500 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April 9, 1887. 
Sometimes we feel as if spring Avere being 
altogether obliterated from the season’s calendar. 
Winter nowadays persists in holding on 
his grim and icy grip for so lengthened 
a period, that summer follows with strange 
and scarcely pleasant rapidity. It need hardly 
be said that we see this slipping away of our 
traditional spring season with exceeding regret. 
Of all the four periods of the year that 
poetry and song have endowed with sentiment, 
the spring stands pre-eminent; but poetry and 
song can hardly put sentiment into a dying 
phrase, for spring is fast becoming a phrase, 
and an empty one, and nothing more. Some¬ 
times Easter has stood as a distinct spring land¬ 
mark. We have in the past found it to be the 
most clearly defined of winter boundaries, and 
also so late as to fall in the very midst of 
spring. This year it would seem as if winter 
had gathered in her Easter outpost, and had 
thrown out a much later or wider one, for as yet 
there is little to indicate that winter is gone or 
that summer is near. 
Even the hardy laughing Daffodils seem 
unwilling to grace the Easter time with their 
nodding coronets of golden yellow ; whilst the 
Primroses, even in their seclusion, far from the 
turmoil and strife of human life, seem to shiver 
and shrink in the cold blast or driving rain. 
The Violets at last, though late, have bloomed 
freely, but sadly denuded of their once 
luxuriant leafage. With such cold and wet 
weather the perfumed flowers still lack some 
of their wonted sweetness, and much of their 
customary brightness. We have often seen 
the Plum and Pear orchards at Easter white 
as driven snow with bloom. Now the buds 
seem but just shedding their scaly coatings, 
and that with exceeding caution, for there is 
a taste of rigour in the air which rather pro¬ 
vokes somnolence than precocity. No doubt 
that is all right enough, and the trees are wise 
in failing to regard one sunny day as the be¬ 
ginning of the summer. Still, sentimentally 
we can but regret that the earliest festive 
season of the year should be shorn of so much 
that wontedly has helped to beautify it. Of 
ordinary spring flowers how few there are 
which will florally greet the Easter morn ! 
Daisies have been trying for weeks past to 
show their beautiful faces, but have hardly 
found encouragement. Polyanthuses strive 
one day to bedeck the earth with floral gems, 
only to find on the next that snow, rain or 
frost has robbed the precious flowers of all 
beauty. The very insects seem dazed, and 
find life gloomy, if not intolerable, in their 
wintry habitations. Literally there is stag¬ 
nation in nature of the most prolonged kind, 
and to gardeners it is hard to endure. The 
necessities of life remain the same, although 
nature fails to help in satisfying them. There 
may come some amends presently. We may 
be rewarded with a grand burst into life and 
beauty, but such reward will be welcome only 
as with it comes some touch of spring or 
summer itself. 
The practical man, to whom sentiment is 
folly, smiles grimly over perturbations anent 
the chilliness of the weather and the lateness of 
the season. He is satisfied all will be well 
later, if not all the better for the present 
hindrance. That may be so, but it affords 
poor consolation to those, perhaps, less stoically 
constituted mortals, who want spring to be 
spring as tradition has it, and not as modern 
weather has determined it. Do we not wish 
at Easter time to find the birds singing gaily 
in the hedgerows and woods, the grass be¬ 
decked with Daisy and Buttercup, and the 
woods with Primrose, Bluebell, and, perchance, 
where introduced, the Daffodil? Why, too, 
can we not have our gardens at Easter gay 
with myriads of lovely hardy spring flowers, 
around and over which the bees hum and 
thousands of insects rejoice ? TTky can we 
not have soft balmy days and quiet soothing, 
if still somewhat chilly, nights? We want 
spring, real spring, a season of life, sweetness 
and beauty, a season to delight and to be 
happy in. _ 
Gardening will be shorn of one-half its 
ancient associations if winter is to rob us of 
spring, and to shorten in a sad way to contem¬ 
plate our outdoor season of enjoyment. We 
are not spoilt children crying for the moon, 
we simply ask for that which seems to have 
been once but is not now. Are we enduring 
a cycle of years in which springs are wiped out, 
and shall we presently come on to yet another 
cycle in which spring dominates and winter is 
driven into more limited quarters? If that 
be so, may the turn come soon, and with it 
seasons bountiful to us or posterity of Easter 
flowers in gardens and fields, all abundant and 
all joyous. 
