132 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
October 27 , 1888. 
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Winter-flowering Carnations. 
i have proved long since that under certain conditions 
those varieties of Carnations which are known and 
classed as summer-flowering may be had in bloom 
during the autumn, winter, and spring months ; but I 
do not accept this fact, though it be considered as a 
proof that, in the natural order of things, they can be 
relied upon as being bond fide winter-flowering. My 
experience rather leads me to the conclusion that 
circumstances of an extraordinary and unusual character 
to which the plants have been subjected have very 
materially conduced to an extraordinary growth ; hence 
the issue in the results obtained. I have for years past 
propagated these plants, especially the yellow kinds, 
by means of cuttings, or, perhaps, to use the old and 
more technical phraseology, pipings. These having 
been put in at different periods of the year, has led me 
to conceive the idea that the whole issue evolved was, 
in the main, due to the treatment to which the plants 
had been subjected. I have frequently taken up plants 
from borders and beds in the autumn, well and beauti¬ 
fully furnished with flowering stems, and by potting 
them carefully, and placing them in a warm part of 
the plant house, they have given a continuous supply 
of fully-developed lovely blooms during the winter and 
early spring, when, as a matter of course, they are 
most acceptable. 
The Carnation and the writer are very old friends. 
I have a few fine robust plants that will flower early, 
the seed of which was sown on April 16th last. These 
are throwing up apparently for bloom, and at the same 
time making strong lateral growths, which will be made 
use of for increasing those that may prove worthy of 
perpetuation. I have also a nice healthy little batch 
of seedlings from Pride of Penshurst crossed with 
another fine yellow, that were sown on July 22nd last. 
These have been potted off for some considerable time, 
and are sturdy little plants, which are watched with 
considerable interest. 
In looking over some of my plants growing in the 
open border I find several are throwing up for bloom- 
some have their buds formed. These, of course, will 
be carefully potted up, and, as on previous occasions, 
are sure to do well. I have had some little to do with 
the Carnation in my time, but I am not slow to confess 
that your correspondent, “R.D.,”has much the advan¬ 
tage of me in practical experience, as in speaking of his 
treatment of Carnation Germania his manipulation is 
of such a character that, as he states, his plants are 
“making a free growth from the dead wood.” When 
I read this paragraph I all at once became somewhat 
mixed in my ideas, and the words ‘ ‘ Can these dry bones 
live?” at once suggested themselves to my mind. 
Perhaps “ R. D. ” will be induced to more fully explain 
what he intends to convey in respect to the paragraph 
to which I allude .—George Fry , Lewisham. 
Seedling Carnations. 
Hy old friend, William Wardill, of Luton, whose 
heart, with its great love for flowers, will always be 
young, even if he lives for another century, writes to 
say what a treat he has this season enjoyed in blooming 
a large number of seedling Carnations. In an outburst 
of enthusiasm, he writes : “I dearly love the glorious 
Carnations and Picotees of the show section ; but I 
must say that nothing in this way is so delightful and 
interesting as a bed of seedlings, if obtained from a 
good and reliable strain ; to sow the seeds, to watch 
their germination, the development of the seed-leaf, 
and witness the grass acquiring a healthy richness ; to 
see the lengthening of the flower-stem, the swelling of 
the bud ; to note the formation of the calyx, to calculate 
whether the flower will be semi-double or fully double, 
until it bursts forth in all its splendour of goodness or 
disappointing mediocrity.” I can quite understand 
this outburst on the part of my old friend, for both the 
poetry and the romance of flower culture is included in 
the process of raising and blooming seedlings. 
Mr. Wardill bloomed a large quantity of seedlings of 
good blood during the past summer, and he reports 
that he has not been disappointed, although the weather 
was so much against the perfect development of the 
blooms. He had some very good ones—some indif¬ 
ferent, of course, but none bad, which is saying a great 
deal, and never before had he so small a proportion of 
single flowers. It is the fancy and yellow Picotees 
that are more particularly engaging Mr. Wardill’s 
attention. He has some promising wire-edge yellow- 
ground Picotees, which he will prove next season, and 
hopes to have among his batch of selected ones ’some 
that will compare, in point of quality, with the white- 
ground Picotees. Mr. Wardill’s aim is to obtain a 
batch of true yellow-ground varieties, and I sincerely 
trust he may succeed. 
My old friend is an example to all who are lovers of 
the Carnation, as all who can should raise seedlings. 
