620 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
May 30, 1891. 
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Gold-laced Polyanthus, Bullock s Lancer. 
Through the instrumentality of our friend Mr. 
Thurstan, we were favoured at the end of last week 
with a gathering of that very beautiful old red-ground 
variety of gold-laced Polyanthus, Bullock’s Lancer, 
and which for their brightness, smoothness, correctness 
of laciDg, and the size of the individual umbels have 
been greatly admired by all who have seen them. The 
flowers were all the more pleasing and interesting to us, 
inasmuch as they came from Mr. Abner Bullock, 
of Springfields, Wolverhampton, a son of the late Mr. 
Abner Bullock, who raised Lancer in 1827. 
Mr. Abner Bullock, with his late brother Charles, 
rented a small garden situated about a mile from the 
town of Wolverhampton for a great many years, and 
this garden he still holds. Both brothers have been 
renowned among working men for nearly half a century 
as “the Wolverhampton florists,” and their great 
success in the cultivation of the Bose, the Polyanthus, 
the Auricula, and the Pansy, has been the means of 
increasing the comforts of many of their fellow work¬ 
men who have been persuaded to take up the cultivation 
of flowers as a hobby, in preference to spending their 
leisure hours in public houses and such-like places. 
We trust that Mr. Bullock will long be spared to enjoy 
his favourites, and by the force of good example to 
still further benefit his fellow workers. 
The Royal National Tulip Society. 
Mr. Samuel Barlow, the president of the Tulip 
Society, has just issued a circular which sets forth that 
the Council of the Royal Manchester Botanical Society 
have addressed an important communication to him, 
in which they urge that the exhibition of Tulips should 
take place on June 6th, instead of May 30th, as 
announced in our last issue. In addition, Mr. Barlow 
states that several growers who voted for May 30th, 
have written asking for the date to be altered, if 
possible, to June 6tli. No one interested in the Tulip 
need be surprised at the postponement. The majority 
who voted for May 30th were beguiled and misled 
by the burst of warm weather of the 12th and 
13 th, and they at once came to the conclusion 
that summer had already come. They evidently 
overlooked the tremendously treacherous character 
of the last weeks of the month of May. The 
burst of heat soon changed to icy coldness, northerly 
winds, leaden skies and wet, so that Tulips could not 
advance, and all round, Mr. Barlow’s action will be 
commended. 
The Council of the Manchester Botanical Society 
had substantial reasons for desiring a postponement. 
Nothing in addition to the Tulip show was arranged 
for May 30tb, neither was the society advertising. 
But the 5th and 6th of June are the opening days of 
the musical season at Old Trafl’ord—good bands per¬ 
forming in the grounds, and high-class vocal concerts 
in the Concert Room. So on the 6th proximo the 
attractions will be great, and a large company may be 
anticipated. Even with fine and appropriate weather, 
Mr. Barlow fears that on the 6th of June he will be 
some days short of a fine bloom. 
Pink, Her Majesty. 
Mr. T. S. Ware had Hooper’s new white Pink in fine 
form on the occasion of the Early Summer Show at the 
Royal Aquarium on the 20th inst. The plants had 
been brought on into flower in a high temperature to 
have them in bloom on this occasion, and yet they 
showed but little sign of having been forced, nor had 
the hastening process affected the production of grass. 
It is a very free grower and bloomer, and the blossoms 
are free from that yellowish green tint which is seen 
in that of Mrs. Sinkins, from which Her Majesty is 
said to have originated. But we cannot say the new 
variety is absolutely free from the habit of splitting 
its calyx, though the fault can be greatly remedied by 
placing a tie round it. 
Pinks. 
The plants are making headway, the retarding weather 
notwithstanding. My plants in pots appear very 
hopeful and forward, and one or two others are showing 
their buds. The rain has greatly benefited the plants 
all round, cleansing and invigorating them. It gave 
the plants a good soaking with moisture which they 
badly needed. Moisture is needed by the plants to 
assist in swelling the pods, and to insure a free deve¬ 
lopment of the blossom ; therefore it is important to 
water in dry weather. Debility comes with dryness at 
the roots, and then the plants become infested with 
green-fly, the growth is lank and weak, and the bloom 
anything but satisfactory. 
