690 
THE QARDENINQ WORLD 
8ept,3mber 2, 1905. 
PLATFORM - - - 
Station Gardens 
On the Midland Railway. 
— 1 * 0 * 1 — 
(Sec Illustrations on pages 694 and 695.) 
It- was a capital idea, so far as tlie public 
are concerned, and a sagacious one from the 
point of view of the shareholders of the com¬ 
pany, when, in 1884, the directorate, of the 
Midland Railway decided to offer prizes for 
the best-kept station gardens along their line. 
To those who are not alighting the frequent 
stops at wayside stations are often tedious, but 
compensation for the delay is provided when, 
in place of gazing from the window on bare 
walls or palings, or maybe an uninteresting 
weed-grown bank, one may feast the tired eyes 
for a moment or so on a tastefully-arranged 
and well-ordered garden aglow with flowers. 
The experience comes often as a pleasant sur¬ 
prise, and is grateful and comforting after 
the optic-wearying rush past meadow lands 
and endless acres of growing crops. 
For intending passengers who have wisely 
put in an appearance before the train it robs 
the wait at the station of all its discomfort 
and irritation. The occasional glimpse of these 
gay gardens in such unlikely environment de¬ 
prives a journey of some of its inevitable 
monotony, and where there is railway coinpe>- 
tition the existence of pretty gardens along 
the line often influences people in their deci¬ 
sion as to which line they shall use. It costs 
the railway company comparatively little in 
the way of prizes, and + he policy of offering 
these prizes tends to imbue the station- 
master with a pride in the appearance of his 
station, and in more ways than one is calcu¬ 
lated to make a better servant of the com¬ 
pany. This incentive held out by the railway 
company to add to the attractiveness of their 
stations results in other advantages which 
might be mentioned, but sufficient has been 
said to show that the practice is in every way 
excellent, and well worthy of being imitated 
by those companies who consider, or appa¬ 
rently consider, such matters beneath their 
attention. 
The premier line in the kingdom, the 
London and North-Western, has no station 
gardens, and offers no encouragement to 
their station-masters to meddle with horti¬ 
culture. Possibly these very practical men 
are of opinion that railway stations and 
aesthetics are incompatible, but the travelling 
public would doubtless be glad if that opinion 
were altered. 
The other day I set out to visit some of 
the prize-winning stations in the annual com¬ 
petition promoted by the Midland Railway 
Company. A professional photographer 
accompanied me, he being equipped with some 
portentous-looking impedimenta in the shape 
of a big camera and some of the immediately 
necessary accessories of his art, and I with 
a notebook and pencil tucked conveniently 
away in a side pocket. 
Ecktngton. 
Our first objective was Eckington, a pretty 
little village on the navigable banks of the 
Avon, nine miles south of Worcester, on the 
Bristol and Birmingham branch of the Mid¬ 
land Railway. 
Alien the train by which we had arrive! 
had steamed off. we approached Mr. W. E. 
Parsons, the station-master, and acquainted 
him with our errand, at which he expressed 
himself gratified, and I daresay felt duly 
honoured. 
Our time here was necessarily short, as we 
had to catch an early train back to the 
cathedral city of Worcester or else wait for 
several hours before we could resume our 
journey. Accordingly, the camera was 
mounted on its lanky tripod, and the lense 
focussed on the pretty view which is repro¬ 
duced, together with others, in the centre 
pages of this number of The Gardening 
World. 
The front wall and part of the side walls 
of Mr. Parsons’ dwelling-house are covered 
with white Roses, which earlier in the season, 
we were told, had bloomed profusely. Under 
the central telegraph pole is a little square 
plot, which can be but indifferently seen in 
the photograph, the middle bed of which 
takes the form of a Maltese cross, and con¬ 
tained a display of Harry Hiover Geraniums, 
Mesembryanthemum cordifolium, Echeverias, 
Pyre thrums, and blue Lobelias. The side beds 
were planted with some line scarlet Gerai- 
niums, double Begonias, Cannas, and Ama- 
ranthus, edged with Pyrethrums and Lobelias, 
while the back fence was covered with Tro- 
paeolum canariensis, Cobaea scandens (white 
and purple), and Tropaeolum lobbianum. 
A border over 100 yards in length extends 
from this tiny but effective enclosure down 
the whole length of the platform and beyond 
it, and makes an excellent display, which at 
once arrests the eye of travellers. Here were 
set out in orderly array, and flowering as 
though they had not experienced an excep¬ 
tionally dry season, scarlet and other Gera¬ 
niums, Mesembryanthemum cordifolium, 
Dwarf French Marigolds, Scabious and 
Helichrysum mixed with Zea japonica, and 
with Lobelia of the compact variety for an 
edging. Moreover, the border contained 
about eighty standard Roses, which, I was 
assured, and could well believe, had a few 
weeks previously made a- splendid show. 
