5G 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
September 26, 1885. 
VIOLETS FOR WINTER. 
The time lias arrived when we take up a part of our 
stock of Violets, which had been planted in the open 
ground during April, to he re-planted in frames on 
raised heaps or beds of stable litter and leaves, but not 
new enough to cause violent heating. The beds are 
raised to a good height, and are placed in the warmest 
— that is to say, the most sheltered and sunny position 
we can find for the purpose. On the raised beds we 
place a frame, giving the glass a good pitch to throw 
off wet quickly, and to catch the sun’s rays as much as 
possible. The litter and compost in the box is arranged 
to a similar pitch and from 16 to 18 ins. from the glass. 
On the heating materials we place a thin layer of de¬ 
composed manure, and the bed is ready to receive the 
plants. These are lifted with a spade with good balls 
of earth, and placed carefully on a hand-barrow, for 
when wheel-barrows are used the jarring caused by the 
wheel going over stones and rough places causes too 
much of the soil to fall off from the roots. 
They are as carefully lifted from the hand-barrow 
and planted in lines, the distance apart being guided 
by the size of the plants. As each line of plants is 
completed, the ground is filled up between the balls 
with some good soil generally similar to that which they 
have been growing in during the summer. When the 
frame is filled the plants receive a good watering through 
a rose watering-can to settle the soil about then - roots, 
and if the weather is very wet the lights are put on and 
tilted at the back. We never find it necessary to shade 
at this time of the year, and always take care that the 
work is carefully performed so as to render it unneces¬ 
sary. Treated in this way. the produce from such 
frames will compare very favourably with those planted 
in similar situations some weeks back, and which are 
now well established.— C. Warden. 
-->*<-- 
EXHIBITING CHRYSANTHE¬ 
MUMS. 
I should be very much obliged if you would give me 
the following information respecting exhibiting Chry¬ 
santhemum blooms. If 144 blooms were exhibited how 
should they be packed for travelling ; should they be 
placed in then - cups or tubes as seen at shows, or put 
up after their arrival ? How should the travelling 
boxes be made ? Can you give the name of someone 
who makes them ? Which is the best plan and most 
handy to move about, shallow boxes taking four or 
two boards, each board taking twelve blooms, is that 
the usual way ? It has appeared to me rather cumber¬ 
some to get a hundred blooms about, and to have a box 
taking four boards would be 8 ft. in length. Details 
as to the usual plan, would be esteemed a great favour. 
— S. J., St. Leonard.'s-on-Sea. 
We sent your enquiry to an experienced and very 
successful exhibitor, who kindly replies :—Cut blooms 
of Chrysanthemums for exhibition should be placed in 
then' cups and arranged on the stands quite ready for 
the exhibition table before leaving home, the stands 
being conveyed to the place of exhibition in boxes fitted 
either to carry twenty-four or forty-eight blooms. The 
standard size of show boards or stands adopted by the 
National Chrysanthemum Society, and most others, for 
twelve blooms, is, 24 ins. long and 18 ins. wide, with 
holes for the water tubes 6 ins. apart from centre to 
centre, to stand 6 ins. high at the back, and 3 ins. in 
the front. A larger size may be used, if desirable, for 
Japanese blooms, but the dimensions quoted will 
generally be found suitable for all kinds of cut Chry¬ 
santhemum blooms. Two of these may be used for 
twenty-four blooms, and whether in a class for thirty- 
six or forty-eight, it will be found best to keep to the 
twelve bloom stands, this being the most convenient 
size to fit into boxes for transit. 
If a considerable number, as mentioned by your 
correspondent, is to be exhibited, we prefer boxes to 
carry twelve stands or forty-eight blooms each, and 
this is the method adopted by most exhibitors ; if a 
less number than forty-eight be exhibited, boxes to 
carry twenty-four blooms (two boards holding twelve) 
may be used. A box to carry forty-eight blooms should 
be made of good J in. boards, to stand 3 ft. 1| ins. high, 
2 ft. If ins. wide, and 194 ins. in depth from front to 
back, outside measurements. This will give a clearinside 
space, 36 ins. high, ins. wide, and 18 ins. deep. 
