6 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
September 2, 1898. 
Celery. 
I RECENTi.Y saw in connection with this vegetable a 
striking illustration of the absolute necessity of 
securing seed from reliable sources. In the quarter 
I was looking at there are six varieties, one of which 
came from a doubtful source, every plant in the 
rows of which will be pithy and only fit for 
flavouring, while the rest without exception will 
develop into crisp, sweet stalks. During this dry 
season it is of the first importance to give an 
abundance of water in order to secure rapid growth, 
without which crisp, sweet, nutty-flavoured Celery 
cannot be had. For early use, if not already done, 
some may be earthed up, but I prefer leaving the 
bulk of the crop without moulding up as long as 
possible, as the process hinders to some extent the 
growth of the plant, and better sticks are obtained 
when the plants are subjected to the influences of 
light and air. Besides, the earthing-up is done in a 
shorter space of time than when done in a more 
gradual manner. I have noticed but little fly at 
present and hope the season will pass without its 
giving any serious trouble. A watering occasionally 
with J oz. of nitrate of soda to a gallon of water is 
very beneficial to this crop. Soot also is a good 
stimulant, and if dusted along the rows when the 
foliage is damp is a great check on the fly. 
Spinach. 
Spinach in many establishments is highly esteemed 
and always in demand, and it should have a special 
claim to attention this season. Owing to the pro¬ 
longed drought, green vegetables will in many places 
be a scarce commodity, calculations and plans of the 
very best practitioners being upset by it. I would 
urge upon all those whose supplies threaten to run 
short, to make extra provision, by securing an 
abundance of Spinach. True it sometimes fails from 
canker, but costing little for either seed or labour, 
the loss, when it does occur, is small, and my practice 
has been to have a quarter of Spinach Beet to fall 
back upon. This never fails, and although not 
equal to Spinach is a good substitute. We have had 
our crops of winter Spinach mysteriously disappear 
when in the seed leaf, and one autumn we lost both 
our first and second sowings in this way ; so being 
determined to secure a crop if possible I sowed a 
quantity in 60-sized pots and when strong trans¬ 
planted them ; this answered very well, but of course 
the crop was rather late. After this experience 
I made it a rule to fill in the drills with burnt refuse 
and seldom again had any serious, trouble; but for 
canker, I have never found a remedy.—IF. B. 
Glasscock. 
--- 
STRAWBERRIES. 
Although it has admittedly been a somewhat 
indifferent Strawberry season, yet no one is at all 
discouraged on that account. We certainly get good 
Strawberry crops fully five times out of every six 
years, and in such case there is nothing to trouble 
about, because an intensely dry season caused the 
crop of the present year to run somewhat short. It 
is most interesting to find that whilst such was the 
case early in the summer, plants have done wonder¬ 
fully well since, and not only do they present robust 
evidences of health, but runners have been early and 
plentiful, hence it has been easy to make ample pro¬ 
vision for future planting, and there can be no doubt 
but that these will be this season as extensive as 
ever. 
If any lesson at all has been deduced from the 
season, it is that we should not allow plants to remain 
on the ground too long. How, in that respect, we 
have changed our practice from what prevailed some 
forty to fifty years ago, when it was the rule to allow 
plants, or rather beds, to remain for several years ! 
Very many will, after the past season’s experience, 
decline to allow plants to remain for the third year, 
and more largely than ever we shall see the second 
year-of fruiting held to be the very best cropping 
season, and that being so, it will be folly to allow 
plants to remain longer. Some practical growers 
think that the first season is the best, and it is long 
enough for many varieties, without doubt. Still, 
that must depend on the earliness and strength of 
runners, and their being planted up in well-prepared 
soil. 
If it be getting late for this purpose, it is not too 
late for the securing of good strong fruiting plants 
next year if, runners be specially strong and well- 
rooted, for they may do wonders yet ere the winter 
checks growth. Many of the more recent new 
varieties will doubtless be planted this autumn, so 
that next year we should have a season of unusual 
interest for the Strawberry.— A. D. 
