THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 7, 1860. 
2S3 
(Irons, and such kinds as are likely to run that way, I 
would have them all up now, and pare off their balls till I 
made sure of giving them au effectual check to stop their 
pride at any rate, for the rest of the season. 
In the midst of all this grumbling I had another feed on 
new Geraniums and new Dianthuses. New kinds, at any 
rate, should not be influenced by any style of weather or 
wind of doctrine according to this way of feeding. But 
we had a splendid dish of the new Dianthuses before us, 
from the Wellington Road Nursery at the last meeting 
of the Floral Committee, and the Doctor happened to 
call in just as we sat down to it, and he was as much 
satisfied as the rest of us—in short, we were unanimous 
on the merits of the dish ; and were it not that our rules 
apply not to “made dishes,” or broken victuals in any 
shape (I mean cut flowers or cut branches with flowers 
on), we should have given a first-rate prize with one 
consent to these Dianthuses which consisted of Iledde- 
wigii, and half a dozen kinds of laciniatus. The beauty 
of these Dianthuses consists in the singleness of the 
flowers, and in the singleness of purpose for which they 
were made : you cannot bed them more than Cloves and 
Sweet Williams, which are not bedding plants, although 
some people plant them in beds and masses. Even when 
we shall have them with double flowers, as they are 
already promised, we must plant them in single file, or in 
single patches among the rest on the mixed border. 
There is a double Dianthus hybridus something in 
some nurseries. I saw it in the Kingston Nursery, it is 
as tall as a Sweet William, and very much in the looks of 
the very old dwarf “Mule Pink,” and is well worth in¬ 
quiring after. There was a large bunch of it shown at 
this Meeting from tho Doctor’s garden, and we certainly 
commended it; but as it is not in the report at page 275, 
I suppose it could not have been shown for that purpose. 
Three years since, or may be four, some one whose 
name escapes me just now, sent a most desirable single 
Dianthus to the Experimental Garden, the best pot plant 
of the whole family, and quite as hardy and easy to 
manage as a Sweet William. It looks like the single 
form of this double one from the Doctor, and it ought to 
be out in the world, most certainly ; but my rule is not 
to part with anything that is sent to the Experimental 
without the consent of the sender; therefore, it is as 
well as lost in my hands, and I have no memorandum of 
it, or know where to apply for permission to part with it. 
I should like to send a plant of it to the Doctor, and to 
the Experimental at Chiswick. Also, if any one could tell 
me the reason why it will not seed, I should be wiser 
than any of us, and I would tell a story in return in the 
same line, which would make some people wiser than 
Solomon about crossing flowers. 
If you recollect, I wrote about a new Tropceolum of the 
Lobbianum breed, called Brilliant, three years back, a 
fine, healthy, free-blooming climber; but out of doors it 
would not come into bloom till late in August, and we 
gave it up on that account. It was sent to me in a col¬ 
lection of them by Mr. Henderson, of Pine Apple Place 
Nursery. A month or two later Mr. Melville sent up 
other seedlings from Edinburgh, but of the old Nas¬ 
turtium breed, and one of them he called Brilliant, and 
he was advised to cancel that name as being pre-occupied. 
I never saw Mr. Melville’s plant in growth, but this 
summer I have seen a third Brilliant Troprcolum, which 
is from Hamburgh, and is, like the rest, a rich, deep 
crimson, large bloomer, and of the Nasturtium breed. 
This is well worth having for running over arbours and 
rustic works. I am indebted for a sight of it, and of a 
fourth Brilliant, an orange-coloured flower, to the Messrs. 
Parker & Williams, who grow it extensively for sale. 
This is not the usual run of such things : we often have 
more names than enough for one kind of plant until it 
settles down to one of them. But here we have had four 
kinds of plants, seedlings of the same family, under one 
name— Brilliant; and the Hamburgh one is the best of 
them for scrambling over everything after the fashion of 
the old Nasturtiums, than which we have no more appro¬ 
priate edging yet to a large bed of Scarlet Geraniums, 
only that one of twenty can hardly manage such an 
edging. 
TropcBolum elegans is better with us hereabouts than 
I ever saw it; and the Variegated Alyssum has seeded at 
last at the Rectory garden at Surbiton on a very heavy 
clay border, where it grew last year in single patches or 
plants two feet across, just in its natural way without 
any trimming. The heat in 1859 was something to talk 
about; that heat forced five or six of these patches to 
make and ripen each a few seeds, and these seedlings 
have not been disturbed from first to last, and they are 
now in bloom. In 1816, another very hot season, I 
seeded the same plant at Shrubland Park, but, very 
stupidly, did not save the seedlings to prove the fact; 
but here they are, and will be to the end of the season ; 
and if any skilful botanist could make out any difference 
or distinction between them and the common Sweet 
Alyssum I would undertake to cross them. What is to 
become of Koniga maritima now ? Cross it with Varie¬ 
gated Alyssum, to be sure, and there is a cross for you 
at once between two genera! D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE ORCHIDS. 
Thebe are many lovers of plants that would very much liko 
to grow Orchids, but object to them because the notion is pre¬ 
sented to their minds that they all require a great heat and 
peculiar treatment very difficult to understand and put into 
practice. It is quite true that Orchids from the West and East 
Indies, or at least the greater part of them, will not thrive well 
without a high temperature well saturated with moisture when 
growing ; but it is no less equally true that there are a consider¬ 
able number from more temperate climes that will thrive well in 
an ordinary greenhouse—that is, in a temperature averaging in 
winter from 40° to 45°, and in summer from 55° to 65°—a tem¬ 
perature easily attained during the last-named season without 
any artificial heat whatever. 
Any amateur, then, in possession of a greenhouse may, without 
any doubt of success, begin to collect and cultivate these most 
singular and beautiful plants ; and in order that such cultivators 
may have some idea how to proceed, I have thought it advisable 
to write a few papers on their culture, and shall give a list of tho 
species that will bear -what I call a greenhouse treatment. Tho 
readers of The Cottage Gardener from its commencement 
are aware, no doubt, that I have written largely on the culture of 
the Indian species, and as my remarks on that subject have met 
with general approbation, I trust the following will also bo 
acceptable, and lead many to try to grow Orchids of a more 
temperate climate. 
In order to bo better understood, I shall describe the right 
kind of house for them, then the soils they require, then potting, 
putting some on blocks, others in baskets, watering, summer 
treatment, winter treatment, insects ; and, lastly, an alphabetical 
list of genera in groups that I know will grow in such a house. 
The House. —Any one having a common greenhouse may 
begin to collect a few species and grow them amongst the ordi¬ 
nary plants—such as Camellias, Azaleas, Pelargoniums, and New 
Holland plants ; but when the collection has become extensive, 
then I would recommend them to be cultivated in a house of the 
same temperature, entirely by themselves. The best cultivators 
who have the means, always grow every large tribe of plants 
separately—such, for instance, as Heaths, Roses, Camellias, &c. 5 
and thus succeed much better than by mixing them indis¬ 
criminately together. This is a good method, and holds true also 
about Orchids from mild climates. Therefore, I recommend a 
house devoted to them alone where it is convenient or possible. 
The form of the house does not much signify, though in order to 
thoroughly enjoy every plant, a span-roof is the most suitable 
form. I would let it run from east to west, so that the one side 
will have all the morning sun, and the other all the afternoon 
sun. Glass sides are not indispensable, provided the angle is 
rather sharp—say 33° or 35°. A flattish roof is objectionable on 
account of drip. A stage of corresponding form to the roof 
should be in the centre, and a broad shelf next the front will be 
