April 4th, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
487 
manure ancl loamy soil; and a strong piece of the 
Vine, more than 12 ft. long, was taken down from the 
wall of the house and trimmed of its lateral shoots, 
and bent down into the trench, the ends intended for 
growth were trained up the standards, the flower 
border and the path being restored as before. 
Pieces of young wood of the Vine were also trained 
along the arched rods from the wall of the house to 
the standards. The Vine left on the house was more 
vigorous in its growth of leafage, and those pieces 
which were trained to the arches grew very rapidly 
and bore a plentiful supply of Grapes. 
The Vine was laid and trained three years ago, and 
this spring, finding it had made so much wood, we 
decided to lay a piece from each standard to the Lime 
tree arcades across the grass plot in the same way as 
it had been done from the house to the standards. 
We proposed to a friend whose Vine is on the east 
side of liis house, and bears no Grapes, to adopt a 
similar plan to take the Vine to the south side to get 
a crop of Grapes .—Lilian King, Ivy Cottage, Bulstrode 
Pari, Slough, in Forestry. 
THE VICTORIA AND PARADISE 
NURSERIES. 
Mr. B. S. Williams has arranged a most beautiful, 
varied, and interesting lot of plants in bloom, in 
which many rare species are represented. The great 
and showy classes of Hyacinths, Tulips, Imanto- 
phyllum, Cyclamens, Orchids, &c., are seen in such 
quantity, and in specimens grown to such perfection, 
that, while forming a most delightful display, or 
rather series of artistically arranged floral combina¬ 
tions, they at the same time offer a rare opportunity 
for those w T lio are on the look-out for best varieties 
and good distinct selections to see and judge for 
themselves. 
In the fine large conservatory, 100 ft. by 40 ft., 
which is always noted for the grand specimens of 
Tree Ferns, Dracienas, Palms, and other foliage 
plants winch it contains, the splendid, well-grown 
collection of Hyacinths and Tulips are set up, the 
show being further assisted by many fine plants 
of the gigantic Cyclamen persieum, for which Mr. 
Williams is noted, a good display of Azaleas, Lily of 
the Valley, Arum Lilies, Cytisus, and other things, 
both handsome and fragrant. The whole is well 
arranged, and he must be difficult to please indeed 
who would not be gratified by an hour passed in the 
company of such beautiful objects. 
The Hyacinths are represented by some hundreds 
of plants, grown quite up to the best exhibition form, 
and comprising a great number of varieties; but, not¬ 
withstanding the quantity of kinds growrn, none can 
be found vTrich, by reason of some special feature of 
colour or substance, may not be termed good and 
desirable. The varieties are nearly all of the single 
class, some of them being very attractive, from their 
new tints of mauve, violet, mulberry, or yellow. 
Of special merit are Obelisque, a very fine spike 
of well shaped flowers of a clear light yellow; 
Lord Derby, a well-known fine variety, with good 
spikes and large wax-like bells, of a clear lavender 
shaded with blue; Distinction is a very telling kind 
in an arrangement, the flowers being of an unusual 
colour ; they are crimson, shaded with maroon, and 
have a maroon band down each petal; La Grandesse 
appears to be one of the finest of pure whites, and 
good in every respect; Schiller is very handsome, with 
bright rose-pink flowers, tipped and banded with dark 
crimson ; King of the Blacks—as its name implies— 
is a fine lustrous black variety. But one might enlarge 
on the merits of a very great number of the fine 
kinds, and yet do nothing like justice to the display 
which it deserves, and which a visit will enable all 
those who are interested to better estimate. 
The Tulips include two new doubles, Velvet Gem, 
crimson-scarlet, shaded and banded with yellow, and 
Leonard de Vinci, bright scarlet with broad yellow 
edges to the petals. The singles are a finely grown 
lot, most of the favourites being represented, among 
them, prominent by their excellence, being Van 
Spaendonck, purple and primrose flake, and the old 
scarlet-vermilion Brilliant, and the purple Van der 
Keer. A fine representative batch of Narcissus is 
arranged beyond the Tulips, and the whole display of 
flowering bulbs is one of the highest quality. 
