822 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 30, 1890. 
tAofUdUiAUfW. 
_ 
Mr. James Thurstan's Garden at Cardiff. 
Being at Cardiff a short time ago, I called upon my 
friend, Mr. James Thurstan, of floricultural fame, and 
I must admit that I was astonished with what he does 
in so small and circumscribed a garden. Mr. Thurstan 
resides in the Richmond Road, a good bioad thorough¬ 
fare lined with villa residences on either side, and 
planted with Lime trees ; this and many other of the 
newer streets representing the rapid growth of Cardiff. 
A good deal of tree planting has been done in this 
enterprising town, but Limes are almost entirely 
employed, and though the summer may be said to be 
favourable to the growth of trees in streets, already 
many of the Cardiff Limes have turned rusty and 
brown, and will soon lose their leaves. There is reason 
to fear that the method of planting adopted at Cardiff is 
one not altogether conducive to the well-being of the 
trees. 
The garden at the rear of Mr. Thurstan’s residence is so 
ridiculously small for the requirements of a florist, that 
it is only by utilising every corner, and crowding every 
available spot that Mr. Thurstan is able to grow so 
many floral favourites. The wall on three sides of the 
garden is mainly covered with early-flowering Chrysan¬ 
themums, which are great favourites with our friend, 
with a few later ones to follow on successionally. In 
front of these is a narrow border utilised for Phloxes, 
Carnations, Gladioli, a few Auriculas, Polyanthus, and 
odds and ends, and it is under the shade of the branches 
of his Chrysanthemums that Mr. Thurstan strikes his 
Pink pipings, in a homely way it is true, but a very 
successful one. A dozen or so of pipings are put into 
a little centre of sandy soil, and they are then covered 
over with a portion of a glass jam jar, which excludes 
the air, and there is scarcely a failure with one of the 
pipings. Most heads of families are acquainted with 
the circular glass jars or bottles in which jams are sold, 
and about one third of the way down Mr. Thurstan 
cuts it all the way round with a diamond, and then 
holding a red-hot poker just above the cut and moving 
it along the line, the jar is cut through, and thus a 
covering for the pipings is obtained. Mr. Thurstan 
states that a large champagne bottle is best, because it 
can be cut in halves and both ends utilized. If the 
pipings have water on the leaves when put in, 
the glass covering is tilted up a little to dry 
them before it is finally closed. In one corner of the 
garden is a bed of seedling Pinks from the choicest 
varieties, so strong looking as to lead one to 
suppose they are Carnations, but Mr. Thurstan holds 
that the Pink is simply a variety of the Carnation. 
One of Mr. Thurstan’s favoufite Carnations is Mary 
Morris. This grows very freely with him, producing 
abundant grass and very fine flowers. There are two 
beds of his fine select Tulips not yet lifted, though it 
is held by eminent Tulip growers that the Tulip enjoys 
a dry rest above ground more than a wet one below. 
There is a border of hardy perennials, in which are 
some fine seedling Phloxes raised by Mr. Thurstan, 
Delphiniums, of which he has a fine seedling strain, 
Gladioli, and other choice things, which supply many 
cut blooms for house decoration. I cannot enumerate 
all the features of interest that are found in this small 
garden ; but there are a goodly number of seedling 
alpine Auriculas from crosses made by Mr. Thurstan 
between Mrs. Dodwell, Slough Rival, and others, and 
also some seedling gold-laced Polyanthus. 
I was much interested in looking about this garden. 
Our friend sighs for more room in a less confined 
locality, but as his things are choice and valuable they 
need to be kept under the master’s eye. My imperfect 
sketch fails to do justice to this home of a florist, but 
it serves to indicate what may be done by a man with 
great regard for some floral pets, which receive constant 
and loving attention at his hands.— E. D. 
-- 
BANANAS AT SYQN HOUSE. 
