September 19, 1896. THE GARDENING WORLD. 43 
HERBACEOUS FLOWERS FOR 
COMPETITION. 
In reply to “ Plantsman ” (p. 28), one reason I have 
for objecting to the inclusion of Lilies in hardy 
herbaceous collections is that in most cases they are 
grown in pots and flowered under glass. All those 
mentioned by “ Plantsman,” I am aware are good 
and quite hardy, doing well in most seasons out of 
doors. This also holds good for Lilium auratum, L. 
Harrisii, etc., often seen in hardy collections; but 
who can tell whether they have been treated as pot 
plants or cut from the open border ? True they can be 
grown in the open, and with a covering of glass or 
tiffany can be tolerably well represented, and maybe 
as clean and well grown as those flowered in pots 
under glass. It is annoying to say the least of it, 
when one sees fine heads of L. auratum, L. Harrisii, 
and many of the varieties mentioned by " Plantsman” 
doing duty in stands of hardy herbaceous flowers, 
when it is perfectly well known they have been 
flowered under glass. Instances of this are for ever 
cropping up where Lilies are allowed in this sort of 
competition, and I certainly think those societies do 
well who exclude them for the above reason. They 
should certainly not get the cold shoulder altogether 
but should get a class to themselves as they are well 
worthy of encouragement whether grown indoors or 
in the open border.— Coila. 
- «l - - 
VIOLAS. 
We have been much interested in the report of the 
"Viola Conference” and other matters in The 
Gardening World respecting these very beautiful 
and useful bedding plants, and are much pleased 
with the revived interest that is being taken in them- 
Since the time that they were so prominently brought 
into notice by the liberal use made of them in the 
spring gardening so ably carried out many years 
back at Cliveden, the interest in them has ebbed and 
flowed like the fashions of ladies’ bonnets, and the 
only explanation that can be given as to why they 
have apparently fallen into the background in 
popular favour several times during the last thirty 
or forty years is to assign it to a mere freak of 
fashion. They certainly have not decreased in 
either beauty or usefulness. Some twenty-five or 
more years since they were frequently shown in 
baskets in the miscellaneous groups at the large 
London shows, and always attracted a good deal of 
attention. This is by far the best way of exhibiting 
them, and with ordinary care in lifting them and 
placing them on a bed of damp moss at the bottom 
of the baskets they can be packed closely, and present 
a mass of flower equal to any seen in a bed at any 
time. We have made the same baskets do duty at 
several shows in succession, and this plan gives the 
public a fair chance of seeing the habit of any 
particular variety exhibited. Their value as bedding 
plants consists in their freedom of flowering more 
than in the size of individual blooms ; and we maintain 
that showing the plants in flower, rather than single 
blooms or any arrangement of them, either in bunches 
or sprays, is the thing that the Viola Society should 
encourage. 
It is a notable fact that among our cultivated 
flowers there are in all sections a few that come to 
the front and hold their position in public favour. 
This is notably the case among Roses. Look at 
Gloire de Dijon and General Jacqueminot, which 
came out in the same year ; and among Violas the 
same rule holds good. For instance, Bluebell, one 
of the earlier of the tufted Pansies as some delight 
to call them, is still popular and possibly as largely 
grown as any. 
There is one cultural point we insist upon in our 
own practice, which many we believe neglect; that 
is the constant removal of all seed vessels. Picking 
all withering flowers off is the best plan, as it makes 
things doubly sure. This promotes continuous 
flowering, and is especially desirable during a dry 
season. We raise a fresh stock from cuttings every 
autumn, finding it gives better results than dividing 
the old plants, and prefer autumn planting when it is 
possible to carry it out. Last autumn we planted 
beds of them over Hyacinths, with an edging of 
Crocus, and owing to the mild open winter there has 
rarely been a time from then unto the present 
moment when these beds were flowerless ; whilst all 
through the spring and summer, till dashed about 
lately by the heavy rains, they have been a mass of 
colour. True, during the hot dry weather they were 
well watered, but then nothing would do with us 
unless it received some amount of attention in 
the same respect. With a little management they 
can be made to do almost anywhere, although a rich 
moist soil is the most suitable, and like almost 
everything else in the hardy flower garden they like 
generous treatment. Those having to do with light 
sandy soil should, if possible, give them some turfy 
loam and well-decomposed cow manure. Very heavy 
soils may be made more suitable by the addition of 
decayed stable manure and a good dressing of coarse 
sand or road drift. They are rarely troubled with 
insect pests above ground, but wireworm is in some 
places troublesome. These should be trapped with 
pieces of Carrot on a short stick inserted just below 
the surface. This will draw the wireworm from the 
plants, when they can easily be found and destroyed 
by lifting the bait out of the ground. The stick 
marks the position of the bait and serves as a handle 
to it. 