-- 
THE VERBENA. 
It will not be considered surprising that your potent 
digest on this most lovely genus, at p. 678 of your 
last volume, should have arrested the attention of the 
reader, who has for more than half a century been 
associated with the family, the first of which to be 
used in flower garden decoration as a dwarf plant 
was the old Melindres. What a fine permanent 
edging during the early and late summer season it 
used to make, and how easily it was propagated and 
preserved through the winter months! Nearly sixty 
years ago, when Tancroides was introduced, the 
marvellous change which took place in habit, and 
the various colours of the flowers by hybridising, was 
something astounding, and as it proved scarcely any 
genus had the apparent inherent disposition to so 
gracefully reward the raiser of novelties with such a 
wealth of varied rich and lovely colours, as did the 
Verbena in so short a space of time. 
In my early days I was truly delighted with them, 
and grew them extensively for bedding purposes, 
and I aver that no beds whatever surpassed the 
neatly-pegged and well-kept examples, whether the 
plants were mixed or arranged separately each bed 
representing a distinct, but complimentary, colour. 
It is most refreshing to be able to dive back in 
memory to the old but early days of our sojourn in 
the garden of this world’s Eden, the fountain 
discharging aqua pura in graceful and pleasing 
forms, the brilliant display of colour finely toned 
down and contrasted with well-formed shrubs of 
various hues. These combined made even a tropical 
summer delightfully enjoyable; but changes we 
must have because it forms an inherent factor in 
the wise economy of the human race, which doubt¬ 
less tends much towards the development of the 
most healthy and satisfactory issues in our positive 
welfare. 
From reading your dissertation and looking over a 
bed of seedling Verbenas I have been led to make these 
remarks, and I do so with the impression that at no 
distant date this lovely and charming plant, with all 
|ts varied hues, will for the embellishment of the 
flower garden be employed in tens of thousands as 
in the more quiet but happy days of old, when we 
were not so much subjected to the lash of the com¬ 
mercial whip .—George Fry, Lewisham. 
[In the old days of the South London Floricultural 
Society, our correspondent and the late Mr. George 
Smith, of the Tollington Nursery, Hornsey, were 
frequent competitors with the Verbena at the shows 
held in the Surrey Gardens, and we should be glad 
to see this flo wer once again a feature at our summer 
shows. There is a wealth of colour and refinement 
in the Verbena that it is a pity to lose altogether.— 
Ed.] 
- mi. - 
CROYDON LODGE. 
This had long been the residence of one of the moit 
generous of Croydon’s townsmen, who, during his 
residence, added much to the attractions of the place 
by erecting and stocking numerous stoves and green¬ 
houses, which at present contain a most varied and 
extensive collection of plants, which, owing to the 
lamented death of the owner, will soon be dispersed 
under the hammer of the auctioneer. This season— 
with the exception of Plums, which bore heavy crops 
last year—has been a good one for hardy fruits. 
Apples, Pears, Peaches, and Nectarines being plenti¬ 
ful and of good quality. There are two span-roofed 
Peach houses, one 48 ft. by 24 ft., and 15 ft. in 
height. This is heated, and the fruit is all gathered, 
but the trees are in excellent health. The other is 
unheated, and is 70 ft. in length by 12 ft. in breadth, 
and 12 ft. in height, a well-built house. The fruit 
has ripened on an average a month earlier than 
usual, and there are a few trees with some fruit still 
on them, notably the Golden Eagle Peach and 
Victoria Nectarine. This last was removed from 
one of the outside walls because it never ripened, 
and bids fair to be the latest to be gathered from 
either inside or outside this season. Mr. Carr, the 
esteemed gardener, believes in plenty of water and 
high feeding for these fruits, and the present condi¬ 
tion of these trees bears ample testimony to his 
judgment and skill as a cultivator. The practice 
here is to give a thorough watering from the mam 
with a hose, and follow it up the next day with a 
good drenching of liquid manure from a cesspool,about 
one-half cesspool water to one of clear. The borders 
have a good mulching of cow manure put on at the 
commencement of the season, and this helps to retain 
moisture in the soil, and keep the root fibres near 
the surface. 
