548 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April 28, 1894. 
FliOt^ICUltTUt^E. 
The Carnatioi and Picotee Union. 
A MELANCHOLY interest attaches to the annual report 
for 1893 of the Committee of this Society which has 
just been issued, inasmuch as that its pages contain 
much to remind us of the loss which floriculture has 
sustained by the passing away of " the master.” 
The accounts show a small adverse balance, which 
no doubt the new Honorary Secretary and Treasurer, 
Mr. Arthur Medhurst, wilt do his best this year to 
convert into a surplus. To exhibitors no doubt the 
official list of the flowers shown at the annual ex¬ 
hibition in July last will prove of more than passing 
interest, but the general members of the Society 
will find most to interest them in the various 
reports on the past Carnation season, contributed by 
Messrs. Rowan, Sydenham, Keen, Kew, Hedderley, 
Herbert, and Witham, and the numerous tributes 
paid to the memory of Mr. Dodwell. Thus of the 
Nestor of Carnation growers, Mr. Martin Rowan 
writes :— 
" By the entire devotion and successful labour of 
a long floricultural life he had become inseparably 
associated with the Carnation in our minds, for, if 
we except the tree and Malmaiscn sorts in which he 
had never interested himself, there is not a section of 
the flower of which leading varieties are not linked 
with his name. 
"After intervals of interruption to what he has 
himself described as the recreation of his life, he 
settled down finally to Carnation growing and ex¬ 
hibiting, and what was to him the especially con¬ 
genial work of seedling raising while at Clapham, 
about 1875. Here, amid something more than the 
amateur's usual disadvantages of location, he 
delighted and enriched the floral world with a 
succession of splendid seedlings, which remain among 
the best flowers of their classes to this day. 
“With one of his temperament and artistic per¬ 
ceptions it might be anticipated that the class most 
combining with refinement the elements of character 
and force would be that which would have the first 
attraction for him, and accordingly we find his 
earliest and most enduring successes among the 
bizarre flowers, and the earliest and best of these 
among the scarlet bizarres. In 1878 was first 
bloomed the fine flower named after his old friend, 
Robert Lord, followed the next year by George, 
Fred, Arthur Medhurst, and Edward Adams, among 
the scarlet bizarres ; and Harrison Weir and H. K. 
Mayor among the crimsons and pink and purples 
respectively, all going at once to the front rank 
which they continue to occupy to the present time. 
Since his removal to Oxford, in 1881, we have had, 
in order of time, Henry Cannell (S.F.), George 
Melville (P.F.), John S. Hedderley (C.B.), Mrs. May 
(R.F.), Alfred (S.B.), Gordon Lewis (P F), while 
only this last season he has left us in his Othello 
(S B.), and in the rose and purple flakes which he 
named after my wife and myself, what he thought 
the three best flowers of these classes he had yet 
raised. In addition to the above it is to be remem¬ 
bered that those grand flowers Robert Houlgrave 
(S.B.), William Skirving (P.P.B.), and Rob Roy 
(R.F.), are all the product of seed ripened in his 
garden. 
" In Picotees the list is not so great, nor the 
position taken by the flowers relatively so important, 
yet of these, Gertrude (H. Red), Amy Robsart 
(H. Purple), Little Phil (H. Rose), and Norman 
Carr (H. Scarlet), hold rank among the very best of 
their respective classes ; while in Mrs. Lovatt (H. 
Red), issued last season, he anticipated a worthy 
compeer of these fine flowers. 
“ Among fancies, his Eurydice (crimson and 
purple) is the most refined, as his Maestro (scarlet 
and maroon) is the boldest and most effective of this 
section. 
"Of a long list of fine seifs of every shade, 
Ivanhoe, The Moor (deep maroon), Florizel (rich 
claret), Joe Willett (scarlet), Mrs. Dodwell (salmon 
scarlet), Gladys (soft pink), and Mrs. Fred (white), 
are perhaps those which have found highest favour ; 
and his Queen of Crimsons and Uncle Tom (dark 
maroon) of this last season, the raiser thought the 
best of these tints he had obtained. 
