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THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 15, 1858. 161 
sort of penance for the double crime of abusing the 
claims of hospitality, and murdering Ethelbert, king 
of the East Angles. Some of the Abbots of that 
Monastery acted a conspicuous part in English history, 
but these are matters foreign to our work. E. Eish. 
CALLS AT NURSERIES.—No. 2. 
Mb. Wm. COLE’S, DIDSBURY, neaii MANCHESTER. 
This nursery lias been recently established, and appears to 
be a thriving concern. It is situated five miles from Man¬ 
chester, on tlie Cheadle road, and is at a sufficient distance 
from the long, smoky chimnies of the Manchester .cotton 
factories. Omnibuses from the centre of that town pass by it 
to Cheadle every hour of the day; so it is easily reached by 
any one desirous of seeing how specimen plants are started, 
trained, and grown on till fit for exhibition. 
Mr. Cole is well known as a successful cultivator and ex¬ 
hibitor for many years at the Metropolitan Shows, whilst 
gardener to H. Collyer, Esq., near Dartford, in Kent. The 
late Mrs. Lawrence often found, that, through the good ma¬ 
nagement of Mr. Cole, H. Collyer, Esq., became a formidable 
competitor for the great prizes at Chiswick and the Regent’s 
Park, where he very frequently carried off the first and greatest 
prizes for stove and greenhouse plants. Mr. Cole having a 
rising family of active, intelligent boys, determined, about four 
years ago, to enter into business for himself, and pitched 
upon Manchester as a likely theatre to exercise his skill as a 
nurseryman. He met with a Mr. Thorniley, who had a kind 
of nursery market-garden at the place above-mentioned, but, 
haying another business to attend to, he w r as glad to enter 
into partnership with so clever a man as Mr. Cole. Eventu¬ 
ally, however, he sold his share to his new partner; and then 
the business began to thrive, and has done so ever since. 
At the recent Manchester Exhibition, Mr. Cole was equally 
as successful as an exhibitor as he was near London. Since he 
came to the neighbourhood, successful plant cultivation has 
made rapid strides, which is not to be wondered at, when 
there are such growers brought from London as a May, an 
Evans, and a Smith—men quite competent to contend with 
the best cultivators of the day. It is true, however, that their 
employers are liberal gentlemen, finding their gardeners with 
good plants, and means to grow them. 
I visited this nursery towards the end of last month (May), 
and saw so many things well managed, that I took notes, and 
am now sitting down to write them out, and send them for 
publication in The Cottage Gaedenee, as a record and 
example what skill, industry, and perseverance can accomplish 
in a short time. 
When the partnership above alluded to took place, there 
were on the ground one small, old greenhouse (now used as a 
forcing-house for Roses in pots), a frame or two, and a very 
small number of shrubs. Now there is a range of houses 
100 feet long by 14 feet wide, and two others behind them : 
one filled with specimen Azaleas, in bloom; and the other 
with the young stock of Azaleas, a collection of stove Ferns, 
Gloxinias, Achimenes, Tydeas, &c. 
Close to the front wall of this range there is a most excel¬ 
lent pit, heated with a single row of hot-water pipes, and some 
holes made through the wall to admit heat from the houses in 
winter. This pit is filled, at the proper season, with bedding- 
out plants, of which it holds an immense number. The front 
walls of many a hothouse in gentlemen’s gardens might have 
such an useful pit placed against them. 
A space of ground in front of this range is covered with 
five ranges of pits, with brick sides and ends, sufficient space 
being given between each range to allow the lights to be drawn 
off' in mild weather. In them I observed numbers of young 
specimens of Heaths, and half-hardy plants, in good health. 
T his pit system of growing young greenhouse plants is worthy 
of general imitation. If they are well covered up in frosty 
weather, the plants pass through the winter unscathed. 
Then, besides these, there is a good propagating-house, 
with platforms, heated underneath, and covered with sand. 
