July 23, 1892. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
739 
Kintore, with a broader white margin and a smaller 
more decidedly blue area in the centre. It is 
sub-erect, very vigorous, and floriferous. The smaller 
flowers of the last named are bluish-purple in the 
centre, and very freely produced. Nor must we 
forget that this variety holds its own pretty well, 
even in dry seasons in the south, when many others 
degenerate and produce only few or small flowers. 
The Mearns is an erect, free-flowering kind, with 
plum-purple flowers and white upper petals, or the 
tips of all may be white. A most curious arrange¬ 
ment of colours may be seen in Moonlight. The 
upper petals are white with a pale purple margin ; 
the two lateral are white, but yellow towards the 
base, and the lip is yellow with a purple blotch at 
the tip. It is a great novelty, but does not appear to 
be of strong constitution. Dawn of Day has large 
flowers, more or less closely netted all over with soft 
lavender coloured veins on a white ground. It varies 
greatly in the amount of colouring at different times 
of the year, and apparently according to the state of 
the weather, as to drought or moisture. A charming 
little flower is that of Ariel ; the upper petals are 
generally of a bright sky-blue, and the others white, 
often splashed and striped with the same colour as 
that of the upper petals, and the latter sometimes 
behave in the same way. York and Lancaster may 
be described as a bizarre, for the petals are striped 
or flaked with rose and purple on a white ground. It 
is very floriferous, but rather a tall grower, as is Lucy 
Ashton, which has a white centre heavily rayed, and 
a broad, deep purple margin. Closely allied to the 
latter is Columbine, the broad margin of which is 
rosy-purple. The latter often produces flowers 
striped with deeper purple as if tending towards 
York and Lancaster. The leading and most useful 
types in this group are Queen of Scots, Dawn of 
Day, York and Lancaster, Ariel and Lucy Ashton ; 
but tastes might differ in the value to be attached to 
different varieties of a group or type. 
Besides the above there are many more at 
Chiswick, and some of the newer and less tried 
kinds may in the course of a year or two prove to be 
even better in certain respects than those which at 
present most claim our attention. There is character 
and refinement about many of these bedding Violas 
which cannot be found amongst fancy or show 
Pansies, while their hardiness and free-flowering 
character renders them available for garden decora¬ 
tion in the south, where Pansies of the show or 
fancy class often fail to give satisfaction— F. 
-•*«- 
GARDENERS’ GRIEVANCES AND 
THEIR REDRESS. 
It will be generally conceded that grievances exi-t, 
and exist probably in more marked variety among 
gardeners than in any other trade or profession, 
while the means of redress is more correspondingly 
vague and apparently unreliable than in any other 
field of labour. Prominently stands out the 
abnormal condition so often insisted upon of "no in¬ 
cumbrances.” This has been dealt with so 
thoroughly of late in your columns that a passing 
allusion to it will suffice. I believe the root of this 
stipulation lies in the fact of the gardener’s residence 
on the estate, and the question arises, is it absolutely 
essential that he should do so, and is it beyond the 
power of his employer in many cases to make other 
arrangements for him? The system of "living on 
the place” savours too much of the feudal period for 
the nineteenth century, and is frequently a very un¬ 
fair equivalent for the coin of the realm it is supposed 
to represent. 
How many can recall miserable hovels, breeding 
places, for rheumatism and malarial diseases, erected 
in some out-of-the-way corner, or hedged in by tall 
trees to hide it from the refined eye ; frequently too 
covered with greenery to look " picturesque ” where 
visible to the proprietor, regardless of the damp thus 
engendered in the walls! I can remember many 
such places built on fine estates by " progressive ” 
gentlemen or hereditary legislators, where often a 
neighbouring town or village afforded facilities for 
the gardener, with as many “ encumbrances ” as he 
pleased, renting a house, and attending to his duties 
quite as well. Of course, this is often impracticable, 
but in such cases, some sanitary inspection of such a 
dwelling should be compulsory. 
By the way, why should a gardener be supposed 
to be always “ on the spot,” and to have no regular 
hours of labour beyond which his time should be as 
absolutely his own as that of any mechanic ? He is 
liable to be called on at any hour of the evening for 
sundry services which infringe upon needed time for 
rest and recreation. He is generally vastly better 
educated and informed than the average working man, 
yet what facilities are afforded to him for self-im¬ 
provement ? He is usually at a distance from any 
centre to which he can resort for free classes or free 
libraries, and as for paid tuition, his for the most 
part woefully scanty salary will hardly admit of that. 
