416 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
March 4, 1893. 
a good compost to encourage them to 
make an abundance of roots and side 
shoots. The plants were wintered in these 
pots, and carefully looked after in the mat¬ 
ter of watering and ventilation, and at the 
end of January or early in February they 
were transferred into their flowering 
pots, the 48 or 32 sized pots of those days. 
The compost used at this final potting 
was good yellow loam, with plenty of well- 
decayed manure, leaf soil and sand. 
Into this the plants rooted freely; they 
were kept in cold frames, near to the glass, 
and well attended to in the matter of ven¬ 
tilation, watering and cleanliness. The 
plants were grown as hard as possible, 
and they were frequently turned round 
so as to keep them symmetrical in 
habit, and at all stages the closest attention 
was given them. In April, if extra fine 
blooms were wanted, some of the side 
shoots were taken out, which gave earl)' 
cuttings, though this practice was not 
resorted to unless a few specially fine 
blooms were wanted for exhibition pur¬ 
poses. When the pots were filled with 
roots, some liquid manure was given twice 
a week, which brought large blooms, stout, 
and well and evenly belted all round the 
margin. It was not unusual in those days 
to have six and seven very fine blooms to 
a plant, and they made as much show— 
to say nothing about their superior 
quality—as a plant in the open ground 
bearing a dozen smaller blooms. 
We should like to see this practice of 
growing Show Pansies in pots revived. 
They might be grown to a high state of 
perfection about the time of the exhibition 
of the Royal Horticultural Society in the 
Temple Gardens. If the newly-formed 
London Pansy Society becomes a perma¬ 
nent institution, as we sincerely hope it will, 
then we should like to see classes instituted 
for Pansies in pots. All that is required by 
an amateur is a small cold frame in which 
to grow a couple of dozen plants or so. 
The flowers of the Pansy are not so quickly 
affected by the cold as the pips of an 
Auricula, and anything in the shape of 
artificial heat is not required. As fine 
flowers could be produced with good cul¬ 
tivation in the suburbs of London now as 
in the days long ago, if only the attempt 
were made by a few earnest floral enthu¬ 
siasts. Who will give a lead ? 
he Earl’s Court Shows. -^-The an¬ 
nouncement made in our advertising 
columns last week with respect to the 
arrangements decided upon for carrying 
out a new series of Exhibitions at Earl’s 
Court during the present year will have 
been read with much interest. We more 
than once last year expressed a strong 
hope that the delightful series of shows 
then held would not entirely fall through, 
as they had become so highly favoured by 
the public and by gardeners. That hope 
seems likely to be satisfied, even to excess, 
should the proposal to hold fortnightly 
shows during the summer season be carried 
out. 
The idea is distinctly an ambitious one, 
and seems to be aiming at too much. 
Still in the absence of fuller information 
we offer no objection, provided the promo¬ 
ters of the seiies, who we note are very 
much the same as last year, and carried 
out the shows there with such marked 
success, are themselves assured that twice 
monthly will not be too frequent. It 
may be that it is desired to make the ex¬ 
hibition element a much stronger feature 
than it was last year. It remains to be 
seen whether many small shows will prove 
as successful as a fewer number of greater 
ones. The year's exhibition, as will be 
seen by the prospectus, is ostensibly de¬ 
voted to Forestry in addition to gardening. 
How far it may be possible to illustrate that 
branch of horticulture remains to be seen. 
We may have examples in abundance of 
every description of timber producingtree in 
the young state, and also of wood after the 
trees have been felled and prepared, but of 
course we cannot have real forests or 
woods, although art may perhaps do much 
in the way of illustrating forest scenery. 
Still that all will be done that is possible 
to make the show a fine exposition of the 
branches of horticulture and arboriculture 
to which it is specially devoted, there can 
be no doubt. It is satisfactory to learn 
that the oddly-shaped open piece of 
ground at Earl’s Court will not only be 
preserved as such, but may also become 
during the coming summer one of the most 
delightful resorts in the Metropolis. 