There is at present a large number of varieties to 
choose from. Those who wish to take up the culti¬ 
vation of them will do well to visit some establish¬ 
ment where they are grown and choose for themselves. 
We think, owing to want of interest in them by the 
gardening fraternity, many really good and beautiful 
things have been lost to cultivation. We well 
remember seeing Mr. Grey's varieties at the 
Eglington Castle—some of them very beautiful— 
over twenty years back, and think that with few 
exceptions they are lost. The Scotch climate is 
certainly more favourably to them in the general run 
of seasons, but with ordinary care and trouble they 
can be made to do equally as well in the south, as 
has been amply demonstrated over and over again.— 
USE AND ABUSE OF THE PRUNING 
KNIFE. 
This instrument in the hands of a careful and 
observant operator may be very useful, and doubt, 
less is indispensable to successful culture; but on 
the other hand, what an expensive article it is when 
used by the thoughtless and ignorant, like George 
Washington, who, as I remember reading in my 
school books, used his hatchet on his fathers trees 
simply for the sake of cutting and with equally 
disastrous results. How many crops might not be 
saved and valuable food procured by a few minutes 
reflection ? But it seems that some folks with a pair 
of secateurs or a knife, must clip, clip, clip, indis¬ 
criminately, without a thought or a look at 
Nature’s wonderful way of working. As an instance, 
a gentleman, wishing to make his garden profitable 
(and he had every advantage a well-drained loamy 
soil could give him), planted about eight or nine 
years ago, a number of standard Apples, Plums, and 
Pears in variety. Of course they grew luxuriantly. 
Each autumn and winter they were all carefully 
pruned, the stronger the growth the harder they were 
cut. Each year found them thicker with twigs (very 
useful pot flower stakes) and leaves, but very little 
fruit. About three years ago the garden changed 
owners, and in the winter of ’94, when I took charge 
of the garden, the knife had done its work. Take a 
stout twig and a blunt knife and make a cut upwards 
obliquely, at the same time bending the twig; that 
portion below the knife will split three or four times. 
Such was the state of these trees when I first made 
their acquaintance, with good patches of American 
blight, with their swollen, knobby sores festering the 
old wounds on the Apples and Pears at any rate. 
The Plums had been treated exactly as the Apples 
and Pears, and the first summer growths, 4 ft., 5 ft., 
and 6 ft. long were made and very little or 
no fruit. The two following winters I simply 
thinned out the growth from the centre of the trees, 
not too hard the first year, and admitted 
air and light, taking out all weak and useless growth, 
also branches that crossed and intertwined or pointed 
towards the centre of the tree, allowing the strongest 
shoots to remain their full length. At the same time 
I had a trench dug around the tree about 2 ft. deep 
and 3 ft. 6 in. away from the stem. 
As a result of such treatment the trees are this 
year almost without exception heavily laden with fine 
fruit, particularly Victoria and Gisborne’s Plums, 
indeed, so much so that I was obliged to support the 
branches, many that I could not prop in time, breaking 
down. Indeed, even now after the fruit is gathered, 
the trees, instead of being as formerly with 
branches and twigs erect, have assumed quite a 
pendulous appearance. It appears very plain that 
had the original planter of those Plum trees kept 
his knife in his pocket, they would not have required 
nine years to perfect a crop of fruit.— A. P. 
