360 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 15, 1853. 
Carnation kinds of our own raising, but Albertus beat 
them all at the first start; and notwithstanding that three 
hundred different kinds came into the trade since that 
year, not one of its class has yet been produced out of 
China so good as Albertus. But add twenty years more 
to this random recollection, and then the Yauxhall Nur¬ 
sery was the first in Europe for Camellias, for seedlings, 
for introduced kinds, and for selling them. It was the 
beet nursery to learn the different ways of propagation, 
and the best times for doing it: but I recollect a day— 
not much over thirty years back—when you could hardly 
buy twenty kinds of Camellias, even in the Yauxhall 
Nursery, because there were not quite so many kinds then 
in existence. Now, however, the Messrs. Milne, Arnott, 
and Co. can supply nearly five hundred kinds. They are 
the right kind of men in the right place. I wanted to 
see their ways of doing things ever since they undertook 
this nursery; but in order to make it pay both ways— 
for their good and credit, and for the benefit of our 
readers—I deferred my call till the Camellias were just in 
their prime ; that all readers who have a mind that way, 
and are within so many hours of London, may ascertain 
for themselves that these Camellias, and other things, are 
even better than they appear in my report. 
On reaching the gate, the old and well-known entrance 
is lost—’gone for ever! A new iron boundary-railing, on 
the top of a half-high wall, and an Italian terrace garden, 
laid out and ready for planting. Immediately beyond 
this renovated boundary (the best design of that kind in 
any place that I know of), a chain pattern, in Box, 
gravel, and flowers, runs the whole length of the terrace 
garden; next the iron railings, and at the farthest end 
across, and again behind the terrace garden are two 
borders, well suited for the ribbon style of planting. 
All this will be planted with that taste and judgment 
which we expect to find in a first-rate “ gentleman’s gar¬ 
dener,” as we say ; assisted by another, whose father and 
mother were the best of gardeners. I can vouch for it 
that Mr. Arnott began gardening early enough. It was 
at Cheltenham ; aud he was just beginning the rule which 
teaches all of us how to stand on the centre of gravity, 
and give up “ all fours,” when I first knew him. His 
first feat in gardening, in my presence, was some cor¬ 
rections among the tallies in a lot of pots at which we 
were looking. He pulled up a tally that was in the 
wrong pot, balanced himself for an instant, then threw 
the tally with all his might across the stool, and down he 
came plump on the part not his top, and laughed right 
out at his father for not knowing how to place his pot- 
tallies. Therefore, taking all these things into one view, 
I expect, next August, the most scientific bedding-out, 
nearest to St. Paul’s, will be seen in front of the Vauxhall 
Nursery. 
\Ve enter through the seed-shop, which is gay with 
spring flowers ; pass on through the Eern-house, which is 
also decorated on both sides of the way with forced 
flowers, where I saw Lord Byron (a single red Hyacinth) 
for tire first time, and that shaded colour, for the first 
time, in Hyacinths. After it is open a certain time, the 
colour of this Hyacinth runs into two shades,— atrosan- 
guineum, edged with clear lake colour, for which I know 
no botanical name. But if you want to see what the 
ladies mean by planting beds, or borders,- on the shading 
system, this is the best flower I ever saw to give a true j 
idea of that style in these two colours; 
Daphne collina was a fine object among these forced 
flowers ; a very strong Ecru, called Cyrtomium falcatuni, 
from China aud Japan, was pointed out to me as the best 
hardy evergreen Ecru that was ever introduced; and 
another proof, equally good, was by the side of it. The 
Crimson King Geranium proved to be as good for forcing ; 
as alba and multiflora; and, at this early season, it is 
richer than Gauntlet. There was a new forcing Geranium 
called Larkfield Rival, which they are pushing a-head, 
in propagation, believing it to be a superior forcer. This | 
Geranium is of enormous strength and is of the race 
of Dennis’s Alma, in growth. I did not hear the kind of 
flower, for I was pressing on to the great Camellia-house, 
which is sixty yards long without a division ; a front stage 
full of the youngest saleable plants from end to end; a 
matted walk, with a door mat as you enter; a back bed, 
with a’row of specimen Camellias planted down the centre ; 
and the spaces in front of them, between them, and all 
round them, are full of larger plants. The back wall is 
also stocked with old plants ; and the whole, to the tune 
of some thousands, are now in bloom, and not another 
kind of plant in the whole house,—all are Camellias ! all 
wanting to be seen, and only waiting to make new ac¬ 
quaintances, and to get out of London; and as fast as 
the handsomest, the richest, or the best looking of them 
goes off, another, and another, are ready to try the same 
chance, and to keep up the full bloom, which will go on 
to the end of the flowering season. 
The show is magnificent just now; the roof is shaded 
by day to prolong the beauty; and, as to watering, there 
is hardly a firm within my reach who gives them more 
water, both at the roots and over the leaves. 
The chief thing which would strike an old gardener, 
on learning how this house is so constantly supplied with 
saleable plants, i3 the difference between the propagation 
by buds and grafts, and that by inarching from stools 
and old specimen plants. By the bud and small-graft 
system, the plants generally take three year’s to be of a 
profitable size for sale; whereas, by the inarching plan, 
the same style of plants is got ready in twelve months. 
There are six ranges of cold pits, each thirty feet long, 
with twenty-two stools, or old Camellia plants, planted 
out in each range, to give inarched plants. Shoots that 
are inarched in February, or March, will be ready to 
separate from the stools in October and November, with 
that season’s strong growth in fkrwer-bud; and these 
plants are coming into bloom by the end of the twelve 
months from the time of inarching, in the freest growth 
and most perfect health. But for convenience’s sake, this 
inarching may be done, and used to be done here, when 
I fii’st knew this nursery, from October to the end of 
March, or till the fresh growth of the season put a stop 
to the work. The same propagator, who did that work 
thirty years ago, was engaged in one of the pits that day 
inarching, as in the days of yore, and confirmed the con¬ 
venience of beginning as early as October to inarch, so 
that the press of that department should not fall on 
February and March—the best time to perform the work, 
when only an ordinary number was required. The best 
time for grafting single buds of rare kinds, and small 
grafts from short commons, is from the ripening of the 
young growth of one season, on to the beginning of the 
growth of the next season; or say from July to April— 
both, perhaps, inclusive. And yet, in private practice, 
the best tune depends on one’s convenience for getting on 
the work, when you can best spare a close box, to stand 
the pots in while the grafts are taking. If the close box 
is indoors, like a Waltonian Case, and is as warm as 
would do for Cucumbers, the grafts will take in the dead 
of winter as well as at any other time ; and if the close 
box is just warmer than for a greenhouse, it will do, but 
will take the longer time in the doing. So you see 
Camellias can be had from inarching at any time from 
September to April, and from grafting all the year round, 
except when the growth is making and getting ripe. 
Then, to get the stocks, apply the practice of this 
nursery, and you have nearly twelve thousand cuttings 
of single Camellias put in 32-sized pots in September. 
You stand, or, rather, you may plunge, the pots for the 
first three months in a cold frame : they stated theirs in 
cold pits, and at the end of three months they take them 
to a close, hot, propagating-house; all beginning to make 
roots beautifully. In this hot place they begin growing 
early—and the growth is finished and ripened by the end 
of June j then every one is put into a single pot, No. GO’s, 
