April 14, 1900 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
523 
EVERLASTING FLOWERS OR 
IMMORTELLES. 
The repeated writing upon the culture of these dry- 
flowered plants is in only a few cases disparaged. 
This may arise from the knowledge of how partial 
are the possessors of small gardens to the class of 
flowering annuals which, for little care, furnish their 
homes and other places with flowers from Nature, 
whose pretty tones fade not quickly. Year by year, 
the growers of immortelles increase in multitude ; 
year by year, a greater variety of everlasting plants 
are chosen and cultural hints are in recjtest. To the 
business man—he who caters for and supplies the 
seeds and plants to our cultivators—there is need for 
his energy to add to and increase the selection of 
plants, easy to raise and grow, and whose flowers 
are sweet and long-lasting. 
Rhodanthes. —Well - flowered potfuls of these 
pink-coloured composites in a dwelling-house win¬ 
dow provides a sight in every way satisfactory and 
pleasing. The seeds of R. Manglesii (also known as 
Helipterum Manglesii) may be sown thinly on the 
surface of rich and porous soil previously prepared 
and filled into 5 in. pots. A thin screening over 
them is all that they further require. Having 
watered the pots by the use of a very fine rosed-can, 
panes of glass should be put over the tops of the 
pots, and these then placed on a light shelf in a 
Peach house, a greenhouse, or any little glass¬ 
house (even a dwelling-room window case) which 
has a temperature of 58° and upwards to 62°. There 
is no need to detail more. If the usual precautions 
in airing, thinning, and staking are taken, and care 
specially given to prevent the young plants from 
becoming spindly, nice flowered plants will result in 
from eight to ten weeks from sowing. Seeds may 
also be sown in open air beds in June. 
Helichrysums. —As a class, the fore-named are 
too tall and coarse for pot culture. For filling odd 
corners in the hardy plant borders, and for sowing 
between lines of ornamental shrubs, clipped Hollies 
and such like, which one at times may see used as 
divisional belts between borders, or for large beds, 
the Helichrysums are very suitable objects. A 
sowing should be made in shallow boxes at once, the 
seedlings which result being pricked off for planting 
out whenever the plants, the land, and the weather 
are deemed in a fit state. In June, an outdoor 
sowing may be made. Cut the blooms before they 
fully expand and hang them up (head down) in an airy 
shed to dry. When a number of flowers are on the 
plants and the season is advanced, the plants may be 
lifted root and stump. They are used for bouquets 
and are otherwise arranged. An annual sowing 
should be made. 
Acroclinium roseum and its varieties album and 
grandiflorum may have the same outdoor treatment 
as for Helichrysums. An August sowing in pots 
supplies winter flowering plants. Acrocliniums grow 
1 ft, or 2 ft. high, bearing their composite flower- 
heads terminally on separate stalks. They are suit¬ 
able also for spring window boxes. 
Ammobiums. —Though not so pretty to my mind 
as the Rhodanthe still one Jikes to speak well of an 
old favourite. The flowers are borne in panicles, 
those of A. alatum being nearly pure white, and a 
variety of this named grandiflorum has larger blooms 
and is equally white. The Ammobiums are not quite 
so hardy as those previously mentioned. The plants 
reach 18 ins. high and are not fastidious in their 
demands. 
Xeranthemum annuum.' —This purple bloomer 
reaches 2 ft. high. Seeds may be sown during May 
for planting out at the end of that month. There 
are now a few pretty varieties of this plant. 
Waitzias. —Although this represents a genus of 
pretty flowering immortelles and affords plenty of 
nice species and varieties to pick and choose from, it 
cannot be said that they are well-known. It is, 
therefore, all the more necessary to make a citation. 
W. corymbosa, W. aurea, and W. grandiflora might 
be selected, and their culture resolves itself simply 
into giving the care in the raising, which should be 
under glass, and not until the end of June should 
they be placed outdoor for decoration. They make 
nice greenhouse plants for the summer. Morna, 
which used to be distinct, is now included with 
Waitzia. The plants are dwarf, that is, 1 ft. to 
ij ft. in height, the flowers being held in terminal 
corymbs and are in shape, rounded or head-like. 
