March 19, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
453 
SUTTON’S 
CHOICE 
FLOWER 
i_i & 
I 
Free 
By Post. 
. 
s: 
$ 
The 
ia 
Best Strata© 
Cultrsratioa, 
PRIMULA ROSEA. 
Per pkt, 2s. 6d., post free. 
POPPY- DOUBLE PJEONY-FLOWERED. 
9 varieties, in separate colours, 2s. Oil., post free 
6 varieties, in separate colours, Is. 6(1., post free 
POPPY- DWARF FRENCH RANUNCULUS 
6 varieties, in separate colours, Is. 6(1., post free 
HOLLYHOCK -SUTTOFS PRIZE. 
10 varieties, separate, 6s. Os., post free 
6 varieties, separate, 3s. 6(1., post free 
Mixed, packet, 2s. 6il., post free ^ 
“Your Flower Seeds do wonderfully 
well here, and cannot be surpassed.”— 
The Rtv. F. T. HA VERGAL, Upton Bishop 
Vicarage. 
FOR FULL PARTICULARS OF 
SCfTQS’i 
Choice Flower Seeds 
SEE 
Sutton’s Amateurs’ Guide, 
The largest and most complete Seed Catalogue issued. 
Beautifully illustrated. Price Is., post free. Gratis 
to customers. 
ROYAL BERKS SEED ESTABLISHMENT, 
READING. 
Sheffield and West Riding Chrysanthemum 
Society. 
T he third annual exhibition 
will be held in the SHEFFIELD CORN EXCHANGE, 
on FRIDAY and SATURDAY, NOVEMBER ISth and 19th, 
when a VALUABLE SILVER CUP and upwards of £40 in 
cash will he given in the Open Classes. 
Schedules of Prizes will be ready shortly, and may be had of 
the Hon. Sec., 
IV. K. WOODCOCK. 
The Gardens, Oakbrook, Sheffield. 
/CRYSTAL PALACE GREAT ANNUAL 
SHOW OF SPRING FLOWERS, Saturday, March 26th. 
Schedules on application to Mr. W. G. HEAD, Garden Superin- 
tendent, Crystal Palace, S.E. 
Pontefract, Knottingley, and Ackworth Chry¬ 
santhemum Society. 
T HE FIRST EXHIBITION will be held 
in the Town Hall, Pontefract, November 25th and 26th. 
Over £60 offered in Prizes. Schedules from the Secretary, 
Mr. T. GLOVER, Friar Wood, Pontefract. 
R oyal horticultural society, 
SOUTH KENSINGTON, S.W. 
NOTICE'—COMMITTEE MEETINGS: Scientific, at 1 p.ra., 
in the Lindley Library; Fruit and Floral, at 11 a.m., and 
Narcissus at 12 noon, in the Conservatory, on Tuesday next, 
March 22nd. 
N.B.—Entrances, N.E. Orchard House, Exhibition Road ; and 
Exhibitors’ Entrance, east side of Rnyal Albert Hall. 
Next Week’s Engagements. 
Tuesday, March 22nd.—Fruit and Floral Committees of the 
R. H. S. meet at 11 a.m. Sale of Carnations, Roses, &c , at 
the City Auction Rooms, by Protlieroe & Morris. 
Wednesday, March 23rd.—Royal Botanic Society’s Spring Show. 
Sale of Roses, &c., at Stevens’ Rooms. Sale of Lilies, 
Freesias, Roses, &c., at Protlieroe and Morris's Rooms. 
Thursday, March 24th.—Mr B. S. Williams’ Spring Exhibition 
opens Sale of Imported and Established Orchids at Stevens’ 
Rooms. 
Friday, March 25th.—Messrs. W. Cutbusli & Son’s Spring 
Exhibition opens. Sale of Imported Orchids at Protlieroe & 
Morris’s Rooms. 
Saturday, March 26th.—Crystal Palace Flower Show. Sale of 
Roses, &e., at Stevens’ and Protlieroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE PAGE 
Amateurs’ Garden. 455 
Anthurium, double-spathed 454 
Carnations, bordei. 459 
Chinese Primrose .45S 
Christmas Roses. 457 
Clivia miniata. 454 
Corydalis Kolpakowskiana 455 
Disa grandiflora .454 
Eupatorium riparium . .. 454 
Floral Committee awards.. 458 
Fruit Trees, protecting.... 456 
Gardeners’ Calendar.455 
Gardeners’ Orphanage .... 454 
Grape, Lady Downes .... 45S 
Horticultural Societies.... 455 
Gros Colmar v. Lady 
Downes Grape. 456 
Howick House, notes from 456 
lmpatiens Sultani. 459 
Lapeyrousia grandiflora .. 455 
Nash Court . 45S 
(klontoglossum Alexandra 454 
Peach Culture, open-air .. 455 
Plants, Illustrated. 455 
Rhododendron argenteum 455 
Royal Horticultural Society 456 
Salad Plant Culture. 457 
Spring Flowers . 45 3 
Temperatures, high . 455 
Xanthoceras sorbilolia_ 455 
“Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
IpG artatti«gll[flrlh. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 1887. 