Several species of Musa are grown at this establish¬ 
ment, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland ; but 
M. Cavendishii, the Chinese species, is regularly cul¬ 
tivated for the sake of its fruit, as it is both dwarf and 
requires rather less heat than the other good-fruiting 
species. Two houses are specially devoted to it in 
batches of different ages. Some very large bunches of 
fruit are now in the course of development. The bracts 
of the male flowers are large, purplish with a glaucous 
bloom, fading to brown, and present a curious ajrpear- 
ance. The young fruits are now swelling fast. In one 
of the houses are some tall stems of the Plantain, or 
Adam’s Apple Plantain (M. sapientum). One of them, 
now cut down, produced a crop of fine fruit recently, 
for some of which Mr. Wythes, the gardener, received 
a Cultural Commendation from the Royal Horticultural 
Society at a recent meeting. In the large conservatory 
is a fine specimen of M. ensete, now ripening a huge 
bunch of large fruits. The latter are curved upwards, 
dark olive-green, and appear as if they would become 
almost black when mature. This species is grown 
largely for ornamental purposes, and often "used in the 
sub-tropical garden. It is more than likely that the 
fruits will contain many seeds, and may not be very 
palatable even when mature. 
---HS5&C-- 
OUR FLOWER SHOW. 
The annual flower show, or horticultural exhibition, as 
is now prefers to call itself, is one of the greatest events 
of the year for our town. It began (liKe other im¬ 
portant matters) in a very small way. A certain 
department of the municipality had for long been vexed 
by a deficit (no uncommon thing, by the way), which 
in its turn, if the members of the committee concerned 
with it are to be believed, so vexed the department 
that it was decided to take strong measures for its 
expunction. Why not inaugurate a flower show in the 
public park, appeal to the gentry and their wives for 
their invaluable patronage, give a public luncheon at 
so much a head, and wind up with fireworks—all for 
the benefit of the recalcitrant department ? 
The scheme met with the approval of our local 
dignitaries, and the first flower show of the series was 
duly consummated.' The local press waxed florid for 
the occasion. It was as if our editors had drawn their 
inspiration upon the subject from Voltaire himself, 
who has so precisely laid down the rules for the usage 
of metaphors idyllic and pastoral. What if there were 
an astounding number of printer’s errors in the record, 
or pseudo-record, of the prize-winning plants ? The 
general public knows not the difference between a 
“Cypripedium Stonei ” and a “ Dendrochilum fili- 
forme,” and takes not a pennyworth of interest in the 
groups to which these interesting objects may be said 
to belong. The general public cares for the cut flowers 
only in so far as it is allowed to smell them if they are 
odoriferous, and for the larger plants only inasmuch as 
they are provocative of the “ Ohs ! ” and “ Ahs ! ” of 
vague admiration which it is the custom to lavish upon 
them. The Strawberries and Cherries, and the other 
attractive products of the kitchen garden are also 
agreeable enough as whets to the imagination of the 
general public and its unholy appetite. For the most 
part, the clientele of our local press skip the hard words 
in the report of the show, and read only what they can 
understand and appreciate without an effort. 
This first flower show not only paid the debts of the 
embarrassed department of our municipality, but left 
a nice little sum in the hands of the organizing com¬ 
mittee, which it was unanimously resolved to regard as 
a guarantee fund for the shows of the future. Hitherto, 
however, fate and the weather have been so kind that 
the sum has never been lessened. Rather it swells 
year by year; and there are not wanting sanguine 
Town Councillors who look upon it as the mainstay of 
the borough finances. A hundred years hence, for 
example, why may not all our town loans (now quoted 
at about 4 per cent, premium) be obliterated by the 
serried rank of figures which the flower show balance 
of, say, 1990 ought to exhibit ? 
This year, then, the horticultural exhibition is on a 
gigantic scale. The town itself is decorated with flags 
of many devices for the occasion, and the bells of the 
collegiate church ring merrily for hours. There is an 
influx of visitors from the neighbouring towns and 
villages, and open house is the. rule with many of the 
opulent tenants of our villas near the park in which 
the exhibition is held. The Mayor is at the kernel of 
the excitement. Having at the outset headed a 
pompous procession of Councillors and others from the 
Town Hall to the park, and formally declared the show 
inaugurated, he next proceeds to take the chair at an 
ambitious but by no means expensive public luncheon, 
spread in a large marquee in the middle of the grounds. 
Three bands play round about the tent, to the clatter 
of plates and the popping of corks. The guests do not 
hide their appetites imder a bushel. Their lack of 
modesty in this respect is, indeed, one of the topics of 
conversation later in the day ; the contractor for the 
feast having unkindly enumerated certain of the ticket 
holders (at half-a-crown each) who ate their money to 
the last farthing’s-worth. Really, however, the griev¬ 
ance is not a very serious one ; and there is such a 
contagion of high spirits, due to the lovely weather and 
the exhilarating music, that even the contractor anon 
holds his tongue and prepares with a zest for the gTeater 
multitude who will by-and-by trouble him for ninepenny 
teas and an indefinite number of glasses of beer. His 
Worship the Mayor inaugurates the purchases of 
“bitter,” as he has already inaugurated much else. 