In the plant houses I found a large stock of small 
stuff grown for decorative purposes, the requirements 
in this department having been very great; at the 
same time adequate means and skill have been 
forthcoming to meet them. Crotons, Caladiums, 
Dracaenas, Dieffenbachias, Marantas, Pandanus, 
Palms, Ferns (especially Maiden Hair) are here in 
great numbers. Chrysanthemums have been grown 
in quantity and done well. The collection of Orchids 
is an extensive one, and comprises many fine pieces 
of rare and choice varieties. I noticed a Cymbidum 
Mastersi, with fourteen growths and the same 
number of flower spikes showing ; C. Lowianum has 
thirty growths; C. eburneum is a very fine piece; 
Cypripedium Chamberlainianum has ten flowers; 
and C. Harrisonianum, a good specimen, bears nine ; 
C. Sedeni, C. callosum, with two flowers on a stalk, 
C. Rothschildianum, an extra good piece of Lycaste 
Skinneri alba, L. S. delicatissima, L. S. rubella, 
Cattleya gigas, Cattleya Victoria Regina, are all well 
represented. 
The Cattleya house is 43 ft. long by 18 ft. in 
width, is well heated and built on the best principles, 
and contains a most valuable collection of plants. 
I cannot enumerate a tithe of the treasures contained 
in these houses; but ^ noticed that Mr. Carr 
believes in assisting his plants in their growth by 
sprinkling weak liquid cow manure about the floors. 
Specimen Coelogynes and Dendrobiums, etc., abound, 
and I noticed among other fine things a plant of 
Anthurium Andreanum which had, when exhibited 
at the late Croydon Flower Show, 30 flowers; and a 
good form of A. Scherzerianum. A fine collection 
of Azalias are standing out in their summer quarters, 
and a plant of Deutche Perle is partly in flower. 
Specimen Ferns, Palms, fine foliaged Plants, with 
Allamandas, Stephanotis, a good plant of Phylan- 
thus nevosa, and Dieffenbachias Crotons, &c., are 
here in the rudest health, so that it would be but 
seldom that either a splendid group or a collection of 
flowering and foliaged plants could not be put up for 
competition with a fair prospect of taking first hon¬ 
ours. In a cold frame are some splendid specimens 
of Todea superba and Hymeuophyllum Tunbridge- 
ense. The surfaces of the pans, the stones and the 
brick burrs in this frame are thickly studded with 
young seedling Todeas ; and on the rockwork at 
back of the Odontoglossum house, I saw the finest 
piece of the Irish Fern that I have ever met with. 
— W. B. Glasscock. 
--I-- 
EUCHARIS LOWII. 
In point of size the flowers of this new Eucharis 
approach very closely those of E. grandiflora, than 
which they are much less rigidly formal. They are 
not flat as in that species, but have the three inner 
and ovate segments incurved at the sides. The rest 
are oblong-ovate, spreading at right angles to the 
tube and flat. The plant is supposed to be a hybrid 
between E. grandiflora and E. Sanderiana, and has 
the corona reduced to a mere rim, but bearing a 
distinctly bifid lobe or a pair of teeth in the spaces 
between every two filaments, thus making twelve in 
all. The flowers are for the most part pure white, 
and worthy rivals for those of the universally popular 
E. grandiflora. The supposed natural hybrid 
turned up in an importation of E. Sanderi, which 
comes from New Grenada; and if it proves consti¬ 
tutionally strong it should soon find its way into 
many collections where the Eucharis is a favourite. 
The leaves are large, and ovate or sub-cordate at 
the base, ribbed and shining like those of E. Sanderi. 
A pot of it exhibited at the meeting of the Royal 
Horticultural Society on the iith of April, by 
Messrs. Hugh Low & Co., Clapton, was honoured 
with an Award of Merit. Our illustration accom¬ 
panying this will serve to give an idea of the form of 
the flowers. 
