May 21, 1892. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
595 
had the foliage of the Clove if not almost of the 
Malmaison—that is, succulent and sappy. They did 
famously the first year or two, but the winter before 
last killed every one of them. I tried to recover 
them from friends to whom I had given them ; but 
they were all gone—finished off by the same winter. 
Again, border Carnations should be of erect habit 
—that is, should hold their flowers up to look you in 
the face. Half the effect of flowers in the open 
border is lost when they have a pendulous habit, and 
present to the spectator only the back of the bloom. 
It is also tedious to have to stoop and turn up every 
flower that you may wish to examine. As I have 
said, my experience is that Carnations are very 
sensitive to peculiarities of soil and climate, and for 
this reason I have always counselled friends who are 
starting Carnations in the open to commence with 
varieties which thrive in their own vicinity, and to 
extend their stock gradually by experiment. 
Don’t want Coddling. 
One peculiarity Carnations have, and I fancy it is the 
same with all flowers, and that is the commoner the 
type the more freely and vigorously do they flourish 
in the open border. There is herein a temptation to 
gardeners to be satisfied with such flowers in the 
open, and to grow their finer varieties exclusively 
under glass. This is the very thing I have always 
set my face against, for I believe absolutely in the 
unlimited capabilities of the Carnation to adapt 
itself with time and cultivation to all circumstances. 
I think, indeed, that up to a few years ago we had 
got altogether into a wrong groove, and by growing 
Carnations almost exclusively under glass were 
running a serious risk of developing for ourselves a 
delicate class of flowers. Fortunately, however, 
good gardeners found out their mistake in time, and 
returned, with sound reason, to the hardier treatment 
which was given to these flowers by our forefathers. 
Everyone now repudiates the idea that the ordinary 
Carnation requires coddling, but harm has been 
done, and we do possess beautiful and highly valued 
varieties now which can only show their best when 
protected from the weather. Perhaps the most 
effective display of these flowers in the open border 
is made by masses of self Carnations, and I should 
be inclined to say that at present, as a class, they are 
freer, more vigorous, and better adapted to the open 
border than the majority of the flakes, fancies, and 
bizarres now in cultivation. I should like to hear 
the opinion of others upon this point. 
Fresh Virgin Loam the best for them. 
With regard to the border, my experience is that 
nothing is so suitable to the growth of the Carnation 
as fresh virgin loam, not too heavy, and certainly not 
too light. Nothing in the shape of manures, or 
artfully and ingeniously devised composts, will 
produce the same rich vigorous growth and the same 
wealth of bloom as fresh loam. The latter and a 
liberal addition of thoroughly well-decayed manure, 
say from old hotbeds, is all that is required. You 
may add road scrapings, bones, charcoal, lime 
rubbish, sand, what you please almost, and they may 
do good—at any rate, they can do no harm, if the 
foundation of your border is sweet fresh top spit. 
My own system is to remake my Carnation border 
every September as soon as the layers are ready for 
removal. When we are satisfied that this is the case 
we put on the whole strength of our staff and set to 
work. By the side of the border are cartloads of 
fresh soil and well-decayed manure, some crushed 
bones, and lime rubbish. The layers are lifted for 
some 20 ft., the portion of the border from which 
they were taken is well trenched, and the surface 
raised with the fresh loam, manure, and other 
materials. The whole is then trodden fairly firm, 
and the layers are at once planted, the number and 
position of each variety having been previously 
decided on, the same process being continued until 
the work is completed. I adopt this system as I am 
compelled by want of space to use the same border 
year after year for my plants, and I find that if I 
am stingy with my fresh loam I get a correspond¬ 
ingly inferior result. Had I room I should prefer to 
occupy fresh ground every year for my flowers, and 
thus be able to prepare the ground at my leisure. 
