456 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 20, 1886. 
THE ST. JOHN’S NURSERIES, 
WORCESTER. 
Though known the world over wherever gardening 
is cherished as one of the largest and best equipped 
plant producing establishments in this country, it is 
only by paying a visit to the famous nurseries at St. 
John’s, a suburb of Worcester city, that one can gain 
any adequate idea of the magnitude of the operations 
in plant and tree raising carried on by the firm of 
Messrs. Richard Smith & Co. To say that the nurseries 
cover 190 acres of ground, or thereabouts, that a large 
area is covered with glass, and that there is a straight 
service road through the nursery a mile and a quarter 
in length, may help us a little in the matter, but the 
real facts of the case can only be obtained by a walk 
through the houses and tree quarters, and by observing 
the high pressure rate at which propagation is carried 
on in the former, and the splendid quality of the trees, 
shrubs, and other hardy plants grown outside. 
Started in a modest way some eighty years ago by the 
father of the present head of the firm, the business has 
been raised ts one of the first importance in the trade, 
and judging by the energy with which its vast 
operations are conducted, it bids fair to increase both 
in size and reputation. At St. John’s there are certain 
specialities which form the main features of the busi¬ 
ness, but with the exception of Orchids there is no 
class of plants of any value that is not cultivated to a 
greater or less extent. The specialities in the glass 
departments are Clematises and Roses, and outside 
hardy ornamental trees and shrubs, fruit trees, Roses, 
and herbaceous plants, are the great features. Of 
Clematises, the numbers annually propagated by 
grafting is simply enormous, the stock raised last year 
being between 75,000 and 80,000, and this season tire 
number will be increased, so great is the demand for 
these useful and showy climbers. The number of sorts 
grown is about 75, aud that which is increased in the 
greatest number is C. Jackmanni, of which it seems 
impossible to grow too many. 
Roses in pots stand next as regards numbers, and 
next to the Clematis houses there is no more busy de¬ 
partment in the nursery at the present time, some 
thousands of plants being grown on in all sizes for the 
spring and summer trade. Some sorts are, of course, 
more extensively grown than others, and it is interesting 
to know that Niphetos and Marechal Niel still head 
the list, the former being first, and plants of all sizes 
are kept in stock. The other popular varieties are 
Devoniensis, Isabella Sprunt, Sunset, Perle des Jardins, 
Reine Marie Henriette, Gloire de Dijon, Catherine 
Mermet, Marie Yan Houtte, W. A. Richardson, and 
Madame Falcot; while among the new ones special 
regard is being paid to the propagation of Madame 
de Watteville, Camoens, William Francis Bennett, 
Grace Darling, Etoile de Lyon, &c. Standards and 
dwarfs, outside, are represented by thousands, not¬ 
withstanding the strong demand that always seems to 
exist for them. 
Among the hardy ornamented plants, next to the 
vast numbers of handsome specimen Conifers of all 
sizes, nothing at this season seems to stand out so con¬ 
spicuously in the quarters as the large standard Hollies, 
the gold and silver variegated varieties of which attract 
the eye at all points, and compel one to wonder why it 
is that these hardy and handsome trees are not more 
grown for winter effect. Of Golden Queen, Waterer’s, 
and The Milkmaid it is impossible to speak too highly, 
while the weeping forms of Golden Queen and Silver 
Queen equally claim our admiration. All the variegated 
and green-leaved varieties that are worth growing are 
to be seen here, and in plants ranging from 1 ft. to 
14 ft. in height. Among Conifers few things attract the 
notice of visitors just now more than the fine stocks of 
Picea nobilis glauca, P. pinsapo glauca, P. Veitchii, 
P. lasiocarpa, P. grandis, Cedrus deodara, Cupressus 
Lawsoniana and its variety viridis, Thujopsis borealis, 
Thuja Lobbi, and the American Arbor vitse, all sorts 
being represented by plants from 1 ft. upwards. Here, 
also, we noticed a few plants of the weeping Hemlock 
Spruce, recently obtained from America, and which 
promises to become a favourite when better known. 
Common Yews and Laurels—colchica, caucasica, and 
Portugal—and Austrian Pines are seen in immense 
quantities. 
