June 30, 1894. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
695 
6, and lastly. The fashion of the times, which led 
people to beautify and adorn their tables and rooms 
with floral decorations ; and also to express affection 
and regard for the living, and esteem and respect 
for the dead by floral offerings. Even the revival 
of ritualistic ceremony in religious worship has had 
its share in contributing to a general demand for 
flowers. 
Providing for the Trade. 
And how has this gradually-increasing trade been 
provided for ? In 1848 it was found that the flower- 
stand, section H, was totally inadequate for the 
then trade. It had already begun to be patent to a 
few pioneer growers, that a public want required 
to be met, and a rapid increase developed itself. No 
longer was it possible for the Church porch, and the 
piazzas round the market square, to give shelter 
to the improving and increasing supply of plants. 
Then arose the question of a flower market pure 
and simple. It happened that the leases of certain 
houses at the south-east corner of the market fell 
in at this time, and after an experiment the first 
flower market was built. 
This increased facility for the trade soon had the 
effect of still further stimulating the public demand. 
As plants and flowers became better grown and 
better known, they became better appreciated, and 
the market gave still further signs of want of 
space. In fact, it was like a growing youth whose 
limbs had outgrown his clothes. Like a good 
father, his Grace resolved to buy the lad a new suit, 
and in 1886 the present market was completed. I 
must say the young man still continues to grow, and 
additional provision for his pressing wants will have 
some day to be made. At present, a portion of the 
overflow market, consisting of bedding-out plants for 
gardens and window-boxes, finds accommodation in 
the enclosed area between Tavistock Street and the 
market south side. 
CovENT Garden as it Is. 
So much for the history of the rise and progress of 
the market. Now for a look at it as it is. I suppose 
most of us have visited Covent Garden Market 
during business hours. If any have not, I trust they 
will take an early opportunity of doing so. No 
language of mine can adequately convey the various 
impressions different minds may receive on such a 
visit. The practical gardener can here critically 
examine the various plants and flowers, and com¬ 
pare them with those of his own growing. The lover 
of plants and flowers will flit from stand to stand 
with a wondrous uncertainty regarding which is the 
most beautiful and deserving of the lot. The curious 
and inquisitive will ask all sorts of questions 
respecting how things are so grown, and the quan¬ 
tities brought, and where they come from, and where 
they go to ; and if he is Inclined to mathematics he 
will probably set himself sundry curious problems 
based upon the data he receives. 
The sentimental will probably doat on some wild 
flowers, and in the search for Forget-me-Nots pro¬ 
bably venture into the outer area, where rough-look¬ 
ing gipsy chaps dispose of Moss, Ferns, and Water 
Lilies. On her return (I suppose her to be a lady) 
she will possibly express a wonder that such rough, 
unwashed, and altogether disreputable-looking 
individuals should be associated with her pet flowers, 
and why flower girls should be such a coarse, dirty, 
draggle-tailed lot, and why the duke or somebody 
else does not provide them with clean tall Normandy 
caps and picturesque gowns and aprons. 
Of all visitors to Covent Garden a market-stroller 
is perhaps the being most objected to by business 
people. Here let me say that, though the market 
may be written of and spoken of, and is often visited 
as a flower show of the free-and-gratis order, it is 
primarily and essentially a place for the sale of goods, 
and not for exhibition. To those who visit it daily 
for business purposes its beauties cease to have the 
charm of novelty. In the business of a busy market 
there is little time for leisure or sentiment. Each 
trader goes for the particular plants and flowers he 
requires, bestowing scarcely a thought or glance on 
others, and it is to this business portion of the 
market I must now come. We will, if you please, 
consider ourselves strictly market people. Each and 
every morning all the year round we are there at 
the opening of the doors. Our wants vary with the 
seasons, and for these the grower must provide. 
