262 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
December 24, 1898. 
where to draw the line between plants and 
animals; and other hair-splitting questions, will 
not repay us youngsters.— A. P. 
--- 
THE OLD NURSERIES, MAIDSTONE. 
Messrs. George Bunyard & Co., Maidstone, are 
most widely known as fruit growers ; but they also 
grow flowers in great variety, both hardy and tender, 
there being something like fourteen nurseries for this 
purpose, all situated in the old county town of Maid¬ 
stone, whereas the fruit nurseries are at Barming 
Station, a little in the direction of London. The 
floral nurseries being situated in town are in¬ 
dividually small, but collectively represent a con¬ 
siderable area, and being all situated within a short 
distance of one another, they are within easy reach 
of the offices. 
St. Peter’s Nursery. 
As the visit was made during the broiling heat of last 
August, the subjects mentioned were then in flower 
or fruit. Here was a fine plantation of Gladiolus 
brenchleyensis in variety, as well as G. Lemoioei, 
American and other hybrid races. Healthy planta¬ 
tions of young stuff had also been raised from the 
spawn or small offsets of named varieties. 
One of the houses was occupied with Cucumber, 
Rochford’s Market Favourite, developing a fine crop 
of seed. The fruits are dark green and slightly 
spiny. Cucumber Purley Park Prolific filled 
another house, and is a prolific variety, though the 
fruits are smaller than Rochford’s Market Favourite. 
Tomato Conference monopolised a third house with 
a heavy crop intended for seed. It is a great 
favourite here, as in many other establishments. 
Tomato, Golden Jubilee, planted in long boxes, was 
on trial, but not fruiting so freely as Conference. 
Another house, also devoted to the last-named, was 
quite attractive by reason of the heavy crop of fruit. 
Melon Little Heath occupied another structure 
close by. 
The rest of the houses in St. Peter’s Nursery were 
given up to flowers of a varied nature. A strain of 
Carnations known as Riviera Market had been 
flowering for the previous twelve months, and seemed 
likely to continue for some time. Tree Carnations 
occupied part of the house. Elsewhere, Gardenias 
in pots had been flowering since March, but a batch 
planted out had been even more continuous. 
A collection of flowering Cannas contained many 
grand varieties, amongst which very noticeable were 
C. aurea, golden-yellow ; Queen Charlotte, one of the 
most handsome of the edged varieties; Cheshunt 
Yellow ; the new and beautifully spotted Panachee ; 
Etendard, brilliant orange ; and Quasimodo, in the 
style of Mme. Crozy, but having larger flowers, and 
a dwarfer habit. 
Palms were the feature of another house and in¬ 
cluded such decorative subjects as Kentias, Sea- 
foMhias, Phoenix rupicola, Cocos weddeliana, being 
raised from seeds, Latania borbonica, and the pretty 
Thrinax elegans, in 48-size pots. A fine lot of 
Dracaena tf rminalis had been raised from cuttirigs in 
April. Eucharis grandiflora was also in good form. 
Greenhouse hybrid Rhododendrons for spring 
flowering were housed in a cool structure close by. 
The Old Nursery. 
This we should describe as a portion of the original 
nursery that was cut up by the laying out of new 
streets. Numerous houses contain a great variety of 
subjects. A late crop of Tomatos in pots occupied 
one. Then came a stock of named varieties of Ivies, 
Passifloras, Wistarias and other hard-wooded 
climbers of that nature. Bedding stock was abun¬ 
dant elsewhere. Bamboos, Camellias, and Teucrium 
fruticans divided the space of another house amongst 
them. A collection of all the best varieties of 
Fuchsia, grown in 48-size pots, next drew our 
attention ; as well as collections of Ivy-leaved Pelar¬ 
goniums, zonal Pelargoniums, Marguerites, Cycla¬ 
men. Zonals were also the feature of another house, 
including such fine things as Donald Beaton, orange ; 
Ethel Lewis, large, and pink; Perdita, salmon, and 
bearing its handsome flowers in large trusses ; Mme. 
Bondeville, light crushed strawberry, with a picotee 
edge ; Inverness, orange-pink, distinct and fine; and 
Dryden, carmine, with a white eye. 
Ferns and other foliage subjects required a house 
for their own particular treatment. Aspleniums t 
Pteris serrulata cristata and many other decorative 
forms, D:acaenas, Acalyphas, and Selaginella 
emiliana, represent subjects that are seldom absent 
when decorative work has to be carried out. The last- 
named is grown in great numbers in small pots. A 
collection of Bouvardias stood in the open air at that 
time. Batches of Gloxinias, and Smilax on strings 
were to be seen in different houses. 
Some of the houses in this nursery are devoted to 
fruit growing, a houseful of a Melon named Premier 
and another of Countess being grown for the sake of 
seed. The same might be said of a houseful of 
Cucumber Blendworth Perfection, smooth, dark 
green fruits of great length. Vines are also more or 
less extensively grown, one house containing a good 
crop of Black Hamburgh, Foster’s Seedling, Gros 
Colman and Madresfield Court just then ripening. 
Bower Nursery. 
A large vinery, in two divisions, is a notable feature 
of this nursery, which, although of moderate extent, 
contains a considerable variety, chiefly of hardy and 
also summer bedding subjects. The varieties of 
grapes here are Black Hamburgh, Madresfield Court, 
Muscat of Alexandria, and Alnwick Seedling, all then 
carrying a heavy crop, in bunches and berries of great 
size. The blue-black bloom upon Alnwick SeedliDg 
was very noticeable. 
