September 19, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
35 
SHOW. 
milE GRAND NATIONAL POTATO 
JL EXHIBITION will be held at the CRYSTAL PALACE, 
Sydenham, London, S.E., on October 7th, 8th, and 9th, 1SS5. 
For Schedules and particulais apply to P. McKinlay, Headley 
Lodge, Croydon Road, Anerley, S.E. 
Entries close on September 30th. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Amateurs’ Garden, the _ 39 
American Florists. 30 
Apple. Mrs. Barron (illus¬ 
trated) . 40 
Birds. 42 
Bulb Show Tickets. 35 
Camellias . 3S 
Campanula carpatica pallida 43 
Colt's-Foot, variegated .... 43 
Daniels’ Brothers Nursery 44 
Dendrobiums, on resting .. 45 
Derby Horticultural Society 45 
Elder, a remarkable . 40 
Euonymus radicans varie- 
gata . 43 
Florieultural Activity - 35 
Floriculture . 45 
Fruits and the Gale. 40 
Fruit Grower’s Returns- 42 
Fruits, hardy. 43 
Fruit Trees at Trant Court 
(contd.) . 42 
Gardeners and the Franchise 35 
Gardeners’ Calendar, the .. 43 
Hollyhock, the. 45 
Hydrangea paniculata gran- 
diflora . 36 
Lavender, the . 40 
PAGE 
Lilium auratum . 43 
Marigold, Single French .. 43 
Melon Culture at Harefield 
Grove . 35 
Melon Culture, notes on .. 3S 
Mutisia decurrens. 42 
Nurseryman, an octoge¬ 
narian . 35 
Orchid Notes and Gleanings 45 
Pansies, diseased. 42 
Plants for forcing. 37 
Potato Crop, the . 41 
Potatos Cracking. 42 
Potato Exhibition, the .... 36 
Potato, Sanday’s Seedling .. 42 
Potatos, wet-rot in (illus¬ 
trated) . 36 
Rosa rugosa . 43 
Royal Caledonian Horticul¬ 
tural . 46 
Royal Horticultural Society 
of Aberdeen . 46 
St. John's Worts, the. 42 
Scottish Gardening. 3S 
Thunbergia fragrans . 43 
Vineries at Barassie. 42 
Wasps in Fruit Houses .... 42 
Woodwardia radicans. 40 
Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.” —Bacon. 
SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER 19, 1S85. 
Floricultural Activity. —One remarkable in¬ 
stance of this is the large number of announce¬ 
ments of Chrysanthemum shows to be held 
during the month of November. They appear 
to be springing up on every hand, indicating 
that the culture of the Chrysanthemum is 
spreading rapidly and widely. It is impossible 
to have a Chrysanthemum showwithout flowers, 
and flowers represent growers. It is not only 
in the towns, large and small, that exhibitions 
of this popular flower are to take place ; but the 
country villages are found holding their Chry¬ 
santhemum festivals, gilding the departing 
autumnal months with some of the warmth and 
colour afforded by the summer season. The 
cottager, in common with the denizen of the 
great city, and the gardener at the spacious park 
lying between these two, alike can exhibit their 
prowess, and gain some degree of honour. 
Is it because the Chrysanthemum carries on 
to the end of the year something of the full 
flush of the glory and beauty of the summer, 
that men and women take to it with such a 
keen zest, as if willing that it should be with 
them as long as possible, until the parenthesis 
of winter comes in to bury it all in the slumber 
the repose of that dreary time brings with it 1 
The poet has put into passionate verse something 
of this feeling of clinging to what must yet pass 
away for a time : — 
1 ‘ Aye ! we must part. The boughs will soon TAbare, 
Or covered with the soft, smooth, silent snow. 
Hushed is the blackbirds’ singing. Long ago— 
Far off, the days seem since the swallow came. 
Spring spread her robe of green ; the summer’s flame 
Deepened to autumn’s crimson. Still the same 
Change presses forward, and our cry is vain. 
Linger a little. Oh ! remorseless Time, 
If prayer could stay thee or entreaty bind, 
What worship would be thine !” 
