Sept. G, 1834. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
3 
“ Gardening’ is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”—B acon, 
Cljt ®artrttthtg Wot l it 
SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER 6tli, 1881. 
“ The Gardening World.” —What! another 
gardening paper! will doubtless be the exclama¬ 
tion of many into whose hands this number will 
be delivered by those universal friends of man, 
who so ably distribute Her Majesty’s mails. Oh 
yes, say we, and none can tell how many more 
may yet be born. Some folks that we wot of, 
held up their hands in something like ludicrous 
astonishment when they heard, strictly sub-rosa 
of course, that another gardening paper was 
coming out. Others again, endowed with large 
bumps of inquisitiveness, have been most in¬ 
dustrious in their cultivation of the fertile field 
of imagination; and wiseacres, generally, have 
shaken their heads, and for the life of them, 
could not see how such a venture could succeed, 
the said wiseacres totally ignoring the fact that 
just the same thing was said, only said perhaps 
more forcibly when each now established paper 
was launched into life. We ask, why should not 
our new venture succeed ? Surely there is room 
enough not only for all, but even more in this 
newspaper reading nation, and amongst a 
rapidly increasing intelligent people. Who can 
doubt but that in the United Kingdom there 
are at the present moment fully one million 
of adult persons deeply imbued with a love 
for gardening. How many millions more are 
there also who, if not actually fond of or 
identified with the beautiful science, are at 
least dependent upon its practitioners for some 
portion of their daily food ? Add to these 
numbers, whatever the reader may estimate 
them to be, the thousands of skilled husband¬ 
men who have left these shores for that Greater 
Britain which is the pride and glory of the 
mother country, included among whom are 
a great number of readers of English gardening 
literature; consider when the vastness of the 
total number is realised that the entire weekly 
circulation of all the gardening publications 
put together does not exceed the regular issue 
of a first-class daily paper, and it is impossible 
not to recognise the fact that an immense con¬ 
stituency still remains to be reached, taught, 
and interested in gardening pursuits. Who, 
twenty years ago, would have believed that over 
100,000 readers of gardening papers were pos¬ 
sible ? Yet some twenty years hence this large 
number may be far more than doubled, because 
there is no vocation, that being at once an im¬ 
portant industrial occupation, and at the same 
time an intensely admired and appreciated 
means of recreation, has so many earnest lovers 
as gardening. We may say for ourselves that 
we want not only to satisfy a demand which we 
believe already exists, we desire also to create 
one, and that, we consider a new gardening 
publication, conducted with spirit, skill, and 
true appreciation for the needs and requirements 
of readers is certain to succeed in doing. We 
would make gardeniug the gospel of recreation, 
and trust The Gardening World may rank 
amongst the most successful of its evangelists. 
Grapes. —The appearance at the last South 
Kensington Fruit Show of such fine black 
grapes as Gro3 Maroc and Alnwick Seedling, 
and both shown in superb form, may be taken 
we hope to indicate that some other black 
kinds besides Hamburghs, are being cultivated 
for exhibition purposes. The general excellence 
of the Black Hamburgh and the comparative 
ease with which it can be grown, has somewhat 
handicapped other black grapes that are in 
flavour perchance superior, and certainly much 
so in respect of keeping qualities. But apart 
from this latter consideration, no gardener who 
has to furnish his employer’s table with grapes 
from day to day, should condemn him eternally 
to Hamburghs and Muscats, with Lady Downes 
for late winter consumption. There is particular 
pleasure and enjoyment found for lovers of good 
grapes, and they are legion, in having their 
desserts varied by the introduction of diverse 
flavoured kinds, and if one though ever so grand¬ 
looking be a little more flat than others, at least 
it serves to render the flavour of the others all 
the more piquant. Our most common black 
grapes, after the Hamburgh, are Gros Colmar, 
Madresfield Court, Alicante, and Lady Downes, 
all excellent, yet scarcely giving variety enough, 
or thoroughly testing the cultivating powers of 
the gardener. If to that list, however, be added 
Gros Maroc, Alnwick Seedling, Mrs. Pinee’s Black 
Muscat, and the pleasant eating Abarcairney 
Seedling, a fine selection is offered. In the same 
way amongst whites, we may hope to see added 
to Buckland Sweetwater, Foster’s Seedling, and 
Muscat of Alexandria, such fine grapes as Duke 
of Buccleuch, Golden Queen, Mrs. Pearson, and 
Royal Vineyard, 
Exhibition Growers. —-Very unpleasant, 
indeed, is the experience of judges when they get 
into a locality where deep-seated suspicion on the 
part of exhibitors and intense jealousy of each 
other exists. Accompanying these bad elements 
of the human mind, too often also is found a dis¬ 
tressing incapacity to accept a defeat or a beat¬ 
ing in a gentle and proper spirit. In such case 
we pity, indeed, the men who with the best inten¬ 
tions and the purest motives have made the 
awards, and in all cases to those exhibits they, in 
their matured and unbiassed judgment, think 
to be the best. But the disappointed exhibitor 
knows better than these gentlemen do, and his 
disgust for their incapacity to vote the merits of 
his exhibits is so great that he cannot refrain 
from giving vent to it by using foul language, 
or at least language that is more forcible than 
courteous. What a reward is it to men of intelli¬ 
gence and position to find that they have been but 
casting their pearls of judgment before swine. 