I am afraid the past summer has proved a very bad one 
for the production of seed. Many of the pods swelled 
up, and seemed as if they would fill with good grains ; 
but they are quite barren, so that it may prove difficult 
to get good seed ; still, it is to be obtained in the right 
quarters. The safest plan is to sow in early spring ; 
but anyone who has a warm house or frame in which to 
keep their seedlings during the winter will do well to 
sow at once in pots, pans, or shallow boxes, using a 
fine, light, sandy soil.— R. D. 
-- 
THE LATE MRS. EYRE ORABBE. 
The death is reported of this estimable lady and kindly 
patron of horticulture, so well known at Southampton, 
the sad event having taken place at Bellagio, Italy, 
on the 12th inst., and at an advanced age. Mrs. 
Crabbe’s beautiful place near Southampton, known as 
Glen Eyre, is a very lovely garden, full of pleasing 
features, and rich in choice trees and shrubs ; whilst in 
the matter of Camellias, few gardens have greater 
wealth. The deceased lady, who was a thorough gar¬ 
dener, and possessed a knowledge of plants far from 
common, made the cultivation of Camellias as ordinary 
hardy shrubs at Glen Eyre one of her specialties, and 
remarkably well was she repaid. It was always a part 
of Mrs. Crabbe’s garden creed that Camellias are as 
hardy—nay, even hardier—than Laurels. Certainly, 
in this somewhat southern locality, they grew like 
Laurels and bloomed in marvellous profusion. 
Glen Eyre partly lies at the head of, and partly in, 
a glen looking east. The mansion stands broadwise 
across the head of the glen, and the grounds drop 
away from it in a series of richly-planted terraces, and 
on either side of the glen in sloping form, clothed with 
fine Conifers, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, &c., whilst the 
Camellias are dotted or clumped here and there in 
diverse positions. The soil, which is of a semi-peaty 
nature, such as naturally suits the Rhododendron, 
seems most admirably adapted to the requirements of 
the Camellia also. 
Some fifty years ago, the late Mrs. Crabbe—then 
Mrs. Spooner, for she had married her first husband 
when quite young—was a notable supporter of the old 
Hampshire Horticultural Society, which then held its 
meetings alternately at Southampton and Manchester, 
and in rooms which, for dimensions, as compared with 
the immense tent area now covered by the Royal 
Southampton Horticultural Society’s shows, serve only 
to raise a smile. Still, fifty years ago horticultural 
societies were not only in their infancy, but the amount 
of material at the disposal of growers compares very 
indifferently with the wealth of material now at their 
command. It is a long time “since, but still there 
remains vividly impressed upon my mind the reports 
of those early shows when the awards for plants seemed 
to be made with persistent monotony to Mrs. Spooner; 
the Rev. Mr. Beadon, later Canon Beadon, who a few 
years since died a centenarian ; the Rev. the Warden 
of Winchester College, whose gardener was Mr. Weaver; 
and the Rev. Mr. Rasleigh, of Hamble. It was not a 
matter for surprise if in time such a poorly patronised 
society died out, and from its ashes arose the present 
Southampton Horticultural Society, which is without 
exception the largest of its kind in the South of England. 
In those days the site of what is now a huge skating 
rink comprised the chief exotic, or as termed, the Spa 
Gardens of the town. They were the palmy days of 
the old nursery firm of W. B. Page & Son, who also 
had extensive nurseries at Hill, just outside of the 
town, long since given over to the speculative builder. 
Some few smaller nurseries existed in the town also 
but these, too, have disappeared, whilst almost alone 
there remains intact the famous Red Lodge Nurseries 
situate in a commanding position at the top of the errand 
drive, some two miles long, which leads from the town 
towards Winchester. Here also Mr. W. H. Rogers 
J.P., one of the old nurserymen of half a century since 
still conducts an extensive business. Almost im¬ 
mediately opposite to the Red Lodge Nursery, a road 
branching off to the east leads to Glen Eyre, which is 
about half a mile further on. The district is very 
elevated, is a singularly beautiful one, and commands 
one of the finest views in the county of Hants. 
For the whole of the period of the late Mrs. Eyre 
Crabbe’s residence at Glen Eyre, she has been 
efficiently seconded in all her gardening enterprises by 
her faithful gardener, Mr. Stewart. Even when the 
Glen was a waste of common and woodland, Mrs. 