-->x<-- 
Mr. J. S. Trea'OR, late gardener at Hampton House, 
Great Malvern, has been appointed gardener to Miss 
Williams, Bryngwyn Hall, Bwlch-y-Cibau, Mont¬ 
gomeryshire. 
Mr. Saxder has been successful in importing a fine 
lot of a new blue-flowered Utrtcularia, and the 
plants will come under the hammer at Stevens’ Booms 
on Thursday next. 
On Wednesday, the 30th ult., Mr. R. Dean, of 
Ealing, delivered a very interesting lecture before the 
members of the Caterham Horticultural Society, the 
subject being “A World of Wonder in a Flower,” 
illustrated by the florist’s Tulip. A number of coloured 
diagrams were shown, and the address gave great 
satisfaction to a large audience. At the close a hearty 
vote of thanks was passed to the lecturer by acclama¬ 
tion. 
A gardener residing at Beddish, Lancashire, named 
John Dyer, and aged twenty-five years, recently came 
by his death through attempting a feat of strength 
which he could not accomplish. He tried several times 
to lift a man standing on a spade, but failed, and between 
five and six o’clock the same afternoon he complained of 
a violent pain in his stomach, gradually grew worse, and 
died the next morning, the cause of death being a twist 
of the bowels caused by the exertion. 
Sixteen years ago the trees lining the streets and 
squares of Paris numbered 32,000, and these are 
annually assuming greater importance—a fact which 
speaks for itself when we are told that at the present 
day they number more than 87,000. Since 1870 sixty 
hectares have been added to the promenades. “ Happy 
Parisians !” the I’Illustration Horticolc exclaims. It 
would be interesting to know how London will compare 
with Paris in the matter of trees. 
On the evening of April 1st, the members of the 
Chiswick Mutual Improvement Association, with their 
friends, met at the Bolton Hotel, Chiswick, to cement 
friendships made during the past session. The enter¬ 
tainment took the form of a supper, succeeded by song 
and sentiment. The health of the president of the 
association and the host for the evening having been 
duly honoured, a very enjoyable meeting was brought 
to a close. 
The summer exhibition of the Bedford and Bed¬ 
fordshire Horticultural Society is fixed for July 
13th ; that of the South Hayling Horticultural 
Society for August 11th. The last is a new society, 
and its creation is due to Mr. John Hepper, who was 
formerly gardener at the Elms, Acton. Many old 
friends of Mr. Hepper will be pleased to learn he is so 
worthily promoting the cause of horticulture on the 
south coast. The Chrysanthemum show of the Ascot 
Horticultural Society will take place on November 
9th and 10th. 
Abalia Sieboldi is rarely tried as a town plant, but 
it is really deserving of notice. In Merrion Square, 
Dublin, there was a very fine specimen for several 
years, and it may be there now, planted on the north 
side of the square, which is said to be the best aspect 
for it, and this bloomed finely every year in September 
and October. It is by some considered to be deciduous, 
but the leaves, which are of considerable size, and bold, 
and striking, remain in beauty until quite late in the 
autumn. A large plant of it stood out all the past 
winter in a cold suburb of London, and is scarcely 
harmed. It retained its leaves all the winter, and they 
do not show so many marks of the severity of the 
weather as do tjis conimon Laurels. 
SPIRiEA JAPONIC A. 
