632 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
June 2, 1888- 
FLORICULTURE. 
The Summer Treatment of Gold-laced 
Polyanthuses. 
I confess that the task of preserving the plants of 
named gold-laced Polyanthuses through the summer in 
the south of England is one of some difficulty. Even 
Mr. J. Douglas, of Ilford, who is generally highly 
successful with what he takes in hand, admits that he 
has a difficulty in bringing through the summer plants in 
good health and with free growth. He plants them out, 
which is the best thing to do, but they invariably 
become affected with red-spider, when they lose their 
leaves, and never appear to recover them again. Mr. 
H. Cannell, of Swanley, will say the same thing, and 
Swanley is a place where almost everything that is 
planted out or grown in pots appears to flourish. But 
an exception is made in respect of named gold-laced 
Polyanthuses. "When I was visiting Mr. Samuel Barlow 
at Stakehill, Manchester, at Whitsuntide, I found he 
had planted out his named gold-laced Polyanthuses in 
a small frame with ample ventilation, but though in a 
bed of loam that appeared just the thing for them they 
were by no means doing well. If Manchester fails in 
such a matter, London and the south generally can 
scarcely expect to succeed. 
That the plants are best kept through the summer 
in a bed— i.e., planted out—is certain. Some of the 
midland' florists who grow in quantities appear to have 
a moist black loam in their gardens, and they plant 
out in this on a prepared bed under a hedge or wall, 
selecting the north or cool side. Here they appear to 
root and do well; but the worst of it is, that as 
the demand is large, they divide them into small 
speces, rendering it difficult to get a good plant by the 
spring. 
There is another difficulty. I have secured good plants 
in October—well-rooted plants, too—and potted them 
up in what appeared to be suitable soil; but the roots 
do not seem to become active until spring, and if the 
plants are at all overwatered in winter they decay, 
while, on the other hand, if they are kept too dry, 
they perish with a kind of dry rot. I find the best 
plan is to cut away a good part of the roots, and then 
place the plants round the sides of a flower-pot, with 
some coco-nut fibre about them, burying them deep 
enough so that the four or six uppermost leaves are 
below the surface. They will then throw out roots 
from near the leaf-stalks, and make good plants. I 
use the soil moist without being sticky, and if screened 
from drying winds while being afforded plenty of air 
they do not need water. These, if nicely rooted, can 
be potted off singly in early spring for blooming in 
April. 
For choice, give me good plants at the end of Feb¬ 
ruary that have been wintered in the open, but at that 
season of the year it is difficult to get these, and one 
must deal with such sized plants as can be procured. 
I invariably put two or three of one sort together and so 
make a fairly good specimen, but they make way slowly 
and are a long time getting into size. 
The chief difficulty occurs in dealing with the plants 
that have bloomed in pots. I have tried planting out 
in a prepared bed in the open, only to lose every one 
before the summer was over. Last year I made a bed in 
shallow boxes and planted out, and the result was 
almost as disappointing as in the previous case. This 
year I am reverting to my old plan of placing the 
divided plants round the sides of pots, and plunging 
them in a bed of coco-nut fibre. Alas ! even this pre¬ 
cautionary measure does not meet the case : the plants 
will do well until the heat of August, then the leaves 
fall, leaving only the bare crowns, and it is exceedingly 
difficult to induce them to break again. I may state 
one thing: it is bad culture to pot an Auricula with the 
leaves below the soil, as rot is apt to set in at that point. 
But while you cannot do this in the case of an Auricula 
with absolute safety, you may in the case of the 
Polyanthus, and the object of the cultivator should be 
to plant and pot so that the basal leaves have their 
stalks a little below the soil; and if they put out 
roots between them, there is hope of forming useful 
plants. 
Let anyone interested in the Gold-laced Polyan¬ 
thus do their best to obtain improved varieties by seed. 
There is yet much to be done ; at the same time, 
hundreds of seedlings may be raised and bloomed 
without obtaining one real gem. But patience and 
perseverance are necessary, and no really good and 
lasting work was ever done in this world without the 
exercise of these two qualities. — li. D. 
Fuchsia, Venus Victriz. 
