644 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
June 13th, 1885. 
(Sarfremng ||ferelkm 
Flower Shows for Next Week. — Tuesday : Ox¬ 
fordshire Horticultural Society’s First Summer 
Exhibition. Wednesday : Eoyal Botanic Society s 
Summer Exhibition at Regent’s Park.—York Floral 
Fete and Gala commences. Closes on Friday. 
At a meeting of the Ghent Chambre Syndicale des 
Horticulteurs, held on Sunday last, Certificates of Merit 
were awarded to Mr. J. Vander Swaelmen for 
Oncidium pulchellum; to Mr. A. Van Geert, Jun., for 
a new species of Lastrea; to Messrs. ervaet & Co., 
for a species of Calamus; and to Mr. L. Desmet- 
Duvivier, for Odontoglossum vexillarium purpureum. 
There was a capital lot of flowering Orchids in 
Stevens’s Rooms on Wednesday, and, as usual, good 
prices were obtained for the best varieties. 
The Jury appointed for Group 1 —Agriculture, Hor¬ 
ticulture, and Arboriculture—at the Inventions Exhi¬ 
bition, consists of Lord Thurlow, chairman ; Mr. 
Clare Sewell Reed, M.P., vice-chairman; Mr. Daniel 
Pidgeon, reporter ; Mr. Thiselton Dyer, F.R.S.; Mr. 
H. M. Jenkins; Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., M.P.; Mr. 
J. Ruston, M.P.; Professor J. P. Sheldon; Sir J. H. 
Thorold, Bart.; and Mr. Jacob Wilson. 
On the 1st inst., Mr. Leonard Goodhart Sutton was 
taken into partnership by the firm of Messrs. Sutton 
& Sons, Reading. Mr. L. G. Sutton is a son of the 
senior partner of the firm, and commences business 
with strong credentials. He passed with great credit 
through the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, 
and obtained the coveted diploma of the College in 
December, 1883. Since then he has passed through 
the routine in each department of the great Reading 
establishment, has resided for some time among the 
seed-growers of Germany, and visited the principal 
seed-producing districts in this country. 
The Annual Exhibition of the Ludlow Horticultural 
Society will be held on Thursday, August 27th. 
Mr. J. Robertson Garraway, and Mr. W. Alexander 
Garraway, who have for some years carried on the 
Durdham Down Nursery business under the style and 
title of James Garraway & Co., have dissolved part¬ 
nership, and the business will in future be carried on 
under the same title by Mr. W. A. Garraway. 
Sir Henri W. Peek, Bart., Wimbledon House, 
has announced his intention of placing the sum of 
£20 in the hands of the Council of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, tb be awarded a3 prizes for 
Marguerites, Chrysanthemum frutescens. 
The President of the Lee, Blackheath, and 
Lewisham Horticultural Society, John Penn, Esq., 
has presented a silver cup in memory of the late 
president, Dr. Carr, which will be held for one year 
by the employer of the gardener who wins the largest 
amount of prize money at the Society’s Summer 
Show, the gardener to have permanent possession of 
a silver medal commemorating the event. The next 
show will be held on July 8th and 9th. 
Mr. Fyffe, gardener to W. F. W. Dick, Esq., 
Thames Ditton House, Kingston-on-Thames, is leav¬ 
ing that place, and Mr. W. Palmer, foreman at Rood 
Ashton, Wilts, has been engaged to succeed him. 
In Mr. R. Owen’s Nursery at Boyne Hill, Maiden¬ 
head, Chrysanthemum Coquette de Castille, a new one 
for next year, has lately borne a fine bloom, 6 ins. 
across, though only in a 48 size pot. It is a Japanese 
variety, and in colour a soft, pleasing rose and silvery 
lilac. 
Messrs. Saltjiarsh & Son, Chelmsford, received 
a vote of thanks at South Kensington, on Tuesday, 
for foliage and flowers of the very handsome, but 
too seldom seen, Paulownia imperialis, which should 
be flowering more freely than usual this season. In 
the Southern counties it is worth planting for its 
handsome foliage alone, but it is doubly handsome 
when in bloom, so distinct and beautiful are its 
Gloxinia-like violet-purple blossoms. 