I knew one unfortunate who had ^45 a year, and a 
11 house and cow.” Having lost his wife, he had to 
keep a housekeeper, to support his infirm mother, 
and to pay for the board and education of his eldest 
boy some distance away. How much remained for 
food and clothing for himself and the other two 
children, let alone anything else ? 
Then again, such a thing as a monthly engage¬ 
ment should be ruled out. That is a grave injustice 
to the gardener who is a consenting party to it, 
although unwillingly. What is a " month's notice ” 
to him " between terms,” when all situations are 
filled, and no refuge is open to him but the " nursery” 
with the accompanying necessity of rentinga house for 
six months, if a situation is not directly forthcoming 
at the term ? There should be a strict adherence to 
the old style of six-monthly and yearly engagements, 
and no gardener should accept a shorter term of 
service. 
Another decided grievance is the vague value 
attached to a gardener’s services by different would- 
be employers, and the arbitrary way in which they 
determine what salary they will pay their man. This 
fluctuates according to the employer’s idea, and not 
according to the worth of the gardener. There 
should at all events be a fixed minimum wage, as 
much to protect the man against underbidding on 
his own part as from the other side. In no trade is 
this such an evil as it is in the gardening profession. 
An employer can economize at will by the noble ex¬ 
pedient of cutting down his garden expenditure for 
wages, among other petty retrenchments, which can 
only serve as a drop in the bucket compared to the 
vast sea of useless and vicious extravagances. 
In one instance, a nobleman, fashioned after the 
above pattern, gave notice to leave to his head gar¬ 
dener, who bad been many years in his service, on 
the ground that he wanted a cheaper man. During 
all those years, the gardener’s principal accumula¬ 
tions had been an unblemished character and a 
family. The former is rarely a marketable article, 
when handicapped by advancing years especially, 
and the latter never, and consequently he agreed to 
stay at the reduced salary, and was graciously per¬ 
mitted to do so. 
Such a transaction should be an impossibility. 
With the higher scale of wages demanded, and, per¬ 
force, granted, that anomaly, the "coachman- 
gardener,” and his kinsman, the "labourer with a 
knowledge of gardening,” would cease to jostle the 
practical gardeners out of their situations. As the 
editor truly observed in a late issue, many situations 
offered now-a-days to competent gardeners are direct 
insults. They are framed on the lines of the adver¬ 
tisement asking for a “ young man, to fear the Lord, 
and carry six hundred-weight," or that other which 
insisted on the gardener having a tenor voice, and 
singing in the choir. 
In brief then, could not some association be formed 
among gardeners, to combat such ills as irregular 
hours, irregular rates of compensation, arbitrary 
substitution of any sort of a dwelling in lieu of wages, 
and • regardless of comfort.— C. Macquarie, Chicago, 
July 1 st. 
FLOWER SHOW AT 
WALTHAM CROSS. 
The exhibitors at the annual exhibition of the 
Waltham Abbey and District Horticultural Society 
may be congratulated upon the excellent display they 
made on Saturday last; and while the average was 
good throughout, a few features were particularly 
good. The show took place in a field near to 
Waltham Cross Station. The weather was fine 
though dull, and we hope a good gate rewarded the 
labours of the hard working secretary, Mr. John Eve, 
and the active members of the committee, who took 
their share of the burden of the day. 
The prime features of the show were in the 
classes open to all comers, and in the contributions 
open to all comers. Some groups, charmingly 
arranged, were at the sides of the principal tent. One 
class was for a group of 50 ft., and here Mr. Ayling 
gardener to A. J. Hollington, Esq., Enfield, was 
placed first with an arrangement in which Cattleyas 
and other Orchids played an important part ; it was 
highly effective and much admired. Mr. J. Nichol¬ 
son, gardener to J. W. Milles, Esq., Sewardstone, 
was a good second. The latter came in first with a 
very pleasing group, composed largely of bright- 
coloured Crotons, Caladiums, &c., intermingled with 
herns and small Palms. Mr. W. Clark, gardener 
to Sir T. F. Buxton, Bt., Warlies, was second. 