I was very pleased to see this delightful old and 
charming Fuchsia at Mr. Cannell’s nursery, Swanley, 
a few days ago. It was a veritable Liliputian among 
the many floral giants around and about it, but old as 
it is, I must term it a little beauty, and a delightful 
decorative variety. Mr. Cannell states, that it was 
the first true variety with white tube and sepals ever 
raised ; and he put its introduction at about thirty-six 
years ago. It is a small-growing variety, but blooming 
with great profusion. I am not sure if it originated as 
a seedling or a sport; but it is a delightful one, worthy 
of a place in any collection. At the very antipodes of 
this in point of size is one called Rose of Castille 
Improved. It was raised by a person named Rowson, 
who, I am told, is a coachman in Middlesex. It 
produces large flowers similar in colour to Rose of 
Castille ; the corolla is very stout, of the finest form, 
and of the richest purple colour, for the size of blossoms 
remarkably free ; and the habit of growth good 
throughout. Add to this Lye’s Charming, with red 
tube and sepals, and rosy crimson corolla, and I think 
I have named two of the best decorative varieties 
grown. 
But good varieties of Fuchsias can be counted by 
the hundred, and they vary so much in size, colour, 
and general characteristics that they can be selected to 
satisfy all parties. Mr. Cannell is just arranging 
hundreds of good specimen plants on the centre stage 
of one of his long plant houses, and anyone desirous of 
seeing them at their best, and making a selection to 
grow, should visit Swanley during June, when they 
will see something that will surprise and delight them. 
Mr. Cannell states that he likes people to see in bloom 
what they would like to buy, and he is right. That is 
one advantage about a nursery where everything 
possible is made to bloom, so that its character is fully 
displayed.— B. D. 
Fancy Pansies. 
After once reading our friend “ R. D.’s” note on 
“ Pansies as Exhibition Plants ” in your issue of last 
week, I had to rub my eyes and read again. He says, 
“ The very cream of the fancy Pansies are Champion, 
Attraction, Christine, Mrs. Jamieson,” and so on. I 
wonder what about Lord Rosebery, Pilrig, Mrs. J. 
Downie, Catherine, Agnes, Princess Beatrice, W. 
Cuthbertson, Endymion, Evelyn Bruce, and flowers of 
that ilk ? But, perhaps, I am speaking, or rather 
writing, too hastily. Perhaps “ R. D.” meant to 
convey that the very cream of the fancy Pansies at 
Manchester are, or were, Champion, &c. [Yes.— Ed.] 
If so, I must apologise, and invite him and the 
Manchester growers to pay us a visit in the north 
country, where we will be able to show them collections 
of fancy Pansies which are the finest in the world, and 
yet contain, perhaps, only one or two of the varieties 
mentioned in “ R. D.’s” list — May Tate, and Mrs. 
Jamieson. A “Highland” welcome and a feast of 
Pansies are in store for yourself, Mr. Editor, or 
“R. D.,” or anyone who cares to visit Edinburgh, 
Lenzie, or Rothesay during the month of June.— 
Scoticus. 
ROSE PROSPECTS FOR THE 
SEASON OP 1888. 
Notwithstanding, or probably rather in consequence 
of the protracted winter—’Which threatens to pursue or 
persecute the spring right through the merry month of 
May—Rose prospects have seldom been more promising 
than this season. The Roses have wintered well, there 
being few or no losses unless among the tender Teas 
whose nightcaps of dried bracken had been blown off 
by the wind, and not replaced in time. Roses thus 
caught napping, or rather without their nightcaps— 
and especially dormant buds of Teas—have suffered 
serious harm in some localities ; but beyond such 
accidental losses, the Rose plants have wintered well. 
Neither is the virtual immunity from loss difficult 
to explain. The winter has neither been abnormally 
severe, nor as capricious or fitful as usual. It has 
been long, cold and dry—a sort of humdrum rehearsal 
of monotonously cold weather—rather than a series of 
sensational samples of all sorts and conditions of 
weather. As a season of rest for Roses, the winter, 
which we can hardly say is yet past, reminds one of 
some characters who have been described as faultily 
faultless, regularly regular, and splendidly null. Hence 
we find our Roses in the open in May very much where 
we left them last October. Accepting the myth of the 
sleep of plants for the nonce as a fact, it may be said 
that the Roses slept well through the past winter with 
fewer eyes—that is, buds—open than usual. Con¬ 
sequently, we may reasonably expect them to open 
wider, and to unfold into higher beauty than usual 
when stimulated by the fostering touch of summer 
weather. 