Those who are growing Pinks for exhibition will 
require to go over the plants as soon as the buds are 
forward enough. Select the most promising, and care¬ 
fully put a tie round the calyx in good time. Then as the 
jiod swells, it will be necessary to examine the ties to 
see that none are too tight, and if they are, they 
should be released and retied. As the buds begin to 
expand, manure water can be given with great advan¬ 
tage two or three times a week, and during development 
to full flowers it is a good plan during hot drying 
weather to water the footpaths round the beds once or 
twice during the heat of the day, as a humid atmosphere 
about the buds and flowers is very beneficial. 
The National Pink Society’s Show will take place at 
the Royal Aquarium, "Westminster, on June 24th and 
25th, and schedules of prizes can be had of Mr. Richard 
Dean, Ranelagh Road, Ealing.— E. IV. 
Pink Seed. 
Having by me some seed of fine laced Pinks which I 
got from Mr. Dodwell in 1889, I was afraid to sell it, 
not being satisfied with its germinating powers. I 
therefore sowed it in a pot, hoping to get a few plants ; 
but to my great surprise and delight, every seed I 
should think has germinated, and I shall have shortly 
a few hundreds of seedling Pinks of great promise. As 
soon as they are a little larger the small plants will be 
pricked off into store pots, and eventually planted out 
in beds to blossom. Thus a new interest is somewhat 
unexpectedly added to those which already centre 
about my garden. 
Plants of Pinks that are intended to carry seed require 
very different treatment from those intended to produce 
exhibition flowers. Every bud and every stem should 
remain of the plants to ensure as good a crop as 
possible ; for it is found in practice that disbudding 
operates to throw additional strength in the remaining 
flowers, the result being that the stamens are forced as 
it were into petals, or parts of petals, and the object of 
securing seed is in part defeated. It will therefore be 
best to adopt the practice of planting, in a bed by 
themselves, plants from which it is intended to take 
seeds, so that they may have an uniform treatment. 
— R. D. 
Touching Pinks, and the Pink Society. 
The Gardening "World for the 2nd inst., by a 
mischance, only came into my hands last week while 
on a sick bed, or I should have taken an earlier 
opportunity of replying to some of the queries of 
“Dianthus” with regard to hardy border Pinks. The 
intention of the framers of the schedule in creating classes 
for border Pinks, from which laced Pinks should be 
excluded, was to encourage humble growers everywhere, 
but especially in the suburban districts of the metropolis, 
where it might not be possible to bring the florists’ laced 
Pink to perfection. I can assure “Dianthus” that 
the hardy border varieties shown last year at the 
Aquarium were exactly what they professed to be. 
I never attempted to grow border Pinks in pots, and 
invariably failed to produce a decent bloom on a laced 
Pink in a pot; but I am aware it can be done, and 
several hardy Pinks, I am told, force well. 
I take leave, however, to deprecate the suggestion 
that the schedule should require blooms to be taken 
from plants grown out in the open ground and un¬ 
protected. Flowers for exhibition, however hardy they 
may be, require protection of some sort during the 
earlier or later period of their existence. In such a 
winter as that out of which we seem even now only 
slowly emerging, it is difficult to say what is and what 
is not hardy. Through ill-health and neglect I have 
so consistently ignored protection since last November 
that I now find myself minus half my stock of Pinks, 
while border Carnations, Picotees, and other subjects 
have been simply decimated. But suppose I eventually 
get a few flowers on my Pinks, whether laced or border, 
am I not to shade them from the hot rays of June sun, 
or protect them from the sharp showers that wash the 
“ blacks ” down into the petals? You might as well 
tell the Tulip grower, or the Pansy fancier, or the 
Ranunculus grower to leave his pets unprotected from 
the time he plants them till he cuts for exhibition, as 
to say that no border flowers must be protected. 
I must say that among the many disappointments 
experienced by myself at the result of the first Pink 
show was the scarcity of border varieties. I know 
they are largely grown round London, and I have 
seen many very pretty sorts brought into Covent 
Garden and sold about the streets. In this section we 
had no support from the trade. Florists and nursery¬ 
men have much more important business to do than 
growing plants which only realise Id. or lbd. per root, 
retail. Still, some of our hardy plant growers cultivate 
some of the choicer kinds, like Anne Boleyn for 
instance, and I had hoped they might have contributed 
to our show. “Dianthus” asks with regard to white 
Pinks whether they are admissible in the class for the 
best bunch of garden border Pinks, any colour. I 
answer, No. The separate class for white Pinks was 
framed specially in their honour, because it was under¬ 
stood that they need not be included in coloured Pinks. 