Now, there are two classes of growers; one class 
regularly attends, and has always something to 
bring; the other class only attends at certain 
seasons, either because he is a specialist, and grows 
only a certain class of stuff, or because he is a fruit 
as well as a flower grower, and consequently only 
grows such flowers as suit his convenience. The 
former class is your true market flower grower ; he 
has to provide a succession of goods for every day 
of the year. Then, again, this growing business 
naturally divides itself into different sections:—i. 
There is the pot plant trade, with its two great parts 
— [a] flowering plants, and (6) foliage and decorative 
plants; and, 2, the cut flower trade. The former 
requires great experience, great labour, and great 
judgment, with often but little profit. The rage for 
pots of flowers has somewhat gone out of late years. 
But only look at the market when full of them in 
their season—the size, so suitable to their purpose ; 
the training, so admirable; the blooms, so near 
perfection. 
The Market Plants. 
Take a few examples. Mignonette, six to eight giant 
trusses in one small pots ; the Pelargoniums, a mass 
of bloom ; the Fuchsias the same. Only try to grow 
them yourself, and then you will see to what extent 
the market grower is a master of his art. Then take 
single stalks with heads of bloom, say. Hydrangeas, 
or Liliums, or Arums; or take the perfection to 
which Ericas are grown for market, to say nothing 
of the commoner flowers, such as Marguerites, 
Pelargoniums (especially Ivy-leaved), Calceolarias, 
and others, huge banks of which are daily to be seen. 
Then, again, in winter time and early spring, the pots 
of Lilies, Hyacinths, Tulips. These, with others, 
form a never-ending succession. The second division 
of foliage plants are also marvels of fitness for their 
purpose. Palms of any size. Ferns, Ficus, Crotons, 
and Dracaenas are ever present, in quantities equal 
to any call upon the trade. Solanums form a special 
market feature in their season. 
There has lately sprung up quite a new business 
field in foliage plants. I allude to small thumb pots 
of assorted goods, about a dozen or fifteen, each in 
small wooden boxes. These find great favour with 
purchasers who have cool greenhouses where they 
can grow them on to fair-sized plants. Nearly 1,000 
boxes a day, of fifteen pots in a box, have been sold 
by one grower. It is curious to know how many 
boxes are obtained—Tomato-boxes, Pine-boxes, 
Orange-bozes, old ones utilized for this purpose after 
the fruit is sold. 
Before leaving the box-trade, I must speak of the 
early spring bedding-plants. Many thousand boxes 
of blue Lobelia, struck cuttings of Calceolarias, 
Fuchsias, seedling Asters, Stocks, Pansies, Mimulus, 
Musk, Nasturtiums, plants for edgings, plants for 
bedding, and taller-growing varieties for backing, 
both annuals and perennials, are daily sold. These 
are often grown by small jobbing gardeners under 
very primitive frames, and are brought in small loads 
and sold in the Area in Tavistock Row. This is 
really the cottagers’ market.— J. Assbee. 
(To b» cotitinued.) 
iARDENlNG MISCELLANY. 
BEGONIA SEMPERFLORENS VARIETIES. 
Undoubtedly the Begonias of this type are amongst 
the best of recent introductions for bedding purposes. 
We used two or three kinds last summer, and nothing 
gave greater pleasure in the garden. Crimson Gem 
is a fine bright coloured variety, and this in the 
centre, with a wide band of Princess Beatrice, makes 
a good bed, and one that entails but little trouble in 
keeping neat. The last named variety the late Mr. 
Wildsmith used to use largely at Heckfield, and we 
are greatly indebted to the Messrs. Sutton forgiving 
us such good things in this way. Recently, when 
looking through their nursery I noticed several other 
good sorts, including Duchess of Edinburgh, Snow¬ 
flake, and Coral Gem, all good and distinct.— Con. 
TOTTENHAM PROLIFIC CUCUMBER. 
