450 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 16, 1889. 
through the summer and autumn months, with wood¬ 
making into the bargain. 'Where a good amount of 
roof space is covered in this way, without you have a 
good outlet for your flowers, you may make your mind 
up to see some hundreds of blooms spoil in a very few 
days. The bush kinds that have been planted out 
between, if they have not been overgrown by the 
climbers, will not flower so freely, but will yield a more 
regular supply. 
Red-spider is a terrible scourge amongst permanent 
planted-out Roses, and as soon as the real summer 
weather comes, do not fail to apply the syringe freely, 
and keep the house as cool as possible. The plants so 
treated will naturally lose their leaves at the proper 
season, and may be started into growth again 
at any time of the year, according to when the 
flowers are wanted. 
Plants in Pots. 
Good plants that have been grown on from young ones 
in pots, and well looked after, will yield a more regular 
supply of bloom than those planted out ; but they 
want a great deal more time spent upon them in the 
shape of attention. Get some really good plants in large 
pots, and keep them in a healthy condition, and by 
bringing in a few dozen at a time the Rose season may 
be prolonged for an indefinite period. During the 
summer and autumn they may be plunged outside in a 
good open position, where they will not need much 
attention, only that of watering occasionally. 
Where a continuous supply is required, I should 
prefer large plants in pots, in sufficient numbers, to 
those planted out, for the reason that you may then 
employ the house for other purposes during the autumn 
and winter seasons, whereas if the plants are perma¬ 
nently planted, the house cannot be of much other 
use.— TF. G. 
-» >;< ■>- 
THE MUNOHAUSENS OF 
GARDENING-. 
Among the many I have met with there were certain 
people who might be called the Munchausens of 
gardening. Whatever they had was bigger than 
anything anybody else had, and more extraordinary 
and greater than anything else in existence. In the 
country there was one of them called Chadderton, who 
used to live between Ashton and Daisy Nook. In 
cutting the canal they entered on a large stand of 
water there, which is called Grime, and his garden was 
on Crime Brow. He was a thorough and earnest 
gardener, but slightly prone to exaggeration in some 
things. Someone said to him one day, “Chadderton, 
how are thi fayberries looking?” “Hey, dear,” he 
said, “ tha’ should just see ’em ; they are hanging 
under the trees like watchmen’s lanterns, and aw 
have to make holes under ’em for ’em to hang iu.” 
Another time he said that he was going home from 
Ashton “one Sunday neet, and when I geet on’t 
canal bank, I heard it crack and crack, and I thowt 
whatever is it, is thur going to be a bit of a earthquake?” 
and he said, “ I bethought me all at once that it wur 
my Onions growing ; I had gi’en them a bit of pushing 
stuff, and there had been three or four hours of nice 
warm rain, and it wur. ” 
Gooseberry growers know that there is a great 
difference in the weighing properties of ripe and unripe 
fruit. So a sympathising friend was looking over 
Chadderton’s fruit in a season something like the last 
one we have had, with very little sun and plenty of 
shade and rough weather. So the friend said to him, 
“Well, John, you’ll never get those ripe in time for 
the show.” “ No,” he replied, “I think not.” “No, 
there’s bin no sun,” said his friend. “Sun!” said 
John, “No, I cud a made as good a sun out of a brass 
button top wi’ a bit of sond papper as there’s bin this 
year.” At that time flat brass buttons were very 
commonly worn. Old George Horrocks, of Blackley, 
rather beat him in Munchausenism. He was really a 
first-rate gardener, and a good grower of anything he 
took in hand. He was gardener for Mr. Ashton, the 
builder, at one time, and he said he would give 
anybody about Blackley 1 lb. in growing a Tripoli 
Onion, and to some he would give 2 lbs. AVell, he 
grew them to between 4 lbs. and 5 lbs. weight at one 
time, and he used to tell some wonderful stories, but 
there was always a good vein of humour in them. 
