April 5, 1890. 
THE GAKDENING WORLD. 
485 
IF YOU WANT 
APPLY TO 
Mr. R. SYDENHAM, 
TENBY STREET , 
BIRMINGHAM, 
Of the Firm of Sydenham Brothers, Wholesale Jewellers . 
HIS UNIQUE 
SEED LIST 
Sent Post Free on application. 
The Business being worked upon an 
unique and co-operative principle, Mr. 
SYDENHAM can offer 
BETTER VALUE in QUALITY & PRICE 
than any firm in the trade. 
Next Week’s Engagements. 
Tuesday, April Sth.—Royal Horticultural Society : Meeting of 
Committees at Twelve, Paper on Spring Flower Gardening 
at 3 p.m. 
Wednesday, April 9th.—Sale of Lilies, Stove and Greenhouse 
Plants at Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms. 
Friday, April 11th. — Sale of Imported and Established Orchids 
at Protheroe & Morris s Rooms. Sale of Roses, Greenhouse 
Plants, &c., at 3S and 39, Gracechurch Street, E.C., by 
Protheroe & Morris. 
For Indexto Contents & Advertisements, see p.494. 
M Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
MY ORIGINAL GUARANTEE 
(Such as never offered by the Trade). 
ALL BULBS which fail under fair and 
proper treatment, WILL BE REPLACED 
AT HALF-PRICE. All Seeds from which 
a fair proportion fail to germinate under 
fair and proper treatment WILL BE 
REPLACED FREE. 
Florist Flowers a Speciality. 
Splendid collection of all kinds, including my famed 
varieties of Pansies and Yiolas. 
Quality rather than Quantity Grown. 
MODERATE PRICES, ALSO 
RELIABLE VEGETABLE anti FLOWER SEEDS. 
CARRIAGE PAID. 
Descriptive Catalogues free on application. 
JOHN DOWNIE, 
(Of the late firm of Downie & Laird) 
144, PRINCES ST., EDINBURGH. 
('THE BEST MUSHROOM SPAWN') 
“IHCKSONS IMPKOViU.” 
15 /- per bus. Circular, with testimonials, Post Free. 
DICKSONS l^f^etCHESTER. ; 
KELWAY’S 
G OLD MEDAL (Paris, 1889) SPECI¬ 
ALITIES.—Gladioli, Pseonies, Pyrethrums, Gaillardias, 
Delphiniums, &c. Catalogues are now ready, Gratis and Post 
Free, containing Priced and Descriptive Lists of all our 
Specialities for 1S90, and everything needful for the Garden. 
LANGPORT, SOMERSET. 
.SONS, 
LAING’S BEGONIAS 
SHOULD BE TRIED BY ALL. 
JOHN LAING & SONS beg to 
t) offer Seed saved from Prize Plants. 
In illustrated packets. Choice Mixed 
Single or Double varieties, Is., 2s. 6 d., and 
5s. per packet. Collections, 12 named 
Single varieties, separate, 5s. 6 d,; 6 do., 3s. 
Tubers, named Singles, from 12s. to 42s. 
per doz.; unnamed Seedlings, 12s., ISs., 
and 21s. per doz; Bedding, choicest, 6s. 
and 9s. per doz.; choicest named Doubles, 
from 42s. per doz.; unnamed, very choice, 
24s. and 30s. per doz.; choicest Mixed, 
18s. per doz. The best procurable. 
CATALOGUES gratis. 
THE NURSERIES, 
FOREST HILL, LONDON, S.E. 
SATURDAY , APRIL 5, 1890. 
CURRENT TOPICS. 
(“Master Flowers. —Easter being a High 
J* Church festival, is emphatically a floral 
festival also. We invariably find that these 
so-called festivals create abnormal demands for 
flowers, especially for church decoration, but 
the secular portion of the community do not 
allow the church to enjoy a monopoly in 
flowers at Easter, because the taste for flowers 
being so universal everybody will have them. 
The fact is, that the old religious associations 
of the Easter festival have been largely dis¬ 
counted by the introduction of the Bank 
Holidays Act, and now the few days which 
comprise Easter are regarded as public property 
by all classes and sections, so that the religious 
portion of the time gets scant attention, while 
the purely holiday element largely predomi¬ 
nates. Hence it comes about, that whilst the 
Church makes a large demand for flowers for 
its religious ceremonies at Easter, the general 
holiday-seeking public are not less flower 
worshippers, for there is a sort of worship of 
flowers in both directions ; and if in one case 
flowers are made symbols of worship, in the 
other the -worship exists without symbols of 
any kind. 