--j.- 
The Eye Flower Show is announced to be held on 
July 18th. 
The Bilston Horticultural Society’s Summer Show 
will be held on August 16th and 17th. 
Mr. W. Wilson lately gardener at Kingsknowes, 
Galashiels, has been engaged as gardener at Loretto, 
Musselburgh. 
The York Gala Schedule just tohand, contains, as 
usual, an admirable array of prizes, including 
numerous "specials.” The groups again take the 
lead in value, and in the leading class some £58 are 
offered in five prizes. Other notable premier 
awards are £20 for ten flowering and six ornamental 
foliaged stove or greenhouse plants; £10 for ten 
Orchids in bloom ; £12 for a dozen show Pelargo¬ 
niums ; £8 for seventy-two Roses, cut blooms ; and 
£10 for a collection of fruit in ten distinct varieties. 
The Annual Dinner of the Fruit and Potato Sales¬ 
men and Growers attending Covent Garden, the 
Borough, Spitalfields, Stratford, Farringdon, King’s 
Cross, and St. Pancras Markets, at the Holborn 
Restaurant, on March 22nd, is to be, at the desire of 
the trade, the inaugural dinner of the London 
Wholesale Fruit and Potato Trades and Growers’ 
Benevolent Society. The Right Hon. the Lord 
Mayor has consented to take the chair at the 
request of a powerful committee representing all the 
markets in London and every branch of the trade. 
National Auricula and Primula Society (Southern 
Section). — The annual report of this society shows a 
slight deficit. The report includes a selected 
list of Auriculas, the varieties obtaining the greatest 
number of votes in each class being :—Green-edged, 
Rev. F. D. Horner; grey-edged, George Lightbody; 
white-edged, Conservative ; self, Heroine ; and 
alpine, Edith. The annual show will take place at 
the Drill Hall on April 25th. 
National Carnation and Picotee Society.—Theannual 
report of the committee of the southern section of this 
society has just been issued and the accounts show a 
balance in hand of £65 10s. The report also includes 
selections of varieties in all the classes of Carnations 
and Picotees compiled from lists sent in by some 
sixteen growers. The variety in each section which 
obtained the greatest number of votes is as follows :_ 
Carnations : scarlet bizarre, Robert Lord ; crimson 
bizarre, Rifleman ; pink and purple bizarre, Sarah 
Payne; purple flake, James Douglas; scarlet flake, 
Sportsman; rose flake, Thalia; self, Germania. 
Picotees : heavy-red edged, Dr. Epps; light-red 
edged, Mrs. Gorton ; heavy purple, Mrs. Chancellor; 
light purple, Clara Penson ; heavy_rose, Mrs. Payne ; 
light rose or scarlet, Favourite; yellow ground, 
Annie Douglas. The annual exhibition will take 
place at the Drill Hall, on July 25th. 
The Manches'er Orchid Show.—The schedule of 
prizes for this exhibition, to take place at Old 
Trafford, from May 19th to the 25th, has just been 
issued. The classes number twenty in all, and the 
leading premiums are /30 and £20 for the best 
amateur's collection of Orchids in bloom ; a silver 
cup, value 20 guineas, for the best amateur’s collec¬ 
tion of thirty Orchids ; £20, £i 5 and £10, for the 
bast trade collection of Orchids; silver cups, value 
ten guineas each, for the best collections of Cypri- 
pediums, Cattleyas, Odontoglossums, Dendrobiums, 
and ten specimen Orchids in bloom ; a fifteen-guinea 
cup for the best new Orchid introduced since 1887 
by Messrs. F. Sander & Co.; Veitch memorial 
medals and £j with each for the best hybrid Orchids 
in commerce and not in commerce ; a Williams 
memorial medal and £5 for the best bond fide speci¬ 
men Orchid ; a ten guinea cup for the best collec¬ 
tion of hardy herbaceous and alpine plants; and 
£25 for the best group of miscellaneous plants 
arranged for effect. 
