October 29, 1898. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
137 
Victoria regia — T., Tonbridge : In its native 
waters of the Amazon the Victoria Water Lily lives 
for more than one, probably several seasons, but in 
this country it is found to do best when treated as 
an annual, and raised from seed every year. 
The Tree Tomato —T. : The fruits of the Tree 
Tomato are egg-shaped, and not round nor oblate. 
The flavour has been described as partaking of both 
the Tomato and the Granadilla, the fruit of Passi- 
flora quadrangularis, and other edible-fruited mem¬ 
bers of that genus. 
Temperature for Carnations .—Seaton C .; If you 
are to get the flowers on the Carnations to open you 
must have a night temperature of not less that 55 0 
Fahr. If you are only growing the plants on, and 
do not want them to flower this winter you need only 
keep the frost out in very cold weather. An 
ordinary winter temperature of about 45 0 Fahr., or 
that of a greenhouse, will suit. 
» t— — 
BEGONIAS AT BEXLEY HEATH. 
It is late in the season to speak of tuberous 
Begonias under glass, but the boxes of flowers we 
recently received from Mr. T. S. Ware, Ltd., Hale 
Farm Nurseries, Tottenham, and which were 
gathered from the open ground at Bexley Heath, 
induced us to pay a visit of inspection. We do not 
recollect a season that has been so favourable to the 
continued flowering of tuberous Begonias right into 
the month of October ; and while going to view this 
unwonted autumn spectacle, we had a look into the 
glasshouses where the selected and named varieties 
are grown in pots. They are, of course, long past 
their best, having been in flower since May, and 
they are now being starved to encourage the develop¬ 
ment of pollen, so that seed may be obtained to 
furnish fresh and improved varieties for next year’s 
planting. Many of the varieties bore visible evidence 
of their high quality and beautiful shapes. 
New Varieties. 
Amongst double varieties put in commence this or 
last year Jubilee Queen is a vigorous grower,, branch¬ 
ing freely, clothed with dark foliage, but carrying 
pure white flowers of refined Camellia-form. Golden 
Queen of England rightly indicates the colour, 
while form leaves nothing to be desired. The rich 
orange-salmon flowers of Alice Sparrow are charac¬ 
terised by a white centre. Beauty of Bexley is 
bright salmon. Prince of Wales is one of the finest, 
having blush-pink flowers of great size and shapely 
outline. A beautiful Picotee-edged flower is Miss 
Florrie Dear, being edged with rose on a pure white 
ground. A First-class Certificate was recently 
awarded to the scarlet Sir Thomas Ackland. Miss 
Annie Fell is creamy-white with a rosy edge, while 
Miss Lila Lanford is rosy-salmon with a white 
centre. The golden-yellow Miss Alice Tate is a 
grand flower in its way, and the older White 
Camellia is shapely and pure. 
A splendid lot of varieties for pot culture might 
be selected from the singles, but we need only men¬ 
tion a few of them at presentSunset has bright 
golden-salmon flowers. Those of Miss Ada Cook 
are rose; Muriel, crimson; Purpurea, purple- 
magenta ; Miss Sharp, rich pink; Attraction, 
bronzy-yellow ; Majestic, golden-yellow ; Edelweiss, 
pure white; Colossus, salmon; and Mme. Belle 
Cole, blush-pink. Mrs. John Cooper is quite of a 
different type, having rich carmine flowers with a 
white centre. 
The beds on the lawn in front of Crook Lodge at 
the entrance to the nursery are always kept gay in 
summer with choice varieties of tuberous Begonias 
that have been proved suitable for the purpose. 
Both single and double varieties, but mostly the 
latter, have been employed this year, and maintained 
a very floriferous condition until the present stormy 
weather commenced at least. Robert Sadler, a blush- 
pink variety with a broad rose Picotee edge, has 
been one mass of bloom. It was edged with the 
dwarf, double, scarlet Phosphorescence. Several 
yellow varieties of Camellia-shape have been extra 
fine. Count Zephlin is practically a double Begonia 
Davisii, with the same dwarf habit, and colour of 
flowers, which have been produced in the greatest 
profusion. Several stems are produced from each 
tuber ; and, strange to say, the stems below ground 
produce a number of tubers one above the other. It 
is considered superior to Lafayette, which also belongs 
to the same class. A handsome bronzy-orange 
variety having the petals arranged around one centre 
is that named Mr. Dunbar Wood. 
