756 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
August 2, 1890. 
TsTomatos.— We hope that the gardeners who 
^ visited Chiswick on the occasion of the 
Carnation and Fern Conferences, took stock 
of the Tomatos growing in some four houses 
there, of which three were filled with plants in 
pots, and in another—the big, span-house near 
the entrance—the plants are growing in beds. 
It does seem as if it were hardly possible for 
plants to thrive better or to fruit more freely 
than they are doing at Chiswick; and many 
gardeners may learn lessons as to good culture 
alone. It is evident that gross culture is not 
practised : all the same, the very best results 
are produced, the crop of fruit in every 
direction being a remarkable one. 
"But apart from getting wrinkles of a cultural 
kind there are not less useful ones to be 
gathered as to the qualities of varieties. 
Tomato sorts presumably are plentiful enough, 
but then they are after all so very much alike. 
If one is good another is good, and if one is 
best, another is better, and so we can run up 
the gamut of praise until it has to be admitted 
that all alike are excellent. But the wrinkles 
to be picked up are chiefly those which tend 
to show how needful it is to be assured that 
anyone has a Tomato either better or diverse 
from others in cultivation. We see plant after 
plant at Chiswick, of Perfection, Conference, 
Ham Green Favourite, the Hew Red Mikado, 
Cocoa-nut—all, with others, referred to in the 
highest terms, and all relatively so much alike, 
that we should find it difficult to say wherein 
the distinctions were found, were we not 
informed that all have diverse appellations. 
Depend upon it, and this trial at Chiswick 
makes it exceptionally evident, that only some 
properties of a marvellously remarkable kind 
will justify the adding of yet another variety 
to our distended lists. We can hardly find 
room for better cropping, colour, or form; but 
if still finer flavour can be added it will be 
heartily welcomed. 
loral Extravagancies. —If we are to credit 
an eminent daily contemporary, the art of 
floral decorating for London parties, dinners, 
&c., has reached a limit beyond which it 
seems impossible to go without leading to bank¬ 
ruptcy and ruin. When, literally, thousands 
of pounds are spent (that is, if the amount 
charged'is ever paid !) for the floral decorations 
of a single night, no wonder moralists hold up 
their hands in surprise and ask where it is all 
to end. We cannot, even in the interests of 
the flower trade, admit that such gross and 
monstrous expenditure is healthy or desirable.- 
So far from leading to a steady, permanent 
demand for flowers, the result is to produce a 
feverish and abnormal demand for a short 
season, which is followed by a long season of 
comparative abstinence ; and not only is a trade 
which relies upon regular returns, impaired 
by the feverish competition of the few months, 
but it leads to the accumulation of accounts 
which may never be met. Ho wonder our 
contemporary should declare that either the 
spendthrift or the unfortunate florist must find 
relief in bankruptcy. Without doubt, flowers 
have come to play an important part in all 
forms of entertainment. Ordinarily, we might 
have regarded such uses as pleasing, and indi¬ 
cative of more refined tastes. Unhappily, 
when floral displays are made the subject of 
wealthy competition, and one costly decoration 
has to be exceeded in extent and expense by 
another until the most deplorable extrava¬ 
gancies are reached, then we feel that floral 
decorations become detestable, rather than 
pleasing. 
We should prefer to find that the general 
employment of flowers by the wealthy—for 
there is no fear that the poor will become 
extravagant in their use—had become mode¬ 
rate, steady, reasonable, and enduring; so that 
the flower trade might realise that its existence 
had a firm and solid basis. 
Gardening Engagement.—Mr. George Groves, fore¬ 
man to Mr. Bennett, Bangemore, Burton-on-Trent, as 
gardener to General Owen Williams, at Temple House, 
Great Marlow. 
What Next ?—The following advertisement recently 
appeared in the Daily News -.—“A lady requiring a 
gardener is willing to engage a lady who has practical 
knowledge of gardening. Advice would be given, and 
assistance in the rough work. Must be strong. £30, 
with board and lodging.” The lady should have 
added, Ho flirting allowed, and no assistants kept under 
seventy years of age. Good serviceable corduroys 
ound, and a piano allowed 
Ealing Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Society. 
