1878. ] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
31 
pre-eminent. It was raised by Mr. R. B. 
Postans, of Brentwood, and is certainly a grand 
Rose, of a brilliant magenta-carmine colour, large 
and full, with tho petals most symmetrically dis¬ 
posed, and growing a little darker as it ages. It is 
in every respect A 1. Red Dragon is a strong¬ 
growing rich red-crimson, large, full, and bright, 
and being suitable for climbing and pillars, it will 
fill a wide sphere of garden usefulness. Rosy Morn 
is a delicate peach colour, richly shaded salmon- 
rose, remarkable for brightness, and is a lovely Rose, 
with the highest “points.” These all have a robust 
constitution, and produce good foliage. 
— ®he North-West American Clematis 
Pitcheri has found its way into French gar¬ 
dens, whence it may soon be expected to arrive 
amongst us. It is a slender plant, with tho leaf- 
lobes ovate-oblong, obtuse, and somewhat glaucous, 
and the flowers vase-shaped, scarlet, of moderate 
size, on long peduncles. It is quite hardy. 
— St Golden Yew Sport has recently been 
noted in the gardens at Old Conna Hill, near 
Bray, the residence of P. Riall, Esq. These 
gardens are remarkable for the grand and beauti¬ 
fully trim yew hedges, which separate the kitchen 
garden from the flower ground, and also form the 
lofty, sheltering quadrangle which protects from 
the blast on all points tho rockeries, on which are 
grown a choice out-door collection of British ferns. 
These yew hedges are 16 ft. or more high, plumb 
and smooth as a concrete wall, except in one spot, 
where very recently symptoms of gold-fever were 
noticed, and the shears being forbidden to touch it, 
the smooth surface was soon varied with a boss of 
golden yew. 
— ®he beautiful Eucharis amazonica is 
grown very extensively and in a very simple 
way by Mr. Denning. The mode of culture 
adopted is to plant it out, in quantity, in a well- 
heated pit, where it grows freely, and about Christ¬ 
mas yields an enormous crop of flowers. This is an 
easy way of providing a supply of Eucharis for 
Christmastide decorations. 
— ®he glossy-leaved Berberis Darwinii is 
often seen used as a hedge plant in the Surrey 
nurseries, and an excellent shrub it is for the 
purpose. Mr. Penford, the gardener at Powers- 
court, describes in the Garden a hedge of this Ber¬ 
beris 250 yards long, 4 ft. high, and 11 ft. through, 
well furnished from bottom to top. In spring, it is 
studded with thousands of bright racemes of flowers, 
and in autumn its purple berries have a fine effect. 
A hedge of this Berberis will hokl its own against 
all comers, and will be equally pleasing either in a 
large or small garden. 
— ®he ground intended for a Willow 
Plantation should be well drained in the 
first instance, and laid off in 6-ft. ridges, 
with deep intervening furrows. Cuttings do 
much better than plants, and should be put in 
in February or March. Tho cuttings should be 
from 1 ft. to 15 in. long, and be inserted in a slant¬ 
ing direction about two-thirds of their length, at 
from 1 ft. to 2 ft. apart in tho beds. Though fond 
of moisture, willows will not thrive in land which 
is water-logged. 
— very interesting Tomato Hybrid has 
been raised by Mr. Davidson, at Ilighfleld 
Park, Ileckfield. The pollen-parent was Hatha¬ 
way’s Excelsior, the seed-parent the Red Currant 
(Lycopersicum racemigerum) . The hybrid is of 
more robust habit than its mother, whilst the 
bunchos of fruit are larger, and the fruit itself at 
least three times as large as that of the Currant. It 
is quite distinct, and is exceedingly ornamental. 
— 2Fhe Chrysanthemum Mrs. George 
Rundle is the best and purest of the white- 
flowered sorts for yielding a supply of cut 
flowers, and the best-habited kind for pot-culture. 
Strong plants, full of buds, lifted with large balls of 
soil from the open ground at the end of October, 
and planted in a span-roof house, produce a pro¬ 
fusion of most valuable flowers for cutting. 
— Raving casually observed the effects 
of coal ashes on Tomatos to be, as I thought, 
something out of the common, increasing not 
so much the growth of the plants as the size, 
smoothness, and number of the fruit produced, a 
market-gardener of experience confirmed my sus¬ 
picion, and last spring I adopted his directions, 
which were to throw out a wheelbarrow-load of 
earth where each plant was to stand, and then fill 
with half-soil and half-coal ashes, and therein set 
out the plants. I did so, and the result was quite 
surprising, tho dozen plants thus treated bearing 
nearly double the fruit of others, and smoother and 
larger; but Tomato plants so set will, in case of 
drought, require water oftener, and more of it, than 
those growing in common soil. So writes a corre¬ 
spondent of the Country Gentleman. 
— & new Cucumber, Walker’s Hero, is 
highly spoken of as growing in the gardens at 
Muckross Abbey. Telegraph, Duke of Edin¬ 
burgh, Marquis of Lome, and Walker’s Hero were 
sown at the same time (January 28), grown 
side by side in the same pit and in the same 
soil, and treated in every way alike. By the 
last week in February, or about five weeks from 
the time of sowing, a brace of handsome fruit 
was cut from Walker’s Hero, not one of the others 
affording a cutting for a month or more later. 
It possesses all the points of a first-class cucumber 
—size, shape, tenderness, and a beautiful bloom; 
and further, it is a splendid cropper. 
— fit any of the Double - flowered 
Pelargoniums of recent introduction possess 
the compact habit and free-flowering qualities 
of the best of the single varieties. One of the most 
free-blooming is the semi-double Wonderful, which 
is of the same habit and colour as Vesuvius, from 
which it is a sport; and one of the most useful 
is Madame Thibaut, a grand rose-pink. Depute 
Ancelon, deep rosy-purple, Littre, another rosy- 
purple, and Le Nord-Est, bright scarlet, are also 
fine. Candidissimum is said to be the best white. 
— 0ne of the finest of the pale-coloured 
hardy varieties of Clematis is Otto Frbbel, 
which last season bloomed splendidly with 
Mi-. G. Jackman, in his nursery at Woking. The 
plant appears to be remarkable for vigour, and 
the flowers arc of immense sizo and perfect in form, 
