88 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
October 10, 1885, 
NOTES FROM GARDENS. 
Oakbrook, Sheffield. —Amongst the many fine 
suburban residences in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, 
this is one of the principal. The princely mansion 
was built by the late Mark Firth, Esq., and is still 
occupied by his widow. The gardens and park-like 
grounds which surround it are about twenty-six acres 
in extent, forming a slope from the mansion towards 
the south, the lowest portion of which is part of the 
old Endeliffe wood. About a 100 yards from the 
east front there is a little valley, and a stream of 
water which supplies a piece of ornamental water,' and 
close by this valley are four golden Irish Yews and 
two Oaks planted by members of the Royal Family, 
and all of which are doing well. The Yew trees were 
planted in 1875, by their Royal Highnesses the Prince 
and Princess of 'Wales, on the occasion of their visit to 
Sheffield to open the Firth Park, which was given to 
the town by the late Mr. Firth. The two Oaks 
mentioned were planted a few years later by the late 
Duke of Albany, who visited the town on the occasion 
of the opening of the Firth College, which was also 
given by the same philanthropist, whose name will for 
ever live as an example to others, by his many acts of 
generosity to his native town. 
On the west front are the flower gardens, which at 
the time of my visit, September 23rd, were very neat and 
gay with bedding plants, including some excellent 
examples of carpet bedding ; this part of the garden is 
well protected from the east by the mansion, and from 
the north by a good range of glass, in front of which 
are some borders of single seedling Dahlias, with many 
shades of bright colour ; these are not tied to stakes, as 
we generally see them, but laid down at the time they 
were planted and allowed to grow naturally, by which 
m ethod they grow dwarf and look much better. W e next 
enter the range of glass, which is divided into four com¬ 
partments, the first is a stove in which are several 
healthy Orchids and decorative stove plants, amongst 
the latter being a plant of the double white Cleroden- 
dron, too seldom seen amongst collections of plants. 
The next house is a lofty conservatory, the centre of. 
which is occupied by large Camellias planted out, full 
of vigour, and well set with fine promising buds. 
These Camellias were not in this condition when Mr. 
Woodcock, the gardener, took charge three years ago, 
and he attributes his success in their culture in a great 
measure to the application of Beeson’s manure, and a 
good supply of water. The side stages are filled with 
decorative plants. 
The other two houses in this range are vineries, bear¬ 
ing good crops of fruit. On the back wall of one of 
these vineries are some fine plants of Sericographis 
Ghiesbreghtiana, which grows very vigorously, and 
flowers profusely during the winter months. Continu¬ 
ing our steps westwards we come to a very high wall 
which protects the fruit garden from the north winds ; 
this wall is planted with two sets of trees, the lower part 
with Apricots which reach about half way up, the upper 
part being covered with Pears, grafted on long stems, 
most of them carrying heavy crops of fruit. On the 
w'est side of this garden there is a range of Peach houses 
having an east aspect, which is not favourable to the 
production of the best fruit, hut under Mr. Woodcock’s 
careful management fine crops are annually produced. 
In front of this glass range stands four rows of Chry¬ 
santhemums stout and vigorous, which have the appear¬ 
ance of ‘ ‘ life-guardsmen ” in training for a fierce battle. 
In another span-roof conservatory, which runs north 
and south at one end of the tennis ground, the centre 
of attraction at the time of my visit was the Lapagerias, 
red and white, both planted in boxes, one in each 
corner at the north end. The two plants cover a space 
of 252 sq. ft., with such a profusion of flowers hanging 
in clusters of eight or ten on a shoot ; we calculated 
that they would average six expanded flowers to the 
foot. The boxes in which they are growing are very 
small, being only 4 ft. by 1 ft. 6 in. and 1 ft. 6 in. deep, 
resting on the liot-water pipes beneath the stage. I 
enquired of Mr. Woodcock how he managed to keep 
them in such a vigorous condition in these small boxes, 
and he replied that he gave them an annual top dressing 
of peat, loam, and charcoal, with the addition of a little 
Beeson’s manure. At the opposite end of the house 
there are Tea Roses, which will, from their appearance, 
do good service in due season. The kitchen gardens 
are some distance from the mansion on the south side 
of the park, which is in two divisions, the upper part, 
which is about three quarters of an acre, the lower 
garden being about one acre, both alike producing fine 
crops of vegetables. The Potato crops, just lifted, were 
of good quality and free from disease. This depart¬ 
ment is quite in harmony with the others, which 
testify to the visitor that careful and good management 
is carried out by the gardener. — W. S. 