Spring Flowers. —Who hath not felt the 
genial influences of spring 1 The truth of this 
strikes us most forcibly when, after a severe 
or protracted winter, or even a lengthened 
snowstorm, mild open weather suddenly breaks 
upon us. With the advent of such a pro¬ 
pitious season, all nature seems relenting; 
flowers spring up on every side; the feathered 
tribes warble; and as a poet has said, 
“ not rural sights alone, hut rural sounds, 
exhilarate the spirits.” If, on the other 
hand, the change is gradual, it is infinitely less 
perceptible; hut the dullest as well as the 
keenest observer cannot fail to be impressed 
with the certain, if slow, return of the spring- 
tide of another season—the preparation for 
another golden harvest. 
Spring lias, indeed, dawned upon us again, 
yet with severe frosts, snow, soul-depressing 
fogs, and piercing cold east winds still 
with us, we can hardly believe the poet, 
but can only re-echo his sentiment, when he 
says, “ Come gentle spring, ethereal mildness, 
come.” The searching winds of March are 
often more trying to vegetation, or at least the 
effects are more evident, than all the months 
of winter. Previous to, and since the memor¬ 
able and destructive snow-storm that set in 
with terrible suddenness the day after Christ¬ 
mas, the weather has been unusually cold, or 
in other words, the winter all through has 
been a severe one. This is evident by the 
flowering period of hardy bulbous and other 
plants being several weeks behind their usual 
time, while the flower buds of many have 
been completely ruined for another year. This 
applies to Chimonantlms and Laurestine, that 
usually flower in perfection about mid-winter, 
if the weather is mild and open. The winter¬ 
flowering Crocus Imperati suffers the same 
fate if stormy or frosty weather succeeds a 
mild open time. 
The flowers that usher in the spring and 
herald the approach of sunnier and more 
favourable times are hotli numerous and varied, 
and if, as in hundreds of cases, they have been 
banished from the gardens of the wealthy by 
the summer bedding mania, we venture to 
predict that the day is not far distant -when 
they will re-enter and take possession of their 
old abodes in greater numbers than ever. The 
extreme hardiness and beauty of many con¬ 
stitute them the flowers of rich and poor alike, 
and herein lies their value and well-merited 
popularity. Foremost amongst these are bulbs, 
and few can resist being sentimental in pro¬ 
portion to their beauty, their novelty, or the 
suddenness with which they make their appear¬ 
ance after the melting of the snow or the 
thawing of the frost-bound crust of earth. 
The peasant is frequently heard to remark that 
such flowers are emblematic of the Resurrection, 
so bright and glorified is their re-appearance 
after being apparently dead. Some have even 
expressed such an opinion who, however, 
believed that the truest economy consisted in 
planting the garden with Potatos, and acted up 
to that belief, notwithstanding a heart-felt 
desire to the contrary. 
In some old gardens, pleasure grounds, or on 
the margins of woods, skirting sylvan walks 
or drives, where Snowdrops have been planted 
somewhat lavishly in former times and are now 
quite wild or naturalised, no artist can paint 
or pen describe the fecundity of mother Earth, 
or the pleasure derived by her more sentient 
subjects. In addition to the common Galan- 
thus nivalis, our collections are now enriched by 
G. Elwesi, G. plicatus, G. Imperati and others. 
These come on in succession from December to 
April, if the season he favourably mild. The 
white and green-tipped Leucojum vernum, 
although not particularly early, opens with 
exceeding grace in February or March; while 
previous to this the yellow Sternhergia lutea 
lias accomplished its mission and faded. The 
Daffodil fever is a healthy outcome of the 
thrice-fortunate and happy revival of some of 
the most beautiful of all hardy bulbs. From 
the Tenby Daffodil, that flowers in February or 
early in March, we have a constant succession, 
as to time, till late in the spring ; while they 
range through all shades of yellow, white, and 
sometimes green, and varying in size from the 
Emperor to the pigmy Narcissus minimi's. 
Other species and varieties, including the 
Hoop-petticoat section, appeal to the diversified 
tastes of the most fastidious, but none can excel 
the purity and delicious fragrance of N. 
poeticus. The magnificent effect of a large 
mass of golden yellow Daffodils, however, at a 
little distance, may be feebly conceived but 
scarcely described. 
Crocuses are not, strictly speaking, bulbs, but 
they are closely similar in habit, and often con¬ 
sidered such in popular estimation. Notwith¬ 
standing the number of species in the hands of 
the cultivator, those found in old gardens 
especially are confined to remarkably few species. 