The best six miscellaneous plants — all good examples 
of culture—came from Mr. A. West, gardener to A. 
H. Lancaster, Esq., Waltham Abbey. Mr. E. 
Ayling was second. The latter was first with 6 stove 
and greenhouse plants ; staging a fine example of 
Lantana Iris of great size, beautifully flowered, and 
very bright in colour; this group also contained a very 
fine Clerodendron Balfourianum. Ferns were finely 
shown by Messrs. Ayling and Clark, and they were 
an excellent feature. Caladiums were very fine 
indeed from Mr. Nicholson, the leaves large and 
handsomely marked. Tuberous-rooted Begonias from 
Messrs. Ayling and West were highly creditable, and 
a half-dozen plants of Achimenes from Mr. Ayling, 
some of the best we have seen for a long time. 
In the open and amateurs classes, cut flowers were 
very good, hardy subjects especially, and Mr. S. Fear, 
who seems to have caught something of the florists’ 
enthusiasm, had pretty Carnations and very good 
Pinks. A seedling Carnation, raised by Mr. Fear, white 
with longitudinal stripes of pale pinkish-rose, appears 
likely to prove very useful for cutting and exhibition 
purposes. Roses were very well shown, though some 
of the blooms showed the effects of the recent rains. 
Fruit was somewhat sparingly shown. Vegetables 
were good generally, and table decorations very 
attractive. 
A fine collection of Roses was shown by Mr. W. 
Rumsey, Joyning’s Nursery, Waltham Cross, some 
of the red and crimson varieties being particularly 
bright in colour, Victor Hugo pre-eminently so. 
Messrs. Paul & Son, Old Nurseries, Cheshunt, had 
a fine lot of cut Roses also, and attractive bunches 
of hardy cut flowers; Mr. J. Riding, gardener to A. 
j. Edwards, Esq., a fine group of plants ; Mr. J. B. 
Riding a very pretty collection of cut blooms of 
Violas, and Mr. Hamilton, market grower, Waltham 
Cross, a fine lot of Maidenhair Ferns, also Tomatos 
and Cucumbers. 
THE FRUIT CROPS. 
We have the worst Apple crop here and in neigh¬ 
bouring gardens that has been known for many 
years. Pears are better, but the forwardest buds of 
both no doubt suffered from frosts on the 14th and 
15th of April, the trees being moist from snow and 
sleet on the latter date. We had the same number 
of degrees of frost on the 13th, but only a few 
expanded and partially expanded Plum and Cherry 
flowers suffered. We had 12 0 on the 18th and 19th, 
and 7 0 on the 30th. After all it was the caterpillar 
that destroyed the Apple crop, leaves and flowers 
being devoured in a few days, so that trees that have 
not been known to fail for twenty years are practi¬ 
cally fruitless. The Pears were not so badly attacked 
by insect pests. 
Of Plums and Cherries there is a fair crop. 
Gooseberries were all but totally destroyed in many 
gardens by the frost of the 14th and 15th. Currants, 
including black, are a good crop, and the Raspberries 
are promising. Strawberries are as good as need be, 
but the wet destroj'ed man) ripe and unripe fruits at 
the commencement of the season. Noble was the 
earliest, closely followed by Keen’s Seedling and La 
Grosse Sucree. Black Prince, which was the earliest 
indoors, was in a less sunny position, consequently 
could not be compared. Noble is a heavy cropper 
as an early one, but the fruit is rather soft and would 
not suit those who have to pack them to send on 
long journeys. A friend kindly sent me a dozen 
plants of Latest of All, and we picked the first dish 
to-day, July 16th, and the flavour was as good as’any 
I have tasted this season ; and I should say, judging 
from size of the fruit and the quantity, that it will 
prove a good thing and replace Loxford Hall Seedling 
in many gardens, this being rather tender and not a 
good doer in many places. We had sunny forcing 
weather here on the 8th and 9th of June ; sultry, but 
dull on the 10th, with rain at night and about every 
other day up to the nth of this month. It has 
since been fine but dull, and to-day cold and showery. 
On the whole, however, garden crops are doing 
better than they have done during the past two 
seasons.— IV. P. Roberts, The Gardens, Cucrden Hall, 
Preston. 