In framing a schedule some little allowance is usually 
made for the intelligence of the reader. I am painfully 
aware of the shortcomings of the schedule, but we had 
nothing to go upon. There had not been a Pink show 
in the south within the memory of man, nor for many 
a long year in the north. The whole thing was tenta¬ 
tive ; it was a plunge into “Darkest Africa.” But if 
we did nothing else we woke up our friends in the north 
midlands, and I am expecting to hear great things of 
them this summer. The southern section of the 
National Pink Society will make another humble effort 
this year to revive interest in the old favourite we love 
so well. Our principal difficulty in the metropolis is 
to get in touch with growers. We used to have small 
floricultural societies around London years ago, but I 
do not know what has become of them. I remember 
thirty years ago going to a grand Auricula show some¬ 
where in Camberwell. I was in hopes that we might 
have gained an old friend or two through the N. C. S., 
but up to the present they have made no sign.— E. 
llangcr Johnson, 90, Harleijford Road, S.E. 
-- 
HADDEN HILL, BOURNEMOUTH. 
The noble Lilium giganteum is grown to perfection in 
the garden of the Rev. — Hopkins, at Hadden Hill, 
Holdenhurst Road, near Bournemouth, and the gar¬ 
dener, Mr. Osbourne, on Friday last, invited the 
members of the Bournemouth Gardener’s Mutual 
Improvement Society to pay a visit to Hadden Hill to 
see the Lilies in bloom. A dozen members responded 
to the invitation, and were well rewarded for their 
walk. Three of the Lilies were in bloom, each of the 
spikes being 9 ft. high, and bearing ten blooms each. 
In the conservatory the visitors also enjoyed the 
inspection of well-grown herbaceous Calceolarias, 
Pelargoniums, and Cinerarias, and a beautiful specimen 
of Polygala myrtifolia grandiflora. In the pleasure 
grounds some grand Rhododendrons were just coming 
into bloom, and the fine Conifers, such as Thuja 
gigantea, Thuja Lobbii, Wellingtonia gigantea, Cedrus 
Deodora, Cupressus Lawsoniana, Cryptomeria elegans, 
and C. japonica (severely injured last winter by the 
snowstorm), Taxodium sempervirens, and Cupressus 
macrocarpa, were much admired.— R. J. Ilumphris, 
The Lodge, Highmoor, Parkstone, May 25th. 
-. >I< «- 
TREES AND SHRUBS IN 
FLOWER. 
Deciduous trees even in winter have a beautifying 
effect upon the landscape ; but who can deny the 
vivifying effect they induce when they come into leaf 
and flower in the late spring and early summer months. 
In some cases, however, the flowers precede the foliage, 
while in others this order is reversed. It it almost 
unnecessary to state that the bulk of the trees and 
shrubs which adorn our landscapes are introductions ; 
yet a few of our native trees are highly ornamental, 
either for their foliage, flowers or fruit. 
The Wild Cherry or Gean (Cerasus Avium ).— 
There are few probably who would think of introducing 
the Gean into the pleasure grounds, yet it is one of the 
most striking of our native trees when in full bloom. 
When it is recollected that the adult specimen often 
attains a height of 40 ft., an idea of its beauty may be 
imagined, but hardly realised unless seen covered with 
snow-white blossom from top to bottom. The tree is 
perfectly hardy even in the northern part of Britain, 
where it flowers profusely. 
The Showy Pyrus (P. spectabilis ).—The blooms of 
this species are of a deep crimson in bud, changing to 
red, while the expanded flowers are of a beautiful rosy 
pink, darker externally, and semi-double. The latter 
character gives the bloom a much more massive 
appearance, and prevents the petals from dropping so 
early as they would otherwise do. From its earliest 
stages, then, this tree is highly conspicuous and orna¬ 
mental. In stature it varies from 20 ft. to 30 ft., and 
forms a broad spreading head. Introduced from China 
in 1780. 
