110 
THE COTTAGE 
GAR DENE 11 AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S 
COMPANION, November 16, 
1850. 
Europe,—a double white Chinese Primrose, one yard 
iu diameter all but two inches: I had it measured on 
purpose. It is in a No. 6 pot, and there are twelve 
plants of the same batch, the smallest of them being 
just twenty inches in diameter. Mr. Jacksons people 
! were so ashamed of the bad accounts I gave of the 
London growers of this plant, that they resolved, on the 
spot, I should eat lmmble-pie ; but you see what a ham¬ 
mering does. I never scold, well knowing that those 
who do know very little of human nature; hut, throw 
chaffin their eyes, and hammer their ears, and, depend 
upon it, they will grow Balsams for the Crystal Palace 
as big as the Kingston Chinese Primroses which are 
kept for cut-blooms, and for stock plants to get cuttings 
from, this Nursery being celebrated for them. There is 
a great demand for this one article. As I spend a good 
deal of my time in this house, I can tell the mysteries 
of it another day. 
No. 8 is the soft propagating-house. Here all the soft- 
wooded plants are propagated over tanks of hot water. 
The last hatch of bedding-stuff cuttings were put in six 
weeks later than we recommend in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener ; but then the propagators have little else to do 
j but to attend to them. No more cuttings are made of 
them here till the turn of the new year, unless it be a 
rare plant, or one of which they are nearly run out. 
They say The Cottage Gardener made such havoc 
on their Lobelia speciosa that they cannot lose one day 
) or a single night with it this whole winter. Another 
j late batch of bedders were all in 00-pots, plunged in cold 
tan in frames, and quite close to the glass. These were 
put in at the beginning of October, and consisted chiefly 
of Calceolarias, eight or ten cuttings in a large 60-pot; 
Verbenas, more ditto; Lobelias, more; Ageratums, not 
quite so many; Gaillardias, ditto; Phloxes, about ten 
cuttings in a 60-pot; Antirrhinums, some more; Tro- 
pceolums, more and less, according to sorts; Petunias, 
about the average of tenor twelve; Gazania uniflora, 
not so many; Heliotropes, ditto; and out of some 
thousands here was hardly a dead one to be seen. 
This batch will he wintered in-doors. Enormous 
numbers of cuttings of single Camellias are put in here 
for stocks, and they hardly lose one out of a thou¬ 
sand. They are in 32-pots, and in sandy loam and 
peat, with a surface of sand in the usual way. The 
time for making the cuttings is the middle of September. 
The mode is to keep them quite close in cold frames, 
shaded from the sun till the middle of December, or 
later, if the frost does not come too hard. 
The next turn is into the moist propagating-house, 
and the next into single pots. All kinds of Chinese 
Azaleas , including the yellow Sinensis, go in for it with 
these Camellias. Many kinds of free Roses, ditto, and 
all Roses if the propagator chose. 
Now, who would be a plenipotentiary after all these 
secrets? or who could believe that my life would be 
worth insuring after telling them ? But I have a secret; 
I can put a spell on them and wait awhile ; and after 
all this you will hear of the Londoners actually opening 
their glasses for me, or rather, for you, in the midst of 
hard frost and snow, as well as in shiny weather. 
No. 9 is a lean-to Azalea house, full of line-made 
specimen plants of all the best kinds of the Chinese 
breed. The criterion for good condition at this season 
is brown leaves, indicating a superior degree of ripeness, 
j and a hard, knotty point to each shoot, telling of a 
; sound, solid, sterling flower-bud. How do your small- 
; leaved Azaleas look this season? 
No. 10 is a large, wide, lean-to Heath house, full of 
specimen plants, all but the front stage of such as 
1 Massonias, Tricolors, Aristatas, Eleganses, Depressas, 
i Cavendishes, and such honourable and honoured names. 