" That the yellow grounds, with their highly 
picturesque qualities, did not earlier engage his 
attention may be ascribed to two causes ; firstly, to 
the idea which prevailed among raisers that the near 
neighbourhood of the yellows to their pure white 
ground flowers meant for the latter something like 
the contamination of the blackamoor ; and, secondly, 
to the long succession of cold wet summers 
experienced during the period of his Carnation grow¬ 
ing at Clapham, which were like a veto on the 
cultivation of these flowers, restricted, as they were 
then, practically, to those of Prince of Orange 
blood. Amid better conditions, at Oxford, he was 
successful in raising a virtually new race of yellow 
grounds, uniting fine quality with a far greater 
degree of vigour than we had been accustomed to 
see in these flowers. 
" That these handsome things should have become 
very popular was to be expected, though we cannot 
doubt he himself was intently watching for some 
sudden and grand break which might nearly presage, 
if not fully realise, the golden Curzon or Rob Roy 
that was ever present to his mind. But art is long, 
life is short, and others must take up the work where 
he has had to lay it down and carry it further stages 
on to its full development. ^ 
“ How much we owe to him as a raiser of Carna¬ 
tions may be seen by the number of fine varieties of 
his raising, which swell the trade growers’ lists, and 
by the large proportion of them figuring regularly in 
the winning stands of exhibitors. 
" A writer of singular clearness and force, and of 
acknowledged authority on everything that con¬ 
cerned his favourite flower, he had also the faculty 
which belongs to strong individuality of exciting in 
ethers the interest he felt himself, and without 
abatement of the credit due to others for their share 
in the work there can be no doubt that he laid the 
foundation of that revival of interest in the Carna¬ 
tion which we have witnessed of late years. 
“With those who knew him, and especially those 
who also grew his flowers, he will long remain in 
pleasant and honoured memory: with another 
generation of growers he will have taken his place 
among the ' Fathers.' ” 
The Gold-laced Polyanthus as a Border P ant. 
When looking through an old Cambridgeshire 
garden the other day, I was much struck with the 
beauty of a border of Gold-laced Polyanthus—the 
plants large, grandly-flowered, and in a few cases of 
very high quality. The plants were at least two 
years old, and they were growing in a border of 
rich deep black mould, a line of nut bushes at the 
back affording shade from the mid-day sun. There 
were altogether quite fifty plants, and on inquiry I 
found the seed came from Messrs. Sutton & Sons, at 
Reading, and what was particularly striking about 
the strain was the high quality of many of the 
individuals. A black and also a red ground, in par¬ 
ticular, were really very fine. The owner of the 
garden, though ignorant of the florists’ properties in 
the Polyanthus, was quite sensible of their beauty, 
and will save a little seed from these two particular 
plants with a view to further improvement. It is 
when fine varieties are grown into large plants and 
densely bloomed that some idea can be raised of the 
brilliancy of the Gold-laced Polyanthus. Black and 
gold, or red and gold, form striking contrasts, 
especially so in this particular case, where, in all the 
best types, the golden centre was free from any spot 
or blemish. Then the variation was great. It is 
sometimes said by those imperfectly acquainted 
with the Gold-laced Polyanthus that there is a great 
sameness of character. That there is a uniformity 
in the marking of the type cannot be denied, but so 
far from sameness there is great variation in detail, 
and a most striking brilliancy, and it does appear to 
me there is a richer perfume given forth by the 
Gold-laced section than from the giant type, with 
their immense variation in colour, and there is great 
refinement in a good strain of the Gold-laced section. 
A few days ago Dr. Stuart, of Churnside, sent me 
some trusses of fine Gold-laced Border Maid, a 
large, striking and rich black ground, edged with the 
deepest gold, and to all appearance an excellent 
grower. These trusses of bloom quite scented the 
room, so powerful was the perfume. What I fear 
operates to discredit the Gold-laced Polyanthus is 
the wretched stuff in the way of seed sold by some 
seedsmen. I have seen seed of gold-laced named 
varieties offered to the trade at 5s. per oz., when I 
imagine there is not enough of named varieties 
grown in the whole of the United Kingdom to 
furnish a solitary ounce of seed!— R. D. 