Crabbe, with her late husband, Colonel Crabbe, and 
Mr. Stewart, planned and arranged, worked and 
planted, until from out of the wild waste in time arose 
the garden paradise which is now Glen Eyre. Specially 
devoted to the culture of spring flowers, and possessing 
a situation which planting had done so much to 
shelter, Mrs. Crabbe always had during the early 
spring a very lovely floral display in her terraced 
gardens—Primroses, Daisies, Pansies, Forget-me-nots, 
Aubrietias, and, indeed, any good massing early flowers, 
from out of which gloriously-coloured Tulips, Hyacinths, 
Narcissi, &c., would arise in rich beauty. Ere these 
flowers had passed away the Camellias would be 
blooming profusely, and the earlier Rhododendrons and 
other shrubs would still further help to enrich the 
garden with beauty and sweetness. 
It may interest some of our readers, especially that 
just now Apple culture is so much on the tapis, to learn 
that the Beauty of Hants Apple—a seedling from the 
Blenheim Pippin, but more conical in shape and 
brighter in colour—originated at Glen Eyre, the parent 
tree standing near Mr. Stewart’s house in the gardens. 
Mrs. Eyre Crabbe is succeeded at Glen Eyre by her son, 
Major Eyre Crabbe, who inherits all his late mother’s 
fondness for gardening—a taste which seems to run in 
families, and blessed indeed are those families in which 
a love for horticulture is a dominant feature. Mrs. 
Crabbe was a munificent supporter of philanthropic 
institutions in her locality, and it is very possible that 
in remembrance of her goodness some memorial may be 
raised to her memory. To my mind, however, re¬ 
membering only her devotion to horticulture, I regard 
Glen Eyre itself as her noblest memorial, because prac¬ 
tically the creation of her own gardening ideal._ A. D. 
-- 
THE TREE OP HEAVEN. 
The beauty of its leaves and its elegant appearance 
make the Ailanthus an ornament to any plantation. 
Ailanto is the name of thisjtree in the Moluccas, and 
it is said to signify the Tree of Heaven, an appellation 
probably bestowed on account of the rapidity of its 
growth and the great height to which it reaches in the 
East Indies, its native country. It has proved quite 
hardy, and is frequently to be met with, being a con¬ 
spicuous feature among other trees. When quite young 
it is not unlike a Sumach in appearance, but the 
extreme rapidity of its growth, and the great size of its 
pinnated leaves, in some instances 4 ft. and 5 ft. long, 
soon distinguish it from that shrub. During the first 
half-dozen years it outstrips almost any other deciduous 
tree in vigour of growth, and leading stems have been 
measured which had grown 12 ft. to 15 ft. in a single 
season. In four or five years, therefore, it forms quite 
a bulky head, but after that period it advances more 
slowly, and in twenty years would probably be over¬ 
topped by the Poplar, Plane, or any other fast-growing 
tree. It has been stated that European workmen have 
applied its wood to cabinet work, for which, from its 
close grain and bright satin-like lustre, it is well 
adapted. The Ailanthus has been much planted under 
the name of the Celestial Tree in the streets of New 
York and Philadelphia. I do not think it has been so 
used in this country. It is said to be well suited for 
the purpose, for it will insinuate its roots into the most 
meagre and barren soil, where few other trees will 
grow, and soon produce an abundance of foliage and ' 
fine shade. It appears to be also perfectly free from 
insects, and it is not a slovenly tree like the Acacia 
and others, for the leaves, instead of dropping slowly 
and for a long time, fall off almost immediately when 
frost commences. The male and female flowers are 
borne on separate trees; the male forms the finer 
ornamental specimen, the female being rather low, and 
spreading in its head.— E. TF. 
-- Xgc -- 
THE NATIONAL APPLE AND 
PEAR CONFERENCE. 
The enjoyable and instructive conference held at 
Chiswick last week, was brought to a very satisfactory 
conclusion on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday at 
4 p.m. the show was closed to enable some of the 
exhibitors to get their collections away to Manchester 
for the show at Old Trafford this week. The number 
of visitors was not large at any time, but they were of 
the right sort—mostly men deeply interested in the 
business on hand, as distinguished from the mere sight¬ 
seeing portion of the community. 
The total number of dishes of fruit staged was, we 
believe, about 4,000, the greatest number being com¬ 
posed of Apples, but whilst the national fruit thus 
considerably exceeded the Pears in bulk, it must be 
