312 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Jan. 17th, 1885. 
Spring Flowers.—The Chrysanthemum having 
receded into the past and midwinter reached, the 
gardener begins to anticipate his spring flowers, 
and wonders if nature will be merciful during the 
next two months; or, aided by hard destroying 
frosts, nip much promise of vernal beauty in the 
bud. So far, everything is full of hope. Really 
there is little break in the floral succession. Gbiist- 
mas Roses (Helleborus niger) are already throwing 
up their flowers out-of-doors; under glass, in a cold 
house, plants lifted a few weeks ago and potted are 
fast expanding their beautiful pure white flowers. This 
is the way to have Christmas Roses in full beauty. 
When the plants are out-of-doors the flowers have so 
many obstacles besetting them at midwinter frost, 
rain, snow, cutting winds, &c., it is only by covering 
them with a handlight, or some such protection, that 
the flowers can be had in a fit state for indoor decora¬ 
tion, but when grown in a cold house no such 
precaution is necessary. 
The Snowdrops will soon be pushing themselves 
through the 7 soil. Mr. Barron has a collection of 
single and double varieties at Chiswick, some 
of them being extremely precocious, the result of 
careful selection of seedlings made by Mr. Melville, 
of Dunrobin. Mr. W. Ingram, of Belvoir Castle, once 
said that he “ educated his plants,” meaning thereby 
that by careful selection of early-flowering spring 
plants he has them in bloom much earlier than usual. 
It is this kind of education that Mr. Melville carried 
out in connection with spring’s harbinger — the 
Snowdrop. The pretty little Crocus biflorus, which 
is largely grown in Holland as the Scotch Crocus, 
comes in with the Snowdrop ; the flowers are white 
with dark stripes, and it is very pretty. C. vernus 
gives us a lot of pretty varieties, and C. retieulatus 
(Cloth of Gold) with C.. aureus (the Large Yellow) must 
be added to these. 
The varieties of the Polyanthus and Primrose are 
already in bloom ; to flower in the autumn is a charac¬ 
teristic of the Auricula also, and they go on flowering 
till April. As such fine strains of Primrose and 
Polyanthus can be raised from seed no garden should 
be without them, as they do so well in a sandy loam. 
In smaU flower-beds they can be planted in masses 
of different colours with good effect, and they are 
charming dotted about on the edge of a mixed border. 
Then there are the charming Hepaticas, a class of 
plants that dislike often being transplanted, unless 
under very favourable circumstances, and even then 
a considerable time is required for them to grow into 
good, well-established plants, but they are always well 
worth a little extra trouble. In old-fashioned gardens 
in Kent, where there is a deep, moist sandy loam, we 
have seen large clumps of Hepaticas that have been 
left undisturbed for years and which are objects of 
great beauty in early spring. Once let the plants 
become well established in the ground and then they 
will bear a great deal of exposure to hot sun and 
drying influences. Hepaticas root deeply, therefore 
they should have a deep soil. 
The Wallflower is a most charming spring flower, 
and by means of careful selection types have been 
procured that flower very early. Something, too, 
depends upon the time of year when the seeds are 
sown. Many sow too late in the year to admit of the 
plants growing on to a good size. It is best to sow in 
a bed in the open-air at the end of May or beginning 
of June, and prick the seedlings out in beds to flower, 
doing this at a time when it is showery. Then the 
plants grow into nice bushy specimens, and flower 
early in autumn and all through the winter when the 
weather is mild, and they give rare heads of flowers 
in March, April, and May. The best strains of Wall¬ 
flower are Harbinger and Covent Garden Blood Red, 
both fine dark types; and of yeUow-flowered varieties, 
Bedfont Giant Yellow, Carter’s Tom Thumb, and 
Belvoir Castle Dwarf Yellow. 