In this may be arranged with perfect safety four 
twelve-bloom boards, tier above tier. On either side, 
double strips J in. square should be screwed to the box, 
to form a ledge for each board to slide in and rest upon, 
and the upper one to prevent any upward movement 
when travelling. The first board should rest on ledges 
6 ins. from the bottom of the box, the second, 9 ins. 
higher, the next, 9 ins. above the last, and the last, 5 
ins. below the top of the box. This is our arrangement 
for carrying forty-eight blooms, the two bottom stands 
with the wider space for Japanese, the two upper for 
incurved flowcers. A space of 9 ins. will not be found 
too much for the former, which require to be raised 
rather higher above the boards than incurved blooms ; 
the tubes of the stand above (2 ins. long), must be 
taken into consideration. 
The boxes may also be made 234 ins. wide (inside), 
other dimensions the same as above, with a groove 
ploughed out a full J in. deep each side, for the boards 
to slide into, and thus do away with the strips fixed on 
to the inside of the box. A stout pair of handles must 
be screwed on the box, one on the centre of each side, 
12 ins. from the top, as a ready means of moving them 
about, and a small lock fitted to the door to keep all 
snug and secure. Messrs. Cannell and Sons, of Swanley, 
and Mr. N. Davies, of Camberwell, supply boxes and 
all other necessary appliances for exhibiting Chrysan¬ 
themum blooms, but the boxes I have attempted to 
describe are our own make. 
-•❖SN-- 
TULIPS OF THE FLORISTS’ 
CLASS. 
There is a kind of Tulip lore among Tulip culti¬ 
vators that it is very difficult indeed for an outsider to 
fully understand. They make use of terms that are, 
perhaps, on the whole less technical than they are con¬ 
venient and expressive ; and while they are well 
understood by growers, yet those having but little 
acquaintance with the flowers might get lost in para¬ 
graphs about Tulips dealing with such words as 
“breaking,” “breeders,” “character,” &c. Let me 
try to make some of these as plain as possible in the 
hope that what is set forth will operate to interest some 
of the readers of The Gardening World in this gor¬ 
geous flower. Tulips are divided into three main 
classes, though there are properly four classes of flowers. 
They are (1) Bizarres, (2) Byblcemens, (3) Roses, and (4) 
Breeders, the last being any one or all of the three main 
divisions in an unbroken state. 
1. A Bizarre Tulip has a yellow ground to the 
petals, and is either flaked down the middle of the 
petal with some shade of colour between brown and 
maroon, in which state it is a flamed flower, or it has a 
margin of colour round the upper portion and sides of 
the petals in the character of a line or heavy pencilling, 
in which case it is a feathered flower. The beam or 
flame-flakes of colour up the centre constitutes a flamed 
flower ; the pencillings on the edges of the petals con¬ 
stitute the feather. A correct flamed flower is never 
destitute of the feather, but a feathered flower is des¬ 
titute of any flame or beam in the centre of the petals. 
Flowers sometimes break off into strains, thus there 
may be a finely flamed Sir Joseph Paxton, and a finely 
feathered strain also ; and this holds good of not a few 
varieties. The absence of the flame in the last case 
constitutes it distinct for exhibition purposes. 
2. A Byblcemen Tulip has a white ground colour, 
and the petals are either flamed or feathered with some 
shade of rosy purple, gold, and black-purple. 
3. A Eose Tulip, like the Byblosmen, has a white 
ground colour, and is either llamed or feathered with 
rosy carmine, scarlet, or some shade in which the red 
colour is apparent. 
4. A Breeder Tulip is the self, a round seedling 
form, in which the flower blooms for one, two, three, 
or more years before it breaks into character ; but more 
on this heading presently. The Dutch growers of a 
century and more ago divided their Tulips into five 
classes, viz , Prince Baguets, Baguets Eigauts, Incom¬ 
parable Yerports, Byblcemens, and Bizards ; the first 
four had white bottoms or grounds, and the Bizards 
had yellow grounds. Maddock, in his treatise on the 
Tulip, confessed that he had not been able to discover 
the original or literal signification of these terms, nor 
did he understand they were any other than trivial 
terms of distinction used by Dutch florists. The term 
“rectified” is another name for a broken Tulip—that 
is, a flower that breaks from the breeder stage to that 
of its permanent character. 