It has become the aim of our florists who 
cater for the public requirements, to provide a 
big supply for the Easter season, and what has 
commonly been termed the Lent Lily, because 
Easter falls early, will make a brave show 
during the festival. Howsoever some of us 
may he satiated with displays of Daffodils 
during the season, the public see none too 
much of them, and will he delighted this year 
to find them playing a prominent part in the 
decorations, religious and secular, of the Easter 
time. We may find in Spiraeas, Snowballs, 
Lilacs, Hyacinths, Tulips, Camellias, Azaleas, 
Gardenias, Primroses, Yiolets, and hosts of 
other popular flowers a wealth of beauty as 
universally enjoyed by those who can but 
spare a few pence as those who can expend a 
few pounds. Happily for the world, flowers 
are wonderfully cheap and abundant, and the 
poorest may have a button-hole, as worshipped 
in its little way as are the magnificent decora¬ 
tions in the cathedrals and churches. This 
profound love for flowers merits all praise, as it 
demands all encouragement. 
TSThb Hardy Flowers of Spring. —On Tues- 
day next there will he a visitor at the 
Drill Hall, Westminster, not less worthy of 
honour than the distinguished visitor at the 
last meeting. The Council of the Royal Hor¬ 
ticultural Society, desiring to include in the 
series of papers read at its meetings, one on 
Spring Flower Gardening, invited Mr. Ingrain, 
of Belvoir, to contribute that paper, and a 
worthier selection could not have been made. 
Apart from his wondrously successful practice 
of spring flower gardening on the slopes sur¬ 
rounding Belvoir Castle, he stands in the front 
rank of horticulturists at home, and as such 
deserves a cordial -welcome to the Drill Hall 
from the Fellows of the society. 
In dealing with spring gardening, Mr. 
Ingram comes to the task with an experience 
of many years of what can be done to beautify 
a garden in the spring with hardy flowers. 
Belvoir is literally the Mecca, and Mr. Ingram 
the prophet of the art. We could wish for 
him, having regard to the task he has under¬ 
taken, almost a voice of thunder, for not only 
M. de Vilmorin, but also some other readers 
have found that only stentorian tones can be 
heard even some twenty feet from the table. 
The admirable paper on Salad ing, read by 
M. de Yilmorin, was practically lost to two- 
thirds of those present, whilst a variety of 
internal and external noises seemed to have 
been especially designed to deaden the voice of 
the speaker. Naturally, we want to hear what 
Mr. Ingram has to say about hardy spring 
flowers, and hope something will be provided 
in the shape of a sounding-board or of screens, 
to enable him to be heard in comfort by all. 
May we hope also to see a display of spring 
flowers other than the eternal Daffodil, which 
will have a big innings on its own account at 
Chiswick in the following week. 
(|)ur Fruit Prospects. —Fruit growers are 
just now, to employ a common metaphor, 
hanging on tenter hooks. Whilst theunthinking 
public are revelling in the glorious weather—a 
slice of May thrown into March—which is 
concluding the old lion month, the fruit growers 
see how potent the sun’s influence is in forcing 
buds and blossoms, and misgivingly wonder 
what is to be the result. It must not be 
assumed for one moment that the fruit grower 
is an over-anxious being. He can hardly he 
worthy the designation of a fruit grower unless 
he has had considerable experience, and that 
experience has taught him to distrust early 
weather aspects when bright [and promising, 
because he has so often seen them falsified. 
How often since Shakespeare’s day has there 
come, amidst all that was so beautiful and full of 
promise, “ a frost, a killing frost,” which has, per¬ 
haps, in one night, undone all the efforts of both 
trees and cultivators during the previous year ! 
It needs a good deal of philosophy to stand 
calmly by and see the rich bloom of the spring, 
beauteous promise of the glorious and profitable 
crop to follow, utterly wrecked by one or two 
visitations of uncommonly low temperature. 
It needs all the more philosophy when, after 
several years of moderate crops, such a 
misfortune spells ruin. We have this year not 
ODly splendid universal promise of fruit, hut a 
good crop is due. The preceding season saw 
thin crops generally, and yet a season for the 
production of buds and ripening of wood hardly 
excelled, during the decade just expiring. If 
no sharp frosts, or what is equally harmful, 
spells of biting withering east winds follow, 
it is difficult to see how the promise of the 
season can he marred. The next six weeks 
will therefore he an anxious time for fruit 
growers, and until that time is past, we may 
not regard ourselves as out of the wood. If our 
fruit-promoting associations could only ensure 
suitable weather for the bloom, more would be 
done to favour extended fruit culture than ten 
thousand papers or essays could accomplish. 
