644 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
June 8, 1889. 
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-- 
Mr. Thurstan Interviewed. 
To the readers of this column we feel that no apology 
is needed for the transfer to these pages from the 
columns of the Cardiff Evening News, of the following 
interesting remarks concerning one to whom editor and 
readers alike are grateful for much valuable informa¬ 
tion on the cultivation of his favourite flowers. "We 
should perhaps add that our Cardiff contemporary also 
published a portrait of our friend, and a sketch of his 
Tulip-frame, for which we substitute an illustration 
from a former volume. 
“Very few people in Cardiff are aware that they 
have in their midst one of the most prominent growers 
of Tulips in the kingdom—a gentleman, too, who 
does not confine himself exclusively to this branch of 
horticulture, but who has made himself famous as a 
raiser of Pinks, Auriculas, Polyanthuses, Koses, Gladioli, 
Delphiniums, Phloxes, &c. I refer to Mr. James 
Thurstan, agent for South Wales to the Tredegar Iron 
and Coal Company, and whose residence is Pinsbury 
House, Richmond Road. Although an active business 
man, Mr. Thurstan has contrived to cultivate many 
choice specimens of rare and delicate flowers, and 
almost the whole of his leisure time is spent in the by 
no means large garden at the hack of his house. For 
some years Tulips have been the special objects of his 
attention, and I propose briefly to describe his method 
of growing them, as he explained it to me. At the 
present time a glimpse at his garden is a treat for any¬ 
one who is at all interested in horticulture, as the Tulips 
are just now at their best. The choicest specimens, 
which are in a separate bed in the centre of the garden, 
are enclosed in a special frame to protect them from 
biting winds or the heat of the sun. This frame is of 
very simple construction, as will be seen from the 
sketch. It is covered with a canvas of strong grey 
twilled sheeting, which can be so regulated as to protect 
just as much or as many of the plants as may be 
necessary. The interview recorded below will give 
some idea as to the management of the flowers. Being 
curious to know what induced Mr. Thurstan to take 
such an interest in horticulture, I questioned him on 
the subject. 
Mr. Thurstan replied : I have been at it all my life. 
As a youth we had a good garden in Birmingham, 
which is my native place, and I was always fond of 
flowers. 
But what made you go in for Tulips so extensively ?— 
Oh, because I was fascinated with the flowers. I liked 
their appearance, and I got a collection together. It 
takes almost a lifetime to obtain perfection and enable 
you to compete successfully at exhibitions. 
How do you account for that ?—Oh, to some extent, 
on account of the expense. You cannot get them very 
cheap. I have got bulbs in my garden that I could 
sell for £5 each, and, indeed, for any new variety 
which is now raised the market price is from 2 to 5 
guineas a bulb. 
How is that ?—On account of the time it takes to 
raise them. After you have raised the seed it takes 
five years to grow the bulbs into flowering size. You 
have to take them up and re-plant them every vear. 
Then, again, perhaps there are 99 out of 100 of such 
seedlings that are good for nothing. 
Then you have to grow a new bulb practically for 
four years before you can ascertain what it is ?—Yes ; 
and even then it only comes out a self colour, and is 
described as a breeder, and you have to wait until it 
rectifies or breaks into its distinctive colours. These 
are not the common French bulbs which are grown in 
Holland. 
How long is it before the flower breaks or rectifies ?— 
It varies. Some never break at all, others only break 
in about four or five years after they have bloomed. 
Are the self-coloured flowers valuable ?—Oh, yes ; 
they are considered valuable according to the purity of 
the colour, the shape of the flower and the substance 
of the petals. 
Do you cross the varieties at all ?—Yes ; that is how 
we bring them to perfection. If I have a flower that 
contains four good points and a fifth point that is 
imperfect, I select another that has the fifth point 
unblemished, and I take a camel’s-hair brush and 
fertilise them, so that I may possibly obtain one good 
seedling which will possess the five good points. 
How is the fertilising performed ?—By taking the 
pollen from the stamen of one flower and applying it to 
the pistil of another. You know at one time there used 
to be a commerce in Tulip bulbs, just as there are now in 
other commodities, and about the year 1631, according 
to some writers, many people made vast fortunes in 
buying and selling them. The trade was chiefly con¬ 
fined, or, rather, the centre of it was in Holland, and 
exchanges were established for the purpose of facilita¬ 
ting the sales. Many persons were by this means 
raised from indigence and poverty to affluence. 