Heaven only knows what he will feel like when the day 
comes to an end. He has to receive various “ floral” 
deputations in the course of the afternoon, and make 
neat little speeches which cannot fail to leave him 
insufferably thirsty every quarter of an hour. Then 
the rank and fashion have to be welcomed at three 
o’clock, when the Mayoress dispenses “afternoon tea” 
to all comers with whom she is on bowing terms. 
Later there is a band contest, of which his Worship’s 
unfortunate tympanum is to be the arbitrator. In the 
evening he is expected to be here, there and every¬ 
where, with an affable smile and a “ How do you do ?” 
for all the world. And when the sun has utterly gone 
from sight and the gloaming is ushered in, he must 
give the signal for that stupendous display of fireworks 
(pyrotechnic exhibition, we should say) which collects 
our populace by tens of thousands, spoils a few hats 
and bonnets, and frightens the wild fowl and swans of 
our lakes until they are disposed to migrate en masse 
at a venture. 
Each mayor in succession endeavours to gain the 
good-will of the town by the introduction of some 
fascinating novelty into the show. One year there 
was a trades’ procession—a few hundred operatives 
promenading up and down the park with the banners 
and ribbons of their guilds and orders and various 
models of their industrial achievements. Another year 
there was a “ beauty ” competition ; and vast was the 
concourse of ribald males (at a shilling a head) to see 
the audacious damsels who hoped that their charms 
were of the pre-eminent kind. Yet another year there 
was a flight of paper balloons, the idea of which was 
worthy the fertile brain of Dean Swift. The air was 
full of monstrous shapes of many colours : giants’ 
heads with preposterous noses, sun-fishes, fat women, 
and the like grotesques. But no matter what the 
novelty, it is always pronounced by our local press to 
“ eclipse all former attempts of the kind.” 
This year we have a gathering of cyclists from a 
radius of many miles, with a gold medal for the club 
which makes the most effective figure in the twilight 
illuminated procession. They were here by the 
hundred—little men and big men, in jersey and home- 
spun and honest corduroy ; and not a few of the fair 
took a hand in the entertainment of the people. Some 
of their decorations were worthy of the Spanish archi¬ 
tects of the post-Renaissance period. They travelled 
under roomy canopies or Japanese umbrellas or 
baldaquins of Liberty silk, with a fringe of lanterns— 
crimson, blue, yellow, and green. One enterprising 
soul made his machine into a yacht, from the mainmast 
of which fluttered the pennons of the nations. Others, 
mindful rather of the unities, relied wholly upon 
flowers for their success; their very wheels were 
rotating beds of Roses. Taken all in all, it was a 
pretty conceit; and the “ Ohs ! ” and “ Ahs ! ” of the 
multitude were sufficiently justified. As the paper 
remarked, “it eclipsed all former attempts of the kind.” 
The fireworks also were in the same case. Last year 
the crowning illumination was—what do you think ?— 
the entwined portrait of the Mayor and Mayoress, with 
a cradle underneath them. Their Worships had in¬ 
creased the population during the Mayor’s year of 
office ; and it was a delicate, if somewhat too overt, 
species of congratulation tendered to them and the 
world at large simultaneously. This year we are less 
parochial in our fancy. Mr. Stanley gives us his head, 
giant-size ; and we have the Forth Bridge done to the 
life, with a red train tearing across it, ’mid a whirl of 
smoke, into nothingness. 
Last, and best of all, the receipts at the gate beat 
the record, or, rather, “eclipse all previous takings.’’ 
The committee feel rewarded for their great exertions, 
and his Worship the Mayor rejoices that he has not 
perspired in vain. — St. James's Gazette. 
-■»$<«■- 
A COLLECTION OF LOBELIAS. 
It is the practice of some gardeners to grow Lobelias 
for bedding purposes from seed. Their plea is that it 
saves the trouble of propagating them from cuttings 
with the risk of losing them in winter. The space they 
would occupy is devoted to something else ; and all 
round the reasons for this method of growing them 
seem very plausible. The difference between Lobelias 
raised from seeds and those propagated from cuttings 
becomes evident by midsummer. By seed raising, 
