476 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
March 28, 1891. 
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Fancy Carnations. 
It may be fairly a matter of opinion whether we should 
call these “fancy” or “variety” Carnations, and 
friend Wardill is entitled to his opinion that the former 
is the better title. But the other matters on which he 
touches are matters not of opinion, but of fact, and 
there he cannot be allowed quite the same freedom. It 
is like a bad joke to be told that florists “ set up rules 
and restrictions in order to exclude from culture or 
from exhibition everything which is not exactly iu 
accordance with their ideas of beauty.” A more 
extravagantly absurd statement could hardly be. The 
“ restrictions” of the florist are applied by him in their 
entirety to florists’ flowers only. They are restrictions, 
as every lover of florists’ flowers knows, born of the 
flowers themselves, of necessity accepted by us all, and 
owe nothing either to the pedantry or caprice of 
individuals. 
Florists’ flowers, as Mr. Horner points out, are a 
small group of plants that have been taken into high 
and special cultivation on account of their tendencies 
to vary from seed in every quality a flower can possess ; 
and it may be added to this, that they show a capacity 
of development, whether as to form or colour, con¬ 
stantly in the direction of refinement, and they represent 
this truly artistic quality just as the fancy flowers, be 
they fancy Carnations or Alpine Auriculas or what you 
will, represent that other no less artistic element of the 
picturesque. The one set of flowers delights to conform 
to cauons to which the other refuses to be bound. 
As a matter of common sense, to say nothing of purely 
artistic considerations, they are therefore exhibited and 
classed apart. Florists are raisers and growers of both 
types of flowers, and florists’ societies provide prizes for 
them both. 
Our friend is great in the domain of “fancies,” but he 
has surpassed himself in the remarkable example he 
presents to us this week. A fancy Carnation, says he, 
was excluded from the show table until he took a few 
blooms to the first show of the Oxford Union. The 
ladies were delighted, and as for Mr. Dodwell, he was 
so astonished at our friend’s blooms that he at once 
introduced a class for seifs and fancies, which has been 
one of the most attractive features of the annual feast 
of Carnations ever since ! This is really too bad. Our 
friend is an old “stager,” and knows as well as any¬ 
body that classes for seifs and fancies have been provided 
by the National Carnation Society from its first show 
fourteen or fifteen years since, and that when he brought 
those remarkable blooms of his to Oxford six years 
ago he found there two classes for seifs and fancies, one 
for twelves and the other for sixes, and he entered in the 
latter, being rewarded with the seventh prize. And 
seeing that he followed up his success the next year in 
the twelves, the year after in the sixes, and in the year 
following (1888) was again conspicuous in the twelves, 
that, in fact, out of the six exhibitions of the society 
he is recorded in its archives as showing at four, it seems 
hardly consistent to say that he never enters the lists 
as an exhibitor. 
Another of our friend’s remarkable “ fancies ” is that 
blooms are not “admitted” until they have been deprived 
of all their natural freedom of beauty—manipulated, 
malformed, &c., &c., which is his fanciful (and 
calumnious) description of the operation called 
“dressing.” Again, I say, as an old stager, he must 
know quite well that in no schedule that ever was 
framed was the dressing of flowers made a compulsory 
condition, and further, that it is culture, culture which 
means close and patient observation of the needs of the 
plant and attention to them, and not dressing, which 
produces exhibition blooms. More than half the 
blooms I put up in the singles last year at Oxford were 
undressed, and the most of the remainder scarcely 
touched : there was no time for it, but it did not 
prevent their going to the front rank wherever they 
merited it. 
When I first heard of Mr. Martin Smith’s prizes, and 
before the conditions were announced, I thought, Here 
at last is our friend’s opportunity with the thousands of 
seedlings we know he annually raises. Decorative 
groups shown with the grass ; no restrictions, go as 
you please—the very thing for him. But alack, alack, 
here is Mr. Martin Smith with his restrictions, and they 
please our friend no more than the florists.’ He 
shakes his head sadly at them all. ‘ ‘No class, ” he says, 
“for such as me.” Poor lone lorn one; like Mrs. 
Gummidge, he remains unconsoled and inconsolable. 
— M. Rowan . 
The Ranunculus Asiaticus. 