Some bedding is annually carried out here on a piece 
of beautiful green sward. Viola Lemon Queen was 
flowering very profusely amongst Cannas in another 
part of the grounds; Viola William Niel and others 
were also doiDg well notwithstanding the great heat. 
A water tank filled with aquatics was also note¬ 
worthy. 
Hardy herbaceous plants are a decided feature of 
the Bower Nursery, of which they occupy a con¬ 
siderable portion, as is meet in these days when such 
subjects are so popular. Some idea of the nature of 
the collection may be afforded by the mention of a 
few of the subjects then in bloom. Coreopsis grandi¬ 
flora, Eryngium planum, Heleniums, Phloxes, and 
Sunflowers (Helianthus) are indispensable for the 
outdoor garden. The long-stalked and golden-yellow 
double flowers of Rudbeckia laciniata flore pleno are 
very handsome, and in the course of a few years this 
will be found in every representative collection of 
hardy plants. One of the most handsome of all the 
herbaceous Veronicas is V. longifolia subsessilis, with 
its large dark blue flowers. The Globe Thistles are 
represented by Echinops Ritro, E. sphaerocephalus, 
aDd others. The double Cherry flowers magnificently 
in spring. 
- «*> - 
PEOPLE I HAVE MET. 
Mr. E. Beckett, Aldenham House Gardens, 
Elstree. 
The statement or conviction has, I believe, been 
attributed to the late John Bright, that the safest 
place in the world is a seat in a Pullmann car, in 
the middle of an express train, going at sixty miles 
an hour. I quite believe it. I also venture to place 
on record that it is one of the warmest. It happened 
in this wise. Leaving York by what is colloquially 
known as the Scotch diner, one evening in November, 
in company with some of the judges who had been 
doing duty that day at York, I found myself engaged 
in a mild altercation with the car conductor because 
the seat I had booked had been elegantly and doubt¬ 
less innocently appropriated by someone else. That 
conductor is a born diplomat. He finally placed 
another seat at my disposal and I found myself 
vis-a-vis with my good friend Mr. Beckett who, like 
myself, was en route to Edinburgh. 
Now Mr. Beckett is a man of fortitude and 
patience. I am certain of this because the way in 
which he permitted himself to be worried and 
harrassed during his dinner by the importunities of 
a Press correspondent, i.e., myself, amply proves the 
thing. However, I did it; and here is the gist of my 
notes jotted down to the accompaniment of the roll 
and the swing of a Scotch express across the Border 
Bridge and along the coast line of the northern 
kingdom. 
Mr. Beckett owns up to being a native of Henley- 
on-Thames, near which place he was born in 1853. 
His grandfather and father before him were gar¬ 
deners, and he himself in his boyhood always 
evinced a love for the garden. His early training 
in this direction was under his father, after which 
he was sent to Marsh Mills Gardens to get instruc¬ 
tion at the hands of that able gardener, Mr. Neville. 
Young Beckett remained with him two years, and 
from there went to Greenlands, the then residence 
of the late W. H. Smith, M.P., and Greenlands, as 
we all know, has always been one of the best-kept 
places in the country. Mr. \V. H. Goad was head 
gardener there then, and to him Mr. Beckett attri¬ 
butes very much of his after success in life by 
reason of the experience and cleverness which he 
Mr. Edwin Beckett, 
possessed and ungrudgingly shared with his pupils. 
Mr. Goad was a great hand at hard-wooded 
plants. 
Thence our friend went to Esher, where, at the 
gardens of Wolseley Grange, Mr. Beckett, as fore¬ 
man, got a useful insight into the soft-wooded species 
such as show, fancy, and zonal Pelargoniums. Still 
ascending the ladder, we find him next as bailiff and 
head gardener at Moore Place, Esher, and it was here 
that he first entered the lists at Kingston and other 
shows. As gardener to J. P. Currie, Esq., at Sandown 
House, he was subsequently a large exhibitor, and 
whilst here had the honour of winning the late Duke 
of Albany's prize for a group of plants arrranged for 
effect. This, I know from the accounts of the com¬ 
petition,brought forth the best class of its kind seen for 
many a year, many of the leading London firms 
competing. 
In 1884 Mr. Beckett left to take charge of Alden¬ 
ham Park Gardens, Elstree, an establishment which 
has much extended during his time there, and 
even now vast alterations are in progress. For 
landscape gardening he has evinced a great 
taste and predilection, to exercise which Mrj 
Beckett has probably had an opportunity seldom met 
with. 
Questioned as to his competitive records I found 
that in sixty entries for twenty-four and twelve 
Japanese Chrysanthemums Mr. Beckett had only 
been beaten twice, and his successes on the fifty- 
eight occasions are chronicled in the records of the 
Royal Aquarium, Kingston, Richmond, WimbledoD, 
Twickenham, Watford, Luton, Hitchin, St. Albans, 
and other shows. As a student and practical hand 
in vegetable culture, my readers will also concede 
that he has made a good name, his awards in this 
section including many first prizes and the Gold 
Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society, and the 
Silver Cup at the Temple Show last May. 
As inventor and patentee of the famous Beckett 
Cup and Tube, Mr. Beckett's name is world-wide 
known. It is one of those useful inventions which 
has filled a want, and enjoys a large sale. In the 
literary field Mr. Beckett will shortly publish his 
first book, and as an authority on horticultural sub¬ 
jects, it is interesting to know that duriDg the past 
year he has had invitations to adjudicate at nearly 
forty shows. 
Our journey to Edinburgh was all too short, and 
Mr. Beckett’s opinion about modern Athens I must 
save for some future time. His photo in the mean¬ 
time will add another shining light to the portrait 
gallery of The Gardening World. — Gyp , 