I have frequently advocated this liberal use of 
fresh loam, and am constantly assured that though 
it may be good it is not necessary, that the expense 
is too great, or that the material cannot be obtained, 
and am confronted with the fact that many growers, 
notably my friend Mr. Rowan, produce their beauti¬ 
ful blooms without the annual renewing and remaking 
of the borders which I have recommended. I can 
only reply that skill and experience will do wonders, 
but that fresh loam is to the majority of mankind 
more easily obtainable than either one or the other, 
and will produce the same result. Fresh loam, like 
charity, covers a multitude of sins—sins of omission 
and commission, sins of ignorance and of careless¬ 
ness. I look upon the matter of pure sweet fresh 
soil as the great secret of successful growing of the 
border Carnation. You all, doubtless, knew it per¬ 
fectly well, as you all knew the other great secret, 
which is early autumn planting; but thousands of 
people who grow Carnations do not know these 
simple facts, and hundreds of gardeners who ought 
to know them do not act upon them. This early 
autumn planting is, perhaps, more important than 
anything. Plants established in their flowering 
quarters before the cold season sets in will, as a rule, 
laugh at any weather. Losses, no doubt, there must 
always be from maggot, wireworm, and other 
causes, and I find it necessary to keep a reserve of 
layers in Go size pots, from which I fill the vacancies 
in the borders at the first moment after the middle 
of February when we are favoured with open 
weather. My experience is that the sooner this is 
done after the middle of February the better. I 
generally remove at the same time any plants that 
look sickly, for Carnations are like pigs, it is very 
little use to attempt to doctor them : when once they 
get ill you may as well kill them. 
Superior Quality of House-grown Flowers. 
As I have acknowledged, the Carnation grown out of 
doors cannot compete in beauty of bloom with those 
grown under glass, and for this simple reason we 
cannot give to the plants in our borders the protec¬ 
tion overhead afforded to those in pots. They are at 
the mercy of heavy rain storms, of bees, of earwigs, 
and of slugs. I am sure last year I had many 
hundreds of blooms decay by rain before the 
buds were half open. You may do something 
towards keeping down earwigs, and ought to be 
a match for the slugs ; but the bees, especially the 
bumble bees, are too much for anyone. Thrips, too, 
is a very serious trouble out of doors, and my plants 
suffer much from it. It cannot be treated by fumi¬ 
gation as in a house, and syringing with any compo¬ 
sition you may like to mention I have found a very 
inefficient remedy. It must be allowed, then, that 
blooms from border Carnations cannot compete with 
those grown under glass, but only because it is 
impossible to protect them at the critical moment of 
the opening of the buds. Apart from this, I believe 
that they will produce blooms fully equal to those 
raised in a house. 
The Yellow Grounds. 
Before concluding I should like to say a few words, 
and to ask for the experience of others about yellow 
ground varieties out of doors. I find that at Hayes 
that they are distinctly, as a class, less vigorous and 
free than the ordinary Carnation. At times I get 
lovely blooms, but the plants are as a rule poorer and 
weaker than their neighbours in the same border 
The best doer, so far, with me is certainly William 
l'hrelfall; but it is not a variety that I care much 
for, as the flowers with me are generally rather thin 
and poor. Our old friend, Pride of Fenshurst, 
certainly gives me the best yellow blooms; Germania 
is a comparative failure; Benary’s Madame Van 
Houtte promises to do well with me, and Agnes 
Chambers last year proved both vigorous and free. 
I confess, however, that either I do not understand 
the yellow grounds, or that my soil and climate do 
not suit them. Do what I will I cannot get them to 
thrive as a class. Here and there I get a good and 
vigorous plant, but as a rule they can be unfailingly 
picked cut from their nsighbours by their less satis¬ 
factory appearance. However, I am encouraged by 
a fancy that the varieties I have had for some time 
are improving, and my hope and expectation is that 
they are acclimatising themselves. My garden lies 
rather high, and the only soil that I can get within 
reasonable distance is rather too light and hot. 
It is a great pleasure to me to see the daily 
increasing interest which is attaching to the cultiva¬ 
tion of the Carnation. I have in my own vicinity at 
Hayes ample evidence of the fact, for many of my 
neighbours appear almost as keen about them as I 
am myself. We have already scores of lovely 
varieties well suited for border cultivation, and I look 
with confidence to a considerable increase both in 
the number and beauty of such varieties during the 
next few years. To this end I exhort all my friends 
and neighbours to raise seedlings. Apart from the 
fact that there is nothing so lovely in this world in 
the way of flowers (to my eyes at least) as a bed of 
well-grown seedling Carnations, with its wealth of 
bloom of every shade and variety of colour ; it is also 
certain that a patient and intelligent perseverance in 
this most delightful pursuit will be rewarded sooner 
or later by the production of varieties greatly 
in advance of those we now possess, more vigorous, 
freer flowering, still more exquisite in form and 
colour, and thoroughly well able to withstand all the 
rigours of our most detestable climate. 