In private gardens, also, where no exhibiting 
is done, the growth of the Chrysanthemum has 
.greatly increased. In these days, when cut 
flowers are so largely employed for decorative 
purposes, and when no social gathering appears 
to be complete without some gay blossoms to 
give effect to the festive board, the Chrysan¬ 
themum comes in with the late summer months 
and fills up an enormous gap ; and by the intro¬ 
duction of late-blooming varieties, it is now 
possible to have blooms as late as the end of 
January. Indeed, the flowering season of what 
we may call the queen of autumn now extends 
over a period of six months, rivalling, if it does 
not surpass, the Rose in the duration of its 
valuable floral service. 
The success which has attended the National 
Chrysanthemum Society is an indication of the 
widespread regard for the flower it particularly 
cherishes. Some of its staunchest friends 
doubted the wisdom of the step which converted 
it from a local into a national institution ; but 
the step was a wise and far-seeing one. It has 
operated.to galvanise into newer and freer life 
some societies that had fallen away into a state 
of decay presaging death; it has called into 
existence new societies by the dozen ; to these, 
by means of its liberal scheme of affiliation, it 
lends valuable assistance. Its annual exhibitions 
at the Royal Aquarium have greatly popularised 
the flower, and the result is gain—great and 
decided gain. The medals of the National 
Chrysanthemum Society figure in the schedules 
of prizes of societies affiliated with it; their 
possession is a greatly coveted honour. There 
is a large demand for Chrysanthemum plants, 
and nurseries devoted specially and almost, if 
not quite, solely to their culture spring up. 
Raisers are encouraged to produce new varieties, 
and a good one is instantly seized upon and its 
praises proclaimed. Chrysanthemums rob the 
winter of half its terrors and dulnesses, and 
almost joins autumn to spring. May the flower 
flourish ! May societies to encourage its culture, 
and exhibitions of plants and flowers increase. 
So shall communities be gladdened, and human 
hearts made happier, and men become knit 
together by a common bond of interest, having 
their energies stirred by a desire to excel and 
conquer; and their spirits refreshed by the 
contemplation of natural beauties heightened 
into larger scope of excellence by the craft and 
skill of the cultivator. 
-- 
GARDENING MISCELLANY. 
Mr. John Green, lately gardener at Wilmington Hall, 
Dartford, has been engaged as gardener to J. B. Lee, 
Esq., Sonning, near Reading. 
Picea nobilis. —A Kentish correspondent writes 
“I have to-day, cut a branch of Picea nobilis, with 
ten cones on it, all in a cluster, about 2 feet in circum¬ 
ference. I never saw anything like it before. 
The Chrysanthemum Show in the Temple. —The an¬ 
nual exhibition of these pretty winter flowers in the 
Inner Temple Gardens will be opened to the public 
about the middle of next month. This exhibition 
will be held as in former years in the spacious glass 
house erected in the gardens for the purpose, facing 
the Thames Embankment. 
The proposed Scottish Gardeners and Foresters 
Mutual Benefit Association .—At the annual meeting 
of the Scottish Arboricultural Society, held in Edinburgh 
last month, an interesting discussion was raised by 
Mr. Dunn, of Dalkeith, as to the share the Society 
should take in establishing a Mutual Benefit Association 
for arboriculturists and horticulturists, specially in the 
northern part of the kingdom. Mr. John Methven 
who had been taking a very warm interest in this 
movement, testified to its need from a lengthened 
personal experience of the class, whom it was proposed 
to combine together for their mutual benefit. Some 
members thought that foresters and gardeners were 
mostly connected with similar institutions already in 
operation amongst the working-classes. On the other 
hand, it was generally agreed that cases of distress were 
all too rife, from the Scottish working-classes being too 
independent even to look for such mutual aid as this 
was solely proposed to be. It was ultimately agreed 
to request the Council to consider the matter in all its 
bearings, and to formulate a scheme of action by the 
Society to be considered at the next annual meeting. 