Of Deciduous trees the best variety of purple Beech, 
and the cut-leaved forms of Beech and Birch, seem to 
have special attention paid them ; and trees for street 
planting are grown in immense numbers. Perhaps 
nowhere else can such a grand stock be seen of London 
Planes, of all sizes up to 18 ft., and fit for producing 
immediate effect. Other trees grown for this purpose 
are the Sycamore, the Norway Maple, the Huntingdon 
Elm, and the Red Twigged Lime. Variegated leaved 
trees, largely grown, include the Variegated Sycamore, 
Acer negundo variegata, Purple Sycamore, Acer col- 
chicum rubrum, A. Schwedlerii, A. virginicum rubrum, 
the Purple Beech, Golden Oak, Purple Oak, Golden 
Poplar (P. canadensis aurea), and the Golden-leaved 
Catalpa. Weeping trees again form another section, 
and very handsome most of them are. Among Willows, 
Wolseyana, Kilmarnock, and American Weeping, hold 
a very prominent position ; and there are few more 
striking objects than the Weeping Elm (Ulrnus latifolia 
pendula), which grows in the form of an umbrella. 
Populus grandidentata pendula is another free growing 
and fine tree. The Weeping Ash requires no comment; 
but Carragana arborescens pendula deserves to be 
better known as a cemetery tree, as for this purpose it 
is strongly to be recommended. 
The fruit tree department would require a page or 
two to itself to do it anything like justice, and the trees 
to be seen in summer, not as they are, of course, now, 
under bare poles. Standards, dwarfs, bushes, pyramids, 
espalliers, dwarf trained and cordons in galore, are 
here to be seen. As we walk through quarter after 
quarter, admiring the cleanly grown and thrifty trees 
of Pears on the Quince, standards on the free stock, 
Apples in all the leading kinds, and in any form 
desired, Plums, Cherries, &e., one wonders where they 
will all go to, and how soon they will be sent away. 
Trained trees in pots—Apples, Pears, Plums, Peaches, 
and Nectarines—also claim attention by their numbers 
and quality. But we must get on to the herbaceous 
department, noting by the way immense beds of As¬ 
paragus, one, two, and three years old, and several 
varieties of American Blackberries, which are growing 
in popular favour, if we may judge by the demand for 
such sorts as the Wilson Junior, Kittatinny, Lawton, 
Taylor’s Prolific, Parsley-leaved, and Dorchester. 
The herbaceous plant department occupies some four 
acres, and here large stocks are maintained of all the 
leading decorative sorts, and the number of species 
and varieties cultivated is between 5,000 and 6,000. 
Stove and greenhouse plants are also represented, and 
some things in great numbers. Ericas, and Epacrises, 
Pimelias, and New Holland plants generally for the 
autumn trade are well done. Lapageria rosea and 
alba are raised in large numbers, of seedlings alone the 
number is 12,000, and we noted a fine stock of L. 
rosea magnifica, the highest coloured variety known. 
Show and fancy Pelargoniums, Indian Azaleas, and 
Camellias, all home worked, and fine healthy stuff, 
and a great variety of stove plants also claim recog¬ 
nition, but which the limits on our space forbids for 
the present. 
-- 
ON WINTERING LOBELIAS. 
I have many times heard reports of failures similar 
to that made by Mr. Gilbert, and as to the difficulty of 
keeping a stock of plants to provide the spring supply 
of cuttings, I have seen in some of your contemporaries, 
questions asked again and again. There can be no 
doubt but that the cause of failure in most instances 
is one that is under our complete control, and if 
the requisite attention is given to the matter, the 
difficulty is at once obviated ; I speak confidentally 
from having been in the oven once myself many years 
ago. I used to pot up a fine lot of plants in the 
autumn, and which used to go on and look well perhaps 
for two or three months, and then grow less beautiful 
day by day, until, eventually, they became unsightly 
objects with scarcely a healthy cutting upon them. 
