March 4, 1893. 
421 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
GARDEN SUNDRIES. 
For more years than we have had any knowledge of 
Drury Lane there has been carried on in Goldsmith 
Street, a bye-street leading off that historical but 
most unsalubrious thoroughfare, an extensive and 
prosperous retail business in a branch of horticultural 
trade, which in its way is as important to gardening 
and gardeners as the production of plants and seeds, 
for without cultural appliances—the host of things 
which come under the general denomination of gar¬ 
den requisites or garden sundries—where would the 
gardener be ? The business we refer to is that 
which for the last 15 years has been in the hands of 
Mr. H. G. Smyth, who by his energy, business 
capacity and honourable, straightforward conduct 
has very greatly developed it. 
Mr. Smyth is jocularly known among his friends 
and customers as “ The People’s Sundriesman,” and 
“ The Gardener’s Friend,” and both descriptions may 
be said to fit him equally 
well, for he can supply us 
with a truck load of peat 
or a sixpenny scrubbing 
brush with equal facility, 
to say nothing of the hun¬ 
dred and one other arti¬ 
cles that come in between 
the extreme subjects we 
have mentioned, and he 
surely is a gardener’s 
friend who can supply his 
demands in emergency. 
Mr. Smyth has long made 
a speciality of the wants of 
Orchid growers, and 
deals only in the best mat¬ 
erials. He has also been a 
successful cultivator of 
cool Orchids, and a few 
years ago had a nice little 
collection in his private 
garden at Forest Hill. He 
was generally fortunate in 
his purchases of imported 
plants,and got more prizes 
than blanks. Our friend 
has a strong penchant for 
floriculture, and loves a 
good thing as much as any 
man. He it was who put 
the popular Carnation 
Mary Morris into com¬ 
merce,and he isverysweet 
just now on a scarlet bor¬ 
der variety named Jim 
Smyth, which he is send¬ 
ing out. 
But we are digressing ; 
the floral fancies of Mr. 
Smyth and the business 
of his warehouse are two 
different things. Let us 
have a look round this 
emporium of garden re¬ 
quisites, and see what 
there is to be seen. We 
sample the peat, a capital 
sample too, notwithstanding the scarcity of this 
indispensable article; and take a dip into the 
sphagnum tub, a clean well picked lot, bright and 
green. Orchid baskets, rafts, and cylinders follow 
on in natural sequence, and the handling of these 
shows them to be well made of good sound teak, 
fastened together with copper wire. They are of all 
sizes and shapes, and to this department Mr. Smyth 
has lately added Orchid pots made of teak, and in 
three sizes, 8, g, and 10 in. deep, and which we 
understand are meeting a want in the Orchid world. 
Next we are introduced to a first-rate article in the 
form of a shading material for Orchid and hothouse 
blinds, a small meshed sort of hexagon netting, which 
gives the required amount of shade from the sun's 
rays, with a maximum amount of light. This we 
were informed was either sold in the piece or made 
into blinds of any size to order. Still keeping the 
Orchid man’s necessities in view, we come across a 
heap of coir bushes specially made for pot washing, 
cleaning woodwork (and blacking boots on a pinch !) 
and here also is a special kind of bass broom made 
for cleaning tiled or tesselated floors. 
Our olfactory organs attract us next to the samples 
of various kinds of manures, guano, dissolved and 
crushed bones, and bone meal, and to the still more 
odoriferous blood and bone manure, which is a 
speciality of the establishment. “ Well,” we 
remark, " if there is anything in a strong smell, that 
ought to be good.” “It is,” spoke out our guide, 
“a powerful and quick acting stimulant, and 
specially valuable for forcing purpose. We sell a 
great quantity.” Presently Mr. Smyth adds, "Did 
you see Mr. Norman’s monster Strawberries at the 
Temple Show last year—that’s what did the trick ; 
don’t they like it ? ” 
The pungent-smelling insecticides of all kinds look 
innocent enough on the shelves, but there was enough 
here to make our friends “ the enemy ” quake for the 
preservation of their' order could they only come 
Goldsmith Street way and peep in at No. 21. Weed 
killing poisons are also a big order ; and in orderly 
array come large stocks of labels and stakes of 
various sizes, bamboo canes of all lengths, virgin 
cork, heaps of Mushroom spawn, loam, leaf soil and 
silver sand, cases of cutlery, gloves, aprons, and 
syringes of the well-tried “ Reid ” pattern, water- 
cans, Hawes' patent, and there are none better, and 
—but, stop, this is not intended to be a catalogue, 
and the subjects are too numerous to mention even 
if it were. A wonderfully interesting place to a gar¬ 
dener is a warehouse like Mr. Smyth's, and quite a 
liberal education in itself in the luxuries of garden¬ 
ing. Above we give a portrait of the proprietor, 
which, we doubt not, will be welcomed by his 
many friends among the gardening fraternity. 