He raised a Gooseberry called Gretna Green, which 
was a very handsome one. He boasted so much about 
this sort, that I expect he had been meddling with it 
and trying to swell it, but, however, at the time when 
it should have put in the most work, it suddenly 
sulked, and would scarcely grow at all. So he used to 
stand and apostrophise the tree : “ Oh,” he would say, 
“thar’t sulking, arta? Just thee wait till end o’t’ 
season, and I’ll pay thi off then.” However, it did 
sulk, and disappointed him very much ; so at the end 
of the season he dug the tree up and punched it up and 
down the garden, and across, and then over a hedge, 
and then he went and punched it up about the field, 
and then punched it back again. “Now then,” he said, 
“thou wants wakkening up, and I think that’ll 
wakken thi up.” AVell, he planted it again, and 
whatever may have been the reason it did not sulk the 
year after. He won first prizes all over the place with 
it, and he used to tell the story very gravely, and say, 
“ If ever tha has a tree that sulks like that thee punce 
it about. It’ll cure it if owt will.” He had a great 
many stories to tell with which I could fill the space of 
a lecture, but I think his finest was in describing a 
great crop of Onions he had got, and which he had to 
take to Bowlee Show, Middleton. And he said to me, 
“ It were between four and five mile, thou knows, and 
I wondered however I were to get ’em there. I got a 
navvy barrow,” he said, “ and I tried to put three in, 
but I couldno’ wheel ’em at all. First one and then 
another kept tumbling out, and then I found I could 
only take one at onst. So I had to start that road. 
AVell, show was on’t Saturday, and I had to begin 
taking the things on Thursday morning. I could only 
go twice a day,” he said, “and I managed to get six 
there.” You may depend upon it that I never 
questioned the truth of that story .—From a paper on 
Garden Gossip hy Mr. S. Barlow. 
-—>:t«-- 
THE FERNERY. 
On Planting the Smaller British Ferns. 
There can be no question that a large amount of interest 
attaches to the cultivation of the smaller British 
Ferns, all of which are exceedingly pretty. They are 
at the same time quite hardy, with the exception 
perhaps of the Maidenhair (Adiantum Capillus-Veneris) 
and Asplenium Ceterach, better known perhaps as 
Ceterach officinarum, which would hardly succeed in 
the open air in cold northern districts. Besides their 
beauty there is an additional incentive for planting 
them in the great variety they afford, and the use that 
may be made of them for planting in small pockets, 
seams, and crevices of the most perpendicularly built 
rock work. 
One thing that must be remembered is never to plant 
them in warm and sunny positions, where the small 
quantity of soil between the crevices of the stones must 
get dust dry in a very short time. Care should be 
exercised in building that these crevices communicate 
with larger quantities of soil down between and below 
them. The joints should also dip inwards and 
downwards so as to receive and take in the water 
applied to them, either b} 7 the garden hose, the engine, 
or even the watering-pot. Many collectors, no doubt, 
remember finding such things as Seolopendrium 
vulgare, Asplenium Trichomanes, A. Adiantum-nigrum 
and others, growing in crevices of the stones and 
beneath overhanging boulders where no rain could ever 
reach them. In artificial rockwork, the difficulty of 
getting those places to retain sufficient moisture to 
ensure the growth of the subjects planted, should 
forbid the imitation of nature in that respect. In those 
particular cases the rocks are kept continually moist 
by the oozing out from between the seams, or by the 
trickling down from above, of water from some hidden 
source. On a large scale an imitation of this may by 
the exercise of considerable skill be attempted. 
If no continual supply of water in this way can be 
obtained, both the building and planting will have to 
be conducted in such a way that the rockery will 
receive the full benefit of rain and what other water 
may be applied to it artificially. The next thing to be 
considered is, that however narrow the clefts may be in 
which Ferns are planted, their roots should have access 
to soil deep enough to secure a sufficiency of moisture 
at all times, but particularly while making growth in 
summer. A quantity of peat will be found advan¬ 
tageous for all of the smaller kinds. Rock-loving Ferns 
such as Asplenium Trichomanes, A. fontanum, A. 