-- 5 -- 
MILLFIELD NURSERY. 
Probably the most of our readers have never heard 
of the Millfield Nursery, but like the Dyson’s Lane 
Nurseries, it belongs to Mr. H. B. May, well known 
as a fern cultivator of the first order. The Millfield 
Nursery, within a mile of the Dyson’s Lane 
establishment, was originally started for the purpose 
of fruit growing, and that is its leading feature yet, 
but an overflow from the other place has found its 
way here. 
We passed through the vineries recently and found 
that the Gros Colman grape was the most popular, 
house after house being filled with it. There was no 
preparation of soil by the introduction of fresh 
material for the vines, which were simply planted in 
the qatural soil, a good brick earth of a reddish 
colour. It is very fertile judging from the appear¬ 
ance of the crop. Two bunches are allowed upon 
each lateral; but as the shoulders are taken off at the 
time of thinning, the bunches are moderate in size, 
and average about i£ lb. each. This is done for 
appearance sake in packing the bunches, which must 
all be of uniform outline. This is the third year of 
cropping, and the vines bear a heavy crop though 
not overloaded. The same conditions prevailed in 
four other vineries we passed through, the chief 
difference being a week or two between the stages 
of maturity of the grapes in each respective case. 
There would be something between ij tons and 
2 tons of fruit in each house, no mean harvest indeed. 
The fifth house had heavier bunches, if anything, 
than the rest, the vines evidently having made more 
progress since planting. 
From thence we passed into a Muscat house 
fruiting for the first time, and bearing heavy bunches 
on the lower half of the rods, one or two being 
allowed to each lateral. Next to this came a mixed 
house in which were three rods of Alicante, two of 
Gros Colman and the rest Muscat of Alexandria of 
two seasons growth, and bearing some bunches on 
the current season’s leading shoots. Alongside of 
this was a house of Tomato Chemin, bearing a 
heavy crop of fruit, being harvested as it ripened. 
By the side of this was a houseful of young plants 
2 ft. to 3ft. high for a succession. 
Roses form an item at the Millfield Nursery, and 
we entered a house containing Tea Roses 8 ft. to 
g ft. high, and grown in large 32-size pots. Amongst 
many others, we noted well-grown samples of 
Climbing Niphetos, Celine Forestier, Marechal Niel, 
Crimson Rambler, etc. Very beautiful were some¬ 
thing like 2,000 to 3,000 plants of Ampelopsis 
Veitchi, grown in 48-sized pots,and all neatly trained 
to stakes of one height. While wending our way 
through structures of various kinds we had evidence 
of the value of Tomatos, for they occupied nine long 
double-light frames, and were fruiting well. Here 
were McGregor's seedling and some crosses effected 
with The Conference by which heavier cropping 
sorts were obtained. 
Ferns are largely grown here of the more common 
and useful market kinds. The structures in which 
these are grown are low, but the pathway is deeply 
sunk in tne ground thus affording facilities for the 
workmen attending to the plants, and at the same 
time making it an easier matter to maintain a moist 
atmosphere in the home. Here we observed a 
houseful of Cyrtomium falcatum in 48-sized pots, 
consisting of capitally grown stuff. The freest of 
the forms of Pteris grown for market is the new P. 
Wimsettii, raised from spores and now in 48’s, the 
regular market size. It is a beautiful compact 
habited Fern with peculiarly cut fronds of a leathery 
character. There was a houseful of it, for it finds a 
ready sale, and is particularly useful for decorative 
purposes. A third house was occupied with Poly¬ 
podium aureum and Pteris tremula; a fourth with 
Pteris cretica albo-lineata, and P. c. cristata, both 
standard varieties for market work; a fifth with 
Adiantum cuneatum, and A. elegans, notable for its 
dwarf habit; and a sixth house with Maidenhair 
Fern mixed with some other kinds for the sake of 
variety. Pteris cretica major, P. c. albo-lineata, and 
P. c. cristata, were the varieties used in the making 
of this pleasing combination of two Ferns in one pot. 