--4-- 
REPOTTING FUCHSIAS. 
A considerable diversity of method in the treat¬ 
ment of Fuchsias during winter and spring prevails 
amongst gardeners, as to matters of minor detail; 
nor are the fine specimens we used to see, fiequently 
attempted at the present day. The amount of space 
they occupy in a house may be objected to, but a 
few well-grown and shapely specimens are worthy of 
house room, and produce an effect that hundreds of 
small specimens fail to do. Occasionally a display 
is made with small specimens on the same principle 
as a batch of Pelargoniums, and with a similar effect, 
namely, of toning down the interior of a house to one 
common monotony, whereas a few pyramidal speci¬ 
mens would have the contrary effect of relieving it. 
Some cultivators who are cognisant of these facts 
yet do not succeed very well in preserving their 
plants through the winter. Either intentionally or 
unintentionally the specimens are as thoroughly dried 
off in winter as if they were bulbs. The specimens 
are laid down upon their sides, or they are stood in 
some out of the way position, where no water is given, 
no matter what the condition of the soil may be. 
The results are that the greater part of the roots are 
killed, and the branches likewise die, occasionally 
the whole plant. All this might have been avoided 
by supplying the plants with just sufficient water to 
prevent the soil from getting dust dry. In the com¬ 
paratively dry atmosphere of greenhouses and other 
structures at this season of the year, there is a 
considerable amount of 
evaporation from plants, 
so that if supplied with 
water,Fuchsias are able to 
counteract this drought, 
and the branches remain 
plump. The buds com¬ 
mence to push away again 
comparatively early even 
in the cool atmosphere of 
a greenhouse, and the 
plants may then be repot¬ 
ted. Some cultivators pre¬ 
fer to subject the plants to 
heat to start them before 
repotting; and this maybe 
advantageousif the flower¬ 
ing per.od of the plants is 
to be hastened by fire heat; 
but if they are allowed 
to come on gradually by 
the heat of the sun, they 
need not be started in an 
artificiallyraised tempera¬ 
ture at all. As a rule the 
more straggling of the 
branches are cut back in 
autumn, but the plants 
may now be regularly 
trimmed. The pyramidal 
is the most handsome form 
in which a Fuchsia can be 
trained.The balloon-head¬ 
ed form is more like 
evidence of bad training, 
and the columnar one 
hardly shows off the 
beauty of the plant. 
Fuchsias are not very 
particular in the matter of 
soil, but a fact to be re¬ 
membered is that it should 
be light and rich. In other 
words it should be render¬ 
ed very porous, if not na¬ 
turally so, by a liberal use 
of sharp sand. A third of 
old and dried cow manure 
with plenty of sand may be mixed with fibrous but 
mellow loam in a lumpy condition. The pots should 
be well drained, for that is a matter of the greatest 
importance, considering the quantity of water re¬ 
quired during the growing season. The careful 
cultivator will have taken care to have plenty of soil 
and manure in a dry place some time ago for the 
great amount of repotting that is always necessary 
at this time of the year. The work can then be 
effected expeditiously. Clean pots are another re¬ 
quisite, and should there be a scarcity of pots of the 
requisite size, the old ones may be called into 
requisition. Having turned the plants out of them, 
some boys or labourers may be set to wash them and 
get them quickly dried by placing them over the hot' 
water pipes or some similar position. 
Some of the plants may require a larger sized pot, 
but the bulk of them may be returned to similar 
sizes. If the plants had been started in heat pre¬ 
vious to their being turned out, it would have been 
necessary to leave a ball of old soil about the roots; but 
in the other event the old soil may be clean shaken 
away so as to admit as much fresh material as 
possible at the repotting. Put the plants into the 
Mr. H. G. Smyth. 
