January 12, 1895. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
809 
A SECRETARIAL DILEMMA. 
The Secretary of an influential Horticultural Society 
in the West of England, writing to me a few days 
ago, asks if it is possible to modify the classes for 
stove and greenhouse and foliage plants in some 
way, so as to render them more attractive to the 
general public. He, like some other managers of 
large exhibitions finds fault with the stereotyped 
character of the flower shows, one year’s display 
being little better than a slavish imitation of the 
preceding one ; and he fears that visitors tire of this 
and so he, with commendable foresight, asks if some 
more attractive features can be substituted. Stove and 
greenhouse plants are generally shown at this par¬ 
ticular exhibition in excellent character ; but as the 
Secretary states: “The same people exhibit year after 
year, and we get the same specimens over and over 
again and they are certainly stiff and formal, and in 
addition, lacking in novelty. Two or three classes 
for groups of Plants arranged for effect already find 
a place in the schedule of prizes, and they make an 
interesting and improving feature, so that there is 
no addition to be made in that direction. Can then 
any suggestion be put forth likely to be useful to 
our Horticultural brothers in the West ? 
Supposing a class was formed for six specimen 
foliaged plants and six specimen flowering plants 
intermixed with small Palms, Crotons, Dracaenas, 
and such like; and having an edging of small decora¬ 
tive plants. As a matter of course, the twelve speci¬ 
mens should be of sufficient size to display their 
individuality, and they should be so arranged as to 
show themselves in the best way. A collection like 
this would cover a good space of ground, but well 
done would undoubtedly prove an attractive feature, 
and, therefore, prizes would need to be good; but 
the money can be obtained by fusing the classes for 
stove and greenhouse and fine foliaged plants. Then 
another somewhat novel and, I think, an attractive 
class might be for six or nine conservatory or green¬ 
house plants, foliaged and flowering, all formally 
trained specimens excluded, might, and would, make 
a class that would find favour with gardeners who do 
not cultivate the usual trained stove and greenhouse 
specimens for exhibition. Here there are two 
suggestions of mine Towards a solution of the diffi¬ 
culty : What have other readers of the Gardening 
World to put forward ? 
I hold that we cannot do without big specimen 
plants at our flower shows. They possess and 
present to view power; they are not common, and 
they afford a ready and convincing illustration of the 
skill and capacities of the cultivator. One can 
always admire a splendid Ixora, Bougainvillea, 
Allamanda, Erica, Anthurium, etc., but the present 
method of staging robs them of half their beauty. If 
a dozen large examples have to be staged, they are 
generally placed two deep, and the back ones have to 
be raised up upon pots, boxes, etc., to enable them 
to be seen. The visitor sees a broken surface of 
bloom or foliage, and a very pronounced substratum 
of huge pots or boxes, and a hand-barrow, and other 
utensils thrust among them. It is becauee this 
becomes such an eyesore,that in the foregoing lines I 
have suggested making up a class which permits the 
use of smaller plants to hide the pots and fill up the 
empty spaces between them. Who else will endeavour 
to assist our Secretarial friend in grasping some new 
and novel ideas ?— R. D. 
-- 
GARDENERS’ HALF-HOLIDAY. 
Without doubt “Gamma” in his interesting 
remarks upon page 293 of the last issue of The 
Gardening World, anent “ A Saturday Half¬ 
holiday for Gardeners,” has touched upon a subject 
of vital importance to all connected with the pro¬ 
fession of horticulture. No one will, we think, deny 
the statement with which he commenced that " this 
is confessedly an age of social improvement.” We, 
as a nation, are at last after a long sleep of apathy 
and sluggishness waking up to the fact that some 
alterations are abundantly necessary in our system 
of social economy, although the schemes which are 
to remedy the existing evils have in many instances 
yet to be elaborated. All of us will agree that a 
great point would be gained if the hours of labour 
could be shortened and more time placed at the 
disposal of the working classes than they have 
hitherto enjoyed. The idea of a weekly half-holiday 
is the immediate offspring of this idea, and thus 
naturally enough we find ourselves discussing its 
" whys and wherefores,” its “ pros and cons.” 