"When did you first commence to exhibit your speci¬ 
mens 1 —I have been an exhibitor now for over thirty 
years. I exhibited Pinks forty-five years ago. That 
was my first attempt. Pinks and Tulips are my 
favourite flowers. 
Are you going to exhibit this year ?—At present, I 
think not. The Lancashire show is on June 7th, and 
we are a fortnight earlier in the season down here, and 
by that time my Tulips will be all over. 
How many prizes do you think you have taken 
during your career ?—Oh, I can’t tell you. Hundreds. 
I have got prize cards enough almost to paper a room. 
Have you ever cultivated Tulips for the purposes of 
sale?—No, never. As I have said, it takes such a time 
to mature them that you don’t like to part with them 
after you have reared them. 
How many varieties are there in cultivation now ?— 
About 100 good varieties—what we call show Tulips. 
How many different kinds have you got in your 
own garden ?—I have got now, I should think, upwards 
of 100 varieties of seedlings, which are equal, so far as 
the breeder state is concerned, to any in cultivation ; 
some of them very much superior. I have been experi¬ 
menting this year. I have got some growing in six 
inches of sea sand, some in six inches of manure, and 
some in rubbish, simply riddlings from the garden, 
stones, and so on. 
How do they compare ?—Oh, there is very little 
difference in any of them, but the greatest difference is 
in those grown in rubbish. The Tulips evidently don’t 
like it. Those in the sand are thriving, and they will 
grow very well in it. You know there is a great 
difference of opinion as to the best kind of soil to use, 
but I don’t think there is very much in it. 
How many bulbs have you got altogether?—I should 
think I have got in this little garden about 10,000 
bulbs, but there is not one-third of them in bloom. 
How do you account for that ?—I can’t account for 
it. It is a common occurrence for a portion of them 
not to bloom. Those that don’t bloom are designated 
“widows ” by the growers. 
"What shows have you exhibited at ?—I have never 
exhibited Tulips anywhere except at the Royal 
National Tulip Society’s Show, but at other places I 
have exhibited Roses, Pansies, Pinks, Polyanthuses, 
Auriculas, and several other flowers. 
Do you find this climate suits the Tulips?—Yes, 
splendidly ; but if I could only get the ground I could 
grow them much finer. The best specimens I ever saw 
in my life were grown on the tops of the Malvern Hills. 
They want plenty of pure air, and then they will come 
out all right. 
Have you got any bulbs now which nobody else 
possesses ?—Yes. I have got upwards of 100 varieties 
which nobody else possesses, and all of which have 
been raised from my own fertilisation. 
It must have taken you a long time to raise them ?— 
Yes, it has taken me over twenty years to raise them, 
but they have been very satisfactory, and the last timo 
I showed them—the year before last—I took sixteen 
prizes.” , 
Florists’ Tulips at the Temple Show. 
Despite the attractions of Orchids, Clematis, Roses, 
Pelargoniums, and many other objects of great interest 
at the Royal Horticultural Society’s show last week, 
the display of Tulips caused by the competition for the 
prizes offered by the trustees of the Turner Memorial 
Fund was a great feature. Considering that some 200 
blooms were staged in the three collections, the result 
must be deemed satisfactory. The Rev. F. D. Horner 
found himself unable to exhibit. Mr. Thurstan, of 
Cardiff, sent his flowers, although they had suffered 
severely from the hot weather of the previous week ; 
but this came opportunely for Mr. Barlow, and enabled 
him to bring from his famous garden at Stakehill a 
number of blooms, mostly young, and some in very fine 
character. He had cut and set up his flowers with 
stems having two and three leaves upon them, which 
raised them up to a suitable line of sight, and set them 
off to the best advantage. Mr. Barlow was weakest in 
feathers, but there was no class in which he had not 
many good ones. Of feathered bizarres he had Com¬ 
mander, Demosthenes, Masterpiece, Atlas, Sir J. 
Paxton, a little inferior ; and General Grant, bright in 
colour. Bizarres, flamed : Sir J. Paxton, in its best 
form ; Stover’s Lord Stanley, William Lea, sulphur, in 
fine character ; and Dr. Hardy. Roses, feathered: 
Modesty and Heroine, the only real good ones in point 
of general refinement; Annie McGregor, and Charmer. 
