May 25, 1895. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
611 
JACK FROST 
has caused many losses that can be made good in 
an easy and cheap manner by purchasing the follow¬ 
ing bulbs and plants which I can recommend as being 
first class. 
BEGONIAS, SINGLE. 
20,000 grand bulbs, mixed colours, finest ever offered 
at the price, 3s. per dozen. 
PELARGONIUMS, SHOW AND DECORATIVE. 
Fine plants in best kinds, 6s., gs., and 12s. per dozen. 
ZONAL PELARGONIUMS. 
Best kinds only, 6 for 2s. 6d., 12 for 4s. 
IVY-LEAF PELARGONIUMS. 
A very choice lot, 6 for 2s. 6d., 12 for 4s. 
DOUBLE PETUNIAS. 
Extra fine new kinds, 6 for 3s. 6d., 12 for 6s. 
Send for Catalogue, Free. 
H. J. JONES, 
Ryecroft Nursery, Hither Green, Lewisham. 
ORCHIDS. 
Clean Healthy Plants at Low Prices. 
Always worth a visit of inspection. Kindly send for Catalogue. 
JAMES CYPHER, 
Exotic Nurseries, CHELTENHAM. 
Carnations! Carnations ! 
Carnations! 
The Choicest Varieties in Cultivation, from the 
late Mr. Dodwell's Garden, 
FROM 6s. PER DOZEN, UPWARDS. 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST ON APPLICATION TO— 
ARTHUR MEDHURST, 
THE COTTAGE, STANLEY ROAD, OXFORD. 
FLORISTS FLOWERS 
AND 
HARDY BORDER PLANTS. 
FORBES’ ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE 
for 1895 is now ready, and will be posted to all intending 
Purchasers. 
The new Catalogue for 1895 is enlarged to about 150 pages 
and very materially improved, embracing everything new and 
old worth cultivating in the way of Florists’ Flowers and 
Hardy Plants with accurate description and prices, copious 
notes as to their origin, how, and where best to grow, a full 
index of the common or popular names of Hardy Border 
Plants and a vast mass of other valuable information that 
cannot be had elsewhere, which renders this the best, most 
reliable, and complete catalogue ever issued on this popular 
class of plants. 
JOHN FORBES, Nurseryman, Hawick, Scotland. 
A 
SPECIALITY. 
A MAGNIFICENT STOCK IN IMMENSE VARIETY. 
Catalogue (No. 50) Free on Application. 
W. & J. BIRKENHEAD, F.R.H.S., 
Fern Nurseries, Sale, near Manchester. 
BEDFORDSHIRE 
SILVER SAND, PEAT,LOAM. 
Address only the PROPRIETOR, 
JOSEPH ARNOLD, 
82, St. Paul's Road, Camden Town, LONDON, N.W. 
JOSEPH ARNOLD invites the Attention of the Trade that 
he is now Cutting the Famous Bedfordshire Peat, and Yellow 
Fibrous Loam of Superior Quality. Supplied in quantities and 
loaded on Rail or into Boats (with or without Sand), at 
Leighton Buzzard. Prices on Application as above. 
/ “ SANDBAGS,” LONDON. 
■* s 1 “ Filtration,” Leighton Buzzard. 
INSECTICIDES. 
AN UNHAPPY EXPERIENCE AND ITS REMEDY. 
We have sold LEMON OIL many years, but we did not 
use it in our own nurseries largely, fearing it was too costly 
for use on a large scale. We relied on home made mixtures 
of Petroleum, Quassia Chips, Softsoap, &c. Our experience 
with these was an unhappy one. If the preparations (and 
we tried these articles according to many recipes) were 
made strong enough to kill the insects and eggs, they also 
killed, sooner or later, foliage or wood, and to be safe we 
had to reduce the strength, with the result that the plants or 
trees required frequent dressings at a large cost for work¬ 
people’s time. We ultimately tried LEMON OIL, and on 
15 acres of Fruit trees and 4^ acres of glass houses upwards 
of £35 was saved in wages and cost of insecticides in a 
season, and the stock cleaner than it had been before. Any 
fruit grower wanting a good dressing for Fruit trees outside, 
gaideners or amateurs wanting to clear Vines, Peaches, 
stove or other plants of Bug, Thrips, Scale, or Fly should 
give this preparation a trial. It has been before the public 
nearly 7 years, and is still unsurpassed for quality or price. 
Pints, is. iod.; quarts, 3s. 3d.; half gallon, 5s. gd., post 
free. Cheaper in larger quantities or with carriage forward. 
Send for Circular. 
>0 Oldfield Nurseries, ALTRINCHAM. 
0 Or 10 & 12, Market Street, Manchester. 
THE NEW EARLY STRAWBERRY FOR 1893. 
“ Stevens’ Wonder.’’ 
The earliest variety in cultivation and very prolific, 
solid fruit, good flavour, high perfume. 
Awarded First-class Cert.ficates, Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society and Royal Botanic Society, 1895. 
See Gardeners' Chronicle, March 2 ; Journal of Horti¬ 
culture, March 14; and The Garden, March t6. 
Having purchased the whole of the stock of this 
grand new early Strawberry from the raiser, we have 
pleasure in offering it as follows 
Strong plants in pots, £3 per 100 ; 15/- per doz. 
,, Runners, £3 per 100 ; 9/- per doz. 
Ready for Delivery Early in July. 
Early Orders requested as stock Is limited. 
Further particulars upon application-.— 
WM. CUTBUSH & SON, 
Highgate Nurseries, London, and Barnet, Herts. 
For Index to Contents see page 621. 