—The members of this society had their second annual 
summer excursion on Monday last, when a party num¬ 
bering about eighty visited the Beading establishment 
of Messrs. Sutton & Sons, where they were shown over 
the extensive seed warehouses and offices, the trial 
ground with its glorious masses of colour as seen from 
the Great Western Bailway, and the admirable nursery 
in the Portland Road. The weather was all that could 
be desired, and the party returned home much gratified 
with what they had seen, and considerably richer in 
horticultural knowledge for the day’s outiDg. 
The National Chrysanthemum Society.—A party, 
numbering eighty-two, of members and their friends 
visited Henley and district on Monday last, and, 
thanks to the most enjoyable weather and the admirable 
arrangements made by Mr. Holmes another red-letter 
day has to be recorded. Leaving Paddington at 10.5, 
the party arrived at Reading in due time, and from 
Caversham Bridge went down the river in a launch to 
Henley, the riverside scenery being greatly admired by 
the way. At Henley, after refreshing the inner man, 
the party divided, the larger number continuing the 
river trip in the direction of Marlow, while the more 
seriously horticultural section visited Park Place, the 
delightfully situated seat of John Noble, Esq. The 
lovely views, charming pleasure grounds, and well 
stocked plant and fruit houses, kitchen gardens, kc., 
afforded an abundance of subjects to admire, and not a 
little instruction of a valuable and interesting character. 
In the evening all met again for a refreshing cup of 
tea, and made the return journey in a most ap-eeable 
way. 
Lilium auratum.—This grand Lily is often treated 
too tenderly, and fails. It is a thoroughly hardy plant, 
and is frequently seen placed out in borders and shrub¬ 
beries, and sometimes beds of this very fine species are 
seen. As a pot plant it is easily grown by any 
amateur, and examples of its very easy culture are now 
to be seen at Sparkhill, Birmingham, in a greenhouse 
at the residence of Mr. Gardiner. A specimen in a 
10-in. pot has five strong growths from one bulb—a 
fine, richly-marked variety, with thirty-six expanded 
blooms. The bulb has been in the same pot for two 
years, being simply top-dressed, and kept well sup¬ 
plied with moisture and stimulants. This plant, with 
other Liliums, was kept plunged in a cold frame during 
the winter ; the lights were off altogether after April, 
and the plants were removed to the greenhouse to 
flower. 
Bonnets of Natural Flowers.—The season’s belle is 
appearing at the theatres and at the last spring 
festivities in novel guise. Her evening bonnet is 
nothing more than a horseshoe fillet of wires, which 
she has carefully filled in before leaving home with 
Mountain Laurel freshly gathered, or Lilac or Boses. 
One young woman who sat in front of me a few nights 
ago was garlanded withj-Inatural sprays of yellow 
Honeysuckle, and the effect was quite bewildering 
until the last act, when the poor flowers drooped under 
the combined influence of heat and tragedy. If the 
fashion becomes in any way general there will have to 
be florists next door to theatres, so that when one sex 
goes out between the acts for liquid refreshments the 
other can get its bonnet freshly and fragrantly decorated. 
Under this system it might even be possible to follow 
a play with sympathetic headgear—non-committal 
flowers like Daisies or Buttercups for the first act. 
Passion Flowers for those intermediate, and Mignonette, 
Forget-me-nots, Bride Boses, or whatever the drama 
itself might suggest as most appropriate for the closing 
scenes. The proper order of flowers might be indicated 
on the programmes. Seldom has a fashion been started 
with such chances of entertaining developments, and 
yet the chances are it will not go far. Few people 
take up a whim that is so extreme. — Brooklyn Times. 
KELHAM HALL, NEWARK. 