The present is a very opportune time to remind any 
true lover of florists’ flowers, or amateurs whose 
inclinations are to become florists, that there still 
remains almost in oblivion another emblem of our 
forefathers’ fascinations. I refer to that lovely and most 
exquisitely refined model of florists’ flowers, the show 
Ranunculus, which, in great variety, were extensively 
grown thirty to fifty years ago. 
Hogg, in his treatise on the Carnation, Ranun¬ 
culus, &c., speaks of them as follows :—“If you are 
fortunate enough to meet with a bed of the choicest 
sorts, grown in full health and vigour, and bearing a 
profusion of splendid blossoms of all colours, plain and 
variegated, you will be forced to admit that it is an 
admirable sight,” and remarks that the named flowers 
are so numerous that he can only afford space to insert 
a few of them, and therefore confines himself to a list 
of eighty-two varieties. 
The late Mr. Cary Tyso was, I imagine, the largest 
and most successful English cultivator during the 
present century, and in his catalogue of 1872 he 
offered for sale over 350 named varieties, but since 
that period they have gradually, like the Pink, Poly¬ 
anthus, and show Tulip, been allowed to sink almost 
into obscurity, and especially in the south of England, 
where at one time they were so extensively grown. 
Mr. Barlow and the Rev. Mr. Horner, if I remember 
rightly, purchased some years ago Tyso’s entire stock, 
and these gentlemen may still retain many valuable 
kinds. It may be remembered by some readers of The 
Gardening World that Mr. Horner intimated some 
time back that he would willingly give the weight iu 
gold for one old variety he used to grow, but had then 
lost. 
That well-known enthusiastic florist, Mr. William 
Wardill, Luton, brought the subject of the Ranunculus 
before notice in The Gardening World (p. 164), 
November 10th, 1888, and his appreciation of them as 
florists’ flowers is clearly shown by the following remarks 
he makes, and which I take the liberty of quoting. He 
says, “ What has become of the show Ranunculus ? I 
mean those glorious exquisitely finished rosettes which 
were grown by those floricultural veterans the late Mr. 
Cary Tyso, the late Mr. Headly, and others of their 
day.” Many of the London bulb and seed merchants, 
and Scotch nurserymen still advertise the Ranunculus 
roots very cheaply, and as the present month is not a 
bad time to plant them, any lover of flowers would, I 
am sure, be delighted with the bloom a few would 
produce. The proper depth to plant them is 14 in. 
deep, and in planting, a little sand should be put under 
each root. Ranunculus can be raised from seed in the 
most simple way possible, and at some future period 
I shall be glad to explain my mode of sowing the seed, 
&c.— James Thurstan, Cardifl. 
' The Gold-laced Polyanthus. 
It is pleasing to observe from the remarks of “Amateur” 
in last week’s issue of this journal, that the correspond¬ 
ence which has recently appeared has brought to light 
another “ real lover ” of the gold-laced Polyanthus, as 
“Amateur ” describes himself. He asks where he can 
buy or see any genuine flowers : if he will communi¬ 
cate with me, I will be glad to furnish him with the 
best information I possess. I will also endeavour to 
get one of the old growers to send to the Editor for his 
inspection, when the plants are iu bloom, a truss each 
of George IV., Lancer, and Cheshire Favourite, and I 
shall be disappointed if the trusses do not contain 
twelve pips each. 
With regard to “ Ravenholme’s ” remarks as to 
Primroses and fancy Polyanthuses, I should wish him 
and others to understand that 1 have nothing what¬ 
ever to say against them, except that they are certainly 
not florists’ flowers, and that I could never look upon 
them as such ; but as lovely border varieties, my 
admiration for them would be of the fondest descrip¬ 
tion.— James Thurstan, Finsbury Hous", Richmond 
Road, Cardiff. 
It may interest “Amateur” to know that it is possible 
to obtain plants of George IV., Cheshire Favourite, 
and Lancer—the three varieties named by Mr. 