Then there are the pretty Forget-me-Nots, espe¬ 
cially the early-flowering Myosotis dissitiflora; Double 
Daisies of variety; some pretty Aubrietias, to which 
reference was reeentlymade in The Gardening World ; 
the yellow-flowered Alyssum saxatile compactum; 
the crimson-purple and white Honesty’s; the white 
Arabis albida ; and hardy border Auriculas. Here, 
then, is a comprehensive list of flowering plants, a 
good number of which can be raised from seed, and 
therefore procurable at a comparatively moderate 
cost. Many an amateur gardener can make his 
garden smile with floral beauty in spring, and well- 
filled beds have a much more cheerful appearance 
during winter than when allowed to remain empty.— 
Quo ■ , 
Double Wallflowers.—There have been in 
cultivation in English gardens for years past two, 
what we might term, common types of double Wall¬ 
flowers—the purple and the yellow. They are by no 
means plentiful, but they are both very handsome 
and of great decorative value. in early spring. I 
think there are two or three types of the yellow as 
well as the dark, but perhaps any apparent difference 
might be traceable to cultivation. They do well in 
any good garden soil in which they can root deeply, 
and as they do not produce seed, they can be readily 
increased by means of cuttings. These should be 
taken off with a heel—that is, near the main stem, 
and be inserted in pots, pans, or a bed of light sandy 
soil. They strike all the more certainly if they can 
be covered with a hand-glass, but they will need to be 
looked at sometimes, so that damp does them no 
injury. The best tune to take cuttings is in mid¬ 
summer, or earlier, as they grow into nice flowering 
specimens by the following spring. When in Hert¬ 
fordshire during the summer I saw in a cottage-garden 
a very dwarf and free-growing double yellow Wall¬ 
flower that I fancied was distinct from anything I 
had previously seen. I obtained some cuttings, and 
having grown them into good plants, shall have 
ample opportunity to test its distinctness in spring. 
The plants are partly in pots, and really this is a 
capital way in which to grow these useful double 
Wallflowers. Then there are the German double 
Wallflowers, of which fine strains are imported from 
the Continent. Somehow they do not appear to find 
a great deal of favour with the flower-loving public. 
Seed should be sown in May, and the plants be grown 
on freely, and in August planted out in the open 
ground to flower. Very fine and varied strains can 
be had, and we strongly recommend amateurs to 
grow a few plants. They are generally of very robust 
growth, they produce very fine spikes of flowers, the 
individual blossoms being in not a few instances very 
large, and both varied and striking in colour. Really 
all the double Wallflowers are well worth a place in 
gardens.— B. D. 
JAPANESE PRIMROSES. 
By these I do not mean the greatly over-rated 
Primula Japonica, but P. Sieboldi and its charming 
varieties. P. Sieboldi was introduced by the late Mr. 
John Gould Yeitch, under the name of P. cortusoides 
amcena, probably in the belief that it was a very fine 
form of P. cortusoides. It is now made into a species 
and called P. Sieboldi, Siebold having been the first 
to describe it. The first form of it was rose-coloured, 
then came the white and lilac varieties, and later the 
rose and white variety known as Grandiflora, the 
inner or upper surface of the petals being white, the 
reverse rose. For some reason or the other these 
fine hardy Primroses have never been appreciated by 
gardeners as they deserve to be. One may go into 
a great number of private gardens in the month of 
April and not see one of these pretty Primulas, yet 
P. Japonica, much as it was written up at the time of 
its appearance, is scarcely worthy of mention by the 
side of the beautiful P. Sieboldi and its varieties. 
It appears inexplicable, but it is not less a fact, that 
these fine forms were under cultivation in this country 
for a considerable time before new varieties were 
obtained from them. Perhaps this arose in some 
measure from the fact that P. Sieboldi amcena, which 
is most, generally cultivated, rarely matures its seed. 
It is a very disappointing plant in this respect. It 
will display large, plump seed-vessels, apparently full 
of seeds, but when they are fully ripe there is nothing 
■within them. But by means of persistent crossing 
several growers were fortunate enough to obtain 
seeds and were successful in producing new varieties. 