One plant of Triumphans is a tremendous, strong, 
healthy specimen. On the front stage an assortment of 
all the best kinds in equal proportions, not too many of 
one kind and too few of another; but the great stock of 
young Heaths, Epacrises, Azaleas, and other hard- 
wooded plants of like nature, are wintered in long ranges \ 
of cold pits, without any means of heating, but chiefly 
covered with fern. The sides of all the pits here have 
eighteen inches of fern permanently kept round them. A 
large stock of Sikkim Rhododendrons is also kept in such I 
pits, with the very best kinds of evergreen Berberis, as 
Trifurca, Bealii, Japonica, very fine, with all that race 
of them. 
There are Wellingtonias very fine, in very large pots ; 
Araucaria excelsa, Pinus Jejfreyi, and Benthamiana ; 
Thuja gigantea, and an improved form of Pinus insignis, 
with longer leaves and better looks. It is called Radiata, 
and is considered a species by some. Cupressus Macna- 
biana and Laxvsonii, yellow Rhododendrons, and yellow 
Indian or Chinese Azaleas, and the variegated form of 
Pittosporum Tobira, which ought to be better known. 
No. 11 is a very large lean-to house, full of the new i 
French spotted Pelargoniums, variegated bedders, and 
fancy bedders of all kinds; but I must have a whole 
day for this house after getting over the push in London. 
Suffice it to say that here, as at the Wellington Road 
Nursery, and at Clapton Nursery, I was told this was an 
excellent strain for the trade ; that they sold ten French 
Geraniums for every English Pelargonium; that Tom j 
Thumbs and all the scarlet breeds would pay to be 
grown into specimens, or large regular plants; in fact, 
they “ grew into money,” while English Pelargoniums j 
would “eat their heads off'” if they could not be sold 
the first season. There is a variegated new Geranium 
here, which Mr. George Jackson picked up on his 
travels, which belongs to the Nosegay class, aud is the 
best of them in variegation, and the finest grower of 
all that strain. Provisionally it shall be called the Jack- 
sons Variegated Nosegay ; but, as the present call for 
Nosegays will bring out others of this stamp, a more 
suitable name ought to be given to it. 
No. 12 is another large lean-to house, seventy feet 
long, and more like a conservatory, full of large plants, ] 
such as Aralia trifoliata, having three leaves, each a 
foot long, from one footstalk. A. quinquefolia, still ; 
finer ; Araucaria excelsa ; large Oytisus racemosus 
superbus, the sweetest and best flower of them ; Myrtus ; 
apiculatus, with the leaf and habit of Vaccinium myrti- ’ 
folium; large Acacias, Indigoferas, Correas, Epacrises, 
Eviostemons, Pimelias, Tetrathecas, Aphelexis, Adenan- 
clras, Brachysemas, Cytisus filipes, Chorozemas, large 
Camellias, and a good stock of Acacia Drummondi, | 
which is most deservedly much called for. 
No. 13 is a house with a north aspect, full of large 
j Azaleas, Chinese and others, some on single sterns as 
! standards and half-standards, very good specimens; 
yellow Rhododendrons, well set for bloom ; large Camel¬ 
lias, Orange-trees, Sikkim Rhododendrons, which have 
already grown too high lor pits or smaller houses. As a 
gardener’s plant I still reckon ciliare as among the most 
useful kinds from Sikkim. It may be had in bloom by 
forcing from November till it comes “ of itself,” at the 
end of the spring, from cold pits, or from the open 
ground. 
A vast deal of “ small stock ” is stowed away in all 
the nurseries for the winter, under the stages of the 
different houses, in a half-dry stall. Here they never 
trim or prune such plants till January, and the reason is 
conclusive—“ lest they should break ” soon after, owing to 
the change of temperature from the open air. Fuchsias, 
Agapanthus, bulbs, and half-hardy and half-woody 
flower-garden plants. I saw a large stock of the pretty | 
little bulb Pentlandia miniata, lots of two excellent kinds j 
of Pentstemons — Kellermanii, after Cobcea, and the best 
grower of that strain; and Wrightii, after Murrayanum, 
i and said to be the best grower of that particular breed, aud 