Perhaps in no other trade or profession is there 
exhibited such a spirit of bigotry and conservatism 
as in that of gardening. Other callings in which 
such a state of affairs has not so rampantly prevailed 
are far ahead of us in the advantages they possess. 
The blacksmith, the mason, and the carpenter have 
for long been in the enjoyment of the boon of a 
weekly half-day off, and we have got to consider this 
as the usual and hence the correct .thing. From 
what curious system of logic then is the gardener 
debarred from a like enjoyment ? Is it because he 
does not work as hard as the average mechanic ? 
This surely cannot be the reason, for even if we 
allow it that his work is not of so laborious a char¬ 
acter as that of the afore-mentioned craftsmen, this 
apparent advantage is more than counterbalanced by 
its excessively trying nature—trying alike to mind 
and body. From the very nature of a gardener’s 
employment he is subjected to sudden and violent 
changes of temperature, which in themselves cannot 
fail to be fraught to an enormous extent with risks to 
the constitution. 
Then again the average artisan or mechanic as 
soon as the " leaving-off” bell has sounded at night 
has finished until starting time next morning. Not 
so the gardener, for if he is not.employed in stoking 
or performing the usual routine of jobs with which 
the man on duty is plagued, he never knows when 
he may be called upon to go hither or thither at the 
will or fancy of his employer. The seventh day, too, 
instead of being with him a day of rest from his 
week day occupation, often finds him busily employed 
in the never-too-much anathematized "Sunday duty,’’ 
and this while his friends the mechanics are at 
liberty to wander at their own sweet will or to do 
whatsoever their fancy prompts them. In many 
cases, moreover, this extra Sunday work meets with 
no appropriate response from the employer in the 
way of extra payment. 
Taking the trades and professions generally, it 
will be exceedingly difficult to find a calling which 
claims such a large percentage of steady and 
industrious followers. Seldom indeed is it that we 
find a gardener guilty of any indictable offence, and 
we are inclined to think that both judges and 
lawyers would starve were all classes of society as 
peaceably disposed as is the gardener. True, he 
has ere now figured in a "breach of promise” 
case, but still the tendency to promise more 
than it is possible to perform is an essentially 
human characteristic, and it is because the 
gardener is a human being, and as such entitled 
to considerate treatment, that we would urge the 
advisability, nay, the justice, of now and again 
releasing him from the pressure of the harness. 
Many of the employers of the old school will not 
admit the fact that times have changed, and that 
the great social evolution that has been going on for 
the last fifty years has wrought great and marvellous 
alterations in men as well as in customs. Far too 
frequently we find that as it was, so it shall be 
now, is the idea that governs the mind of the 
employer, and thus many young men who venture 
to ask for a little time off for recreative purposes 
often find themselves greeted with the question, 
What do you want to go off for ? I can’t think what 
young men are coming to nowadays ! In my young 
days I had no time for sports ! Although the British 
workman was formerly much worse off than he is at 
present, it must not be supposed that we have by 
any means come to the end of our chain of improve¬ 
ment. What has past is but an earnest of what is 
to come, let us hope, in the near future. 
In a few large gardens throughout the country 
the weekl}' half-holiday is an established fact, and 
we are pleased to see that others, seeing the common 
sense of the example thus given, are imitating it to a 
certain extent. Thus the young gardeners employed 
in the Royal Gardens at Kew have recently been 
granted the privilege of a Saturday afternoon off 
once a month. This may not perhaps be considered 
as a very large concession, but still it is the thin end 
of the wedge that we trust will ere long be driven 
still further home to the minds of those in authority, 
and that a weekly half-holiday will be conceded to 
the employes there at no very distant date.— G. 
The Amateur Orchid Grower's Guide Book. By H. A. 
Burberry (Orchid Grower to the Rt Hon. J. Chamberlain, 
M.P.). Containing sound, practical inlormation and advice 
for Amateurs, giving a List with Cultural Descriptions of 
those most suitable for Cool-house, Intermediate-house, and 
Warm-house Culture, together with a Calendar of Operations 
and Treatment for each Month of the Year. In Cloth (Crown 
8 vo. 5 by 7j), price 2s. 6d.; post free, 2S. gd. Publisher, Garden¬ 
ing World, i, Clement’s Idd, Strand, London, W C. 
