
this season deeply tipped in the centre, like as it comes 
in the open air. Helen (not Helene) and Duruflet should 
not be shown together in the same collection; both of 
them vary in their tints, and often look much alike. 
General Canrobert is the best yellow Pompone; but I 
think one called Ida, which I saw untrained at Mr. 
Bird’s, would tilt the Crimean hero. If you are buying 
from Mr. Bird just ask for this Ida, and prove the point 
for us all, as I have more than I can well manage. 
Mr. Wiggins is the best trainer in England of flat or 
squat Pompones ; he has attempted the upright move with 
the large kinds now for the first time, and is just as far 
from the mark. The pyramidal mode of training Pom¬ 
pones is by far the most telling way for a conservatory or 
show-house. Standard Pompones do not show so well at 
exhibitions as in a conservatory, where they are most 
useful, as they need take up no room. Mr. Williams, 
the in-door manager of the Crystal Palace, has lots of 
Pompone standards all over the crystal fountain basins 
without losing an inch of room by them ; but the beauty 
of them is to come. These standards will go on improv¬ 
ing for the first six or seven years, and last as many 
more after manhood. There was one standard from him 
of Bijou de l’Horticulteur two years old, two feet high 
in the stem, and two feet diameter of head, with blooms 
freer and finer than from a yearling. I had lots of 
standards of large and Pompone kinds as long as I had 
room for them, and for private use at least they were 
fully as good the third season as bush plants. All 
gardeners in the country want “ starers ” or standard 
flowering plants when they are “ setting ” their con¬ 
servatories, and this move is a good addition for them at 
a critical season. 
There were only two collections of pyramidal Pompones. 
One from Mr. J. E. Bennett, Carisbrook Villa, Tulse 
Hill; the other from Mr. Monk, gardener to C. J. Heath, 
Esq., Balham, who took the first prize. The best in the 
first of these were Golden Cedo Nulli, Duruflet (the 
best), and Helen: these three seem the best for training 
flat or any way. The best in the second collection were 
Bequiqui (very fine), Golden Cedo Nulli, and Helen 
again ; but Adonis and General Canrobert, though dwarf 
kinds, got up well. My rule for pyramids would be 
double the diameter to be the full height up to five feet, 
at which any diameter over three feet I would allow; but 
here I contemplate a handle of a few inches of bare stems 
at bottom, and the same framework of plant for years as 
with standards. 
The single-specimen class for Pompones was not quite 
so good as the collections, no “ specimen ” being better 
than any of the plants in Mr. Wiggins’ lot. 
Collections of six kinds of Pompones, single stems. Here 
is where the battle w'as fought: and Mr. Wiggins came 
out the victor and the champion of the day. He also 
placed his plants better for effect than ever he did— 
Adonis and Helen being at the extremes, Cedo Nulli and 
General Canrobert in their stalls, Dr. Bois Duval and 
Andromeda the same. Andromeda is a fine new sort to 
the shows—a sort of creamy colour after Comte Achille 
Vigier, which it will supplant: these were admirably 
done on the flat system of training. Mr. Weston, gar¬ 
dener to E. Martineau, Esq., Clapham Park, was next 
with smaller plants, and the names badly spelt, very bad 
—as Drine Drine for Drin Drin, Dr. boieis for Dr. Bois 
Duval, Ceodnella for Cedo Nulli—a disgrace to our 
calling, but he had the third prize. The second was won 
by Mr. Weston with Cedo Nulli, Helen, Drin Drin, La 
Vogue and Giraldo (a blush white). Nurseryman’s share 
of this run went to Mr. A. Eorsyth, Nursery, Stoke 
Newington, who had a fine plant of Mrs. Dix for the first 
time. Golden Cedo and Cedo Nulli, General Canrobert, 
Helen, and Duruflet—two which come too near to each 
other to be both seen in a six-plant collection in a family 
of sixty kinds and more to choose from. That finished 
the prizes on one side of the transept. 
_ In the centre of the open space stood, under a standard 
Camellia variegata in bloom, the first of the first class of 
six large Chrysanthemums, single stems ; and they were 
large and no mistake, splendidly grown and bloomed by 
the victor on the right—Mr. Wiggins. He ought to have 
had the five-guinea prize for such a fete, but "he spoiled 
them in the training. They might be said to be tied like 
a birch broom each of them, and he was only third best 
with the best plants—splendid kinds, as Princess Marie, 
(bundled up like a sheaf of Barley), Annie Salter, Cas¬ 
sandra (very good indeed), Cloth of Gold (not quite out, 
and no gardener in fifty can manage it so well), Christine 
(very good), and Aurora (a light buff). The first in this 
first class was Mr. David Hutt, Hackney Fields, and he 
did train his plants to some purpose. His Golden 
Christine, the newest, was a splendid evidence of the 
value of the kind ; Chevalier Dumage (one mass of golden 
yellow), Defiance, Voltaire (a red), Annie Salter, and 
another splendid new one, Dr. McLean—all trained to 
bloom from the edge of the pot, and all legitimately stood, 
each respectively, on one single leg or stem. Mr. George, 
gardener to J. Nicholson, Esq., Stamford Hill, was 
second with dwarfer plants, and, if anything, better 
training. His Prince Albert was a model of good gar¬ 
dening, good training, and good kind to work." What a 
glorious flower it is, and how dark ! But wait till you 
see Negro Boy done that way. Insigne (very fine), 
Aregina (which none of them spelled right, darker than 
usual), Vesta (remarkably well trained for effect, blos¬ 
soming below the rim of the pot), and Madame Camerson 
(as trim as of old, not having seen her madamship from 
home for the last fifteen years). In this same class Mr. 
Monk and Mr. Hook had each a fourth prize—a tie. Mr. 
Monk having excellent culture loosely set off, and Mr! 
Hook as trim and prim as a Poppy, with less ambition 
in his style of growth. Albin, Aurora, and Alfred 
Salter were the best in Mr. Monk’s. Mr. Hook had 
Golden Christine, a buff, however ; Christine itself very 
light; Queen of England, and Gem as his best. Mr. 
Eorsyth, of Stoke Newington, sent lots of sorts for 
furnishing, and not for competition : the best of them 
were Prince Albert, Defiance, and Aregina, rightly 
spelled at last. But his great luck was in a new sport 
lie had, for which lie got a prize. It was a strong, up¬ 
right plant of the light blush Trilby which turned to 
yellow, just as the Queen of England recently turned, 
and this will be as valuable a run from Trilby as the 
yellow was in respect to the Queen of England. Mr. Eor¬ 
syth was also the winner of the nurseryman’s first prize in 
the first class of six plants, and an extra one in the same. 
In the single-specimen-on-single-stem class there were 
five competitors, but their plants again were not finer or 
so fine as some in the collections ; the kinds were neither 
different, and need no telling. 
Let us turn to the grand contest of the day—the 
twenty-four cut blooms collection, and the collection of 
six cut kinds and six blooms of each of the kinds. The 
secrets of the craft come out there ; but as I promised to 
tell how Mr. Bird does them with hi 3 own consent, just 
learn that he took the first prize with the twenty-four cut 
blooms, and the first prize for the six times six blooms of 
