806 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 21, 1886. 
there is a big lot, is, indeed a beauty, many of the 
flowers are simply exquisite, no other adjective can he 
applied. There are two self-coloured flowers of a rich 
red hue, having white ground edgings upon which is 
flung, as it were, small specks of red, and these are 
truly lovely. But what between second-year bulbs 
and seedlings it is now perfectly easy to have these 
glorious Gloxinias in bloom all the year round. Were 
anyone disposed to pen an essay upon the advance 
made in horticulture during the past twenty years, they 
would find ample material for a long chapter on Begonias 
and Gloxinias alone. What our paters could not have 
imagined we in our gardens now possess. What our 
children may enjoy we cannot realise, but simply from 
analogy imagine. 
Outdoors hardier flowers are in wondrous profusion, 
thus we are privileged to see Hollyhocks in fine form, 
and raised from seed, and displaying fine quality in the 
flowers, great variety of colours, and happily entire 
freedom from fungus. Ho doubt, constant raising from 
seed, and shifting the plants from place to place tends 
to ultimately overcome this old and troublesome pest; 
certainly the strain at Beading shows us conclusively 
that we have but to get seed from year to year and sow 
it, planting out in fresh soil yearly, and thus a fine 
show of Hollyhocks is ensured. The colours are pure 
white, lemon, yellow, rose, carmine, red, crimson, 
maroon, and many others, enough to satisfy the require¬ 
ments of any garden. 
It seems to be a strange leap from the tall Holly¬ 
hock to the lowly PortulaCa, but it may well be doubted 
whether in all the kingdom a more lovely display of 
these charming creeping plants can be seen than is af¬ 
forded here. Some in bands, or as edgings to the 
broad carriage way which enters the nursery, sometimes 
in mixture, sometimes in blotches of colours ; they are 
inexpressibly lovely, and give hues of colours rarely 
found in other flowers. The soil is first well dug, and 
fined on the surface, then trodden to ensure a firm 
base, lest the loose earth should too deeply absorb the 
seed. A broad and exceedingly shallow drill is marked 
out, the seed sown thinly, and then covered as thinly 
with fine sifted old pot-soil. The result as seen the 
other day was a beautiful sight, such as might have 
delighted even the rudest and coarsest of cynics. 
Dianthuses in great variety, single and double, form 
a very interesting feature. How beautiful and varied 
these Indian and Chinese forms of our Sweet William 
family are, a visit to this nursery will reveal. From 
pure white to intense maroon may be found intermediate, 
a score or more hues and markings in all sorts of forms 
and mixture. Verily a garden is lacking much which 
has none of the annual Dianthus within its borders. 
Our old bedding friends, Verbenas, are here, too, in 
great profusion, not as of old from cuttings, but from 
seed, for it is the object of the Messrs. Sutton’s to show 
here samples of the produce of seed stocks on the one 
hand, and on the other to obtain for their own 
edification, some real test of the merits of each. Thus 
Verbenas are largely grown in blotches of colour, white, 
rose, carmine, red, scarlet, blue, purple, crimson, and 
a beautiful striped form giving such a wealth of bloom. 
Whether needed to make a bedding display, or furnish 
cut flowers, they are most useful, and coming true from 
seed are as easily raised as ordinary tender annuals. 
Then we find in big beds of Zinnias flowers of great 
size and fine form, and in most cases showing wonder¬ 
fully rich colours ; indeed, in this respect the Zinnia 
stands amongst tender annuals almost unrivalled. 
Those who remember the single, and not specially 
beautiful, Zinnias of past days, find in the grand 
double reflexed flowers of to-day marvellous advance 
and exceeding beauty. It is very evident from the 
samples growing at Beading, that in those again the 
Messrs. Sutton & Sons have superb strains. Balsams 
planted out are equally fine, and producing huge 
double flowers. It does seem as if these plants in the 
open by far excel the best found in pots under glass. 
Certainly it is a fine outdoor flower, and those who see 
them at Beading will admit that quality is of the finest. 
Summer Stocks are in great abundance, and in 
wondrous variety too. With Asters they needed a 
fortnight longer to fully develope, and probably by the 
time this appears in print, both these very fine tender 
annuals will be making brilliant shows. Every possible 
kind seems to be grown here. Mignonettes are varied 
and interesting, the best seeming to be Brighton White, 
Giant Bed and Golden Queen. Antirrhinums tall and 
compact, Phlox Drummondis very rich and varied in 
colour, and many other flowers, with Tobaccos in great 
variety and grand of foliage ; Tomatos of many kinds, 
and well grown. These and many other things serve 
to make a visit to the nursery just now one of exceeding 
interest. 