From here we proceeded across the London and 
Gravesend Road to the open field, where the finest 
display of Begonias we have ever seen in the month 
of October made the place more gay than a well-kept 
flower garden in July. The long, mild autumn must 
to some extent be held responsible for this remarkable 
display, but the unceasing attention and labour of 
watering all through the dry weather given them by 
Mr. S. Pope, the grower, must also be taken into 
account in explaining the magnificent results. He 
has been at it early and late, often from 4 a m. till 9 
or 10 p.m., and this continued from the 1st June, 
when planting was commenced, till 8th October, 
when the hose was stopped. The only intermission 
was five days in August after the day’s rain we had 
at the commencement of that month. The plants 
were seedlings of this year, and being small when 
put out they could only be planted shallowly, thus 
necessitating constant attention in watering. The 
outline of the ground is a parallelogram, with a low 
hedge on each face ; while standard Apple trees are 
planted all over it, the site being that of an orchard, 
of which somewhere between two and three acres are 
planted with Begonias. The soil is naturally rich, 
and is well manured every year when dug. Begonias 
have been grown here for a number of seasons, but 
with liberal treatment the ground shows no exhaus¬ 
tion whatever ; on the contrary it would seem to be 
improving. 
A path runs down the centre, the double varieties 
being grown upon one side and.the singles upon the 
other, the latter being, however, rather mote 
numerous than the former, but in no way inferior in 
quality. Both forms have been equally floriferous > 
and the colours planted in juxtaposition, so that each 
respective band of colour ran across the whole field, 
the singles on one side and the doubles on the other. 
All are planted in beds of about 4 ft. wide, running 
across the grounds and only interrupted by the main 
walk. This arrangement facilitated watering, weed¬ 
ing, rogueing, selecting and labelling of the various 
forms into grades of the first, second and third class, 
so that the tubers might be assorted into groups when 
being lifted. All the colours have come very true 
from seeds, as we could judge from the thickly 
planted condition of the beds even after the rogues 
had been removed. 
Singles. 
All being seedlings of this year no names have yet 
been given, so that the best plan for giving an idea 
of the contents of the beds will be to note what we 
saw in passing down one side of the grounds and up 
the other. Commencing at the highway the singles 
run on the left while going along the central path. 
The first break is planted with bright orange-scarlet 
seedlings of that hue met with in a zonal Pelargonium. 
The flowers are of wonderful size and substance, 
mostly perfectly circular, and carried erect on plants 
9 in. to 12 in. high. The white varieties come next, 
and while a considerable number have the outer face 
of the flower tinted pink, as is usually the case with 
white flowers in the open, yet many of them retain 
a snowy purity even to the last. In other ways 
this section quite maintains its own high standard. 
The scarlet and white sorts are followed by numer¬ 
ous beds of pure pink and silvery-pink varieties. The 
yellows are equally fine and vary from primrose to 
golden-yellow. The crimson section has flowers of 
great substance that stand the fiercest sun as well as 
any other colour. The flowers rise well above the 
foliage in great profusion and vary from intense and 
fiery-crimson to deep maroon. The bronze-yellow 
varieties may be regarded as a blending of the yellow 
and scarlet of the original parents. The opening 
flower buds are yellow at first, but assume their 
true colour when fully expanded. Some of the 
darker and finer sorts are bronzy-orange externally, 
and bronzy-yellow internally. 
The next break, following the sequence, is planted 
with what is termed a fancy strain, characterised by 
having white centres to the flowers, and a dark 
edging varying in width in different plants. The 
edging may be violet -crimson or carmine, crimson, 
scarlet, rose, or other colours, generally of a cheer- 
Good Modern Type of Begonia. 
