226 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 10, 1860. 
should be potted P An outline of the cultivation would oblige— 
A Young Gaedeneb. 
[Very large bulbs of the Persicum , and other spring-flowering 
Cyclamens, will take very little hurt from being left in the pots 
and quite dry all the summer to the end of August. But a 
better plan is to turn out every Cyclamen as soon as no more 
watering is wanted, or when the leaves begin to fade; to plant 
the balls entire in a warm, sunny border, there to take their 
chance of summer rains like all our own “ Lilies of the Field,” 
which we call spring bulbs; to watch them in the autumn, and 
when the young leaves are seen to take up the bulbs, and 
shake off the old ball, and pot in good loamy soil, and very good 
drainage, and give them “ all the weather ” to Christmas, except 
it be frosty. They and the Ixias in a cold frame would do well 
together, and all of them require very little water till the new 
year; and if they were plunged to the rims in sand or fine cinder 
ashes, they would need no water till the first fine weather in 
January. Cyclamen vernum, as true as Sweet’s, and as sure as 
Gordon’s, has been lying idle in a pot with us since we had it 
at the tail of last autumn. The pot was just kept from 
the frost, plunged in an open border from the middle of Feb¬ 
ruary, the rain kept from it by another pot turned upside down 
over it, and the pot has not yet been once hand-watered. Under 
that, the most natural treatment, the bulb on the first day of 
July showed two fresh leaves, which are now doing “ as well as 
can be expected.” Perhaps this is the only true Cyclamen ver¬ 
num within one hundred miles of London. It has the rugged 
protuberance over the crown from which it blooms, as Sweet 
says, and no other Cyclamen has that way of blooming. Gordon 
says it blooms invariably in November, and is over by Christmas, 
and that it should be called hyemale instead of vernum. Ours 
will be under a west wall plunged in the pot till the frost comes, 
and if it blooms it will be shown to the Floral Committee.] 
FLOWER SHOW AT ISLEWORTH. 
(by oub own eepoetee.) 
On Friday last a “ Show ” of flowers and plants took place at 
Isle worth, in the grounds of Gordon House, belonging to Mr. 
Justice Halliburton, M.P. It is usual when beginning a descrip¬ 
tion of English out-door exhibitions, or fetes, to write, “ The 
day opened fine,” or, “ The weather was all that could be desired,” 
&c.; but in the present instance we are sorry to say that the 
day, although not absolutely “horrid,” conducted itself with an 
impropriety that could only be compared to that curious simile 
of unpleasantness which the erratic author of “ Cliilde Harold ” 
expresses in the words— 
“- a woman piqued, who wants her will, 
Alternate smiles and tears:” 
As soon as the grounds were opened to the public at one 
o’clock we were treated, or rather »»aftreated, to a very heavy 
thunder shower of more than average duration; this deterred 
many of the neighbouring gentry from coming out, as they other¬ 
wise would have done. Mr. Lewis, one of the Judges, looked up 
very imploringly in the direction of where a clear sky ought to 
have been, in the hope of catching the eye of the clerk of the 
weather, or of exchanging a friendly wink with that great me¬ 
teorological bashaw, but to no purpose; his highness seemed 
bent on carrying matters beyond a joke, although he was trying 
to make us believe that he was only laying the dust, and bringing 
the green verdure out into striking relief with the rainbow-tinted 
costumes of the ladies. However, in about three-quarters of an 
hour the sun pushed his curtain of leaden clouds aside, and came 
forth in great majesty. The grounds now began to fill rapidly ; 
but when bordering on the hour of four, the clerk of the weather, 
being an aged, cynical, spiteful, individual, took the sun off duty, 
because he was so welcomed by the sweet smiles of the fair faces 
below, and instantly turned on such an indecent storm of thunder, 
lightning, and rain, as to compel everybody to run for shelter. 
This was, happily, easy of accomplishment, for care had been 
taken to secure two very large marquees from Mr. Blake’s manu¬ 
factory at Ealing. Here the company were detained for nearly 
an hour; and it was curious to look at the long rows of well- 
dressed ladies, in every shade of colour, from bridal muslin to 
funereal black, standing in front of rows of Geraniums of every 
tint, like themselves, but painted by the cunning of a Hand 
which the milliner might hope for but can never attain. This 
last shower was, without intending a pun, a regular damper; the 
only comfort derivable at the time was in the conservatory, which 
had been converted into a refreshment-room, and was well 
supplied with eatables and drinkables, under the management of 
Mr. Pepper, of Isle worth. Thanks to the excellent quality of 
the marquees, every one who trusted to them escaped a heavy 
wetting, and felt correspondingly grateful; but this last storm- 
shower almost converted the whole of the green sward into a 
swamp, planks being laid down to keep the communications open. 