--- 
PLANTS FOR FORGING. 
(Continued, from p. 59. ) 
Hard-wooded Plants. —Having in our previous 
notes dealt exclusively with bulbs and plants of a soft- 
wooded and herbaceous character, we now come to 
what may be termed the hard-wooded section, and 
which includes shrubs of various descriptions, both 
evergreen and deciduous, being equalty useful and 
as valuable for early or late forcing as those subjects 
already noticed. At the outset it may be as well to 
remark for the purpose of avoiding a repetition, that in 
potting hard-wooded subjects, a somewhat different 
system must be adopted from that which is applied to 
plants of an opposite character, viz., they must be 
potted very firmly, ramming the soil into the pots with 
a stout stick made for the purpose. To many this may 
appear to be a very small matter, but let us reply to 
such by stating that in it lies one of the elements of 
success, and to ignore or disregard it in practice simply 
means failure. 
Andromeda floribunda.— Although not one of the 
most popular shrubs, this is, nevertheless, well worth 
growing for the adornment of our conservatories in the 
early spring months ; being very floriferous, and pro¬ 
ducing as it does an abundance of its greenish white 
blossoms, which are very useful for cutting, it ought 
not to be overlooked where winter flowers are in demand. 
It delights -as in fact most other subjects of its class 
do—in a somewhat peaty soil, it should be lifted from 
the open ground and .potted towards the end of this 
month, and introduced into a gentle heat in December 
if it is required to flower before March. 
Azaleas. — It goes almost without saying, that, 
these are unsurpassed for floral beauty and usefulness 
by any other class of hard-wooded winter and spring 
flowering plants, and amongst which they may be said 
to hold the same place relatively as does the Lily of 
the Valley amongst its class. There are so many good 
varieties, that we can make no pretence at giving 
anything like a full list of the best sorts to grow ; re¬ 
garding A. iudica, however, it may be stated that the 
great majority of its varieties will be found suitable for 
forcing, and the same remark applies to the Belgian 
kinds. A. pontica has always been a great favourite 
of ours, owing to its peculiar, and to us, very agree¬ 
able odour. Its beautiful yellow flowers render it a very 
showy and attractive object •when intermixed with Palms 
and other foliaged plants ; being deciduous, time must 
be given to shed its leaves before potting, it must also 
be borne in mind not to attempt to force it on too 
quickly, otherwise there may be a premature falling off 
of buds. In A. mollis and its varieties—originally 
introduced from Japan—we have a race of Azaleas 
which has gained great popularity during the last three 
or four years, and in our opinion, justly so, as in form, 
colour, and size of flower, together -with its handsome 
foliage, it is much superior to the Belgian and ponticum 
varieties. An additional merit also is its dwarf compact 
habit and sweet fragrance, or perhaps we ought to say 
strong smell, for sweet it most decidedly is not to all 
constitutions. A plant in flower in a small stuffy room, 
would give one the idea of a fox being huddled up 
in some warm corner after a hard day’s hunting, at 
least, such was the remark made to the writer the first 
time he had occasion to use the plant for room decora¬ 
tion, but being in a fox-hunting country, and the 
individual not over strong at the time, no great heed 
was given to the expression, and the plant has been 
used for the same purpose many times since. Two 
parts peat and one part of loam will be found a suitable 
compost for these, and a moist warm temperature of 
from 60° to 65° with plenty of syringing overhead, will 
be found to answer all other requirements to bring this 
into flower early. 
DEUTZIA CRENATA FLORE RLENO AND D. GRACILIS, 
especially the latter, should receive every attention at 
the hands of their cultivator, as they are of inestimable 
value in a variety of ways for decorative purposes. 