M. Victor Lemoine, of Nancy, France, who appears to 
send to England more good things than any other 
florist on the Continent; Mr. James Allen, Shepton 
Mallet; and Mr. A. Dean, Bedfont, are specially 
deserving of mention. Later in point of time, Messrs. 
George Geggie & Co., Waterloo Nursery, Bury, did, 
and are still doing, good work in producing new 
types. And it may be truly said of all the varieties 
in this section, that they are easy of culture with 
proper attention and extremely beautiful when in 
bloom. 
This section of hardy Primroses are among the 
earliest to flower. They make a quick growth in 
early spring, and when of good strength they throw 
up fine trusses of bloom freely. They are truly 
deciduous, dying down in autumn, and completely 
resting. The species and its varieties throw out 
creeping roots just below the soil, and these break up 
into fresh growths from various points. They succeed 
best under pot-culture for flowering in the greenhouse 
and conservatory. In the open rock-garden, where 
they can have special care, they will do well and last, 
but when planted out in ordinary garden soil in the 
open border they are apt to perish after a season or 
two. Soil is a matter of some importance, the best 
compost, perhaps, is one made up of fibry loam, leaf- 
mould, pulverized manure, and some grit in the way 
of rough sand to keep it open. The pots in which 
they are grown should be -well drained, for the roots 
are impatient of excessive moisture. 
Opinions differ a little as to the best time to diride 
and re-pot. I think it is best done in the autumn, 
though some prefer to do it in early spring. In the 
act of re-potting place the root just below the surface 
and press the soil firmly about it. I can especially 
recommend this class of plants to amateurs, for they 
do well in a cold house and do not require heat at 
any time, and there are so many pretty varieties that 
a good collection can be got together at a compara¬ 
tively small cost.— E. W. 
-- O ■ ■ - 
JOHN LEE. 
Our portrait on this occasion is that of one of the 
most noteworthy and most honoured of firing English 
horticulturists. John Lee comes of an excellent 
ancestry, for his grandfather, James Lee, who founded 
the Hammersmith Nursery, was a man of mark in his 
day, haring, in addition to his practical work, pub¬ 
lished in 1810 a book on the science of Botany, based 
upon the system of Linnams, with whom he corre¬ 
sponded. This work contains also a portrait and 
sketch of the fife of James Lee by Dr. Thwaites. 
It was a book of some importance, it went through 
five editions, and is frequently quoted or referred to 
as an authority by Loudon and others. James Lee 
furnishes the example of a Scotch gardener rising to 
eminence. He was a native of Selkirk, born about 
1715, and in due tirqe he turned his face southward, 
coming to London with a view of seeking occupation, 
if not a fortune. He was fortunate in obtaining 
employment in the gardens of Syon House, and 
afterwards at the Duke of Argyll's place at Whitton, 
near Hounslow. In 1745, James Lee, in conjunction 
with Mr. Lewis Kennedy, then gardener to Lord 
Bolton at Chiswick, as his partner, founded the 
Vineyard Nursery at Hammersmith, now considerably 
curtailed of its former dimensions by means of railway 
extension and other metropolitan improvements. 
Actually vines were grown, fruit was ripened, and 
wine manufactured on this spot as late as the middle 
of last century; and here also were cellars for storing 
the wines. It would be interesting to know what 
varieties of Grapes were grown there in those days. 
The nursery business soon became one of great 
repute, and was known far and wide. James Lee 
died in 1795 at the good old age of eighty years, lus 
partner, Mr. Kennedy, having died previously. The 
nursery business was carried on by the sons of the 
two partners till the year 1817, when Mr. Kennedy 
retired, and the establishment became the sole 
property of James Lee, father of the subject of 
this sketch. He died in 1824, and John Lee 
succeeded to the management of an extensive and 
lucrative business at eighteen years of age, he having, 
however, had the advantage of a few years’ previous 
insight into the working of the same. Charles, a 
younger brother, eventually joined him as partner, 
and they carried it on until 1876 under the title of 
John and Charles Lee, when John retired, and 