In this sand, Dahlias strike freely, as well as many other soft- 
wooded plants, without any covering, except a shade on 
the outside roof. On a central platform, I noticed some 
frames covered with glass ; underneath, there were Rhodo¬ 
dendron stocks, grafted with all the best new varieties, grow¬ 
ing away most freely. Camellias, and the choicer Coniferse, 
do well grafted, and placed in such a genial atmosphere. The 
stocks are in pots, for the convenience of a safe removal, as 
soon as the grafts have taken hold of them and are safe. 
Adjoining this propagating-house, there is the potting- 
shed, the counting-house, and a packing-shed and tool-house. 
The whole extent of this rising nursery is a little over four 
acres, quite large enough for a beginning. It is stocked with 
large plots of evergreen shrubs, fruit trees, &c. 
Mr. Cole has been successful in cultivating the Rose to a 
considerable extent. Formerly, this queen of flowers was 
much neglected about Manchester, the climate and soil being 
considered unfavourable to it. Tins, from what has been 
done here, appears to be an exploded fallacy: I saw several 
hundreds of bushes, as healthy and full of buds as I ever 
saw anywhere. A large plot of wild Briers was planted last 
autumn, and will soon be fit for budding. The Manetti 
stock, for working low, is planted largely. Mr. Cole buds 
them close to the ground, so that all his dwarf Roses appear 
as if they were on their own roots. Yet they grow far more 
vigorously than if they were so. I saw a large number of 
plants of Roses so worked,—just such as I would choose to 
put into pots and grow for exhibiting or decorative purposes. 
The China Tea-scented , and other rather tender varieties, are 
raised here by cuttings, in pots plunged in sawdust, in frames 
set on a good hotbed. The cuttings had been taken from 
rows that had been forced rather early ; and, being so young, 
they root easily and quickly, with scarcely a single failure. 
After they are rooted, they are potted off, and put into one of 
the brick pits, then shaded for a time, till fresh roots are made, 
and gradually hardened off and re-potted. They are then 
plunged in coal-ashes, .in beds, hooped over and protected 
through the winter by a canvass awning. Plants so raised 
and so protected are now being sent out, and are really nice, 
healthy plants, fit for anybody. 
The Rhododendron is the very best evergreen shrub for the 
Lancashire climate. The soil in this nursery suits it ad¬ 
mirably ; and, consequently, it is cultivated largely, and will 
be still more so as the stock increases. The hardy Azalea 
also thrives well, and is almost as well suited for the soil 
and climate as the Rhododendron, only it is not evergreen. 
The long range of houses is divided into three. The fust 
was filled with specimen New Holland plants, as healthy as 
possible i the second, or central one, is devoted to stove 
plants ; and the third to specimen Pelargoniums. On the 
front platforms of the two greenhouses, I noted several 
batches of Boronias, Pimeleas, Cliorozemas, Aphelexis, 
Lechenaultias, and other plants of p similar character. Also, 
a nice lot of the now favourite plant, the GeneiglUs ( Hede - 
roma) tulipifera. Amongst the bedding-out plants, there 
was a large lot of the best of all the yellow Calceolarias,—the 
Aurea floribunda. Also, a seedling, named the Duisburg \ 
Pet , a great improvement on the old Kentish Hero : it has 
better foliage, and a darker spot in the centre of each bloom, | 
and is, besides, a hardier variety. The hew variegated 
Geraniums are all here : such, for instance, as the Countess of 
Warwick, Alma , Anna , Lee’s Emperor, and the British flag , 
which, I think, is the best of them all,—the truss is large and 
of a deep cherry-colour. It belongs to the horse-shoe leaved 
class, with a red circle in the centre of each leaf, banded with 
yellow, and a dark-green centre. 
Mr. Cole cultivates a large collection of the now fashionable 
plants, with variegated and handsome foliage. I noticed, 
especially, a large collection of the beautiful Sonerila mar- 
garitacea. 
One point in this nursery is deserving of general imitation 
in every nursery, and that is, broad, well-kept walks. This 
adds greatly to the comfort of the customers and visitors: 
they can move through the whole grounds without damping 
their shoes or dress, as is too commonly the case in many 
country nurseries. 
The above is a very brief description of this interesting and 
rising nursery. Under such a spirited head, I have no doubt 
it will answer his expectations, and receive a due share of 
support.—T. Appleby. 