Although home-grown clumps of this old, well- 
known, and extremely useful forcing plant may 
not equal in size, nor oftentimes the number of 
flowers and spikes, that are obtained from imported 
ones; still, very creditable plants are to be grown 
from the home-grown clumps, and sufficiently good for 
most purposes. Through various reasons, which I need 
not enter into, I have planted them out, after being 
forced and hardened off in sfeveral different aspects, 
always dividing any that had been flowered in pots of 
over 5 ins. into four pieces, and always allowing them 
to remain two years before again forcing. I can now 
afford to allow them to remain three years without 
forcing them, so much has my stock increased. When 
I came here I found a good patch on a south-east 
border, but which did not force very well. I con¬ 
ceived the idea that if I gave them a more sunny spot 
they might ripen up better, so that I planted, in 
available spots in a sunny plantation, as many as I 
could in the space at command, and the remainder in 
the then only spare space at my command at the 
north-east side of a wall, and where they only got the 
sun until about eleven o’clock in the morning, and that 
partially shaded by trees. Last season I used about 
half from each situation ; but as I did not take the 
precaution to mark them, I did not know, when forced, 
those from the sunny situation, and vice versa, except 
that about half flowered well, whilst the others were 
all but a failure. The trees in the plantation having 
grown, I was not able to plant any more there ; and 
having left about two dozen in the sunny spot, I 
resolved to mark them and see the results this season. 
Contrary to my expectations, those from the shady 
spot surpass those grown in the sun, both in size and 
number of spikes, so that there is really no comparison 
between the two. They are better this year from the 
sunny situation than last year, which may he accounted 
for by the sunless autumn we had, and also through 
the trees shading them more than previously. I have 
entered somewhat fully into the plans 1 adopted, 
thinking, perhaps, that others besides myself had been 
giving them sun, as I have many times seen very in¬ 
different pots of this elegant plant when improperly 
grown in several gardens it has been my pleasure to 
visit ; and being everybody’s plant, I would say to one 
and all, do not give them sun. It may, perhaps, he as 
well to add that they would end in failure if planted 
under thick trees. Even if the shade was not too great 
the situation would be too dry, as it is almost needless 
to say they are moisture-loving subjects. Anyone 
having a north border will find good results by planting 
them there ; and it is, perhaps, the least useful situation 
for most things.— E. Damper, The Gardens, Summer¬ 
ville, Limerick. 
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CANTUA BUXIFOLIA. 
In many collections of old-fashioned hard-wooded 
plants, specimens of this handsome greenhouse subject 
may be found tossing about, undergoing all sorts of 
hardships, neglect and ill-treatment. Their so-called 
barren or flowerless condition is the excuse for this sort 
of treatment, whereas this is merely the result of such 
neglect. At Pendell Court, Bletchingley, Sir George 
Macleay’s gardener, Mr. Boss, grows a large specimen 
trained against the back wall of a cool conservatory. 
This, when in flower, is a sight worth seeing, and the 
flowering takes place in April and May. 
Our illustration represents a short-tubed form of the 
species, which is extremely variable, taking it in its 
widest limits, both with regard to the length of the 
tube of the corolla, the expansion of its lamina, and the 
amount of division or toothing the leaves undergo. 
The typical form is described as having entire leaves, 
but in the Pendell Court specimen, which Mr. Ross 
prefers to call C. dependens, the wedge-shaped leaves 
may be entire or more or less deeply pinnatifid or lobed, 
and the yellowish tube of the corolla is quite 3 ins. 
long, while the delicate rose-coloured lamina is less 
widely expanded. This agrees pretty closely with that 
figured in Paxton’s Floicer Gardm, II., 49. 
Turfy-loam, leaf-soil and sand form a compost 
suitable for the growth of this plant, and cultivators 
with liberal treatment may succeed in flowering it, but 
the greatest measure of success will be achieved by 
planting it out in a greenhouse or conservatory. The 
drainage should also be good ; and if all these conditions 
are observed, the roots are less liable to fluctuations of 
temperature and drought, and the foliage will he 
retained. 
