June 9, 1888. 
648 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
FLORICULTURE. 
The Tulip. 
To-day, Saturday, the Tulip holds court at Manchester, 
for it is the day on which the National Tulip Show 
holds its annual exhibition. Next week some notes of 
the flowers exhibited shall be given. On the whole 
a good head of bloom may be expected, for the warm 
sunny weather, with adequate care on the part of the 
cultivator, has helped the fine development of the 
blooms. Some protection of the flowers is absolutely 
necessary to have them in the full glory of their regal 
beauty. They are as Orchids among our hardy flowers, 
and the bizarres especially are brilliant in the extreme. 
Close shading is especially necessary with some 
varieties, especially the feathered roses, to have them 
refined and accurately marked. "When they go out of 
flower, let the flower pods be picked off if seed is not 
required. 
When the bloom is over, Tulips ripen rapidly for 
rest and removal, and by the end of June, sometimes 
by the third week, they are generally ready. “Not,” 
as the Rev. F. D. Horner remarks, “that they will 
have completely died down, but this stage it is 
unnecessary, and better not, to wait for. So long as 
the clear stem below the flower will snap sharply on 
being bent, the time of lifting has not come ; but when 
the stems will bend double without snapping off, the 
bulbs may be taken up. The foliage will only have a 
pale, half-sere appearance, and some leaves will be yet 
green. But the new bulb is now complete and ripe, 
and the further use of the fibres is for the seed-pod, if 
one be fertilised. The old bulb will be found as 
merely a few loose skins wrapped round the new ; and 
though this may appear at this stage white, and 
apparently naked, yet it is not really so. When dry 
it will be found tightly bound in a thin, brown, satiny 
skin that will admirably cling to it, and thus prevent 
loss by evaporation. Taken up late, when all the 
foliage is gone, this skin will have thickened and 
darkened, and will crack with drying, and, perhaps, 
come off. Hence we secure to the bulbs the better 
fitting garment which is only to be obtained by taking 
them up at the particular stage described.” Thus it is 
that the particular time of taking up the bulbs is a 
matter of no small meaning and account. 
Selections of Dahlias. 
A correspondent asks for the names of the best 
thirty-six show Dahlias (exclusive of fancy varieties), 
and my selection is as follows :—Bendigo, Burgundy, 
Clara, Colonist, Constancy, Flag of Truce, George 
Rawlings, Georgiana, Goldfinder, Harry Keith, Henry 
Walton, Herbert Turner, Hon. Mrs. P. Wyndham, 
Hope, Imperial, James Cocker, James Stephen, John 
Neville Keynes, John Standish, Joseph Ashby, J. B. 
Service, Joseph Green, Lady Gladys Herbert, Miss 
Cannell, G. Harris, Mrs. Foster, Mrs. Gladstone, Mrs. 
Glasscock, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Langtry, Mrs. S. Hibberd, 
Prince Bismarck, Prince of Denmark, R. T. Rawlings, 
Sunbeam, and William Rawlings. A select twelve 
taken from the foregoing would be Clara, Constancy, 
Flag of Truce, George Rawlings, Goldfinder, James 
Cocker, Miss Cannell, Mrs. Gladstone, Mrs. Harris, 
Prince Bismarck, Sunbeam, and William Rawlings. 
A fine selection of twelve fancy Dahlias should read 
as follows :—Annie Pritchard, Gaiety, George Barnes, 
Henry Eckford, Henry Glasscock, John Forbes, Mrs. 
N. Holls, Mrs. Saunders, Peacock, Professor, Rev. 
J. B. M. Camm, and W. G. Head. To make up the 
best twenty four varieties the following can be added :— 
Charles Wyatt, Duchess of Albany, Edward Peck, 
Fanny Sturt, Frederick Smith, Grand Sultan, Hercules, 
Hugh Austin, James O’Brien, Laura Haslam, Miss 
Browning, and Rebecca. 
And as at country shows Dahlias are often required 
to be shown in colours, the following selections may be 
of service :—Twelve self and shaded show Dahlias: 
Clara, George Rawlings, James Cocker, J. H. Keynes, 
Mr. Gladstone, Mr. S. Hibberd, Prince Bismarck, 
Prince of Denmark, Sunbeam, William Rawlings, 
Burgundy and Joseph Ashby. The best twelve tipped 
show Dahlias are: Constancy, Goldfinder, Harry 
Walton, Lady G. Herbert, Miss Cannell, Mrs. Harris, 
Mrs. Langtry, Hon. Mrs. P. Wyndham, Ethel Britton, 
Mrs. Kendal, T. J. Saltmarsh, and Mrs. W. Slack. 
