500 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
April 6, 1889. 
The “ National "-isation of the Pink. 
What we most sorely need to know is, who does or will 
take up the Pink ? for growers would surely contri¬ 
bute both flowers and funds towards its re-appearance 
in public as one of the true old florists’ flowers. 
In all our national florist societies there are some 
subscribing members who contribute, although they 
do not grow all or perhaps any of these special flowers, 
and such purely disinterested goodwill is most sweet 
and welcome help. I hope the Pink, in her turn, may 
find some friends such as these. 
Talking the other day with Mr. Ben Simonite, who 
had come to see the Auriculas and other plants, his 
fear was that, just now, growers of the Pink might 
be more difficult to find than prize money for it. 
This, however, is past knowing until those who could 
and would help, come forward and report themselves. 
So far, I have had no communication from anybody, 
save Mr. Thurstan, upon whom we can rely for all¬ 
round help, and Mr. Barlow, who has a good collec¬ 
tion of florist Pinks, and would certainly do all in his 
power, which would be much. 
For a northern show, I can think of nothing better 
than seeking the auspices of the Manchester Botanical 
Council, who grant us such substantial and valuable 
aid in the National Auricula, Tulip, and Carnation 
exhibitions of our northern section ; and we need no 
better representative before the Council than Mr. 
Barlow, who is himself a member of it, and skilled in 
all needful knowledge and advocacy. 
Northern officers and committee of a national Pink 
society could, I think, best be enrolled from among 
the many members of the national florist societies who 
are within easy reach of Manchester, and could therefore 
most quickly and conveniently meet together. Florists 
generally know something of more than just the flowers 
they grow as special favourites ; and though I do not 
speak for any one, I think some would volunteer to 
help the Pink. 
There may be some exhibition of the Manchester 
Botanical Society that would catch the blooming 
season of the Pink, and if the great advantage could 
be gained of bringing the Pink as one floral element in 
such a show, there would be more public attention 
drawn to the flower in this way than any other, while 
risks would be avoided which experience a few years 
ago has shown it would not be safe to run. 
But nothing can be done without a vote of supply— 
of flowers and funds. We are very much in the bud, 
i.e., in the dark, till we know who has the Pink, and 
who will help to bring it to the light again. I have 
no authority to speak either for the Manchester 
Botanical Council or for Mr. Barlow, but the Botanical 
Council have for many years fairly assisted the national 
florist societies in many kinds of help, both in ways 
and means, and Mr. Barlow’s heart is with every good 
old florists’ flower and the lovers thereof. 
For myself, I can only say that I will gladly be a 
guinea subscriber to a national Pink society, though I 
shall not be able to grow more than the few florists’ 
Pinks I have long had for the sake of seeing a sweet 
old face from year to year. 
I have sought out a still more forgotten flower, the 
florists Ranunculus, with the hope of working from 
seed towards the lost beauties that, in fac simile , will 
never be seen again. 
Where is “Naxara,” Queen of Black, and all Ranun¬ 
culuses, and which my father used to grow by the row 
at home ? Where is she, that I may give her weight 
in gold for her, in the tuber yet undried ? 
Alas ! I fear she is a rarity as great as Mr. Punch’s 
unique old bit of furniture—“ the chair in which 
verbum sat!" — F. D. Horner, Burton-in-Lonsdale. 
Carnations. 
A GREAT many orders for Carnations and Picotees will, 
no doubt, be sent to dealers during the next month. 
Those who grow Carnations for sale make a point of 
issuing their lists early in the autumn, as this gives 
lovers of these plants an opportunity to make their 
selections, get in their plants, and pot them up for 
wintering. By doing this the plants become well 
rooted during the winter, and are then ready for re¬ 
potting in early spring. If plants are had in March, 
and they are sent out of pots, precious time is lost, and 
unless they are caiefully packed, with good balls of soil 
about the roots, can scarcely be expected to produce 
early blooms of fine quality ; and yet I have known 
Carnations to be ordered in May, when they have 
begun to put up their flowering stems. 
The other day I took off some late-layered plants, 
and they had only just begun to put forth their roots. 
They were at once potted, two plants in a small pot, 
one on either side, with some fine sandy soil and 
coco-nut fibre placed about the roots. They are now 
in a close frame, and I shall have to wait until the end 
of April before they can be got into their blooming-pots, 
which will have to be of smaller size than those used 
for plants that are potted now. In potting, I would 
strongly advise getting plants that are taken up out of 
the pots in which they were layered, but be careful to 
put them in pots not so large but what they will have 
a chance of filling them with roots. As Mr. Joseph 
Lakin once said, it is much better to have pots filled 
with roots, than merely soil without roots. 