We have a goodly number of sorts of Cucumbers, 
and I have tried most of the popular varieties, 
including the one above named, which I must say is 
a good useful sort. It is remarkably quick growing, 
smooth, and handsome, and just the sort that is 
wanted either for market work or for supplying a 
private family. Big, long Cucumbers are a mistake; 
what we want is something of medium size, of good 
flavour, and fresh ones every day, consequently a 
quick-growing fruit of moderate length is the most 
desirable to grow. Tottenham Prolific possesses all 
these good qualities, and the flavour is very fine, 
while the constitution of the plant is excellent.— Con. 
OMPHALODES LINIFOLIA. 
Those who like an easily-grown and showy annual 
would find in this subject a very satisfactory garden 
plant, and showy withal. As a rule it grows about a 
foot in height, or slightly over, and produces an 
abundance of fiowers that are white or slightly 
tinted with pale porcelain blue. The leaves are 
glaucous, like those of O. Luciliae, which is 
perennial and very different in habit. Being a 
native of South Europe it is perfectly hardy in this 
country, and when grown in a border comes up 
freely every year from self-sown seeds, flowering for 
three months in succession, commencing in June. 
Under these conditions all that is necessary is to 
keep the ground clear of weeds and to thin out the 
plants if they come up too thickly. Owing to their 
upright habit, they need not be more than three or 
four inches apart to allow of their best develop¬ 
ment. 
SALVIA NUTANS. 
Although originally introduced in 1780, this Salvia 
is by no means common in gardens. It really makes 
a showy and easily-grown border plant for the third 
line in moderately wide borders, or for the back line 
in narrower ones. The stems grow three or four 
feet high and branch slightly at the top. The tips 
of all the branches are nodding, as the specific name 
implies, and carry elongating spikes of moderate 
sized, bright violet-blue flowers. Owing to the 
drooping habit of the spikes the flowers are inverted, 
or lie on their backs as it were. Individually the 
flowers would not be very effective, but in the mass 
they really become showy and conspicuous even at 
a distance. The leaves are triangular-cordate and 
mostly confined to the base of the stems, as in our 
native S. pratensis. A large plant has been flower¬ 
ing for some time past at Kew. 
HEUCHERA SANGUINEA. 
This most useful and interesting border plant 
should be more known than it appears to be. But 
I must not forget that this may arise through there 
being an idea amongst growers that it is a shy 
bloomer. I should like to dispel this erroneous 
idea, for I can testify that no plant in our garden 
blooms more freely. From some seeds sown in 
March, 1893, we have a batch of plants that have 
been ' in bloom for the last three months, and 
still continue to throw up flowers. It is grand for 
cutting, looking so light and elegant in dinner table 
decorations, and travels well.— Con. 
PHACELIA CAMPANULARIA. 
There are several of the species of Phacelia in 
cultivation, but none surpass the beauty of P. 
campanularia. The leaves are roundly cordate 
irregularly toothed, and gray, with a red midrib and 
stalk. The stems are also deep red and assume a 
spreading, much branched habit. The large, bell¬ 
shaped flowers are of an intense blue, with a white 
spot at the junction of every two segments, and are 
white at the very base of the tube. The species was 
introduced as recently as 1882 from California, and 
is one of the most showy annuals of recent intro¬ 
duction. It revels in the sunshine and flowers more 
freely than if the weather was dull and cloudy or 
even wet. Another species that comes fairly near to 
this is P. viscida, generally known under the name 
of Eutoca viscida, but the flowers are bluish-purple 
rather than of the intense Gentian-blue of P. cam¬ 
panularia. Both these plants are annuals, and may 
be sown in the open about the beginning of April or 
raised in heat and planted out about the end of May 
VERBASCUM SINUATUM. 
The usual height of this plant is 3 ft. to 4 ft., and 
when a number of stems are produced it is a very 
beautiful and desirable plant for border cultivation. 
The flowers are golden-yellow, flushed with coppery- 
orange, and crimson in the centre with woolly purple 
anthers. The oblong, slightly lobed leaves are green 
and not cottony as in V. Lychnitis, V. olympicum, 
and others of that class. As it is only of biennia 
duration, some young plants should always be 
coming on to take the place of those that flower and 