CANONS OF JUDGING. 
Your readers cannot fail to have noticed that in 
connection with the small schedule of classes issued 
by the Southern Pink Society which you referred to 
last week, that a remarkable novelty is supplied in 
the form of the conditions on which the judges’ 
awards in the laced or florists’ classes are to be 
based. The exceeding value of these directions to 
the judges is, first, that the committee, the proper 
body for the purpose, define the basis on which 
awards shall be made, and through their publication, 
in the second place, they show exhibitors what 
points to aim at in selecting their exhibition 
blooms. 
I should very much like to see this principle 
widely adopted in connection, so far as is practicable, 
with all shows, not that in every case could it be so 
clearly laid down as in the case of some forms of 
florists’ flowers, such as Pinks, Carnations, Dahlias, 
Roses, Pansies, or Chrysanthemums, etc. ; but, at 
least, it would be doing something to furnish what 
seems to be greatly desired, a series of Canons of 
Judging, of all things that come into competition at 
horticultural exhibitions. 
Recently this requirement has come very much to 
the front, and it is not to be wondered at, for now, 
as presumably during all the time that shows have 
been in existence, exhibitors have been in a condition 
of uncertainty as to how their products may be 
judged. They have so far been dependent on the 
various peculiarities of judges, or their diverse 
notions of what is desirable and what is not, that 
there never has been established any clearly defined 
reliable system of judging, hence very often awards 
assume a very chaotic character. The world of 
exhibitors have long been asking for the formulation 
of a series of judging canons, by which judges shall 
be bound and guided. It would be a matter of some 
difficulty, perhaps, to formulate what would be a 
satisfactory code ; still I may add that no one seems 
yet ever to have attempted it, if I may except, 
perhaps, Glenny in his " Properties of Flowers,” 
whose work in no way now meets present require¬ 
ments. 
What the committee of the Pink Society has done, 
however, shows what committees may do. They 
may, if they chose, formulate with their schedules 
certain judging conditions, and these the exhibitors 
would aspire to reach in their products, and judges 
would by their engagements be bound absolutely 
to regard .—An Old Exhibitor. 
-- 
PEACHES AND NECTAR- 
INKS ON WALLS. 
These too often receive the worst possible treatment, 
and yet are expected to yield a crop of fruit which 
they sometimes fail to do, solely through the mis¬ 
management which they are subjected to during the 
summer months, when the foundation for the ensuing 
year’s crop is laid. My own observations have long 
led me to the conclusion that spring frosts are far 
from being the sole cause of the frequent paucity of 
the out-door crops of these fruits, and that unripened 
and weakly-grown wood is to a great extent the 
cause of failure. The thinning out of the shoots is 
done in too gingerly a manner, too much wood being 
retained, which is smothered up with a dense amount 
of foliage through which neither sun nor air can 
penetrate, as both should do. I maintain that the 
growths when fastened into the wall should be at 
such a distance apart that the foliage of one shoot 
should not overlap or shade the one next below it^ 
and if this were always done and the trees kept clear 
of insects as they ought to be, much finer fruit and 
more certain crops would result, because then the 
well-ripened wood would bristle with sound, well- 
matured and plump fruit buds, better calculated to 
resist the exigencies of adverse seasons, and which 
would be retained on the wood instead of falling off 
as is the case with immature wood. Besides, the 
stronger flowers naturally throw finer fruit and bring 
it quicker to maturity. 'I'o overcrowding of the 
wood, allowing the young growths to be denuded of 
foliage by aphides, and insufficiency of water at the 
roots, may be attributed a large proportion of the 
failures which occur in the out-door cultivation of 
these justly favourite fruits.—IF.B.G. 
Hardy Ornamental Flowering Trees and Shrubs, by 
A. D. Webster. A valuable guide to planters of beautilul 
trees and shrubs for the adornment of parks and gardens. 
Price, 3s.; post free, 3s. 3d. Publisher, Gardening World, 
I, Clement’s Inn, Strand, London, W.C, 