Many grow on the plants into flowering stuff in pots, 
and we do not wish to deprecate the system as it 
is the only successful one to follow in some of the 
northern counties, still, we think by far the better plan 
to adopt in the south is, to plant out in the open border 
in May, and lift again early in October. Of course, 
they must have a sunny position and good soil to grow 
in, as well as receive every attention in the way of 
watering, staking, and tying. Treated thus, we get 
strong sturdy plants with well ripened wood, capable 
of producing large quantities of bloom. 
Kalmia latifolia deserves passing mention as 
being an old North American shrub introduced in 1734, 
and specially adapted for winter forcing, It is seldom, 
however—at least not generally—met with now-a-days, 
and yet, we can hardly say for why, except it is that 
some of the more recent introductions have knocked it 
out of time ; be that as it may, we have in it a very 
pretty free-flowering shrub that is worthy of commen¬ 
dation for forcing. 
Lilac.— Charles X. and Persian are unquestionably 
the best sorts for this purpose, so also are imported 
plants, i.e., if small plants in pots are wanted, and if 
they are required to flower at Christmas, these will 
stand plenty of heat and moisture. If, however, they 
are to be grown only for cut blooms and are wanted a 
little later than the time mentioned, we should much 
prefer to dig up bushes 6 or 8 ft. high, and as much 
through from the open ground, and which, if put 
into, an early vinery, just started, and with a covering 
of soil 3 or 4 ins. deep over the roots, an incalculable 
amount of bloom may be cut, costing but little trouble 
or attention beyond a daily syringing overhead and an 
occasional watering at the roots. 
Piutnus sinensis alba.— The double variety is a 
subject possessing real merit, and may be briefly 
described as very pretty, very free-flowering, and 
easily grown. 
Rhododendrons are amongst the most gorgeous and 
showy shrubs we have, concerning which a whole page 
might be written if one were to enter into details ; to 
be brief and to the point let me here say, that named 
varieties, although more expensive than unnamed ones, 
will be found in the end to give by far the greatest 
amount of satisfaction. They may be potted up towards 
the end of this month, using peat only as a compost to 
grow them in ; after potting, they should be plunged 
in coal ashes or cocoa-nut fibre refuse, there to remain 
for some few weeks before introducing them into heat. If 
there is one thing more than another that Rhododen¬ 
drons will resent, it is hard forcing ; they must be 
brought on very gradually, and on no account must 
they be allowed to suffer for want of water, neglect of 
either of these two points will most assuredly bring 
about failure. 
Viburnum opulus. —The Guelder Rose is too well- 
known and popular to require any lengthened remarks, 
we will merely say that its large clusters of white 
flowers reminding one very much of snowballs, makes it 
a conspicuous and striking object when in bloom, and 
ought to secure for it a foremost place in all collections 
of plants for forcing. J. H. 
--- 
THE FLAME NASTURTIUM. 
Although this charming creeper, Tropieolum speei- 
osuni, was introduced into English gardens some forty 
years ago from South America, and although it is 
strikingly beautiful, and unlike any other plant 
wherever it thrives well, the fact remains that even to 
this day it is not generally cultivated, and is unknown 
even to many gardeners. In some parts of Scotland it 
grows in the most luxuriant manner, but in gardens on 
this side of the border many failures with it have been 
experienced, so many, indeed, that the unsuccessful in 
some instances believe the plant unmanagable except 
in Scotland. Such is not the case, however, for in 
various parts of the country we have seen the Flame 
Nasturtium growing to perfection, and as an example 
of what it will do, even in the neighbourhood of 
London, we gladly avail ourselves of the ojiportunity 
of giving an illustration of it growing over the porch 
of the Harrow School Sanatorium, where it has become 
so thoroughly established that every summer it forms 
an object of great beauty, its graceful slender shoots 
twining in all directions over the porch, and the shrubs 
beside it, and sending out its drooping sprays of reddish 
scarlet flowers in all directions. 
As may readily be supposed by a glance at our il¬ 
lustration, which gives on a small scale the habit of the 
plant, and by reference to the spray above it the 