The foregoing then, describes the chief genera of 
annual plants with lasting flowers,— D. K. 
NURSERY VISITS. 
Messrs. Kerr Bros., Dumfries. 
The nursery grounds of this well-known Dumfries 
firm are not extensive, but what there is of them is 
well stocked. Though the Messrs. Kerr are general 
hardy plantsmen and seed-traders, their specialities 
are Dahlias, Carnations and Violas. These, especially 
the former, they grow in liberal quantity and in such 
a way that they are enabled to offer collections of 
varieties to suit all buyers at a very moderate rate 
indeed. 
On a recent visit to their grounds at Mildamhead, 
Dumfries, we had the sa'isfaction of seeing how 
thousands and thousands of Dahlias in all their sec¬ 
tions are quickly propagated and grown on. The 
matured tubers which furnish the cuttings are laid 
closely together on benches, the cuttings being taken 
as soon as they are an inch or two long. The cut¬ 
tings, of course, strike readily in sandy soil, these 
also being closely inserted. When rooted, they are 
potted off into 52-size pots, and are soon ready for 
the cold frames from which they are selected to 
furnish orders. 
Among Violas, there were to be seen a number of 
new varieties, the result of crosses made by Mr. 
James Kerr, who superintends the nursery depart¬ 
ment. Upon the merits of these it is impossible at 
the present time to give an opinion. The only fact 
to be expressed is, that the entire stock of Violas 
is sturdy, healthy, and at present promises well. 
Double Begonias in their season are also a feature, 
the flowers having been noted from various parts as 
of exceptional size and quality. 
Early flowering Chrysanthemums which are every¬ 
where being more and more extensively grown, were 
seen in array second only to the Dahlias. Provided 
good plants are secured to start with, there is abso¬ 
lutely no reason why any one, amateur gardener as 
well as professional, should not succeed with early 
Chrysanthemums. And no class of autumn flowering 
plants surpasses them for brightness, freshness or 
floriferousness. 
Then in other of the glasshouses were to be seen 
the usual supplies of popular decorative plants, such 
as Palms, Araucarias, Aspidistras, Ophiopogon 
Jaburan variegatus, Asparaguses, Roses (which are 
seen in considerable amount and good) and Callas 
with many other subjects. A brisk local trade causes 
active demand on the nursery resources to supply 
decorative pot plants and cut bloom for shop work 
and floral arrangements. 
In conclusion, one must not omit to refer to Kerr's 
Prizetaker Tomato. This variety is of recent intro¬ 
duction, and everywhere it has met with approval. 
Being of exceptional size, good appearance, and fine 
flavour exhibitors largely adopt it as proved by its 
appearance at the most prominent of the west coast 
shows. 
Among vegetables, the Messrs. Kerr have for long 
devoted themselves to the selecting and improving of 
Potatos, and their list of seed stocks is replete with 
the best of tried sorts besides having a yearly novelty 
or two to offer. 
It is always a pleasure to notice the efforts of 
energetic firms, although, as has been said before, 
the present is not the most opportune time. 
--*»*<-- 
VEGETABLE GROWING IN A LONDON 
GARDEN. 
During the last few years Mr. Keif, gardener at 
South Villa, Regent’s Park, London, has shown 
what fine fruit can be grown in a garden within four 
miles of Charing Cross, by the fine collections he 
has exhibited before the Royal Horticultural 
Society. 
It is not my intention to illustrate this feature of 
the garden, but to show that good vegetables are 
grown here also. Although I reside in the West of 
England, I had an opportunity of seeing this garden 
twice during the last year—in May, and again at the 
end of October. In this way I had a good oppor¬ 
tunity of seeing the crops. 
At the time of my visit (end of May), there was a 
grand lot of dwarf Early Peas growing on a border 
facing south-west in full bloom. I never have seen 
Peas look in finer health, and giving promise of fine 
returns. The following were the kinds, and Mr. 