The Council of the Society of Arts have awarded 
one of the Society’s silver medals to Mr. P. L. 
Simmonds, for his paper on “ Present and Prospec¬ 
tive Sources of the Timber Supplies of Great 
Britain.” 
BADLY SOLD. 
“What is it?” said Mr. Peter Henderson to the 
writer, a short time ago, as he tossed down a faded, 
yet still beautiful rosy-pink flower. 
“A Brunsvigia, I guess,” was the answer; but 
noticing a dangerous glimmer in the veteran’s eye, we 
hastened to make a closer examination. Throwing 
back the petals, the anthers and stigma of a Lily were 
revealed. 
“ A Lilium, by Jove ! Longiflorum, too, at that. 
Where on earth did you get it?” 
“ Yes, sir, a Lilium ; Lilium Harrisii, raised in 
Bennuda. What do you think such a Lily would be 
worth?” 
“Well, of course, it never would be in great demand 
for forcing, and you know that is what uses up the 
immense number of Harrisii that are sold. It would 
be valuable chiefly in private collections and ought to 
bring at least ten dollars each—as large a price as 
Auratum did when first introduced.” 
“ I can sell them less than that. At what do you 
sell Harrisii now? ” 
“ Very low —almost as low as Longiflorum.” 
“ Well, I will sell you these at the same price.” 
The latter answer was uttered with altogether too 
much satisfaction, and we sadly turned to where the 
flower had been severed from the stem, remarking, as 
we began to be enlightened, “Ah! you have been 
doctoring this with chemicals.” 
“ No, sir,” replied Mr. Henderson, “ we have not 
been doctoring this with chemicals, but it has been 
stuck in a bottle of red ink for the last three hours.” 
Moral : Don't take every child wearing a red fez 
to be a little Turk, for man is full of guile even as the 
Lily was full of red ink, though it may not be as 
apparent .—James Y. Murkland in American Gardeners' 
Monthly. 
— ...p — 
BROCCOLI AND CAULIFLOWERS. 
We cut our last Broccoli on the 2nd inst. From 
the commencement of the season they have been 
unusually fine, many of the heads measuring 12 ins. 
across, and the plants had such a firm hold of the 
ground that it required some strength to pull one 
of the old stumps up without the aid of a spade. We 
plant most of our Broccoli between the Potatos, 
as our Strawberry ground is not at liberty in time 
to receive them, and we are thus debarred the use 
of the crowbar, which is so strongly advocated by 
some practitioners, and which I have used myself 
on lighter soils, and under altered circumstances. 
I do not object to the use of this instrument, even 
on heavy soils, having used it for eight years on 
a piece of ground that had grown Broccoli and other 
winter vegetables annually for twelve years previously. 
After being dressed with road-scrapings and decayed 
garden refuse, the ground was turned over with strong 
forks especially made (termed spuds in some parts), 
and no attempt was made to break the lumps beyond 
dividing each spit into two, for we found by ex¬ 
perience that they had only to get thoroughly dry 
and afterwards receive a soaking of rain to make the 
work of breaking them a comparatively easy task 
with the same implement. Forking -was next to 
impossible when the land was dry, and to stick 
the fork in a piece as large as a man could lift 
with it required a little tugging to get it out. The 
holes were made when the soil was neither wet nor 
dry, and by w’riggling the bar too and fro were made 
extra large, and left so till the plants were ready, when 
one man placed the plants and the other followed with 
a basketful of fine soil to fill the holes up with, 
whilst a third followed with the watering-pot, unless 
there was a prospect of immediate rain. 
At this place I am troubled with clubbing, and in 
some parts of the garden more than others, though 
every year, I am happy to say, I experience less 
of it. I observe that those plants placed on the flat 
suffer worst. Those planted between the Potatos 
have several inches of soil placed round their stems 
w’hen the Potatos are dug up, into w T hich they strike 
fresh roots, which help to support the plant if the 
others are affected with club. Crops not planted 
between Potatos are grown in drills 3 ins. or 4 ins. 
deep, which are levelled dow T n at the proper time. 