-- 
HEATHERBANK and OAK WOOD, 
WEYBRIDGE. 
In his gardens, now fast becoming notorious, Geo. 
F. Wilson, Esq., the chairman of the Floral Committee 
of the Boval Horticultural Society, appears to have 
realized the dream of the lover of hardy exotic flowers, 
and by his knowledge of their requirements, no less 
than by his good fortune to have such a suitable situa¬ 
tion to give them as that in which he has arranged his 
garden in a wood, he has succeeded in establishing a 
vast number of rare plants of other countries, and so 
tar rendering them at home, that they not only exhibit 
their greatest beauty in uncurbed luxuriance, but testify 
of their appreciation of the arrangements made for their 
comfort by coming up from seeds in some cases by the 
thousand, and in vigour quite equal to that which they 
would exhibit in their native American woods, Swiss 
mountains, or Japan swamps or plains. Thus in that 
lovely sylvan spot at Oakwood, beneath the Scotch Firs 
and Oaks, or on the shady banks, we observed thou¬ 
sands of young Lilies, Iris Ksempferi, Rhododendrons, 
and other plants coming up in all directions, and even 
the rare Indian Poppies or Meconopsis preparing a 
goodly supply of successors, while the Osmunda cinna- 
momea, and other Ferns, appear in countless numbers. 
This luxuriance of the young gives the best evidence of 
the happiness of the more mature, for had not care been 
taken to plant in proper soil and situation, the second 
generation would never have appeared even where the 
old plants continued to struggle on. 
The Oakwood Garden at Wislet. 
This is a wood in which Mr. Wilson has planted, in 
suitable situations, thousands of Lilies and hardy, or 
presumably hardy plants, either in the wood, by the 
side of the lake, or on the slopes, which are laid out in 
many mounds and rockeries, or enclosed in various 
ways by shelters of Trees, Rhododendrons and other 
suitable plants. Immediately on arriving at that por¬ 
tion of the wood that commands a view of the garden, 
the success of it is felt, by the fine and unusual appear¬ 
ance which its gaily coloured surface presents. Let us 
from the entrance pass the eye over the ground and 
note a few of the great and gorgeously flowered bushes 
which attract notice, we will then make the tour of 
inspection and note a few of the more beautiful things 
at present in flower; morejwe cannot do, for the variety 
s so bewildering, kind each month brings an entirely 
new set of beauties. 
First then at the gate the eye is greeted by great 
bushes of the double white and double pink bramble by 
the glowing scarlet sprays of the Tropseolum speciosum 
rambling over the hedge, and the rare and pretty 
Clematis campanulata, with patches of the white 
Anemone, Honorine Jobert, covering many yards; 
further on are great bushes of the mauve and white 
Japanese Rosa rugosa, some in flower and some no less 
beautiful with their large bunches of scarlet fruits and 
their numerous progeny coming up around them. 
Away to the right the eye lights on large clumps of the 
scarlet and yellow Lilium superbum, and the golden- 
rayed Lily of Japan, 8 ft. or 9 ft. in height, while 
showy plants, which may be seen in the distance, are 
the yellow Harpalium rigidum, taller than a man, the 
golden Coreopsis lanceolata, the fine cut-leaved Bocconia 
cordata, Saponaria officinalis fl. pi., with double pink 
flowers, the large bushes of rose and white Cistus, the 
white, pink and red Phloxes, the rich blue Salvia 
patens, the drooping crimson and sulphur Leycesteria 
formosa, the handsome mauve Rubus spectabilis, 
the great white heads of the Hydrangea paniculata, 
and the golden bosses of the Hypericum oblongifolium 
and H. aureum. These blending with the lesser 
flowers and stately foliage shrubs, form a picture not 
easily described or imagined. 
At the entrance, under the shade of the trees, are 
the Fern rockeries, in 'which many rare species have 
grown into large specimens ; among the finest are the 
handsome Hypolepis milkefolia, Athyrium filix-foemina 
pulcherrimum, A. f. -f. coronans, Allosorus crispus (the 
Parsley Fern), Osmunda spectabile, 0. interrupta and 
Asplenium viride. The New Zealand tree Fern, Dick- 
sonia antarctica, too, has been successfully wintered 
at W isley, and the North American climbing Fern, 
Lygodium palmatum, has formed itself into a very 
fine specimen. 