Twelve light-coloured show Dahlias : Emily Edwards, 
Flag of Truce, Georgiana, Robert Turner, Mrs. Gladstone, 
Mrs. Glasscock, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. S. Hibberd, Mrs. W. 
Slack, Hope, Julia Wyatt, and Primrose Dame. Six 
really good yellow seifs will be found in J. H. Keynes, 
Joseph B. Service, Primrose Dame, R. T. Rawlings, 
Mrs. G. Jeffard, and Muriel. 
For the sake of some, I have made selections of the 
best tipped and striped flowers among the fancies. 
The best twelve flowers are Fanny Sturt, Laura Haslam, 
Miss Browning, Mrs. Saunders, Peacock, Mrs. N. 
Halls, Gaiety, Prospero, Mrs. Friselton, Jesse McIntosh, 
Mrs. Carter, and Maid of Athens. The best twelve 
striped fancies are Duchess of Albany, George Barnes, 
Henry Eckford, Henry Glasscock, Hugh Austin, John 
Forbes, Rebecca, Professor Fawcett, Rev. J. B. 
M. Camm, W. G. Head, Anne Pritchard, and Charles 
Wyatt.— R. D. 
Tansies. 
There is evidently a belief on the part of many 
amateurs that there are no Pansies like the Continental 
varieties, of which we see illustrations in the gardening 
periodicals and seed catalogues, but of which no Pansy 
grower, who understands Pansies, would purchase seed. 
I heard a few days since of a remarkable collection of 
fancy Pansies betwixt Birmingham and Warwick, and 
although I have a collection of nearly 200 of the finest 
varieties of fancy Pansies in cultivation, and am an old 
cultivator, I was led to suppose that I was nowhere 
with my flowers and varieties. Ah ! well, I have seen 
them ; a splendid display of plants and flowers cer¬ 
tainly, and I looked anxiously over border after border 
in the hope of finding something worth adding to my 
collection. I hunted for a needle in a bundle of hay. 
There was an abundance of size — and size alone with 
non-practical Pansy growers seems to be what is most 
sought for—and there was a great variety of colouring, 
but substance and smoothness were conspicuous by 
their absence. If any amateur doubts the truth of 
what I am writing let him procure a packet of really 
fine fancy Pansy seed from a good, well-known Pansy 
grower ; not from a house not celebrated for these 
plants. Or, better still, get a dozen or two of fine 
fancy Pansies from well-known Pansy grower, buying 
them at the proper time from September until April— 
not later than early in May at all events—and grow 
them well. In our splendid home varieties we have 
richness of colouring, grand blotches (which are not 
starred and rayed as the foreign varieties are), perfec¬ 
tion in form, and substance in the petals. Let an 
amateur start with such good, well-known, cheap sorts 
as May Tate, Charles Stansell, Mrs. G. P. France, 
"William Dean, Campbell Bannerman, Nellie Morton, 
William Dick, A. McMillan, Princess Beatrice, A. J. 
Way, Countess of Rosebery, Earl of Beaconsfield, 
Pilrig Park, Mrs. Stewart, J. Sutherland, My Lady, and 
other similar kinds, and add newer sorts as he can. 
Let him grow them well, and save his own seed; and 
set aside the very absurd notion that size alone 
constitutes merit, and he will soon give up buying 
Pansy seed of foreign growers.— D. S. 
Double Tyrethrums. 
Chrysanthemums have become, and deservedly so, 
the most popular of late autumn flowers ; and where 
means exist of mere protection from frost, blooms can 
be had throughout the winter and into spring, thus 
brightening up the darkest months of the year. Now, 
I want the editor and his numerous correspondents to 
support a propaganda to make the Pyrethrum equally 
popular and as useful for the summer months in the 
herbaceous border and every place whore brilliancy and 
usefulness is a desideratum. For cutting hardly any 
other flower can compare with it. With the stems 
dressed and the water changed—or, better still, with 
a few pieces of charcoal put in the water of the vase— 
even in June and July the blooms remain fresh for 
three weeks. Gardeners who are pressed for quantities 
of cut flowers know what this means. Why should 
there not be prizes for cut blooms at every summer or 
late spring show ? There would be no difficulty in any 
ordinary grower staging half a dozen, a dozen, or even 
two dozen distinct varieties of cut blooms, and if this 
once commenced, raisers would constantly be increasing 
the kinds—I had almost said the sections or classes, 
for now, besides singles and doubles, we have ordinary 
reflexed, quilled, Anemone - flowered, Pompon, and 
those corresponding with the Chrysanthemums classed 
as “Anemone Japanese.” I am satisfied that a box of 
twelve or twenty-four doubles, properly staged—say, 
with sprays of their own foliage—would be a new 
attraction at a flower show. That they can be had as 
large and as varied as Asters, I refer you to your 
account in The Gardening World ( vide issue June 
18th, 1887) of the yearly display made at the shows of 
the Royal Horticultural Society—for instance, the 
exhibit of 500 blooms by Messrs. Kelway, Langport. 