Illustrated Bulb Show Tickets, —A sample of these 
has been sent to us by Messrs. Hooper & Co., Centre 
Row, Covent Garden. They are in the form of tunnel¬ 
shaped cards, illustrating in . colours the flowers of the 
bulb offered—in most cases of the natural size. The 
one we have seen, a group of Ranunculus, is remarkably 
good. They are intended for florists and seedsmen, 
and it is believed that by their use the windows of 
bulb dealers will be transformed from their present 
dullness into interesting and instructive sights. They 
are not only highly ornamental, but also durable and 
cheap, for with care they can be made to last several 
years. 
Ealing, Acton, and Hanwell Horticultural Society.— 
As this society this year celebrates its twenty-first 
anniversary, having held its first show in 1864, it has 
been arranged that the exhibitors at the society’s 
meetings shall dine together at the Lyric Hall, Ealing, 
on Wednesday, September 23rd, under the chairman¬ 
ship of Mr. Richard Dean, the hon. secretary, who has 
filled this important post for the space of ten years. It 
is not often that opportunities are offered for gardeners 
of all classes—nurserymen, amateurs and cottagers—to 
meet together in pleasant social intercourse ; and it is 
not matter for surprise to learn that a large number 
will be present on this particular occasion. The pre¬ 
sident of the society, the Right Hon. S. H. Walpole, will 
be present, and several of the leading gentry who sup¬ 
port the society. 
Gardeners and the Franchise. —At the Revising Bar¬ 
rister’s Court, held at Acton, on Tuesday, the Conser¬ 
vatives objected to a number of claims made by servants 
at Gunnersbury House. Mr. Roberts, the head gardener, 
stated that two of the applicants occupied separate and 
distinct lodges, and the terms of their service required 
that they should be continually on the premises. 
Another claimant had four rooms above a coachhouse, 
to which an outside staircase gave independent access ; 
and a fourth, a gardener, occupied, with four others, a 
building in the gardens, but had a bedroom exclusively 
for himself, and exercised a general supervision over 
the premises. The Revising Barrister admitted all the 
claims. 
Melon Culture at Harefield Grove. —In Mr. Webster s 
extensive plant and fruit growing establishment at 
Harefield Grove, Mr. Gough has recently planted no 
less than 1,200 Melon plants for a early winter crop, 
1,000 of them being of one variety only, the New 
Harefield Grove, which Mr. B. S. Williams will send 
out next spring. This Melon has been before the Fruit 
Committee on one or two occasions, but failed to get a 
certificate, yet it is one of the most prolific and best 
flavoured varieties in cultivation. It has a smooth 
yellow skin, white flesh, of a delicious flavour, and 
averages in weight from 3 lbs. to 4 lbs. Moreover it 
commands the top price in the market, and that speaks 
volumes in its favour. 
The National Pear Conference.— The Committee who 
have charge of the arrangements for this forthcoming 
event, have issued a form to be filled up by exhibitors, 
giving information as to the number of varieties ex¬ 
hibited, the situation where grown, aspect, and amount 
of shelter, the character of the soil and subsoil, &c. ; 
and a selection of varieties most suited to the district, 
arranged for the following seasons, viz., July and 
August, three varieties ; September, three varieties ; 
October, six varieties November, sLx varieties ; De¬ 
cember, six varieties ; January to March, six varieties : 
a selection of varieties suited for orchard cultivation, 
not exceeding twelve ; a selection of stewing pears, 
four varieties ; and general remarks as to modes of cul¬ 
tivation, pruning, stocks, &c. A neat show card is 
also being issued, on which exhibitors are requested 
to write the name of the variety shown, its season, 
average fertility, stock, and description of the tree. 
At the close of the exhibition, the cards will be collec¬ 
ted and retained by the Committee for future reference. 
An Octogenarian Nurseryman.— On Monday, Sept. 
7th, Mr. Wm. Barron, senior partner in the well-known 
firm of Wm. Barron & Son, Elvaston nurseries, 
Bonwash, reached the ripe age of eighty years. Mr. 
Barron is esteemed, not only as a business man and a 
large employer of labour, but also by reason of his 
interest in one of the great social questions of the day,, 