Let me impress upon intending young growers who 
may contemplate getting together a collection of named 
Carnations and Picotees, to order a few good sorts only, 
such as may be expected to produce good flowers that 
will be of service on the exhibition table. It is much 
better to have twenty-four plants of six good sorts than 
the same number of different varieties. It is better 
to have sixty plants each of, say, twenty good sorts of 
Carnations, and the same number of Picotees, if 
showing is contemplated. Here is a good selection of 
twenty-four varieties of Carnations :—Scarlet bizarres : 
Admiral Curzon, Robert Lord, Edward Adams, and 
George. Crimson bizarres ; Due d’Aumale, Harrison 
Weir, Master Fred, and Rifleman. Pink and purple 
bizarres : William Skirving, Thomas Anstiss, Mrs. 
Gorton, and Sarah Payne. Scarlet flakes: Henry 
Cannell, John Ball, Sportsman, and Matador. Purple 
flakes: James Douglas, George Melville, Florence 
Nightingale, and Squire Whitbourn. Rose flakes : 
Miss Erskine Wemyss, Thalia, James Meiryweather, 
and Sybil. Eighteen varieties of Picotees:—Heavy red 
edge : Brunette and J. B. Bryant. Light rose edge : 
Mrs. Gorton and Thomas William. Heavy purple 
edge : Zerlina, Baroness B. Coutts and Juliette. Light 
purple edge : Clara Penson and Ann Lord. Heavy 
rose edge : Edith D’Ombrain and Mrs. Payne. Light 
rose edge: Miss Gorton and Nellie. Heavy scarlet 
edge ; Constance Heron, Mrs. Rudd and Mrs. Sharpe. 
Light scarlet edge : Favourite and Mrs. Geggie. 
Mr. Robert Sydenham informs me that he uses small 
shells—such as are used for spreading over the surfaces 
of paths—with his Carnation soil, and finds it advan¬ 
tageous to do so. Pounded oyster shells have long been 
recommended as a valuable ingredient. Mr. Dodwell 
places a layer or two of oyster shells over the drainage 
in his pots, and states that it has a very beneficial 
effect.— R. D. 
David Jackson and his Tulips, 
David Jackson, who is still living, has raised some 
exceedingly fine Tulips, and among them one which 
approaches to the black more nearly than any other ; 
iu fact, the feathering (the body of the Tulip is a white 
ground) is as black as a raven’s wing, and it is a most 
beautiful flower. He has also raised others from the 
same seed-pod. This one, which he called Mrs. 
Jackson, has really the advantage of the others in 
depth of colour, but all of them are very dark. I saw 
iu The Garden that there had been a controversy upon 
the subject of the black Tulip. Mr. Ivrelage, of 
Haarlem, says he has got it. Well, if he has, I wish 
him joy of it, because I cannot imagine any great 
beauty in one perfectly black, but I do not think any 
of them is a perfect black. However, that is only 
a little divergence. This Mrs. Jackson bloomed in the 
rectified or broken state (it was never a breeder or 
self)—that is to say, perfect feathered character. I 
went to see, and was very much pleased with it, and 
asked him if he sold it to give me a chance to buy. I 
saw it bloom for two years, and as he was willing to 
sell I asked him what was the price. “ What do°you 
want for it, David?” said I. “Ten pound,” said he. 
I said, “That’s a big price, but I’ll tell yo’ what I’ll 
do. I’ll gi’ yo’ th’ weight o’th’ bulbs in gold for it.” 
He replied, “Dunno thou begin to come ony nonsense 
wi me. I tell thi 111 have ten pounds or nowt, and 
thou can either take it or leave it.” Well, of course, 
I had to pay him, and Mr. William Lea, of Leigh, who 
was at that time perhaps the best grower we had iu 
England, went halves with me for it. 
It turned out to be stained and comparatively worth¬ 
less, but I am glad to say that during the last three 
years it has gone back again to its own pure form. I 
attribute that stain on the top of the stamens entirely 
to its being very rich in pollen. The anthers are 
overloaded if anything with pollen, and now it has got 
to be less vigorous there is rather less pollen on the 
anthers. A stained Tulip with a stained base is always 
stained, but one that is stained on the top of the 
stamen by a little of the pollen has not a permanent 
stain. I mention this because it is undoubtedly the 
very finest flower of its class when it comes in a pure 
state. It is not always straightforward sailing with 
florists, and it was not so with David and his Tulips. 
