408 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
February 28, 1891. 
Fancy Pansies. 
Although not one of “ the best Scotch growers ” of 
Pansies, perhaps you will allow me, for the benefit of 
“Amateur Grower ” and others, to give a list of what 
I consider the best thirty-six fancy Pansies, also the 
best twenty-four show, giving them in the order of 
merit. Of course Pansies vary from season to season, 
and the results of my experience may not tally with 
that of other growers. I have not included any of the 
1891 varieties, although, had I done so, such grand 
sorts as Agnes Mabel, David Rennie, Miss M. T. 
Atkinson, and Mrs. David Allan among the fancies ; 
and Maggie Milne, Miss Kay and Diavolo among the 
shows would have been well to the top. 
Fancies. 
1 Eodymion 
2 Alex. Smith 
3 Robert Jamieson 
4 Lord Hamilton 
5 J. J. Ashton 
6 Mrs. Atkinson 
7 D. Morrison 
8 John Taylor 
9 Maggie A. Scott 
10 Tom Travis 
11 Archie Buchanan 
12 Mrs. Jno. Downie 
13 A. Folkarde 
14 Mrs. J. McConnell 
15 Pilrig 
16 Wm. Evitts 
17 D. B. Jack 
IS Jas. Alexander 
19 Mrs. Browell 
20 Geo. Anderson 
21 Miss Henderson 
22 Dusty 
23 Janet M. Wood 
24 Leenie Mitchell 
25 Agnes Kay 
26 Catherine Agnes 
27 Evelyn Bruce 
28 Mrs. Jno. Ellis 
29 Miss French 
30 Lord Rosebery 
31 D. Brodie 
32 Miss Faulds 
33 John Gold 
34 Mrs. Findlay 
35 Geo. Cromb 
36 Princess Beatrice. 
Shows. 
White Selfs. 
1 Mrs. Gladsom 
2 Mary Mitchell 
3 Maiy McKay Stewart 
4 Bobby Harper. 
Primrose Selfs. 
1 Myles Thompson 
2 Mrs. Karrigan. 
Yellow Selfs. 
1 A. Rolland 
2 Maggie Thompson. 
3 Gomer. 
Dark Selfs. 
1 Wm. Fulton 
2 Alex. Black 
Dark SJfs — contd. 
3 Dr. Inch 
4 Harry Paul. 
White Grounds. 
1 Bennadin 
2 Victoria Gejn 
3 John Scott 
4 Mrs. A. Finlayson 
5 Royal Visit. 
Yellow Grounds. 
1 Jas. McLeish 
2 Alfred Johnstone 
3 Adam Train 
4 Lord F. Cavendish 
5 Sir W. Collins 
6 Wm. Dickson. 
I may add that I have hardly felt satisfied in putting 
such grand old varieties as Catherine Agnes, Evelyn 
Bruce and Mrs. Findlay so low down on the list, but 
in the last season or two, from some cause or another, 
they have greatly deteriorated, so that I have no other 
choice in the matter. 
With regard to my selection of yellow seifs, had it 
not been that a list was incomplete without them, I 
would have kept them out altogether, as I consider 
them far behind* the other classes of shows .—John 
McConnell, GcirgunnocTc, N.B. 
Gold-laced Polyanthuses. 
A SHORT time ago Mr. James Thurstan called attention 
in The Gardening World to the fact that the prizes 
offered for gold-laced Polyanthus in the schedule of 
the National Auricula Society of London had been 
curtailed, and expressed his regret at the reduction. I 
trust it will not pain him to be made aware that I was 
in the main the inspirer of what he evidently regards 
as a retrograde movement. 
For years past there had been offered the sum of 20s. 
as a first prize for six gold-laced Polyanthuses. I think 
I may state without fear of contradiction that for a few 
years past they have been a declining quantity, and 
especially so in the matter of quality ; and, with the 
exception of a few plants Mr. Barlow brings with him 
from Manchester when he comes to the show in London, 
there has scarcely been a representative of the section 
of southern growth worthy of the name. Mr. Barlow’s 
plants generally have one truss of five or six pips, but 
of good quality ; still, they of themselves make but 
a poor display. The southern-grown plants are 
generally seedlings of a quality that I am afraid would 
be heartily despised by a Lancashire florist ; not 
that the southern growers do not try their best 
to stage something in the way of gold-laced Poly¬ 
anthus worthy of the name, but our difficulty 
lies in keeping the plants through both summer and 
winter. 