We do not defend judges from these virulent and 
odious attacks. They do not need vindication, 
because they are honourable men, who have 
most conscientiously discharged a difficult, yet not 
impossible duty. We should like to see show 
committees repressing these exhibitions of ill- 
feeling, and bad taste, but much more should 
prefer to see exhibitors of every class learning to 
deport themselves even under disappointment, 
always and again as gentlemen. 
Single Dahlias. —So perfect in form and so 
varied in colour have our raisers of these flowers 
brought them, that it would seem as if they were, 
like Alexander of old, about to cry for other 
worlds to conquer, only, in their case, floral ones. 
When flowers of any bind can be raised easily 
from seed, and from that seed is obtained in 
abundance the same beautiful and perfect forms 
and colours found in the best-named parents, it 
is obvious that the propagator’s occupation is 
well nigh gone. Certainly, if a packet of seed 
will give a score or two of plants producing 
beautiful flowers at a cost of Is., the public 
will hardly purchase named plants ar Is. each. 
Raisers or trade growers of these things must 
now take another tack, and strive to obtain fo 
the public, who have grown so exceedingly 
partial to single Dahlias, a very compact-habited 
yet floriferous strain—plants not exceeding two 
feet in height, dense in habit, and producing 
immense quantities of beautiful flowers. What 
has been accomplished for the bedding Dahlia 
must now be done for the single Dahlia, espe¬ 
cially if it is to rank as a bedding plant, for 
which it is so admirably fitted, because it blooms 
so freely and continuously. There is danger 
that the flowers may, on the present strong¬ 
growing, breeding plants, become too large: 
with very many the yellow eyes are far too big. 
Again, single flowers become formal if they are 
too rounded, for in single blooms of the kind 
under consideration somewhat irregular out¬ 
lines are, to our thinking, the most pleasing. 
All these so-called best forms are in that respect 
perfect enough; indeed there seems to be already 
a rebellion from perfect form in a taste for those 
rugged, semi-double kinds of which the Cactus 
Dahlia is the type. Whatever raisers may do, 
we trust they will bear the need for a dwarf, 
compact race of singles well in mind, 
Plums. —It is somewhat odd to find that the 
old Green Gage, literally one of the oldest of 
plums, should still remain the best flavoured of 
all dessert kinds, indeed of all kinds. We met 
the other day, with a Green Gage, unhappily then 
not ripe, said to be even better flavoured than 
the ordinary kind, and, therefore, it would seem 
as if there were differences of goodness even in 
the Green Gages themselves. But we would sug¬ 
gest to those who make plums a speciality, that 
some attempt at intercrossing the Green Gage 
with other good kinds, though not large ones, is 
desirable. Large plums look well but they are 
decidedly unfitted for the dessert table. Pretty 
medium-sized, freestone kinds are best, but even 
if the most beautiful they still are valueless 
without good flavour. The Victoria ranks 
amongst the best of culinary plums, for it is 
hardy, bears freely, and is of fair flavour. A 
cross between this kind and the Green Gage might 
well be expected to produce something of inter¬ 
mediate size, and if the result was a combination 
of all the best properties of the parents, with of 
course good flavour, we should indeed obtain a 
genuine primo amongst plums. Again, some¬ 
thing really good should come from a cross 
between the Green Gage and one of our more 
prolific Damsons, such as the Crittenden. Dam¬ 
sons are excellent for tarts and for preserving, 
but they hardly rank as dessert fruits. Yet were 
there more of real plum flavour, and a little more 
size thrown into them, there is no reason why, 
combined with their unquestioned prolificacy, 
they should not develope into favourites for 
table use. We have an abundance of big plums 
of many shapes and colours, and excellent in 
their way, especially for cooking, but in the way 
of high flavour none can say that we have any 
too much. 
The Gladiolus. —The truly magnificent dis¬ 
plays of these beautiful autumn flowers made 
from year to year at our metropolitan shows by 
the Messrs. Kelway, of Langport, naturally 
leads up to the inquiry, How is it that the 
Gladiolus is not more widely grown ? It would 
seem as if some special charm attached to the 
Langport district, as far as these flowers are 
concerned, for few seem able to grow them else¬ 
where, or if they do they, at least, fail to let the 
world know of and see them. Every year, too, a 
certain number of the most beautiful kinds sent 
up by Messrs. Kelway receive certificates of 
merit, yet we rarely hear that they get into 