Roses, flamed : Madame de St. Arnaud, always very 
bright in colour, but lacking shape ; Aglaia, Mabel, 
Mr. Lomax, and Lady Sefton. Bybloemens, feathered : 
Mrs. Cooper, in fine form ; Yiolet Aimable, and 
Hepworth’s William Parkinson. Bybloemens, flamed: 
Bob Morley, new, a great improvement upon Brown’s 
Salvator Rosa, and highly promising; Talisman, 
Walker’s Duchess of Sutherland, Nimbus, very fine; 
and Adonis. Of breeders he had bizarres: Wm. 
Wilson, Sir J. Paxton, Lord Delamere, two or three 
very fine seedlings raised by the late J. Hepworth, 
and seedling A 27, being very bright in colour. 
Roses : Miss B. Coutts, Lady C. Gordon, Annie 
McGregor, Mr. Barlow, and seedling Hepworth No. 6 . 
Bybloemens: Alice Grey, Talisman, Martin’s 117, and 
Glory of Stakehill. 
Messrs. Stuart & Mein, of Kelso, who were placed 
second, staged a very bright lot of rectified flowers, 
mainly flamed, but very few varieties worthy of being 
included in the front rank. Mr. James Thurstan was 
third ; unfortunately some of his very best flowers 
were faded, especially in the case of the breeders, and 
this greatly told against them in the estimation of the 
judges. Still, as a representative collection of fine 
named varieties it was a very good one, and it included 
not a few good seedlings, both in their rectified and 
breeder forms, that had been raised by Mr. Thurstan, 
and which represented many years of patient work. 
Of bizarres, feathered, he had Fred. Morton, a variety 
of his own raising, which he regards as a decided beat 
upon Masterpiece, and Sir Joseph Paxton. Bizarres, 
flamed: Sir Joseph Paxton and Dr. Hardy. Roses, 
feathered : Mrs. Thurstan (seedling), very promising ; 
Triomphe Royale, and Heroine. Roses, flamed : Mrs. 
Lomax, Aglaia, Kate Connor, and Triomphe Royale. 
Bybloemens, feathered: Mrs. Richards (Thurstan), a 
fine and promising variety, with a dark purple almost 
black feather, the base and stamens very pure. By¬ 
bloemens, flamed : Nimbus and Talisman. Breeders : 
some very promising bizarres. Roses : Mrs. Houlgrave, 
Tryphena and Mrs. Haynes. Bybloemens: John 
Dovington and seedlings. 
As it is probable the Royal Horticultural Society 
will hold an exhibition annually in the Temple Gardens 
about the last week in May, it is to be hoped the ex¬ 
hibition of florists’ Tulips will be continued. It can 
scarcely be expected that the trustees of the Turner 
Memorial Fund can continue to offer prizes year after 
year, but the Council of the R. H. S. may perhaps offer 
some inducement to growers—all of whom reside at a 
great distance from London—to bring their flowers. 
Let us hope the Council will encourage the growers of 
this beautiful and fascinating flower to bring the best 
of their floral treasures to London in 1890 .—£. D. 
-- 
THE GUELDER ROSE. 
The Guelder Rose with its numerous flower-heads—like 
large symmetrical balls of snowy whiteness — is a 
delightful shrub when in full bloom. It is sometimes 
called the Snowball tree, and the designation is a 
correct and suitable one. I place it among the foremost 
of our deciduous flowering shrubs. 
The common Guelder Rose of this country is a British 
plant, and is to be found abundantly in the hedgerows 
which margin our fields. This is Viburnum opulus, 
and the Guelder Rose is but a sterile variety of it. The 
common Guelder Rose is occasionally planted in our 
forecourt gardens as a flowering shrub; perhaps in 
those cases by mistake for the finer type. Its large 
cymes or feathered panicles of flowers, if they be 
closely examined, will be found to have small fertile 
blossoms in the centre, and large infertile ones 
round the sides. The flowers appear at the end of 
May and in June, and in autumn the tree or shrub is 
very conspicuous by means of its crimson leaves and 
clusters of crimson berries. 
But the fine Guelder Rose—our Snowball tree—with 
its symmetrical white balls of flowers, is named from a 
district in the Low Countries called Gueldres-land, 
where it flourishes in great abundance. It is generally 
supposed to have originated as a sport, but when it 
was imported from Gueldres-land, where it is said to 
have first appeared, I cannot say. The flower-heads 
are so abundantly produced in large globular balls, 
so very striking from their mass of pure white, as to 
make its French name of Boule de Neige very appro¬ 
priate. It is sterile, and never produces berries like its 
British relative. 
The Guelder Rose is largely grown for bunching for 
Covent Garden Market, and it is a generous plant, for 
however roughly the flowering sprays may be torn from 