11 Gardening Is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
ffHt ifbrli 
Edited by J. FRASER, F.L.S. 
SATURDAY, MAY 23th, 1895. 
NEXT WEEK'S ENGAGEMENTS. 
Tuesday, May 28th.—Orchid Sale at Protheroe & Morris’ 
Rooms. 
Wednesday and Thursday, May 29th aud 30th.—Pansy and 
Viola Show in the Botanic Gardens, Edgbaston, Birming¬ 
ham, with a Conference of Pansy and Viola Growers on 
the afiernoon of Wednesday, 29th. 
Friday, May 31st.—Orchid Sale at Protheroe & Morris’ 
Rooms. 
CfUMMER FLOWER SHOWS OF TO-DAY.- In 
^ discussing this subject it must be ap¬ 
proached from two points of view, namely 
by retrospection and modern aspects. It 
is only by such a method that we can make 
a comparison. The exhibitors of twenty 
years ago, as might be expected, deplore 
the absence of the huge specimen Azaleas, 
the giant Heaths, the Darwinias, the 
Statices, Tremandras, Dracophyllums, 
Aphlexis and other hard wooded subjects 
that were spoken of under the general 
name ot New Holland plants. Tempting 
prizes were offered at the summer flower 
shows for groups of a certain number of 
stove and greenhouse flowering plants, so 
that there was an admixture of Ixoras, 
Dippladenias, Clerodendrons and others of 
that class with the greenhouse subjects 
above mentioned. Those who did not 
commence horticulture soon enough to be 
in the bustle and stir of those exhibition 
days, to see the plants and share in the 
excitement over them, do not miss them at 
modern shows. There were many young 
gardeners, however, then living in remote 
country districts who read glowing reports 
of the various leading exhibitions, as 
detailed in the gardening journals; and 
though they may never have seen one of 
those big shows, yet they could almost 
picture to themselves the bold and telling 
appearance of huge specimen plants by 
comparison with those under their own 
charge. Moreover, it not personally ac¬ 
quainted with the distinguished growers 
and exhibitors, yet gardeners at a distance 
from the scene of the contest knew all those 
men, at least, by the reputation attached 
to their names; and the struggle of the 
competitors, their day dreams and dis¬ 
turbed dreams by night before the advent 
of the exhibition, were subjects for comment 
amongst gardeners everywhere. 
All that is a thing of the past, and there 
are frequent discussions as to whether the 
cultivation of those huge hard-wooded 
plants is not a lost art. To some extent 
it doubtlessly is so, but that fact applies 
to every other class of plants more or less, 
which requires special methods of cultiva¬ 
tion. For some years past the large speci¬ 
mens have been gradually disappearing as 
one after another the collections of them 
were dispersed. This summer, judging 
from their absence from the shows that 
previously favoured and encouraged them, 
witnesses apparently their final exit from 
the principal . London exhibitions. Most 
connoisseurs agree that they constituted a 
telling factor in the get-up of an attrac 
five show, and to the general public who 
was privileged to see them only once a year 
they presented a certain amount of fresh¬ 
ness. On the contrary those who had 
much to do with the plants, and who saw 
them from year to year, and at all the 
leading exhibitions of the season, must 
have felt a considerable degree of satiety 
and a sense of monotony and sameness at 
the appearance in public of the same plants 
they had seen, it might be, for a dozen 
years previously. The same lots of big 
plants would turn up at many or all the 
leading exhibitions of a season, and many 
were the jokes passed upon them by gar¬ 
deners who knew all the circumstances of 
the case. In some instances a well-marked 
and characteristic plant—it might be a 
unique specimen of a Palm, Heath, Cactus 
or other subject—was sure to form a com¬ 
ponent part of a certain exhibitor’s group 
at every show, and gardeners could calcu¬ 
late upon its appearance to a certainty. 
We have known a case where a huge and 
well-grown Hydrangea constituted one of 
the most striking features of a certain show 
every year, and a prominent position was 
given to it in the exhibition tent. In 
another case a tall specimen of the Old 
Man Cactus (PiLcereus senilis) consti¬ 
tuted an equally persistent but less wel¬ 
come component of a particular exhibit. 
One gardener made the pertinent remark 
to a brother of the profession, that his 
“ Old Man ” knew the road so well that he 
would only have to open the door of the 
house in which he was confined and the 
knowing old fellow would find the way to 
the exhibition by himself ! 
Public ideas have changed since then ; 
and flowers have practically become more 
democratic, very much on the same lines 
as they are in America at the present day. 
In every private establishment the owners 
require large quantities of bloom for cut 
flower and other decorative purposes, so 
that there is no space for the bestowal of a 
few giant specimens in the greenhouses, 
nor have gardeners time to attend to their 
special requirements. Therefore, since the 
large specimens no longer exist, it follows 
that exhibitions have to be furnished with 
the more popular classes of plants. Prizes 
in various forms are offered for groups and 
collections of special classes of plants, and 
as their exlent is often left to the exhibitor, 
the size of the group depends upon the 
resources of the competitors and the quality 
upon their cultural skill. In this country 
the example has been set by the Royal 
Horticultural Society at their principal 
shows in the Inner Temple Gardens and 
at Chiswick. The big shows of this kind 
have practically grown out of the ordinary 
fortnightly meetings of that society. On 
the Continent this feature of modern ex¬ 
hibitions prevails to a large extent and 
differs only in minor details. Groups and 
collections of Roses in pots and otherwise, 
have, for many years, formed part of an ex¬ 
hibition but the plants have become smaller 
and more numerous. Tuberous Begonias 