germanicum, A. septentrionale, A. Adiantum-nigrum, 
and A. viride, will be benefited by an admixture of 
broken sandstone, either red or white, provided it is of 
a porous as well as gritty nature. All of these should 
be planted in little pockets on the shady northern 
exposure of rockwork, but they must neither be over¬ 
hung by nor subjected to the drip of the trees, and 
must at all times be fully exposed to light. In 
southern districts Asplenium Ceterach may be grown 
under these conditions. Give A. viride a free supply 
of water in summer. Lime rubbish may be mixed iu 
the soil in which Polypodium Robertianum (P. cal- 
careum) is planted ; no other British Fern, however, 
should be so treated. The beautiful Mountain Parsley 
Fern (Cryptogamma crisp a) does best when fully 
exposed to light and air; it never thrives satis¬ 
factorily for any length of time in the confined 
atmosphere of houses. Never allow it to be over¬ 
shadowed by taller-growing kinds. The Common 
Polypody may be planted extensively in all sorts of 
places, such as in crevices and on the tops of old walls 
where they are likely to obtain a sufficiency of moisture 
to maintain a foothold. 
-»> X< -- 
HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
Letters from a Lady to a Friend concerning 
the Best Flowers to Grow for Cutting.—I. 
“My Dear Mary, 
“You have so often admired the flowers in our home 
that at your earnest request, now I have the time, I send 
you the following notes and hints, as it will soon be 
the season for putting in new plants in your garden, 
with a view to use next season. You may have 
remarked the sparing use 1 made of greenhouse and 
forced flowers, so knowing that you have no glass, all 
the information I now send, concerns only such things 
as you can grow in the garden without much trouble. 
Also I do not write about florists’ flowers, like Roses, 
Cirnations, &c., the growingof them in voicing too much 
expense. 
“ To begin with, do not arrange your Snowdrops with 
small evergreens, like box, &c., as I have noticed you 
always do. I generally mix mine with their own 
leaves sparingly dotted amongst them, and the effect 
is very much more artistic. Also take off any stiff 
look, by having some with much longer stalks than 
others ; and when your glasses are filled, pull up some 
here and there above the heals of the others, which 
will give a much lighter eff ct. Have them pulled 
with as long stalks as you can get, as they arrange so 
much more gracefully, and have them gathered when 
newly out, as then they will last a long time. 
“ One of the next earliest of our spring flowers is the 
well-known Crocus, and why it is so seldom seen arranged 
indoors I cannot understand. You remember admiring 
our old bowls with them. I fill the bowls with loose 
fresh moss heaped up in the centre, then dot in the 
Crocuses of all colours, and stand them in a sunny 
window to make them expand their blooms. When 
out, their colours are so brilliant they make a room 
look quite gay. A few tiny Ivy leaves, the dark red 
kind especially, stuck in round the edges of the bowls 
is a great improvement. I have often in early spring 
decorated the dining-room table with a dozen small 
bowls filled with the Crocuses in all colours, and they 
were very much admired. 
“Now I must tell you of a plant which I cannot too 
strongly recommend, and which is not much known— 
viz , Doronicum caucasicum. Flowering as early as 
the end of Mirch, it is, of course, extra welcome, 
and except it has been seen growing in very large 
clumps or long lines, few can realise how beautiful the 
effect is of its lovel} 7 D iisy-shaped flowers, blooming 
too when flowers are still so scarce. It is perfectly 
hardy, and increases very rapidly. A large stock of it 
can be got in a short time, by breaking up plants into 
quite tiny pieces, and planting in a row 6 ins. apart. 
The plants soon fill up the vacant spaces, and can be 
further sub-divided if more are wanted. 
“In a cut state the flowers last very long, if as soon as 
cut they are immediately put into water; but if this is 
neglected they droop, and do not revive again. When 
I cut them to send to friends in town, I do so the 
afternoon of the day before, placing them overnight 
in water, in a cool dark room or cellar. With this 
precaution they arrive quite fresh, and last from ten 
days to a fortnight. After the plants have done 
flowering, the foliage grows very strongly, and being 
very beautiful, both as regards colour and shape, is 
very ornamental during the summer, and also very 
useful to cut from when green is required, especially 
for Heleniums and Bupthalmums, which have the 
same style of flower as the Doronicum, but their foliage 
being not at all good, I always iu preference use the 
latter. 
“Another spring flower I find either neglected or little 
known, is the double form of the common AA ood 
Anemone—viz., Anemone nemorosa flore pleno. Any¬ 
where in shady spots, in shrubberies or secluded mossy 
banks, it takes care of itself, and the flowers having 
more substance than the wild single one, last longer, 
and are also more effective - looking. Like the 