Last summer I plunged my plants in the open 
ground in pots, and they came well through the 
season. In October they were re-potted with some 
plants of named varieties and placed in a cold frame, 
and though very promising and in company with 
several pots of double Primroses equally promising, not 
one lived through the prolonged frosty period ; more’s 
the pity, for among the gold-laced “ Pollies ” were a 
few seedlings of considerable promise. Last July, 
when at Cardiff, Mr. Thurstan, whose interest in the 
gold-laced Polyanthus and his endeavours to improve 
it are worthy of the highest commendation, gave me 
some seeds he had saved from fertilised flowers ; this I 
sowed two or three days after and raised several plants. 
They too, though on the shelf of a cool greenhousp, 
have nearly all perished. I do not attribute the loss 
entirely to the frost, so much as I do to frost and fog 
in combination. A London fog in December appears 
to be laden with particles in the highest degree 
injurious to some plants. But this is a digression 
from the main purpose I had in view in writing this 
paper. 
I have stated that it was the practice of the National 
Auricula Society to offer 20s. as a first prize for six plants 
of gold-laced Polyanthus. They were invariably small 
plants, altogether uninteresting to the general body of 
visitors, and interesting only to a few specialists. On 
the other hand, there are in the schedule, classes for 
twelve fancy Polyanthuses in pots, and twelve single 
Primroses in pots, and in each case the princely sum 
of 15s. was offered as a first prize. These are generally 
shown in large pots —24’s, and even 16-sized pots ; they 
are large plants with grand and imposing heads of 
bloom, from 50 to 100 pips on each, and of striking 
quality. As an attractive feature nothing could touch 
them. The company who visit the show gather in 
front of these plants—two of them as much as a man 
could conveniently carry at once—and are enthusiastic 
in praise of their beauty ; they pass by the gold-laced 
varieties with their inevitable sameness, as unworthy of 
notice. 
For several years I tried to induce the society to add 
a little to the prizes offered for the fancy Polyanthuses 
and Primroses ; but I was told “ they are not florists’ 
flowers,” at which remark I opened my eyes so wide 
that they have never fairly closed since, and when I 
pleaded their beauty, quality, and attractiveness, I was 
told they were merely put in as a kind of fill up ! 
Whereat I marvelled greatly at such assurance. At 
the annual meeting of the National Auricula Society 
in December, I made another appeal in favour of 
enhanced prizes for these floral heretics, towards which 
the officials extended a kind of unwilling toleration, 
but was told there was no available means for the 
purpose. Driven to desperation, I was daring enough 
to move that the money for six and three gold-laced 
Polyanthuses should be reduced, and the money given 
in the classes for fancy Polyanthus and Primroses, and 
being unexpectedly and gladly supported by an in¬ 
fluential member of the committee—I triumphed. 
And now my old friend Mr. Thurstan has the history 
of what I fear he regards as a nefarious transaction set 
forth in detail. Will he ever forgive me for my share 
,in this floral iniquity? But whether forgiving or 
implacable, I can assure him that if he could but see 
the regal fancy Polyanthuses and Primroses at our 
London show, I think he would throw to the winds all 
his prejudices in favour of the gold-laced section, and 
say that an act of necessary justice had been accom¬ 
plished ; and let me tell him that as a florist he would 
from his own point of view find more to admire in the 
floral heretics than in the orthodox gold-laced types.— 
A. D. -- 
HOWICK HOUSE, PRESTON. 
When over at Howick House, recently, I saw a magni¬ 
ficent specimen of Lselia anceps Sanderiana. The 
plant carries sixty flowers on sixteen spikes, some of 
them having six extraordinarily large and well-formed 
flowers, a fact that reflects great credit on the grower, 
Mr. G. Beddoes, as well as giving unbounded pleasure 
to the owner, E. G. Wrigly, Esq. Standing and gazing 
upon this mass of bloom, well backed up with Maiden¬ 
hair Fern, 1 could not but help enjoying the feast. 
The Orchid houses at Howick are unusually gay 
with choice Orchids. In the Phaleenopsis house are 
several fine forms of P. Schilleriana and P. Stuartiana 
in flower, amongst the latter being a small plant reared 
from a root cutting, now flowering for the first time ; 
it is about three years since it was given a separate 
existence. In the same house is an exceedingly fine 
form of Cypripedium Lathamianum. Looking through 
the Cattleya house I was astonished to find C. specio- 
sissima in flower. Mr. Beddoes grows his plants in 
baskets, and gives them very little water, a plan 
which seems to suit the plants well, for he showed 
me several plants pushing flowers in sheath. 