Prominent among the many charming things in 
bloom among the beds and on the rockeries, are Fuchsia 
Riccartonii and F. pumila ; Gentiana ornata ; G. as- 
clepiadea, mingled blue and white, as they sowed 
themselves ; G. pneumonantha, and other fine Gen¬ 
tians ; Campanula G. F. Wilson, a pretty hybrid 
between C. carpatica and C. pulla ; Plumbago Lar- 
pentte ; the crimson Calandrinia umbeUata ; the white 
Linum monogynum ; the blue Cyananthus lobatus, 
like large Violets ; Abelia rupestris ; a fine show of 
the various Ericas, Menziesias and Andromedas ; and 
in a portion set aside for the purpose, a great number 
of interesting things collected in Switzerland by Mr. 
Wilson, jun., who is an able seconder of his father’s 
efforts in his clever gardeniug operations. Among the 
great beds of Lilies in bloom, beside the many hundreds 
of L. auratum, L. speciosum and other plentiful kinds, 
we were much attracted by the beauty of the L. Sco- 
vitzianum, yellow, dotted with crimson ; L. Bateman- 
nife, all pure reddish orange ; L. tigrinum Leopoldii, 
scarlet, dotted with crimson ; L. tigrinum flore pleno, 
a fine double variety ; L. Leitchtlinii, eitron-yeUow, 
dotted with black ; L. Brownii, large, white, tinged 
on the outside with purple : L. Krameri, blush-white ; 
L. longiflorum albo-marginatum, with white flowers 
and white-margined leaves ; L. speciosum Kratzerii, a 
fine fragrant white ; and L. giganteum. These are 
blooming in the most luxuriant manner in more or less 
quantity in many parts of the woodland garden. 
The bridge-spanned lake, w'hich in its -season is 
covered with the sweet Cape pond-weed, Aponogeton 
distachyon, is now embellished with the flowers of our 
white Water Lily, Menyanthes trifoliata, and some of 
the Potamogetons ; on its banks the Japan Iris 
Ksempferi, in many varieties, is quite at home, as well 
as the species of Bamboos, Crinum Powelli, C. capense, 
New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax), Spireea palmata, 
and the many varieties of Iris Germanica ; while in the 
marshy ground of the bog garden, the American 
Sarraeenia purpurea and S. flava, the Fly-trap (Dionaea 
muscipula), Pinguicula hirtifolia, and other insect¬ 
trapping plants are quite at home ; and the lovely 
GentianeRa, near by, so strong that one truss of it 
recently produced 600 of its fine blue flowers, the white, 
variegated, and other rare forms of it, collected by Mr. 
Scott Wilson, being planted near it, in the hope that 
the favourable situation may make like specimens of 
them. 
In the gorse shelters, the Gladioli are very showy ; 
the plants of Sikkim Rhododendrons and other plants, 
being acclimatised, in good order ; and the hugh speci¬ 
men of Camellia, Duchess d’Orleans, 12 ft. across, in 
fine health, although not so well set with bloom this 
year as usual. The filmy Fern, Todea superba, is in 
grand health with just the protection of a glass to keep 
it clean and moist ; and the bank of Tea Roses, capped 
by purple Clematis, in unusual vigour, a condition 
which the tuberous Begonias seem inclined to imitate. 
Leaving the fine garden at Oakwood, we return to 
head quarters, at Heatherbank, and find innumerable 
objects of interest among the plantings in the Scotch 
Fir wood which bounds it; notable is a provision made 
for quick-running plants, which when planted among 
others are apt to smother them, with these Mr. Wilson 
copes by allowing to each a separate mound some 6 ft. 
or 7 ft. across, and most of which are now covered and 
perfectly beautiful. One is a mound of Acsna Novte 
Zealandica, another of Fragaria lucida, a third of Poly- 
gonium vaccinifolium, a fourth of Viola semperflorens, 
and many others are clad with different Acsenas, Vincas, 
Potentillas, and instead of causing dread that their 
luxuriance will be doing mischief, they are fine objects. 
Another noteworthy innovation is Mr. Wilson’s 
method of growing such things as Osmanthus, Euony- 
mus, Azalea, Ledum, Pernettyas, Skimmeas, &c., 
among roughly formed rooteries, in which they thrive 
much better than in beds. In the wood is a repetition 
of the grand culture of Lilies found at Wisley, and 
around on every hand is a great profusion of bright 
flowers on the many species of herbaceous perennial 
grown. The whole of the garden, except the portion 
immediately around the house, is kept as near to nature 
as possible, and although unlimited judgment and 
labour must be expended on it, as little of the 
evidence of gardening as possible is allowed to appear 
in a formal manner ; patterns and regularly shaped 