The now numerous and lovely collection of 
Imantophyllums occupy the first division of a roomy 
span-roofed structure. A few years ago it would have 
been thought to be impossible to get such a variety of 
colour, shade, and form among the different forms of 
this one species, but the skill of the cross fertilizer 
and cultivator has accomplished wonders with it, both 
in giving ornament to the foliage and size and colour 
to the flowers. The number of flowers which are 
produced on each spike by many of the best forms is 
truly surprising. The whole house glows with the light 
orange to scarlet heads of bloom, which are so w r ell 
shown up by the broad dark green foliage. As seen at 
Mr.Williams’s, the best and most distinct kinds appear 
to be, General Gordon, a very showy variety, with 
flow-ers the nearest to scarlet of any, the brightness of 
the colours being well displayed by contrast with the 
clear white centre; Madame Van Houtte,bright orange- 
scarlet, with white star in the centre ; Marie Riemers, 
soft orange-scarlet, flowers of great size and good 
substance; Aurantiacum, yellow tinged with light 
orange colour, very distinct; Lindenii, a grand variety, 
with broad handsome foliage, and stout flat spikes, 
bearing immense heads of large orange-scarlet flowers 
of the best quality; all things considered, it may be 
regarded as one of the very best. Cruentum compac- 
tum is a neat dwarf kind unlike any of the others; it 
is very floriferous, and has medium-sized flowers of a 
decidedly scarlet-tinted orange; Ambroise Verschafielt, 
in the single flowers, for size and colour is a superb 
thing ; it has not so many blooms in a truss as some 
of the others, but what it lacks in numbers is made 
up in size. 
The Amaryllis occupy the] whole of the second 
division, and a grand show they make. Some 
growers have of late years made seemingly unsur¬ 
passable strides in perfecting these plants, and all 
have made progress, each in their collections having 
certain strains peculiar to them. Mr. Williams 
excels in the rich, fleshy, dark velvety-crimson forms, 
and of these his last new one is a long way in 
advance of the others. It is called 
Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild. —Its flowers 
(four on a spike) are of the most perfect form, the 
petals being all nearly equal. Colour, shining, rich 
velvety dark scarlet, veined with dark crimson, the 
centre having a purplish-crimson hue. 
Prince Albert Victor is one of the same strain as 
the preceding. Flowers, velvety crimson, with darker 
veining and shading. 
Dr. Masters is also a magnificent dark scarlet kind, 
of good shape, substance, and habit. 
Johnsoni grandiflora, among the lighter kinds, is 
very telling. Its flowers are white, heavily veined 
with crimson and tipped with scarlet. 
Fascinator is a very fine white, with purple pen- 
cillings. 
Exquisite has scarlet flowers of the Johnsoni type, 
each petal having a broad band of white, veined with 
crimson. 
Many good seedlings are also in bloom, as well as 
some of the fine kinds of olden times, which it would 
be a pity to let drop. 
The greenhouse Rhododendrons are now getting 
very showy. The earlier Azaleas are in bloom, and 
the great collection of Heaths and New Holland plants 
is full of interesting things, and so are the occupants 
of the stoves, and especially that containing the fine 
collection of Pitcher plants. But let us not forget to 
mention the ferneries, for, while these graceful plants 
are now neglected by some, they have yet numbers of 
ardent admirers, particularly among the ladies. Mr. 
Williams is one of the few nurserymen who give room 
to a general collection of them, and the grand speci¬ 
men of Gleichenia, Adiantum, Filmy Ferns, and most 
others, new- and old, should not escape the attention 
of the visitor. 
The Orchids at Holloway, as at other large nurseries, 
have to keep garrison, and are to be found with 
colours flying all the year round; while the other 
great detachments each in their turn come in, do 
duty, and depart until the next year. The Odonto- 
glossum house has a good show of exceptionally fine 
forms of 0. crispum (Alexandra) and 0. Peseatorei; 
one rare variety of the latter, with a good branched 
spike, has flow r ers of Alexandrae size, but of the usual 
Peseatorei form. Also very good in bloom are some 
O. triumphans, many varieties of 0. luteo-purpureum, 
including hystrix and radiatum, 0. Oerstedii, 0. 
