THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 9, 1858. 
351 
the same plan should not be adopted here, instead of 
complaining that the garden gets ruined from gar¬ 
deners changing so often ? Can it be, for a moment, 
maintained, that a single servant is more steady, more 
faithful, and more industrious, than a married one P 
One word more. If a suitable house be provided 
for the gardener, let it be looked upon, in every sense, 
as his house. The humblest man, whilst he occupies 
a house, wishes to look upon every thing enshrined 
within it, with the security of a castle. Many em¬ 
ployers feel a pleasure in calling, now and then, at 
their gardener’s house. Such kindness and civilities 
are seldom unappreciated. I have seen the highest of 
our aristocracy ringing or knocking at their gardener’s 
door, with as much ceremony as if they were calling 
on one of the same rank as themselves. This is just 
what ought to be. It did not lower the dignity of the 
Earl or the Peeress, but it clustered around them, a 
warmer respect, a deeper-felt gratitude, a heartier 
“ God bless them,” from their humble inferiors. Some, 
from want of thought, may, very likely, from the kind 
desire not to give trouble, open the latch and walk in 
without announcement. The embarrassed air, the 
deep blushes of a young housewife, will render com¬ 
ment needless. 
Another word still. When I thus speak of the 
unsuitableness of making a gardener an in-door ser¬ 
vant, I have not the remotest desire to depreciate, in 
the least, the very many intelligent and amiable per¬ 
sons who are the general in-door servants in a gentle¬ 
man’s establishment. Besides several other reasons, 
the sphere of their duties, and that of the gardener, 
is quite distinct,and without the least reflection on 
them, I have long held the opinion, that the place of 
their abode should likewise be separate. R. Fish. 
THE GROVE, 
THE RESIDENCE OF H. MICHOLLS*, ESQ. 
There are, in the neighbourhood of Manchester, 
several gentlemen who have taste and spirit enough 
to induce them to cultivate plants, in such a style, as 
would not disgrace the best growers round London ; 
and, amongst them, the gentleman, whose name is at 
the head of this paper, stands in the first rank. 
I had the pleasure of visiting the Grove in the 
beginning of last month ; and the fact of my being 
connected with The Cottage Gardener, caused me 
to receive a welcome and hospitable reception by this 
ardent lover of plants. I was certainly gratified, I 
may say proud, to find that our Cottage Gardener 
is valued, and read, and its precepts are practised, by 
so many growers of plants in this part of the kingdom, 
showing that our pleasant, earnest endeavours to ad¬ 
vance the sciences of horticulture and floriculture are 
appreciated and adopted. It behoves our staff to 
exert ourselves, more and more, to keep up the interest 
and usefulness of our periodical, in order that the 
knowledge of the best principles of gardening may be 
more spread, and the taste for its delightful and in¬ 
nocent pursuits extended. 
Though out-door gardens, at this time of the year, 
are not very attractive, excepting so far as they arc 
kept in neat order, and due preparation made for 
summer display, yet hothouses and greenhouses are 
as interesting, and, perhaps, more so, in winter than 
in summer, from the great and delightful contrast 
exhibited therein as compared with the scene out of 
doors. 
The Grove is situated within the reach of the smoke 
of Manchester, being only a mile and a half from the 
Exchange; yet the plants in the house are as well 
grown, and as healthy as others more happily situated, 
showing what good cultivation will effect under ad¬ 
verse circumstances. The head-gardener, Mr. Evans, 
is up to the mark in culture; his plants will bear 
comparison with anybodys, and are worthy of in¬ 
spection. The place is easily come-at-able: omni- ; 
buses run almost constantly from the Exchange, up 
the Oxford Road, past the place ; so that it is easily 
reached. 
Having jotted down these few preliminary remarks, 
I now open my note-book, to give our readers some 
idea of the manner and extent in which the plants are 
grown, and also give any new, or little known, mode 
by which they are arranged and managed. 
The conservatory, in which the grand display of 
plants in flower is shown, I entered from the drawing¬ 
room, to which it very properly adjoins, and thus can 
be visited at all hours. It is a greenhouse conserva- ; 
tory, but kept rather warm. When I saw it, the centre 
stage was filled with Camellias in full bloom. Every 
plant was as healthy as possible ; they were so trained, 
or, rather, I may say, pruned, that each plant was in 
the pyramidal form; and they were so placed that 
each plant could be distinctly seen : hence their j 
breathing space for every leaf to perform its functions. 
This is an important point in culture for all plants; 
for if plants are crowded, so that the lower leaves are 
shaded, they, the leaves, will, for want of light and 
air, infallibly turn yellow, and drop off; and the con¬ 
sequence will be long-legged, unsightly objects, com¬ 
mon enough where plants are crowded. Therefore, 
all plants ought to he so placed that no plant touches 
its neighbour. 
This house is a plain span-roofed one, of a fair size, 
and very enjoyable. I noted'a peculiarity about the 
climbers on the roof; they are grown in large pots, 
placed on the platform on each side of the house. By 
being in pots, they can be removed when out of flower, 
and others substituted in their place; and also their 
being in pots has a tendency to reduce that rampant 
growth which many climbers attain when planted in 
a border — a growth that often is so great, that the 
climbers shade the house so much as to materially 
injure the plants below. At this time the creepers 
are nearly all Acacias, and are showing great num¬ 
bers of flowers : the species are Acacia ajjinis, A. longi- 
folia, A. juniperina, A. longissima, and A. puhescens ; 
the finest of all, A. argyrophylla, A. hybrida. (raised 
in the Manchester Botanic Gardens), A. vestita, and 
A. verticillata. Several stove plants in bloom are 
placed at the warmest end of this house, and added 
considerably to the effect. 
From this conservatory we visited the stove. Here 
I saw some good Francisceas in bloom, and a good 
specimen of the best species, namely, F. confertiflora; 
also four fine specimens of Phaius grandifolius, with 
upwards of a dozen spikes on each plant. This is a 
very useful winter-blooming terrestrial Orchid, and 
may be grown in any stove. On the roof there is 
a fine specimen of that elegant creeper, the Hexacen- 
tris mysoriensis, with numerous spikes hanging down 
of its curious, handsome Orchid-like flowers. It is 
arown in a large pot; and it was remarked, that in 
order to cause it to bloom freely, it must not be pruned 
at all, but allowed to grow wild, only keeping it trained 
near to the roof. In the centre of this house there is 
a wide pit, filled with tan: in that the Ixoras are 
plunged ; thus giving them bottom as well as top 
heat. I saw several good bushy, healthy plants of 
Ixora coccinea, the very best of the whole genus ; also 
I. crocata and I.javanica. These will be very splen¬ 
did, for they are showing abundance of bloom. I 
noted that the knife and the thumb and finger had 
been freely used, from an early stage of growth, to 
cause branches to break forth, and so keep them 