Thurstan in a previous number. But it must be said, 
George IV. is very scarce, and a good plant of it 
is worth at least 4s. or 5s. I have this season bought 
small ones at 2s. 6 d. each, but they required another 
season’s culture to become strong. It must be remem¬ 
bered that the named gold-laced Polyanthus are 
increased only by division ; that being scarce, a plant 
of George IV. is divided as soon as it admits of an off¬ 
set being taken off, and this tends to keep the plant* 
weak. If they could be planted out in the open, in 
suitable soil in a proper position, favourable to health 
and growth, and be sparingly divided for a year or two, 
the constitutional vigour of the plants would be restored 
somewhat. George IV. is a vigorous grower when in 
good health, and taking it altogether, I think it is the 
best gold-laced Polyanthus of the present day, when 
well grown and flowered in the best condition. Cheshire 
Favourite is not so plentiful as Lancer, and it is 
difficult to obtain good plants of it, all the more so 
in consequence of the severity of the winter, which in 
some localities punished them severely. Lancashire 
Hero and Lord Beaconsfield are two strong-growing 
varieties, not difficult to procure, and the same can be 
said of Prince Regent, a very good variety indeed. 
William IV., President, Sydney Smith, John Bright, 
Napoleon III., Formosa, and one or two others are 
commoner varieties, and fairly plentiful and cheap. 
I think that the displays of gold-laced Polyanthus 
last year, both at the exhibition of the National 
Auricula and Primula Society and at the Royal 
Aquarium, were the worst ever seen in London. I had 
to depend upon seedlings, and other exhibitors appeared 
to be in the same plight. I have at the present moment 
a dozen plants or so that promise well, but I am not at 
all sure I shall have three in bloom by April 21st ; 
much will depend upon the weather. On Sunday 
morning (the 22nd) they were all frozen hard in my 
Auricula house, and there came soon after a burst of 
warm spring sunshine, showing the wide difference of 
temperature to which the plants are exposed in a few 
hours. 
I am sorry I had to drop the classes for gold-laced 
Polyanthus at the Royal Aquarium this year—a circum¬ 
stance to which “ Ravenholme ” alluded. The fact is, 
I had less money to work with than my lamented 
predecessor, the late Mr. William Holmes, did last year, 
and therefore my policy was to retain only those classes 
likely to yield the greatest floral display. I dropped 
them most unwillingly ; but, however finely they might 
be shown at the Aquarium, they would create less 
interest than at the exhibition of the National Auricula 
Society at the Drill Hall, Westminster. 
I do not say that it is impossible to grow gold-laced 
Polyanthus near London. I simply say that it is very 
difficult to do so, and the only way in which it can be 
done in a satisfactory manner, is to obtain the plants in 
February and grow them on in as small pots as possible. 
I find one difficulty in getting them established in 
pots—their old roots appear to be of little use to them, 
and they scarcely make headway until they put forth 
new roots from the main stem. 
Mr. T. E. Henwood, of Reading, whose fame as a 
cultivator of Auriculas stands very high, in writing to 
me a few days since, stated that on one occasion he 
obtained a number of plants of the best varieties, and 
at some expense he prepared a suitable bed for them 
in the open, and planted in the autumn. Here, then, 
one would think, was one of those positions Nature, 
according to Mr. Thurstan, provides for them, and it 
did seem that if they would grow anywhere, surely it 
would be under such conditions, helped by all that care 
and attention Mr. Henwood bestows upon his floral 
pets. He tells me that he lost every plant during the 
winter, and would not try again. If Mr. Henwood 
fails in Reading, where he can grow Auriculas to 
perfection, how am I to succeed at Ealing, which is 
so near London ? But I try, and try again, even 
though failure follows upon the attempt very much 
oftener than success.—A. D. 
Show and Fancy Pansies. 
Being formerly an old grower and successful exhibitor 
of both the show and fancy Pansies, I have been 
somewhat amused at the lengthy correspondence which 
has recently appeared in regard to the various opinions 
expressed as to the leading varieties, some of which are 
voted by one grower as being entitled to the first, second 
and third places, whilst in other growers’ lists the same 
varieties stand very low down. How is it therefore 
possible for anyone to rely upon such opinions ? The 
first and most important guide to growers, amateurs 
especially, is for the properties which constitute good 
flowers, both show and fancy, to be laid down, and this 
is more essential for the guidance of judges ; but it 
would be useful to all of us to know what the real 
properties consist of. Perhaps the recent writers will 
kindly give their views as to this necessary informa¬ 
tion .—James Thurstan, Finsbury House, Richmond 
Road, Cardiff. - 
Mr. Irvine’s tabulated list recently published is a 
very ingenious document, and in my opinion gives the 
true average value of the votes as fairly as it can be, 