Rossii majus, O. Hallii leucoglossum, 0. H. xantho- 
glossum, a fine specimen of the true 0. nsevium majus, 
0. cirrosum, and some very pretty hybrids. An 
extra fine variety of Oncidium phalanopsis has 
snow-white flow-ers, with heavy violet blotching, and 
Masdevallia Harryana lilacina, M. Veitchei, M. ignea 
coccinea, and the showy orange - coloured Ada 
aurantiaca all assist to make this department not 
the least important in Mr. Williams’s Spring Flower 
Show. The noted collection of Vandas is now beginning 
to make their house very attractive with their 
handsome sweet-scented flowers. Many of the best 
kinds are already in bloom, among them being a good 
example of the Dalkeith tricolor, with five spikes. 
In the other Orchidiouses we noted well-bloomed 
specimens of Dendrobium Wardianum, D. crassinode, 
D. Farmerii, D. fimbriatum oculatum, D. nobile 
nobilius, Phalamopsis Schilleriana, P. Stuartiana, 
many Cypripediums, Cymbidium eburneum, Calanthe 
Sanderiana, and the pretty Ionopsis paniculata. 
The Cattleya house has yet some good Trianass, C. T. 
niveum, with its waxy white flowers, being very 
telling. The labiate varieties are very healthy; one 
superb piece of the true old C. 1. Peseatorei is per¬ 
fection. Innumerable flower - sheaths of LiElia 
purpurata, spikes of Calanthe, the sheaths of the fine 
specimens of C. Mossise, and other summer-flowering 
things, tell that, although the spring show now on 
should be visited where possible, any later period wiR 
not find the nursery without a show, and that a good 
one. 
WORKING CLAY SOILS. 
I would advise your correspondent “ Sussex 
(p. 462) in the first place to drain his garden, for 
in such a soil as he appears to have, satisfactory 
crops cannot possibly be grown. Drainage has a 
great influence in altering the character of soils, beyond 
merely conducting surplus water away. 
The garden here was something like that of 
“ Sussex,” resting on a clay subsoil, soddened and 
sour in winter, and of a strong binding texture in 
summer. When I first undertook its management, 
some five years ago, it was nothing but a home for 
slugs and snails, which delight in such soils; and 
what vegetables did appear above ground were soon 
devoured by them. 
I commenced with a series of drains in the first 
place, running from the highest part of the garden 
to the lowest, and 3 ft. deep. Two-inch tiles were 
laid at the bottom ; but stones will do as well, if to be 
had, and placed in the bottom, one against the other, 
in the shape of ^ and filling up with stone-rubble, 
clinkers, or ashes 18 ins. deep, with soil on the 
top. The clay taken out of the drains was wheeled 
away, and the drains were laid 15 ft. apart. The 
next move was to hunt up sand, road-scrapings, 
ashes, lime-rubble, or anything of a porous nature 
through which water -will pass quickly, and this was 
trenched and dug into the soil, with the result that 
it is surprising now what a great difference there is in 
the crops and the texture of the soil. I can now 
work it at aDy time of the year. 
Another important point I would impress upon 
“ Sussex,” and this is to rough dig, or, better still, 
ridge the soil in the autumn so as to expose it as 
much as possible to the 'winter frosts. Jack Frost, 
in my opinion, is one of the gardener’s best friends in 
the case of such soils as that of “ Sussex,” and I am 
always sorry if he does not pay me a good visit, of course 
at the proper time. It is a well-known fact that frost 
is one of the most powerful ameliorating agents, as by 
freezing the particles of water contained in the soil, 
and then expanding and bursting it asunder, it makes 
the soil loose and crummy. 
As to cropping, I do not see much use of 
attempting it until the draining and mixing 
recommended have been practically carried out; but 
“Sussex” may try such vegetables as Cabbages, 
Cauliflowers, Kale, Broccoli, and Brussels Sprouts. 
Potatos on such a soil would only be of second-rate 
quality unless he planted them in a mixture of coal- 
ashes and manure in equal proportions. Celery, 
Beans, and Peas would do if trenches were thrown out 
and the seeds given a start by planting or sowing 
them in a mixture of fine soil and manure.— B. L. 
Bindley, March 25. 
