608 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
May 28, 1892. 
nually nominated, some ten or twelve can 
be elected, but it is not enough so long as 
the rest, being all duly worthy, are left out 
in the cold. 
We should like to see the fund so pros¬ 
perous, that every worthy claim for the 
benefits maybe met in due course, as then 
there would be no heart-burnings or disap¬ 
pointments ; hence it becomes very impor¬ 
tant that such great efforts as were made 
at the dinner should not merely be annual 
but even should be supplemented by con¬ 
tinued and enlarged aid from the gardening 
fraternity. The fund now maintains fifty 
children, but some few T years yet must 
elapse before many of these cease to re¬ 
ceive its benefits ere the number can be 
very largely increased, and there is 
evidently much to be done y T et, and we 
hope it will be done well and generously. 
JThe Rhododendron Bloom. — What a 
truly magnificent body of colour in 
almost countless shades Rhododendrons 
are just now about to give in our gardens. 
It is the good quality of this grand shrub 
to be very liberal with its bloom. Just as 
happily it is very hardy, and also a capital 
evergreen. What the Rose is amongst 
Florists’ flowers the Rhododendron is 
amongst hardy shrubs. It is of all shrubs 
that flower the most glorious. During the 
next month we shall have bloom in won¬ 
drous wealth, and if we may add to these 
plants those of their close ally, the Azalea, 
we get still further colours so beautiful as 
to excite our wonder and admiration. 
The old Ponticum is a very accommodating 
plant because it thrives pretty well almost 
anywhere, and forms one of the finest cover 
producers nature can furnish. All the 
better forms, those of the hybrid types so 
called, are not quite so readdy grown and 
will have a good share of peat or bog soil. 
There happily are many places where such 
soil is abundant ; then it is but needful to 
plant and nature does the rest. In other 
places the soil is so perverse that it will 
not grow good Rhododendrons at all, and 
it has to be artificially made, so that good 
growth and bloom follow. Fortunately 
Rhododendrons and Azaleas well repay for 
any such outlay. They increase so freely 
that often their great development becomes 
as troublesome as in some other localities 
it is difficult to induce them to grow at all. 
When peat or bog soil cannot be obtained 
a fair equivalent is found in old vegetable 
soil, which seems to contain many of the 
elements in which these shrubs appear to 
delight. 
We can have of both Azaleas and Rho¬ 
dodendrons in the open-ground varieties 
which cover a long season of flowering—• 
from the beginning of March into July, 
although the few bloom early and the many 
late. Such shrubs as these, amongst many 
others, serve to show to us at this season 
how very great is the remove from garden¬ 
ing to natural conditions. Almost what 
the groups of Gorse are in floriferousness 
on a common, the Rhododendrons and 
Azaleas are in gardens. How much 
have we to be thankful for in these days 
and how great has been the flower gain to 
horticulture. 
Dry Spring.— The mouths of south¬ 
erners have freely' watered in spite of 
the prevailing drought when they have read 
of heavy falls of rain in the Midland and 
Northern counties, while in the South rain 
is so badly needed. There are conditions 
of soil and sometimes of temperature when 
rainfalls in the spring are harmful, but gener¬ 
ally an abundance of moisture, if interspersed 
with fine working weather, is in the spring 
most desirable. We hear now almost uni¬ 
versally southwards complaints as to the 
dryness of the soil and the great need for 
rain. Certainly there has been much of 
unpleasant weather during the past six 
months, but generally it may be said that 
it has been a very dry time, hence with 
much of very drying wind and some warm 
sunshine the earth has become parched 
and surface crops are suffering. 
We have been unable to plant out, to 
sow, or to do a score of needful things, 
say the gardeners and farmers ; the soil is 
too dry—too hard-baked—too ungenerous 
in its present condition, to render much of 
the ordinary cropping successful. Rain is 
being impatiently looked and hoped for, but 
it does not come. The sky? is overcast with 
cloud—there is every' appearance of a heavy 
and welcome downfall, but with the cloud 
speedily' comes wind, and then all chance of 
getting rain disappears. That has been the 
Southern experience for months past. 
It is not at all comforting to learn from 
the weather-wise, who happily' are as often 
otherwise, that we shall get no settled warm 
weather or rain until the turn of the days. 
The weather prophet, that he may be some¬ 
where in the run, usually defers the realisa¬ 
tions of his prophecies until a rather remote 
period, as then there is greater reason to 
believe that prognostications may' become 
true. We may well hope that the summer 
warmth and the needful rams may not be 
so long deferred. Our fruit trees and 
bushes, the Strawberries and Cabbages, 
the Corn, Pulse and Potatos are all much 
in need of a good soaking of rain, and we 
trust it will come too ere we are out of the 
present month. 
f limbing Plants. --The paper on climbers, 
read at a recent meeting of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, contained nothing 
new, for the very obvious reason that a 
theme worn so threadbare in print affords 
little or nothing that is new. But then in 
gardening it is needful to be ever preaching 
the old themes, to be inculcating the same 
motives, and to be urging the same prac¬ 
tices. We have such an abundance of 
climbers that it is not at all needful to 
have concern as to the selection of variety'. 
