August 13, 1904. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
653 
Extraordinary Growth of Cytisus racemosus. 
Four years ago a. seedling of the above appeared in a bed 
of one of tihe greenhouses here', between the wall enclosing the 
bed and a diy wall enclosing space for Clematis to tram op 
iron, columns supporting the roof. The space between, the 
walls is 15in. wide. The bed was tilled in, many years ago 
about a foot deep with brickbats and the clearings up after 
the builder, and covered with cinder ashes,. The plant, of 
which a photo was taken—[here reproduced. —Ed.] —made its 
first break 12in. from the soil, the next 26in,., and the longest 
or main shoot from this break is 9ft. 6in. long. I presume 
the roots have taken possession of the couple of barrowloads 
of soil intended for the Clematis ; even then one would hardly 
expect sudh tremendous growth in one year 1 . The plant was 
covered with .flowers. 
Seven yards from it is a plant of Acacia, riceana, with 
stem 23in. in circumference at the base, from which we have 
had to cut large limbs on several occasion® to prevent it push¬ 
ing its way through the roof. This wasi planted more than, 
twenty years ago, in a space 31 in. by 14im., enclosed on. one 
side by a dry brick wall, which was meant to be moved, and 
good soil added, but there was no need 1 for it, for the plant 
grew so rapidly that in, a short tune it had reached the roof 
and down each side of the span. This points to me that some 
plant® are mot particular as to, the nature of the' pabulum pro¬ 
vided for them so long as there is plenty of it, for at the 
opposite side from the Acacia, we had till recently Bignonia 
Cherere planted in a similar manner, and if felt to ramble 
it would in a dozen years have covered half the roof, hut we 
confined it to one-sixth. W. P. R. 
Guerdon Hall, Preston. 
Clerodendron fallax. 
This handsome species of the shrubby 'derodendrons is un¬ 
doubtedly one of the most beautiful of our flowering stove 
plants'. Apart from the fact of it being generally considered 
a stove plant, it may be advantageously flowered in, the green¬ 
house. Its handsome, cordate, deep green leaves and terminal 
panicles of intense scarlet flowers add quite a charm to the 
stove during the dull autumn months, and is quite a feature in 
itself when employed amongst other plants for furnishing the 
greenhouse during the spring and summer months. 
Its mode of cultivation is simple, being readily propagated 
from cuttings obtained from the old plants which have been cut 
back after flowering. 
By varying the time a,t which the cuttings are put irn plants 
may be had in flower at almost any time of the year. The 
cuttings should be procured when about 4 inches long, inserted 
singly in 3in. pots tilled with a, good sandy compost, and placed 
in the propagating case, which should have a bottom heat of 
about 70 degrees. After the cuttings are well rooted, they 
should be potted on into various size pots as the state of the 
roots permits, using a good compost of fibrous loam, leaf soil, 
and peat, with a, liberal addition of sand. For the final shift 
8in. pots will he found most suitable for producing fine 'healthy 
plants. Frequent syringings during bright sunny weather 
will tend to ward off the attacks of red spider and tlirip which 
this class of plant's are subject to. Occasional applications of 
soot water and diluted liquid manurei will be found most benefi¬ 
cial to the plants after they have become well established :n 
their flowering pots, helping them to produce dense panicles of 
flower-. 
The subsequent treatment of the 1 plants after flowering con¬ 
sists in cutting them back rather hard, removing some of the 
old soil from the ball of the plant and repotting into smaller 
size pots, and growing them on in a. similar way as stated tor 
plants obtained from cuttings. F. G. T, 
Readers’ Competition. —Particulars of weekly prize' see 
centre page. 
Round the Nurseries. 
Wordsley and Kinvcr. 
On the 5th inst. a large party of journalists met at Stour¬ 
bridge with the intention ; of visiting the plant ranges at Words¬ 
ley and the Kinver seed farms of Messrs. E. Webb and Sons, 
Wordsley, Stourbridge. These visitors represented agricul¬ 
ture as well as horticulture, and, of course, had very varied 
objects in view. This may be imagined from the fact that the 
farms at Kinver extend to 1,500 acres, forming a great expanse 
of land situated a,t a high elevation,, but rolling and here and 
there dipping down to the surrounding valleys. Splendid 
views are obtained from the higher part® of Kinver, as the land 
Cytisus fragrans (syn. C. racemosus.) 
is, only partially wooded within the range of" vision, except for 
the tall hedge trees surrounding the fields, so that the eye 
ranged over miles of cultivated land, where the harvest was 
just commencing and is now ini full swing. 
Wordsley. 
In the morning the party were driven to Wordsley to inspect 
the extensive ranges of warehouses for the storage of seeds of’ 
all kinds,, and where the glasshouses for the culture of florists 
flowers; are situated. In passing through the latter, we noted 
that the herbaceous Calceolarias still showed a few blooms on 
some of the latest plants, and a heavy crop of seed was being 
harvested. These Calceolarias have several times been shown 
at London and other exhibitions, and some illustrations, show¬ 
ing their excellent, 'habit and cultivation, have been given in 
t~> 
The Gardening W t orld. 
A considerable area of glass was devoted to the cultivation 
of tuberous Begonias,. The single, and double varieties were in 
very good form, although grown in pots of small size. The 
variety of colours was exceedingly numerous, but we were par- 
