04 
the COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 
second to Mr. Williams, gardener to A. Fairlie, Esq., 
Liverpool, with a Black Jamaica, 4 lbs. 14 ozs.; and 
third to Mr. Bray, Sidmouth, for a Ripley Queen, 4 lbs. 
12 ozs., with lots and lots of commended ones. 
Grapes. —Mine were good, and all the rest were 
splendid or superexcellent. The first prize for Muscats 
(three bunches') was won by Mr. Drewett, gardener to 
Mrs. Cubitt, Denbies, Dorking (he is a new man to my 
notes). He won by the superior colouring of his Muscats. 
They were the finest-coloured Muscats I ever saw ex¬ 
hibited. The second prize to Mr. Hill, the well-known 
hero at Keele Hall Gardens, Staffordshire, belonging to 
R. Sneyd, Esq., author of the “ shot-silk bed.” If Mr. 
Hill had “touched” his Muscat to the same shade as 
Mr. Drewett we should have Sebastopol over again ; and 
the third prize for Muscats went to Mr. Little, gardener 
to A. Darby, Esq., Stoke Court, Slough. White Grapes 
not Muscats, three bunches, first prize to Mr. Fleming, 
of Trentham, with splendid bunches of Tokay; second 
to Mr. Drewett; and third to Mr. Tillyard, for a large 
grizzly kind of Grape I never saw before. Best three 
bunches of Black Hamburghs, first prize, Mr. Hill 
aforesaid, and some wag pqjjmy Grapes up close to these, 
the finest there, from the miscellany table ; second prize, 
Mr. Tillyard; and third, Mr. Snow. “ Other black kinds,” 
first, Mr. Hill again; second, Mr. Allport, gardener to 
H. Ackroyd, Esq., Doddington Park, Nantwich ; and 
third, Messrs. Lane, the great Rose growers of Berk- 
hampstead. It was in this class that Mr. Tillyard’s 
Mill Hill Hamburghs fell between two stools. His 
Mill Hills were just like his productions, and if he would 
save the seeds of a morphological berry in one of the 
bunches we should have Grapes from it which would 
beat the Surbiton Grapes from the open wall. Boxes or 
baskets of Grapes weighing fifteen pounds each, from 
market gardeners only, first prize to Mr. Davies, of 
Oak Hill, East Barnet; second to Mr. Sparry, of the 
Queen s Graperies, Brighton, who gets the blackest tint 
to his Hamburghs; and third, Mr. J. Bell, Thorpe, 
Norfolk, another well-known, first-rate grower. 
Peaches, single dish, first prize to Mr. Little, as 
above ; and second, Mr. Hill, ditto. Both dishes in per¬ 
fection for the table. 
Melons. —First prize, Mr. Watson, Ealing, with a 
highly-flavoured, greeu-fiosh, netted Melon, called Sey¬ 
mours Green Flesh; second, Mr Monro, gardener to 
Mrs. Oddie, Colney House, St. Alban’s; third, Mr. Frost, 
Preston Hall. Mr. Snow and Mr. Whiting had first 
and second prizes for Plums, and Mr. Snow prizes for 
Figs and Currants; Mr. Ingram and Mr. Tillyard for 
Aljrine Strawberries. Mr. Frost also had a prize for 
Currants; and Messrs. Mortimer, Browne, and Tillyard 
had first, second, and third prizes for Raspberries. Mr. 
Gaines, of Battersea, had the first prize for the new fruit 
Eugenia TJgni; Mr. Williams, from Liverpool, the 
second; and Mr. Elliott, gardener to S. G. Palmer, Esq., 
third. Mr. Robinson, gardener to Lord Boston, Hedsor, 
had the first prize for the Orange tribe. His pot plants 
were covered with ripe fruit. Mr. Elliott, gardener to 
Lord Uchester, second; and Mr. Lane, of Fulham, the 
third. 
There was a fine dish of the ripe fruit of the Bentha- 
mia fra gif era,' huge strawberry-looking fruit, from Mr. 