ASPARAGUS FOR DECORATIVE 
PURPOSES. 
The gardens in which a few specimens of Aspara¬ 
gus of some kind or other are noi grown, are we 
should imagine exceedingly few in number. Their 
value as decorative subjects has been so severely 
tested for a great number of years, and, needless to 
say, they have emerged from the tests with a con¬ 
siderable share of honour. The kinds most fre¬ 
quently met with are Asparagus plumosus and A. 
plumosus nanus: and of these thousands are sent 
out annually from the many different nurseries. There 
can be no two ideas with regard to their suitability 
for training to pillars, rafters or trellices, in the stove 
or conservatory, and where the making of bouquets, 
wreaths or button-holes is extensively practised, 
their light and graceful fronds are always utilised to 
a very large extent. 
When the space which it is desired for them to 
cover is a large one, it is much the better plan to 
plant them out in a specially prepared border, a light 
sandy loam suiting them admirably. When treated 
in this way the growth made is always stronger, and 
more vigorous than that produced from pot plants ; 
the latter method of treatment having a tendency to 
reduce the vigour of growth. In the matter of insect 
pests, the Asparagus enjoy a comparative immunity, 
mealy bug being the only thing to be dreaded, 
although slugs will take a little watching when the 
young growths are a few inches long, as they evince 
a decided partiality towards them. 
Mealy bug, however, must never be allowed to 
gain anything like a foothold, or the appearance of 
the plants will soon be ruined completely. The 
infinitesimal size of the pinnules as well as the 
closeness of the network they form, preclude the 
possibility of syringing with insecticide, which cannot 
be made to penetrate the network with sufficient 
force to dislodge the bug, and that it is a manifest 
impossibility to use the sponge as an operating 
medium is evident to all. The best, and in fact, 
the only way is never to let the plants get dirty, the 
old motto of “prevention is better than cure ” being 
here illustrated with exceptional clearness and force. 
Should plants get really dirty, however, the only 
way is to cut off and remove the infected pieces, for 
although this may seem rather a drastic method of 
procedure, it is hopeless to attempt the removal of 
the bug in any other way. The following will be 
found to be the most suitable subjects for indoor 
culture. 
A. plumosus. —This is a well-known variety of 
exceedingly strong growing habit. It will succeed in 
either stove or greenhouse, although young plants in 
pots need the warmer temperature to stimulate and 
facilitate growth. It is a native of South Africa, 
from whence it was brought about the year 1876. 
A plumosus nanus. —This variety differs from 
the type in being of a dwarfer habit and slenderer 
growth. The fineness and graceful character of the 
fronds render it particularly suitable for making up 
with cut flowers into bouquets, etc.; for the young 
fronds, although seemingly of so fragile a character, 
possess a large degree of vitality, and do not soon 
wither; indeed, if placed in water, they will keep 
quite fresh for a surprisingly long time. It was also 
introduced from South Africa about four years later 
than A. p. nanus. 
A. scandens. —Here we have one of the prettiest 
climbing subjects of the whole genus. It thrives 
exceedingly well when planted out in the manner 
suggested previously, a greenhouse temperature 
being quite sufficient for its requirements. Native 
of the Cape of Good Hope. 
A. decumbens. —Being of decumbent or prostrate 
habit as the name signifies, this species is best seen 
to advantage when grown in a basket and suspended 
from the roof of the stove. In one or two instances 
that have come before our notice, plants grown thus 
have formed most beautiful objects; all the more 
striking perhaps because they are so astonishingly 
rare. When it is elected to grow it in this fashion, 
the basket should be well lined with pieces of tough 
fibry turf, the grassy side being turned inwards, so as 
to keep the soil from being washed through when 
water is given. A compost of two parts of good 
loam to one of leaf soil with a liberal allowance of 
sharp sand will answer admirably.— Z. 
Hardy Ornamental Flowering Trees and Shrubs, by 
A. D. Webster. A valuable guide to planters of beautiful 
trees and shrubs for the adornment of parks and gardens. 
Price, 3s. ; post free, 3s. 3d. Publisher, Gardening World 
1, Clement'slnn, Strand, London, W.C. 