The resources so abundantly provided by the heat 
and drought of last year are mostly intact—instead as 
is too often the case—being partially or largely wasted 
in a succession of breaks and blastings of Rosebuds. 
The latter is one of the most disheartening features of 
Rose culture. It follows early and unseasonable breaks, 
as the night does the day. Yital force of Roses is so 
ample, the recuperative powers of the ever active roots 
so great, that not a few rosarians have got into the 
way of greatly under-estimating the waste of stamina 
and vigour involved in one or more unseasonable 
breaks. 
Nor is the loss of sap and the weakening of vital force 
the only or the chief losses that come to Roses through 
growth that becomes the food of frosts or the wreckage 
of cold winds. Each bursting bud, every unseasonable 
leaflet or shootlet, makes the plants more tender and 
consequently more easily injured. For it must never 
be forgotten that the hardiness of plants lies less in 
natural constitution than in the ratio of their dormancy. 
For example, Oaks that can afford to laugh at zero in 
January have been killed in battalions with 10° or 15° 
of frost in mid-May, and the same holds equally or 
even more true of Roses. 
The majority of the disappointments and sudden 
collapses that occur among Rose plants and blooms have 
their origin in the unseasonable flow and freezings of 
the sap during the winter and spring months ; and as 
these have been almost nil this winter, we may there¬ 
fore reasonably and logically expect one of the best Rose 
seasons of modern times. I only see one danger ahead, 
and that is the slow growth of Roses on account of the 
drought, and the present prevalence of the east and 
north-east winds. The slow sluggish progress of Rose 
shootlets and tender leaflets seems at times to invite 
attacks of aphides, maggots, or mildew. I have 
seen none as yet, but it is well to be on the alert for 
those unwelcome intruders, and clear them off at 
once. 
Locking the stable after the steed has been stolen is 
wisdom itself to destroying Rose pests after they have 
crippled or enfeebled our Rose plants. Not only is pre¬ 
vention in such matters better than cure, but there is 
really no perfect cure for riddled or fungoid-coated 
Rose leaves. Unless destruction follow promptly on 
the heels of such attacks, the insect pests may almost 
as well have their way ; but the surest antidote to all 
such maladies is a vigorous constitution and a robust 
growth, and these we are likely to have this season if 
we are favoured with genial weather through the 
opening weeks of June.— I). T, Fish. 
-- 
CYPRIPEDIUM, MRS. OANHAM. 
The Slipperworts continue to be exceedingly popular, 
and the garden hybrids are valued even more than 
species as a rule. That under notice is similar in many 
points to another garden hybrid under the name of 
Charles Canham. They were seedlings raised from 
C. superbiens, the seed-bearing parent, crossed with 
the pollen of C. villosum. As may be seen from the 
general appearance and contour of the flower as shown 
by the illustration, the seedling takes after the pollen 
parent to a great extent. The bloom, however, is of 
magnificent proportions, measuring 5 ins, or 6 ins. 
across the standard and lip, and has a glossy shining 
lustre. The former organ is brownish purple at the 
base, and striped with greenish yellow veins on the 
upper half, and white at the margin. The petals are 
brownish, suffused with rosy purple, and is darker all 
along the upper side of the midrib. The lip is yellowish 
brown, and the staminode yellow. The plant is strong 
and vigorous in growth, and the broad leaves are faintly 
tessellated with two shades of green, after the manner of 
C. superbiens. 
It was raised by an amateur, from whom Messrs. 
J. Yeitch & Sons, Chelsea, acquired the stock. Seeing 
that artificially raised Orchid hybrids are now so 
numerous in gardens, the Messrs. Yeitch have recently 
adopted a system of giving popular instead of bastard 
Latin names to them. This is quite right, seeing that 
hybrid Orchids are getting as plentiful as many other 
plants of garden origin, and neither have any claim to 
the attention of the botanist, nor to be distributed 
under ridiculous conglomerations of Latin or Greek. 
The English name alone is also better than if it had a 
Latin termination given it. 