-«*■- 
SOME DELIGHTS OF 
GARDENING. 
When the gardener knows his flowers widely, he 
will even begin to see that colours have their special 
odours, that there is an analogy between all purple 
flowers, all blue flowers, that we must not expect a 
red flower to smell like a white one. He will find 
that textures have also their influence ; at least that 
flowers of a certain texture have some similarity of 
odour, and that also certain textures incline to 
certain colours. The strongest similarity of odour 
is between all white flowers of a thick smooth 
texture—the white Lilies, the Jasmine, the Tuberose. 
They are not alike, but their dissimilarity is a 
matter of degree, not of kind It would seem to 
amount almost to a difference of kind ; to me, at 
least, the white Lilies are exquisite out of doors, the 
Jasmine is so heavy as to be unpleasant, and the 
Tuberose is horrible and deadly. Sumachs smell 
like Raspberries, which they resemble in colour. 
To study a garden is to feel that the study is 
without limit. It is an education in itself. To make 
a garden is to be born again ; to find one's self 
suddenly become a person without prejudices (in 
regard to this thing at least) ; to find that one has 
begun to build a great temple, in which the flowers 
are the building stones, and each must count for its 
real merits, irrespective of tradition A Rose shall 
be a Rose, but not the queen of flowers, unless it 
builds better into the general scheme than any 
other flower. 
You will not despise the lowly Mignonette which 
may cover your bare ground with tender green and 
subtle fragrance and make a fine groundwork for a 
showier thing to spring up above and be seen against 
it. You will find the blatant Dahlia or the magni¬ 
ficent Peony as full of sentiment as the Lily of the 
Valley. It will depend on its placing how much you 
will value it above the flower you have always loved 
most; for somewhere, you will find, you must have 
this telling note of colour to make your harmony- 
complete. 
The wise gardener conceives his garden in relation 
to his soil, his capabilities and his climate, and his 
taste will be hemmed in and at last modelled by 
these considerations. He will have the garden that 
he finds possible, not that which he conceives apart 
from all limitations, and it will be none the less 
beautiful. We learn to love most the flowers that 
grow willingly in our own bit of earth.— Haifa's 
Bazar. 
FRUITING OF STEPHANOTIS, &e. 
1 read the short description of Dalkeith Gardens by 
your correspondent " X. W.” in your issue of May 
yth with much interest, as some eighteen years ago I 
was fairly well acquainted with the gardens there 
Your correspondent mentions the fruiting of the 
Stephanotis, and I thought it might be of some 
interest to say that a few years ago we gathered a 
fruit off a magnificent plant here, and I think all the 
seeds germinated, but they were thrown away with 
the exception of two plants, which are now flower¬ 
ing and promise to be as floriferous as their 
parent. Adiantum Farleyense ’also does remarkably 
well here ; it grows quite as freely as the common 
Maiden-hair Fern wuuout any special treatment, but 
I think there must be something in some loams 
which is suitable to their requirements that is absent 
in others, as I have known some cases where these 
beautiful Ferns were treated with the greatest care 
and plants were got from different sources, but after 
the first year or so they almost invariably died out. 
I have heard of Mr. Dunn before now as a most 
courteous gentleman and I could wish that more 
gardeners inherited the same qualities. It does not 
infrequently happen now-a-days that when a 
gardener, wishing to see some place of note, has 
overcome sundry difficulties before he can possibly 
be ushered into the presence of the awe-inspiring 
head gardener, and is at last face to face with that 
personage, he is not unfrequentlv met with the curt 
and sometimes (all the circumstances being taken 
into consideration) freezing reply, “ Oh, just tell my 
foreman to take you through.'' Common courtesy 
as between brother workers demands better treat¬ 
ment than this.— J. N., Bidate. 