The strain of Cattleya Triame is an extremely fine 
one, all the flowers having the bold appearance and fine 
colour one likes to see in this species. A pure white 
form was very prominent. Dendrobiums look very 
promising, especially D. nobile, and two fine plants of D. 
splendidissimum grandiflorum will probably be a promi¬ 
nent feature at the forthcoming show at Preston. The 
cool houses are bright with a fine lot of Sophronitis 
grandiflora grown on rafts without peat ; they have 
made fine bulbs and are flowering very freely. The 
Odontoglossums look better than ever. Passing 
along I noticed several good spikes of Odontoglossum 
Edwardi, the pretty O. tripudians, several fine forms of 
O. crispum with fine round flowers, O. Pescatorei, and a 
quantity of O. Rossii in baskets. At the end of this 
range are two pikes de resistance, one Ccelogyne 
hololeuca (cristata alba), a grand plant and the finest I 
Lave had the pleasure of seeing, just pushing forty spikes, 
and opposite to that a truly grand mass of Oncidium 
macranthum with six fine leads.— IV. E. 
-- 
PRUNING ROSES. 
"When is the best time to prune Roses ? is a question 
that is often put. At the same time it is one a little 
difficult to answer in a general way, because locality 
has so much to do with it. One of our leading amateur 
Rose cultivators living in the north of England, once 
said, just because he lived so far north, it made it 
an absolute necessity to have what he termed “ unna¬ 
turally early flowers ; if they are to show, they fail at 
any but the latest shows.” In consequence of this 
he held the theory that he could not prune too early 
after the middle of February, provided the weather was 
suitable, and buds were pushing ; and he stated that 
he still believed that “ the early frosts, however severe 
they may be, will not injure the plants so treated, but 
if they are followed by a mild spring, succeeded by 
biting, winds and great drought, then the early shoots 
will probably throw deformed flowers, and many of 
them with green centres.” This grower also held 
another theory, to the effect that if the shoots were 
left pretty long, the check to the plants would not be 
so severe, and consequently, flowers would come a few 
days earlier than if the plants were severely pruned. 
But whether the blooms would prove of high quality 
depended very largely upon the conditions to which 
the plants were exposed while the buds were swelling. 
If the weather proved unfavourable, the earliest blooms 
were of no use for show purposes. 
So far I am dealing with the experience of a grower 
in the north. Mr. James Harkness, of Bedale, in his 
excellent and cheap book on the Rose, one well adapted 
for amateurs commencing the culture of Roses, as well as 
for the experienced hand, who is also a Rose grower in 
the north, recommends the latter part of March for the 
general pruning, and he says, “A little acquaintance 
with the varieties is necessary, to enable the operator 
to prune successfully. Amongst the hybrid perpetuals 
alone great differences in habit exist); excitable kinds, 
such as A. K. Williams, Pierre Notting, Charles 
Darwin, &c., which so soon begin to push into life, may 
be delayed a little, and the less active varieties pro¬ 
ceeded with. Shy and moderate growers must be cut 
down to two or three eyes to each shoot, and the weak 
growth entirely cut out, whilst the more vigorous 
growers may be left with from three to six eyes. In 
all cases be careful to leave extra fine plump buds, 
which invariably produce the finest blooms, likewise 
prune to leave the uppermost bad having an outward 
tendency, so as to prevent crowding the centre of the 
plant. The Tea-scented, China, and Noisette varieties 
may be pruned from ten to fourteen days later than 
the date recommended for hybrid perpetuals, &c. These 
may be cut moderately close.” 
To Rose growers in the south the matter of pruning 
is much more simple. Many prefer to leave the 
general pruning until the middle of April, as there is 
no need for anxiety about the flowers being too back¬ 
ward, as is the case with growers in the north. The 
growth after pruning advances more quickly. 
Mr. E. Whitwell, of Darlington, has laid down in 
regard to Rose pruning, amid the doubts and 
uncertainties to which, as a Rose grower, he has been 
a victim, the following, which he terms “four articles 
of faith ”—“ 1, If you have any decently matured wood 
of last season, rely chiefly on it for your flowers. 2, Do 
not leave too many shoots on a plant. 3, However 
long you leave the shoots, at least cut away all 
advanced buds. 4, Cut to a healthy bud just beginning 
to push.”— E. D, 