Keif kindly promised to send me the dates of gather¬ 
ing, which he did as follows :—First dish, gathered 
from American Wonder, June 17th ; Sutton's Seed¬ 
ling, June 23rd ; and Chelsea Gem, June 26th. All 
were sown at the same time, and in bloom within a 
few days of each other. As far as I could judge 
Chelsea Gem promise! to give the largest crop. I 
was told early Peas were always a fine crop. 
In the open were fine rows of Pea May Queen. 
Cauliflowers were very fine, giving promise of a good 
return. Lettuces and other salads looked well. 
When I saw the crops again in October, I was 
surprised to see them givmg such good returns. 
Celery does remarkably well. Roots were fine, as 
were many green crops. 
No doubt green crops suffer during the winter 
from fogs, &c. It was most interesting to me to see 
what may be done by perseverance even in a garden 
so closely shut in as this one is. Some may think 
how can there be room in a thickly populated dis¬ 
trict for a garden, and may imagine these remarks 
apply to a small row of this and the other. This is 
not so, the garden being large enough to supply a 
good sized family. If my memory serves me the 
whole place is about 12 acres in extent. 
There are many who have a small garden in large 
towns who would find vegetable culture interesting 
and a relaxation from their daily calling. It is a 
source of much pleasure to grow things even pro¬ 
viding you can buy them as cheaply. Strawberries 
do well here in the open. It was most pleasing 
to see so many old border plants thriving 
in the grounds, and as you walked round you 
might have thought you were fifty miles from 
London had it not been from the noise in the 
streets.— J. C., F., Chard. 
-- 
UNDER GARDENERS AND THEIR 
GRIEVANCES. 
Your leading article on this subject, in your issue of 
the 7th inst., is teeming with facts which should be 
read and thoroughly digested, as it were, by head 
gardeners, as well as subordinates; and I think all 
readers of The Gardening World will agree that 
the worthy Editor, whenever a chance crops up, is 
always ready to plead for the gardener, be he head or 
under, and at the same time endeavours to instil it 
into his mind that self-examination and self-improve¬ 
ment are real necessaries at the present day if one 
wishes to reach the top of the ladder in horticulture. 
All of us who have shared in bothy life well know 
it is not all honey, more especially in such places 
where one or other of the journeymen has to act as 
cook and scullery-maid during the week he is on 
duty, which time should have been spent in acquir¬ 
ing a fuller knowledge of his profession. Happily 
these are becoming less and less each year, and in 
their place departments are being put up more or 
less in conformity with the times ; and in many in¬ 
stances bath-rooms, as well as libraries, are included 
in the scheme, with a woman attendant each day 
except the 7th. It will, I fear, be too much to 
expect in general, such comforts just mentioned, 
though there is plenty of room for improvement in 
a number of good private places even now, the 
writer of these notes having had to rough it in more 
than one place. After all, it is not so much a 
question of bothy as of £. s. d. with some of these 
young gardeners, I am afraid. Let the former be 
ever so comfortable and convenient, a good percent¬ 
age of them are only too ready to leave it 
if they see a chance of an extra two shillings or so 
per week more, regardless of which is the best place 
to gain knowledge of their profession. As for the 
bothy, well, they never thought of that as long as 
there was a chance of swelling the exchequer. I 
know these are facts, several instances coming under 
my notice at different times. I cannot quite fall in 
with the young gardener’s idea that they are under¬ 
paid in comparison with other trades or professions. 
What apprentices, except young gardeners, at the 
age of eighteen to twenty, draw a wage from twelve 
to sixteen shillings per week, added to this, bothy, 
milk, and vegetables free, which, at the lowest figure, 
is worth another three shillings weekly ? Very few 
I am thinking. No, it is not the under gardeners 
that are underpaid, but the head one in the majority 
of places, on whom all responsibility rests, and the 
teaching of those under him as to the way he wishes 
the work carried out, no easy task with some who 
fancy they know best. As to unskilled labourers 
demanding a higher wage than journeymen garden¬ 
ers, is feasible enough, the former knowing that there 
is but little chance of improving their position, 
while the latter, at the very outset, though working 
for a smallish wage up to about twenty-seven or so, 
plod on in high hopes of receiving a more remunera- 