Double-flowered Papaver umbrosum —The typical 
form of this Poppy is merely a well marked and 
distinct variety of the Common Corn Poppy (P. 
Rhaeas) collected in the Caucasus and introduced in 
1877. Since then it has been more or less extensively 
cultivated in this country. Already a double form 
of it has made its appearance at Verrieres in France, 
and has been put into commerce by Messrs. Yilmorin 
Andrieux & Co. The type has a large, black, eye¬ 
like blotch at the base of each petal. In the double 
variety the stamens have almost disappeared, and 
have given place to petals disposed in a mass similar 
to what occurs in certain Carnations. The first 
plate for the year in the Revue Horticole, is a repre¬ 
sentation of this new double Poppy. 
Lee, Blackheath, and Lewisham Horticultural 
Society. — The usual monthly meeting was held on 
the 24th ult., at the Institute, Old Road, Lee, when 
Mr. H. J. Jones, the well-known Chrysanthemum 
grower of Ryecroft Nurseries, Lewisham, gave a 
paper on " Chrysanthemums and their Culture." 
The room was crowded to excess by an enthusiastic 
audience, and the lecturer was listened to with 
marked attention, but owing to the able and practical 
way in which Mr. Jones treated his subject, very 
little room was left for discussion. It is to be hoped 
that Mr. John Laing, of Forest Hill, will have an 
equally enthusiastic audience on the 24th of March, 
when he will read a paper on Begonias. 
Double Ragged Robin. —A double form of this wild 
plant is now under cultivation, and a figure of it is 
given in the Bullettino della R. Societa Toscana di 
Orticutura for January. The name adopted for it 
requires forty letters of the alphabet, and the name 
of the authority swells the number to fiftv, thus_ 
Lychnis Flos-cuculi plenissima semperfiorens, 
Adolph Muss. According to the Bullettino above 
cited, the plant is very useful for forcing, and it 
would be difficult to find another plant uniting 
within itself so many good qualities. It forms a 
tuft 16 in. to 18 in. high, is hardy, grows rapidly, 
and the flower buds succeed each other continually 
from spring till the first frosts in autumn. The 
flowers consist of finely fringed and very numerous 
petals resembling a pin-cushion and of a rose colour. 
They last a long time in water. The figure shows a 
plant of very graceful habit, grown in a pot and 
laden with bloom. 
Royal Gardeners' Orphan Fund. —At the meeting of 
the Committee on the 24th ult., Mr. William Mar¬ 
shall was again unanimously re-elected chairman. 
The committee received with great gratification a 
communication from the Home Secretary announc¬ 
ing Her Majesty's command that in future the insti¬ 
tution should be known as the Royal Gardeners’ 
Orphan Fund, and requested the Honorary Secretary 
to express their dutiful thanks to Her Majesty for 
this signal mark of her Royal favour, and also to their 
President, Sir Julian Goldsmid, Bart., M.P., for his 
kind offices in the matter. The Hon. Secretary also 
announced the receipt of ten guineas from Sir Edwin 
Saunders ; twoguineas from " A Friend, Edinburgh ” ; 
and gs. from Mr. Kneller, Malshanger Park, the con¬ 
tents of a collecting box. The remainder of the 
business was confined to making arrangements for 
the annual dinner on March 22nd. 
The Royal Horticultural Society of Southampton. 
—At the annual meeting of this society held on 
Monday last, the council had the gratification of 
presenting a much more favourable report than 
usual, as, notwithstanding some adversities, it was 
enabled to report that the outstanding liabilities on 
the ordinary account, amounting to /240 at the end 
of 1891, had been reduced to £72. The Society is at 
last beginning to reap the benefit of the outlay made 
from time to time at Westw'ood Park, and if the 
inhabitants of the town would only accord to such 
a useful and pop ular institution a larger measure of 
pecuniary support the society would soon be in a 
flourishing condition. It is not proposed to hold the 
usual spring show on Whit-Monday this year, but 
the great summer show will be held as usual on 
the August Bank Holiday and the Saturday preced¬ 
ing it. 