Cox, gardener to W. ‘Wells, Esq., Redleaf, Kent, 
j which was gathered from a standard in the open air— 
another proof of the extraordinarily fine season we have 
just gone through. Also, from the same, a beautiful 
dish of the Gape Gooseberry in their finely-bleached 
envelopes. This is Physalis edulis of botany. The seeds 
are sown early in the spring, and the plants are fruited 
in the greenhouse. 
There was a large glass of beautiful virgin honey from 
] one of Neighbour’s hives, and lots of other odds and 
) ends; hut the company squeezed one so at last that I 
, 1857. 
was glad to escape out of the hustle with the notes I had 
taken ; but if I think of anything else, or if I am put in 
mind of it, I shall consider the matter, and say just 
what I think. D. Beaton. 
HARDY SHRUB FORCING. 
Now that the fruit season has arrived nearly at its 
close, and little can be advised concerning it, I may, 
perhaps.be permitted to offer a few observations on some 
other matters pertaining to gardening. In doing so I 
may possibly have to cross the path of some of my 
coadjutors, but I count on their urbanity, which has 
been tolerably well tested for some years; and, moreover, 
be it understood, we are all guilty of this—horticultural 
poaching on our neighbour’s manor. And, indeed, it is 
well, perhaps, that it should be so ; for, seeing that all 
the writers on the staff of The Cottage Gardener are 
really practical men and persons of loDg experience, it 
lays in their power occasionally to throw extra light on 
each other’s observations, and this done with a due 
amount of courtesy all is well. 
The forcing of hardy shrubs is not carried out with so 
much alacrity in these times as in my younger days. I 
well remember that forty or fifty years since this hardy 
shrub forcing was one of the most important affairs for 
consideration in the month of November. And why? 
Simply because they had scarcely any flowers in those 
days which blossomed naturally in winter; but, as is 
now the case with the natives of Britain, the love of 
flowers did not cease even in the dormant season. There 
was still a hankering after them in defiance of snow 
storms and the ravages of King Frost—that imperious j 
monarch who attempts to bind in fetters the pets of the I 
vegetable kingdom. 
In those days to which I have adverted gardeners 
used to rush into the nurseries about the metropolis at 
the beginning of November to mark American shrubs 
for forcing, and to select Moss and Cabbage Roses for 
forcing purposes, and some other little things, in order 
to sustain a kind of plant house through the winter; 
and, although a little wide of my purpose, I may observe 
that there was a great demand for Asparagus roots and 
Sea-kale, in order to keep the cook in temper. 
But we have had such a splendid lot of things 
introduced during the last score years that flower 
naturally, or with little excitement, through the winter, 
tiiat we care much less about this shrub forcing; and, 
indeed, it is well so, for no man can force these hardy 
shrubs well at an early period without something like a 
special provision for them. But as there are those who 
still love to indulge in a forced Moss or Cabbage Rose, a 
hardy or American Azalea, &c., I will make bold to pro¬ 
ceed with my remarks. And first let me point to the 
names of a few of the families which stand foremost in 
this affair. I must place them in the order in which 
they occur to me. 
HARDY SHRUBS FOR FORCING. 
Roses, Moss and Provence; Azaleas, the American ; 
Lilacs; Mezereon ; Honeysuckle ; Sweet Brier ; Ribes 
sanguinea; Deutzias; Weigelas; Forsythias; Sedums; 
Andromedas ; Rhododendrons ; Kalmias, and Rhodoras. 
These are a lew of what used to constitute forcing mate¬ 
rials as to mere shrubs, and let me add that they still 
possess much interest. 
Now, in the first place, unless these shrubs have made 
a growth adapted to forcing purposes previously it is in I 
vain to expect a high degree of success. In order to I 
render the matter familiar to readers who do not under- | 
stand the formation of blossom buds in plants I will I 
put a case or two. Most are familiar with our hardy 1 
American Azaleas. They have seen bunches of these j 