Her Grace the Duchess Dowager of Northumberland gave £12, 
to be contended for as flower-prizes, and the following is the 
order of merit assigned to each by the Judges :— 
Mr. W. F. Watson, of Isleworth, exhibited a stand of Cal¬ 
ceolarias, Geraniums, Fuchsias, cut Roses, and other flowers, 
under the culture of Mr. James, his gardener. They were very 
deservedly admired, and the first prize wn3 awarded to them. 
The second prize was given to Mr. Uzzelli, gardener to Her 
Grace, the Duchess Dowager of Northumberland, for a very ex¬ 
cellent miscellaneous collection of Geraniums and hardy plants. 
There were two third prizes. They were for a general stand 
of cut Roses, Fuchsias, Ferns, &c., and fell to the lot of Mr. 
Sewel, gardener to J. Me An drew, Esq., and Mr. Wiggins, gar¬ 
dener to E. Beck, Esq., Twickenham. Mr. Martin, of Isleworth, 
obtained an extra prize. 
There was a basket or two of fruit, but nothing to require any 
special observations. 
Mr. Dobson and Mr. Lewis were the Judges of the flowers. 
Mr. J. Wilmot, of Isleworth, took the first prize for Straw¬ 
berries, and also a first prize for Grapes; the second was 
awarded to Mr. James, Mr. Watson’s gardener ; and the third 
to Mr. Lewis. The Strawberries, considering the very backward 
season we have had for soft fruit, were most creditable to the 
growers ; and the Grapes were particularly good. Well defined 
in form, clear in texture, and full. 
We must not omit to mention that Mr, Dobson had a most 
magnificent stand of Geraniums and cut flowers, which, how¬ 
ever, he did not exhibit in competition, being one of the Judges 
himself. They were very attractive to the visitors. 
On visiting the second marquee we found it filled with ladies, 
who were holding a kind of fancy fair. There was everything to 
be obtained for love or money, from a basket of baby linen to a 
wedding ring; but wedding rings are no use without fingers to 
wear them, and others to put them on the said fingers, “ for 
better or worse.” With that wo perfectly agree ; but we can go 
no further on this subject than recommend “ all those whom it 
may concern,” as the lawyers say, to take their proper credentials 
with them, and attend flower shows. One young lady, tall, pale, 
and very interesting, would insist that the representative of Tiie 
Cottage Gaedenee was sadly in want of pincushions. She 
made several furious attacks upon his pocket, and continued the 
onset with such impetuosity that he began to entertain serious 
doubts whether ho was a wet nurse or a milliner’s apprentice. 
Now, when we say that the gentleman in question is nearly six 
feet high, some fourteen stone weight, and bearded like a Gari¬ 
baldi, our readers may judge in what danger he stood under the 
pincushion fire, so as to doubt whether he had not completely 
gone out of his veritable existence, and become somebody else, or 
a third party. However, a lady, seeing his bewilderment, very 
humanely came to the rescue, and took him across the lawn 
until he recovered. 
The Rifle Volunteer movement has penetrated the arcadia of 
happy Isleworth, for we saw several fair damsels carrying their 
lovers in their arms. Indeed, one young bud of promise, ap¬ 
parently just floating out of the smooth river of her “teens, 
into the sea of womanhood, carried her gallant volunteer in her 
hand, and amused herself by swinging him to and fro by his 
sash. We went up to inquire the cause of such horrible brutality, 
when she very quietly slipped him under her mantle, where she 
fixed him to something by his waist; then laughing defiantly in 
our face, she turned on her heel and stepped off. Oh, the ogress ! 
Bouquets were in large demand. Who, with anything beyond 
his night’s lodging in his pocket, could resist purchasing the 
sweetest of flowers offered by the fairest of hands ? 
Even during the storm, when the marquee was crowded, the 
ladies were not idle, for they went about in grand style with their 
wares, and, let us hope, did a good stroke of business. One 
young creature, with some slight tinge of the nursery blush upon 
her pale and velvet cheek, was very active in trying to get up a 
raffle for a really beautifully-coloured photograph of the “ old 
Judge” himself, which was much admired. She wanted anxiously 
to put our name down for a 5s. chance; but since a certain 
“ disappointment” that a friend of ours has recently “suffered,” 