On one occasion when some of them were just opening 
there came a terrible blizzard in the month of May, 
which knocked his garden all to pieces. He left his 
loom as soon as the storm was over, went to his garden, 
and as he looked around he gradually got more highly 
charged with electricity. He had no means of giving 
vent to it, because there was no one there but himself, 
but as he came near the house his poor wife furnished 
him with a conductor. She said to him—“Well, 
David, and how are they looking?’’ “Looking,” he 
replied, “like thee, withered.” Well, he was rather 
singular, and not a very pleasant chap at the best, but, 
of course, under these circumstances, although it was a 
very ungallant remark to have made, perhaps some 
excuse may be found for him.— From a paper on Garden 
Gossip, by Hr. S. Barlow. 
The Pansy and How to Grow it.* 
Under this title, Mr. James Simkins, a well-known 
Pansy grower in Birmingham, has just published a 
nicely got-up book, which treats of the show and fancy 
Pansy thoroughly, its history, culture in beds and 
frames, suitable soils and manures, propagation, pro¬ 
perties, hybridisation, the enemies of the Pansy, with 
other valuable information, and giving a list of the 
best Pansies of the day. It is a book of 112 pages, 
bound in stiff covers, and with several coloured illustra¬ 
tions. Two of these represent the Pansies of fifty years 
ago, with their names, the plates being reproduced 
from Harrison’s Flori:ultural Cabinet. The other 
two represent some of the first fancy Pansies raisep 
in England and introduced in 1866, and which are 
reproduced from the Floral Magazine. Some woodcuts 
are also given to illustrate some of the subjects in the 
book. To amateur Pansy growers the book is a 
valuable guide, treating fully on all points, and with 
full instructions as to exhibiting. A small quantity, 
about a dozen copies hurried forward by the printer?, 
unfortunately contain a few errors which are puzzling, 
but these have we hear been rectified in all the other 
copies. 
-->$<-- 
AURICULA GOSSIP. 
In my cold house these are coming along merrily, 
incited thereto by the mild weather, with occasional 
outbursts of warm sunshine. March has departed in 
lamb-like fashion ; let us hope that April will revive all 
the old traditions of that month, and be indeed spring¬ 
like—warm showers, and times of sunshine alternating. 
I have been carefully going through my Auriculas, top¬ 
dressing a few, and turning out of pots for the purpose 
of examining the roots of some of the more weakly- 
looking ones. Rot will sometimes set in at the base of 
the main root or carrot, and then it gradually travels 
up its length until it reaches the plant, and if not 
checked in time, the loss of the plant is inevitable. 
Therefore, in March, when activity commences, if a 
plant should chance to take on a stunted appearance, 
and not make headway, it is a sure sign that it needs 
the attention of the cultivator ; it should be turned 
out of the pot, the soil be shaken from the roots, and then 
examined. It will be almost certain to be found that 
the rot has got hold of it. I shake all the soil from 
the roots, carefully remove all trace of decay up to the 
sound part, then I dip it in some powdered charcoal, 
and re-pot it, placing it at the side of a small pot, with 
a little light sandy soil among the roots ; I then plunge 
the pot in a bed of coco-nut fibre in a tiny frame, cover 
it up close and shade it, and in this way many a plant, 
otherwise doomed to decay, can be saved. But it 
should be looked to in time, directly the first signs of 
arrest of growth appear. The best-managed collections 
are not exempt from rot—it is peculiar to the Auricula, 
but it is a foe that has to be carefully guarded against. 
I find it to be a good plan to pot all weakly-rooted 
plants against the side of the pot, as the probabilities 
of their making headway are thereby augmented. 
In reference to the order of flowering, the seifs lead 
the way ; and, as in old days, the maidens led the way 
of the triumphant army, dancing and singing the 
praises of the warriors ; so it is bringing on the army 
of flowering plants. Hetty Dean, the pure yellow self, 
leads the way. This is always the earliest to bloom, 
* The Pansy and How to Grow it. By Janies Simkins. 
Birmingham : Cornish Brothers, 3V, New Street. Loudon: 
Simpkiu, Marshall, & Co. 