The name of Eelham has of late become somewhat 
familiar to those interested in the horticulture of the 
midland counties. It is a small but delightful little 
village, situated about two miles from the historic 
little borough of Newark-on-Trent, which maybe said to 
have been the political birthplace of the venerable ex- 
Premier of England, it being the first constituency 
which gave him a seat in Parliament some fifty years 
ago. The Hall of Kelham is no old baronial building 
of historic note, with a venerable mansion hoary and 
worn with the lapse of centuries, but is a splendid 
example of nineteenth - century architecture. The 
owner of the estate is J. H. Mannors Sutton, Esq., J.P., 
and the mansion, which is beautifully situated, and 
commands extensive, diversified and picturesque views, 
is in the French style, and a most imposing pile, the 
material (hand-smoothed bricks with stone facings) and 
workmanship being of the best possible character, and 
the architectural embellishments singularly rich. 
On the south and east sides of the mansion are 
spacious terrace gardens with flower beds and borders 
judiciously arranged, and many splendid specimen 
Hollies, Cupressus Lawsoniana erecta viridis, Golden 
Yews, Retinosporas, &c., are appropriately planted. 
The view from the terrace is particularly fine, em¬ 
bracing the river Trent, which winds its silvery course 
through a most delightful pastoral valley, the 
substantial ornamental bridge which spans the river, 
and in the far distance the renowned Sherwood Forest 
on the one hand, and the great lace-making City of 
Nottingham on the other. The whole of the scenery 
in proximity to the mansion is remarkable for its quiet 
beauty and suggestiveness, and one could imagine the 
saintly George Herbert (who was a fisherman), with 
rod and creel in hand, walking gently down the green 
slopes to the river, whose silvery sheen gleams softly 
between grey Willows and rugged boles of ancient Elms. 
The kitchen gardens are a short distance (about a 
quarter of a mile) from the mansion, from which they 
are totally hidden by the configuration of the ground 
and shrubberies. The pretty dwelling of Mr. Webb, 
the enthusiastic gardener, forms the entrance, and is 
not without its floral charms, Clematis rubella, Gloire 
de Dijon Roses, and other climbing plants hanging in 
graceful festoons from its walls. The kitchen garden^ 
are between two and three acres in extent, enclosed 
between lofty walls which are covered from base to 
summit with healthy fruit trees ; and similarly fine are 
the pyramid fruit trees in the garden—no moss, no 
canker, but clean, bright wood everywhere. The crops 
of Apples, Pears, and Plums are, however, a conspicuous 
failure ; as also is the Carrot crop, a state of things 
which seems very general in this neighbourhood. 
Erected against the south wall of the kitchen garden 
is a range of glass structures. Vineries, early and late, 
are carrying a nice even crop, Black Hamburgh, Mus¬ 
cat of Alexandra, and other varieties being worthy of 
special notice. The retention of young wood, not rigid 
spur-pruning, is the system relied upon for the pro¬ 
motion of high-class fruit. Royal George and Princess 
of Wales Peaches are in the best of condition, and are 
carrying fruits of the same meritorious quality which 
Mr. Webb so successfully exhibits at some of the 
leading shows. Melons are well grown, but only one 
variety is under cultivation here, and may be seen in 
various stages of growth, Best of All being the variety 
most esteemed for its precocity and good qualities. 
Pines are not very extensively grown ; but we noticed 
a batch of dwarf stubby-leaved plants of Smooth 
Cayenne, in 8-in. or 9-in. pots, showing fruits which 
will be considerably larger than many grown in far 
larger pots. Mr. Webb evidently believes in small 
plants and large fruits. Particularly noticeable in one 
of the long span-roofed houses occupying a central 
position in the garden is an exceedingly even-balanced 
crop of Tomatos grown on the extension system, and 
not upon the single-rod principle so extensively 
practised elsewhere. The variety is Hathaway’s Excel¬ 
sior, which can lay claim to being not only one of the 
handsomest, but also one of the best-flavoured varieties 
in commerce. The demand for Tomatos at Kelham is 
very great, and successional crops, equally well grown, 
may be seen in other houses devoted to their culture ; 
but this is the only variety grown. 
There are numerous other houses devoted to Roses, 
stove and greenhouse plants, &c., one lean-to structure 
being solely devoted to that most useful and beautiful 
Rose, Niphetos, from which thousands of blooms are 
annually cut. Another span-roofed house is principally 
occupied with Crotons in rude health and vigour, 
which are used for grouping at neighbouring shows, 