Having several times signally failed in wintering my 
Lobelias, I was led to adopt a plan which has proved 
most satisfactory. I had, hitherto, taken up the plants 
in the autumn for stock, and potted them entire, but 
instead of thus potting them, I subsequently adopted the 
plan of dividing them into small pieces, potting six of 
these round the edge of 5-in. pots, in which thumb pots 
are inserted for the purpose of drainage. After a good 
watering they are placed on shelves as near the glass as 
possible, in which position they remain until the follow¬ 
ing spring, being supplied with water as required. By 
the month of March the plants become good bushy stuff', 
and ready to be still further operated on, and in most 
cases when they have done well the number can be 
multiplied by six ; three dozen plants from every 48- 
sized pot so wintered, are all destined to make good 
plants by the time that they are required for bedding 
out. When the plants are divided in the spring, four 
plants only should be placed in a 5-in. pot, or the 
plants can be placed in shallow boxes, and turned out 
from these without using pots at all. The plants 
should, when divided and replanted, whether in pots 
or boxes, be put rather deep in the new soil, which in¬ 
duces entirely new root growth, and renders the young 
plants so treated equal in every respect to those raised 
by propagating from cuttings. I rarely now increase by 
the latter mode, or by seed, unless it is with some new 
sort, or with the object of endeavouring to obtain a dis¬ 
tinct variety. I herewith enclose a plant, one of six, 
from a 5-in. pot, as an example of the treatment herein 
described .—George Fry, Lewisham. [Nothing could be 
more satisfactory.— Ed.] 
-->X<-- 
BLUE HYDRANGEAS. 
Not long since an order was received by a nurseryman 
for a plant each of a blue and pink Hydrangea. The 
nurseryman, as a matter of course, would find some 
difficulty in executing such an order, because, although 
he might obtain a plant that in the previous year had 
produced blue flowers, he could not say when trans¬ 
planted to another soil it would still continue to do so. 
My neighbour, the nurseryman, was fairly puzzled, and 
he appealed to me for advice. I counselled him to 
obtain a struck cutting from a plant that had flowered 
blue, but to be careful to state he could not guarantee 
that the flowers’would be blue when the plant bloomed. 
He did this, and in doing so took a straightforward 
course. 
The actual cause that produces the change of colour 
in the Hydrangea is yet a matter for doubt. Experi¬ 
ments have been made, but they have scarcely taught 
us more than mere conjecture. ‘ ‘ When iron filings and 
a solution of alum are used, in some soils the blue 
colour is produced, while the same means will not pro¬ 
duce it in others ; and other soils will almost invariably 
produce this blue colour without any peculiar matter 
whatever being added. The loams at Kenwood, at 
Hampstead Heath, and Stanmore Heath, and the peats 
at Wimbledon, as well at some bogs near Edinburgh, 
are famous for producing this blue in the Hydrangea. 
When trying artificially with iron filings and alum- 
water, we have had different colours on the same plant. 
This variation is merely temporary, it cannot be pro¬ 
pagated like a variety ; a cutting from a blue plant 
will produce a rose one, unless the peculiar treatment 
be continued.” Such is the testimony of one authority. 
When I was travelling in Ireland in 1S69, I was 
amazed at the blue Hydrangeas I saw there. I can 
instance three places in particular where they were 
grand about the shrubberies, viz., at Mr. Grant's, a 
small place near Lismore Castle, in the Valley of 
Blackwater ; at Castle Martyr, the Earl of Shannon’s 
seat, near Cork ; and at Muckross, Ivillarney, Captain 
Herbert’s charming place. At Mr. Grant’s there wore 
immense bushes of great width and age ; some had 
been planted over fort} 7 years, and the flowers were of 
a beautiful blue tint, and the} 7 were growing too on a 
somewhat elevated spot above the level of the roadway. 
At Castle Martyr, and also at Muckross, the plants 
were smaller but finely coloured. In both cases the 
flowers opened pink aud then changed to blue, and as 
they decayed they assumed the pink tint again. In 
all cases I was informed that the presence of the blue 
tint was owing to oxide of iron being in the soil. In 
the marshy parts of the Muckross demesne the small 
rivulets were tainted with the oxide, and in the moist 
parts it exuded from the ground as a result of the 
pressure of the foot upon it. 
Another remarkable fact was, that cuttings taken 
from the blue-flowered Hydrangeas when struck and in 
flower, if grown in pots, bore no trace of the blue tint, 
thus showing to my mind that the blue colour was 
traceable to some property in the soil, but when 
planted out in the open ground in the course of four or 
more years, sometimes less, blue flowers would appear. 
I wonder if artificial means would produce such a 
decided blue tint as that I saw in Ireland ? 
We are told by chemists that an oxide is a substance 
formed by a combination of a portion of oxygen with 
some base, or a substance combined with oxygen 
without being in the state of an acid, and this appears 