There you describe Florentine (blush-rose) as being 
4| ins. across, and similarly of a number of others. 
Last evening I had a bloom of Mont Blanc, pure white, 
at a boat race, and an experienced Chrysanthemum 
grower came over to know if it was an early bloom of 
Madame Desgranges. Evidently there is a bright 
future before these, Gaillardias, and many herbaceous 
perennials not yet dreamed of. Plants can be furnished 
by most nurserymen in pots, and at once placed out to 
bloom this year. All varieties are good, and lists are 
generally given.— W. J. Murphy, Clonmel. 
--— 
HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIA¬ 
TIONS. 
These worthy mediums for the dissemination of infor¬ 
mation, useful as they undoubtedly are, could with a 
little increased exertion be made vastly more interesting 
and productive conduits of knowledge than perhaps, 
as a rule, they are at present, by a judicious intro¬ 
duction of many aids meanwhile in abeyance or in 
contemplation, or, worse than either, not thought of. 
Some instances I know, where the conditions stipulate 
to essay and provide worthy inducements for the 
promotion of the art of gardening, where little or no 
endeavours were or are made to fulfil the promise. 
Nor from what I see can I bring myself to think that 
such can be considered other than as effeminate blandish¬ 
ments and ostensible ornatures. There should be a 
library in connection with every association, apart from 
other useful things, such as a museum, &c., and if 
finances be an obstacle in the way of getting possession 
of one or all of these, an attempt should be made to 
form a national institution, from which branches 
throughout the kingdom could have what books and 
natural objects may be required. 
As the matter now stands few gardeners, I trow, will 
have an opportunity of referring to but a very limited 
number of the various works treating on or relative to 
horticulture. The consequence—almost a lamentable 
one, especially for those who are of an inquisitive turn 
of mind—is that to the greater number many works of 
intrinsic importance must necessarily remain for ever 
sealed books. This state of affairs must in the natural 
course of events have a tendency, if steps are not taken 
to counteract them, to depreciate the value of horti¬ 
cultural associations in the eyes of intelligent inquirers, 
and eventually culminate at a stage of inertion verging 
on entire extinction. Little attention, except on rare 
occasions, is given to the furtherance of the scientific 
side of the art of gardening. I am both sorry and 
surprised to find too many good and able gardeners 
deny that any great importance is attached to that 
phase of knowledge. “It is not essential” is the 
ready reply of 75 per cent. ; but then when I look at the 
fact that every gentleman while engaging a gardener 
wishes to secure ability—and does not power and ability 
mean knowledge ?—I begin to fear that the danger lies 
in not having enough knowledge. If, on the contrary, 
this should not be so, the inference is that a clodhopper 
is equally efficient with the man who has spent the 
whole of his lifetime in acquiring the mysteries of the 
art. 
But I am digressing, and to return to associations, I 
would say that there is always the danger of periodical 
assemblies becoming too mechanical and mere matter- 
of-course transactions. Enthusiasm is generally dead 
or overdone—not that I put much confidence in this 
mode of arriving at facts, only in so far as it indicates 
the interest taken in the matter. Certainly, from time 
to time, a bright intellect appears on the platform, to 
the manifest appreciation of all; but the lesson is 
impotent to produce an exemplary course and standard, 
and the ensuing convention relapses into the twaddle 
region as before. I cannot endorse, nor at all relish, 
the not uncommon system of rehearsing in a modified 
form the researches of ancestral sages on other con¬ 
ditions than under the legitimate authorship. The 
system is not deserving of approbation, and though 
appreciated and applauded by some, it cannot fail to 
lower its value in the eyes of all intelligent members. 
Another evil which should be amended is the too 
frequent reiteration of universally recognised facts. 
The evil in this is of a two-fold character—it smothers 
the germs of originality as well as jars on the ear. 
Originality has a charm which must rouse in the 
average mind the faculties of inquiry into the grooves 
of investigation. The age we live in can scarce admit 
of a waste of time other than in a profitable way, and 
though the nectar and ambrosia of the gods may appear 
palpable, if not permeated with enough stamina 
sufficient to stand the test of analysis, they must, as a 
matter of course, have little effect. Associations, 
therefore, conducted on a broad and pure intellectual 
basis, must unavoidably popularise and make them 
features of attraction beyond the pale of horticulture. 
