June 4, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
633 
LILIES OP THE VALLEY AT 
TWICKENHAM. 
It is impossible for any one interested in the culture 
of Lilies of the Valley, not to enjoy a visit every year 
to Messrs. Hawkins & Bennett’s market plant and 
flower garden at Twickenham, where Lilies of the 
Valley are so finely done. Not merely have the firm 
one of the finest strains in the world in their Victoria 
Lily, but they do it so well also, that it is easy to 
perceive how success in blooming arises from excellence 
of culture. This firm holds absolute possession of this 
fine Lily, because they have not sold or grown it in 
pots for market purposes as others do. They grow it 
exclusively in large beds for the production of cut 
flowers, and annually send into market some thousands 
of dozens of bunches of this fragrant and delightful 
flower. Not merely are the flowers pure in colour, but 
the bells are of exceptional size, and the spikes long 
and well thrown out. Allied to this floral development 
there is grand foliage, rich, dark and glossy in hue, 
clean and vigorous. 
therefore, that even in one bed alone there must be 
many thousands of crowns. 
It is noteworthy, that whilst the life of an ordinary 
bed is from seven to eight years, those heated endure 
about five or six years, the forcing tending to weaken 
a little the native vigour of the plants. However, only 
a very moderate quantity is so forced. The Lilies are 
of necessity grown over and over again in the same 
position, so that when an old bed is dispensed with, 
the roots being first lifted out, the soil is trenched 
deeply, the bottom soil removed, and a quantity that 
is fresh and fertile, with abundant short manure, added, 
so that the soil is considerably renovated. The strongest 
crowns are selected, and replanted thickly in rows, 
whilst the weaker crowns are planted deep in nursery 
beds elsewhere to develop ere being replanted into 
blooming beds. The first year after planting, the beds 
produce good blooms, the second year there is a 
slackness of flower, but in the third year they are in full 
bloom again ; this fine florescence continues until the 
plants show signs of exhaustion. The firm, finding their 
ducing huge pips like Camellia or Balsam flowers, is 
Eurydice, one of the most beautiful and perfect doubles 
in cultivation ; the colour is a bright rosy punk. A 
grand double scarlet kind is King of Scarlets, which 
should be widely grown. 
A huge house, some 200 ft. long and 18 ft. wide, is 
literally one mass of scarlet lrom end to end. The 
fine double F. V. Raspail, and single West Brighton 
Gem, wonderfully free, and the older Vesuvius, with 
some others, make up the bulk. Another house, 
almost as long, is full of whites from end to end. 
Here Eureka, Ladd’s Queen of Whites, and Niphetos 
are the chief. The latter has the purest flowers, but 
is loose in truss ; the Queen the best form ; and from 
these two intercrossed have come some superior seed¬ 
lings, which the firm hope will give them all they 
desire in form, purity of colour, and continuity of bloom 
summer and winter. A selection from F. V. Raspail 
gives a grand double named Jubilee Scarlet, the pips 
being of unusual size. A beautiful salmon is Sophia 
Burkin ; a lovely pink is Lady Emily, a fine thing for 
AdIANTUJI SCHIZOPHYLLOt. 
Culture is all carried on out in the open and in 
impromptu frames, if such a term may be applied to 
wooden sides and ends about 15 ins. in height, and 
which may be removed at any moment if desired. The 
larger beds arc some 150 ft. long, and about 8 ft. in 
width, whilst from end to end over the top of the 
foliage run, at intervals of 12 ins., stout wires strained 
tightly by means of screws at each end ; these are so 
placed as to hold up light canvas coverings, which are 
rolled down at night to protect from frost, and back 
again in the morning. Later, when the flower spikes 
are developed, huge frame lights are lifted on over the 
wires, and these, whilst effectually protecting the 
flowers and foliage, also serve to give the desired finish. 
A few long lengths of beds are heated, a small pipe 
running through back and front; these are, of course, 
for early work, and the season of bloom is materially 
quickened. Other beds, somewhat in the shade of 
trees, are late, so that the blooming period extends 
fully two to three months. The firm have found, on 
testing, that in all these fully-grown beds there are 
some 500 crowns in a square yard. It is obvious, 
stock to be now in excess of their capacity to extend its 
culture, are about to offer some of it to the public, they 
having been entreated to do so for several years, and we 
hope shortly to be able to direct our reader’s attention to 
that offer in our advertising columns. They propose 
also, we learn, to give with their Lilies some outline of 
their system of culture, -which has proved so successful. 
Any mention of this plant establishment would be 
defective were no mention made of the Pelargoniums, 
which are grown here in tens of thousands, and present 
a display of colour hardly to be met with elsewhere. 
Huge ranges of houses, lean-to and span, but the latter 
chiefly, are devoted to the production of flowers from 
these plants all through the winter and spring ; and then 
as the furnishing season comes on the plants are drafted 
off to market in large numbers to make, in some 
mansion or elsewhere, big masses of colour. There are, 
at least, a thousand of that lovely double Ivy-leaf, 
Madame Crousse, flesh tint, so highly esteemed for 
bouquets. These are tall plants, literally crowded with 
bloom-buds, and all in 48-sized pots. Of other Ivies, 
a wonderful kind, dwarf in habit, very free, and pro¬ 
bedding ; whilst for pot-culture for cutting from, 
Constance, paler pink, is really perfect. These are but 
a few of the many kinds of zonals grown here so largely 
for the production of cut flowers. A word is due to 
the Stephanotis house, some 50 ft. by 6 ft. in width, 
the roof being full of clean growth such as cannot be 
excelled anywhere. 
-- 
THE FLOWER SERMON. 
On Tuesday evening the Church of St. Katherine 
Cree, Leadenhall Street, E.C., was thronged on the 
occasion of the preaching of the annual “flower sermon” 
by the Rev. W. Meynell Whittemore, D.D., the rector. 
The sermon is addressed to young people, but adults 
and even the aged were not wanting. Dr. Whittemore, 
who on this occasion preached his thirty-fifth flower 
sermon, took his text from Matthew vii., 16: “Do 
men gather figs of thistles ? ” The sermon, which was 
of such brevity that it could hardly have wearied the 
attention of the youngest child to whom it was 
addressed, was devoted to a consideration of thistles, 