The Eaising of Seedling Tulips is followed only 
by those who grow a fine collection of Tulips, and 
possess valuable sorts available as seed parents. There 
is also a necessity for cross fertilization if it is desired 
to virginate flowers possessing certain characteristics 
the raiser wishes to have in combination in his flowers ; 
if so be such combinations can be obtained. The heads 
of seeds, when ripe, may be cut and tied in net bags, 
and if suspended separately in a dry situation for some 
time the better. When thoroughly dry the seeds are 
rubbed out, or they are aEowed to remain in the heads 
until the latter end of January or the beginning of 
February, which is the best plan, when it maybe sown 
in deep pans or boxes, some drainage being placed at 
the bottom. Over this a little Etter, such as moss, 
&c., is placed and then filled up nearly level with good 
rich soil ; on this the seed is sown and covered lightly 
with a sandy soil. Germinating Tulip seeds can be 
selected by noticing a kind of pale or grey flame starting 
from the base of the seed and reaching some distance 
up it. The seeds throw up one tubular leaf during the 
first season’s growth, and from the base of the seed is 
sent forth a kind of fleshy root, at the end of which a 
bulb is formed. When the seedlings are fairly up, they 
need to be shaded from the mid-day sun, and they 
require to be watered with care, for the longer the seed¬ 
lings can be kept growing the stronger are the bulbs 
for another year. Some growers sow their seed at 
planting time, the first or second week in November. 
There is a curious kind of physiology about these seed¬ 
ling Tulips, the first year a bulb is formed at the base of 
the seed like a small Pea ; the second year this puts forth 
a kind of fleshy root called by Tulip raisers a ‘ 1 dropper, ” 
and at the end of this a small bulb is formed at a lower 
level in the soil than that in which the seeds were 
placed ; the third year the same process is repeated, in 
all probability terminating in a couple of bulbs, and 
when this is the case the larger of the two is retained 
and the smaller thrown away. Up to the fifth year 
the seedlings will throw down a dropper that eventually 
bulbs. The seedlings should not be disturbed during 
the first two years of the seedling state. Then when 
the foliage has ripened off and died away the soil should 
be turned out of the seed pot or box, and carefully 
examined, and the bulbs replanted in light, rich, fertile 
soil, and then replanted each year. 
First Flowering of Seedling Tulips. — The 
raiser of seedling Tulips may calculate upon seeing them 
bloom after five years from the time of sowing. The 
Eev. F. D. Horner once told me he had bloomed them 
the fourth year, but they were the weakest, or those 
that did not pipe so long, i.e., send forth such a long 
dropper. As an invariable, in fact, as an exceedingly 
general rule they are breeders when they first bloom. 
There are exceptions to this rule, but they are singular 
departures from the operation of an almost universal 
law. A notable case is that of Mr. Jackson, a lovely 
feathered Byblcemen which was never in the breeder 
stage, but broke into form the first time of blooming. 
There is no known principle in vegetable philosophy , 
to govern the breaking of flowers, and a grower cannot 
tell from the appearance of a flower how it will break. 
Seeds taken from Bizarre Tulips will produce a very 
large proportion of Bizarre breeders, the same with 
seeds from Eose and Bybloemen Tulips, and a grower 
can readily class them in the breeder character. But 
whether a Bizarre breeder will break into a good or an 
indifferent bloom ; whether or not a feathered or a 
flamed flower, no one knowetli. Mr. Samuel Barlow 
once told me that breaking flower from the breeder 
state may be helped by growing the bulbs for a year 
under changed conditions of soil and atmosphere, and 
then bringing them back and growing them in their 
original situation. A check in growth will also facili¬ 
tate the breaking of breeders. In 1875 Mr. Barlow had 
a misfortune with his beds, and three-fourths of his 
breeder Tulips did not flower ; the bulbs were small 
when lifted, and many of them rootless. The following 
year the number of breaks among them was something 
extraordinary, as nearly a third of the number of the 
sorely furnished bulbs rectified or broke Mr. Barlow 
holds the opinion that the cause of the rectification is 
connected with the growth of the season in which the 
flower blooms for the last time as a breeder ; but noth¬ 
ing in the appearance of the flower will tell the grower 
that it will bloom the next year as a feathered or a 
flamed type. 
There are many curious facts connected with 
the culture of the Tulip constantly coming to light. 