This is a far more reasonable practice than the 
robbing Peter to pay Paul method of earthing up, 
even if the latter were practicable on such an 
adamantine surface as a hard trodden old Strawberry- 
bed on stiff soil presents, and to disturb it with the 
fork or spade would be to lose all the advantages 
gained by planting with the crowbar. I find that 
by the time the Potatos are dug, sorted, and cleared 
away, as well as the haulm and weeds, ground of 
such a stiff nature as ours becomes sufficiently 
solid, and if the soil is pressed with the foot round 
each plant nothing more is required. 
Cauliflowers.— We began to cut these on the 5th, 
so that if we had thought fit to take the Broccoli up 
and store them under a north wall we could have 
supplied the kitchen with both for a fortnight. It is 
surprising what a little protection ■will do when cold 
winds are prevalent, as they were in this part for 
weeks previous to the last few days of May. Our 
Cauliflowers were only covered with lights, in which 
there were as many broken squares as whole ones; 
they once formed the front lights of forcing-houses, 
and having each a bevelled side we nailed them 
together so as to form a span with a sharp angle 
about 70 ft. long, and the ends braced with thin 
pieces of wood. A row of Cauliflowers occupies the 
centre, and one of Lettuce was planted on the south 
side, which have been already blanched and used.— 
W. P. E. 
INSECTICIDES AND PLANT 
WASHES. 
On entering a certain potting-shed one day lately, 
I beheld a sight that amused me much. I found 
my friend the gardener very busy with three or four 
of his men washing plants. In the centre of the shed 
there was a large iron tank with some mats spread 
round it on the floor, and close at hand were canfuls 
of clear water, syringes, sundry jars, bottles, sulphur 
dredges, vaporizers, and fumigators of the most 
approved patterns. The place had the appearance 
of a combined laundress’s wash-house and chemical 
manufactory, and I could but exclaim, “ Whatever 
are you doing? ” “The plants have all got dirty, and 
infested with vermin, and we are having a clean up," 
remarked my friend. “ Look at those Orange-trees ; 
these fellows wont do a thing unless I look after them, 
so I am having a thorough turn out. You have called 
on an unlucky day.” 
“ What is that tank for,” I asked, “ it is not deep 
enough for a bath.” “ Oh, you see we work in this 
way—this stuff is dear, and it takes such a lot of 
it that I had the tank made for economical reasons. 
Here, Brown, hold up this Azalea ” ; and he held it 
up at the end of the tank, the liquor was industriously 
applied to it with the syringe, and drained into the 
tank again. The plant is allowed to stand perhaps 
for five minutes, when it is well syringed with clear 
water. “ That will do,” said my friend ; “ if you find 
they are not clean, give them another dose to-morrow, 
and follow it up till they are.” I am thankful that 
I don’t have to clean plants so much as I used to 
do forty years ago. This is modern plant-culture, 
is it ? Shades of Barnes, Ayres, Green, Faulkner, 
May, what would they think of the modern methods ? 
They grew plants which are now seldom seen, 
because they are difficult to grow, and would not 
grow’ at all if treated with some of the insecticides 
I have seen used. Tobacco, either in the form of 
smoke or of a liquid, sulphur, and soft soap, were the 
insecticides used by the men I have named, and their 
plants were clean, or woe to them and their breakfast 
if Dr. Bindley saw a foul or insect-covered plant. 
“ Take that plant away, sir, there is mealy-bug 
enough on it to ruin all the plants in the show,” 
said he once. “But, sir, it is only a little which 
escaped my eye.” “ Your eye, man, is worth nothing 
not to see that, or you either, as a gardener. Take 
it away, take it away,” and away went the Doctor, 
and the poor gardener with his plants, too. 
Thinking of my friend’s muddle and trouble, it 
occurred to me to try a new soap which I had heard 
my wife talking about, and which was much praised 
for its cleansing and easy washing properties. I 
thought of my friend’s Orange-trees, black with the 
Citron fungus, smuts and dirt, and had an idea that 
if this much belauded soap will make the dirt fly out 
of soiled linen, it should do so in the case of dirty 
plants. The experiment was tried, and I would 
suggest that anyone who desires a good simple 