There is so much that is suitable for all sorts 
of sites and positions. We have in them 
also that which is very accommodating to 
various forms of architecture and aspect, 
and indeed even of soil, so that all tastes as 
well as positions may be suited. 
There can be no doubt but that climbers 
look best when employed to cover old, if 
not absolutely' ruinous buildings. There 
does often seem to be something incon¬ 
gruous when trained on to prudish-looking 
newness ; brickwork seems to need toning 
under the influences of the weather ere it is 
fit to receive dressings of hardy climbers. 
Still the toning in our ungenial climate 
soon comes. We have the noblest climbers 
in the world in our numerous varieties of 
Ivy', and few are so easily trained, few more 
serviceable. Next to Ivy comes the two 
popular forms of the Ampelopsis, and if 
these give neither flower or v'inter foliage, 
at least they' present coloration in the 
autumn that is exceedingly beautiful. What 
a boon these two climbers have proved to 
be to town houses. How much of greenery' 
and beauty have they brought into our 
streets ; how much have they given almost 
of charm to town life. 
What beauty’, too, do our Clematises give 
to us. Even now the spring bloomers of 
the montana and lanuginosa types are in 
glorious bloom, and later will come all the 
Jackmanni section. Roses are poindar, 
though troublesome climbers. What a 
w’ondrously beautiful, if deciduous, plant is 
the Wistaria, for by' such title, and not by' 
Glycine, will it be knowm to the crack of 
doom. The Honeysuckle and the Jasmines 
give such sweetness and charm ; the Pas- 
siflo as, such pendulous growth laden in 
due season with flowers. Even our annual 
climbers are beautiful and not at all to be 
ignored. For even the Golden Canary 
Creeper, when it densely decorates some 
cottage porch, is far too striking not to 
command admiration. 
International Fruit Show. — At a 
meeting of the Provisional Committee, 
held on Monday afternoon, Sir James 
Whitehead, Bart., presiding, the following 
resolution v r as unanimously agreed to : — 
“ That in view' of the concentration of 
public interest in the coming general elec¬ 
tion and the consequent difficulty’ of 
making adequate arrangements for hold¬ 
ing the exhibition this y'ear, and also in 
consideration of the representations made 
by intending exhibitors, that sufficient 
notice has not been given for preparations, 
it is resolved that the International Fruit 
Show'shall be held in the autumn of 1893.'’ 
Much as w T e should have rejoiced to have 
seen the proposed exhibition cariied out 
this year, we believe the committee have 
taken a prudent step in deferring the show 
for another y'ear. The uncertainty as to 
when the election will take place, and the 
partial failure of the fruit crops, to say- 
nothing of other obstacles which need not 
now be discussed, rendered the postpone¬ 
ment in every way desirable, if the com¬ 
mittee were to avoid the risk of failure, 
through the circumstances indicated. It is 
proposed to take up the work again vigor¬ 
ously in the autumn, and with a clearer 
course open we do not doubt the ultimate 
success of the movement. 
-- 
Mr. A. Allan, son of Mr. W. Allan, of Gunton 
Park, has been engaged as gardener at Hillingdon 
Court, Uxbridge. 
Mr. T. Selwood has left Eaton Hall Gardens, 
Chester, and has been succeeded by Mr. X. F. 
Barnes, until lately foreman at Sandringham. 
Mr. William Little, lately gardener to J. Cockburn, 
Esq., Glencorse House, Milton Bridge, Midlothian, 
has been engaged as gardener to P. \V. Campbell, 
Esq., MuirtonBank, Perth. 
Cattleya labiata is stated to have found a ready- 
sale, “ at florists’ prices,” at a recent auction in New 
York. 
The Moseley Rose Show.—The promoters of this 
exhibition, which is to take place on July' 19th and 
20th, have arranged for a flower tent for the sale of 
surplus blooms and any others that may be contri¬ 
buted, in aid of the Birmingham Children's Hospital 
and the Gardeners’ Orphan Fund. 
The Director of Kew.—The Birthday Honours list 
includes the name of Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dver, 
C.M.G., who is created a Companion of the Most 
Eminent Order of the Indian Empire. 
The Dundee Chrysanthemum Society has just issued 
a schedule of prizes for an exhibition to be held on 
November nth and 12th, copies of which can be 
obtained from Mr. W. P. Laird, 73, Nethergate, 
Dundee. 
The Scottish Horticultural Association’s schedule 
for their annual show, to be held in the Waverly 
Market on November the 17th and two following 
days, is also to hand. Copies can be obtained of the 
secretary’, Mr. Robert Laird, 17, Frederick Street, 
Edinburgh. 
Mr. W. Atlee Burpee, the famous seedsman of 
Philadelphia, recently joined the benedicts, and a 
few days previously’ was entertained at dinner by 
some of his bachelor friends, and presented by each 
with some sort of kitchen utensil ! By the time the 
function was over it is said that he was overwhelmed 
with hardware. 
The Pea Weevil, Sitona liniata, is reported to have 
destroyed whole fields of Peas in Essex this spring. 
Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod attributes the plague in 
part to the great warmth that we experienced for a 
short time about six weeks ago, which brought out 
the spring brood of weevils earlier than usual and in 
greater numbers. 