Amongst these were Catherine Mermet, La 
France, L’ldeal, Baroness Rothschild, Gap- 
tain Christy, Gloire de Dijon, W. A. 
Richardson, Lamarque, and Belle Lyonnaise. 
The furthest end of the border was filled 
with Stocks, Asters, French and African 
Marigolds, Zinnias, Dahlias, Gladiolus, 
Perillas, Scabious, etc. On the opposite side 
of the line there is another border which was 
planted with Calceolarias, Geraniums, Asters, 
a band of rich purple-foliaged Perillas, and 
some more good Roses, the whole with a bright 
edging of blue Lobelias. The platform lamp- 
posts were effectively garbed in climbing vari¬ 
coloured Nasturtiums and Canary Creepers, 
Altogether the gardens on both sides of the 
line contain upwards of 7,000 plants and 
bushes, and the admirable manner in which 
they were arranged, the order and neatness 
displayed, and the splendid condition of the 
blooms, to say nothing of the immense amount 
of time and labour which must have been 
entailed in producing such results, well 
entitled Mr. Parsons to the first prize of 
£8 10s. Largely, of course, the work is a 
labour of love, for it is obvious that the cost 
involved in making and maintaining such a 
garden could not be covered by such a sum 
of money. 
Five Wats. 
The next call in our tour of inspection was 
at Five Ways, Edgbaston, on the outskirts of 
Birmingham. Here is provided an object- 
lesson in what determination, allied to the 
necessary knowledge, can do under the most 
unpromising conditions. The station on one 
side is more or less overshadowed by factories 
and other buildings, and on the other by an 
embankment, for the rails here are laid prac¬ 
tically in a cutting. New Street tunnel opens 
immediately on to this station, and in certain 
unfavourable states of the atmosphere which 
prevail the major portion of the year every 
train which emerges from the tunnel drags 
after if a dense volume of sulphurous smoke, 
which hangs about the platforms, and is only 
partially dissipated before another train 
comes along, followed by more smoke. When, 
ten years ago, Mr. R. B. Knight was ap¬ 
pointed station-master at Five Ways, he re¬ 
solved to beautify the station by means of 
gardens, and, what is more, to take part in 
the floral competition organised by the Mid¬ 
land Railway Company. He was laughed at, 
but that did not deter him. The photograph 
of Five Ways Station which we give shows 
only a portion, but the principal and most 
elaborate portion, of the gardens which Mr. 
Knight has created. This strip of land be¬ 
tween the two walls, with a. railway above it 
and a railway below it, was, when he took it 
in hand, scarcely more than a rubbish heap, 
and without a particle of soil. But he set 
courageously to work, and stuck to the appa¬ 
rently hopeless self-imposed task until from 
the dismal waste, and by dint of indefatigable 
and loving labour and an uncommon talent 
for gardening Under the circumstances, he 
produced a garden which has surprised and 
delighted everyone who has seen it, more 
especially those who appreciate the difficulties 
he has overcome. Birmingham people are 
astonished at this horticultural achievement, 
by which Mr. Knight has earned great local 
celebrity. And more than that, every year in 
the decade of years during which he has been 
station-master at Five Ways he lias been 
awarded a prize by the Midland Railway 
Company. This is a very notable distinction, 
and of which Mr. Knight has every reason 
to be very proud. 
Each succeeding year, for that part of the 
garden represented in cur photograph, there 
is a new and elaborate design, in the planning 
of which Mr. Knight exhibits much ingenuity” 
for it cannot be said that the scope is great. 
This year the centre piece takes the form of a 
half-circle, with a rockery at the apex. Below 
and around this are massed scarlet Gera¬ 
niums ; then come lengthening ribbons of 
yellow Calceolarias, silver-leaf Geraniums, 
Peril la nankinensis, Pyrethrums, and finally 
blue Lobelias. The semi-circular patterns on 
either side contain dwarf red Antirrhinums, 
small Fuchsias, dark-leaved Geraniums, 
Lobelias, and Pyrethrums. The figures 1905, 
which stand out so well, are formed with 
Echeverias. To the extreme right and left 
were capital displays of Begonias (Begonia 
hybrida) and Fuchsias, and the remaining 
spaces are filled up with mammoth Verbenas, 
African Marigolds, Asters, Antirrhinums, 
Aggeratums, dwarf Pompon Dahlias, single 
Gaillardia, Jacobaeas (the crimson, white, and 
purple Senecios admirably contrasting), 
Petunias, Pentstemons, Diantlnis Heddewigii 
(Japan ^ Pink), Sweet Scabious, Gladiolus 
(Com Ilag), Ricinus (Castor Oil plant), Ten- 
w'eek Stock, and Nasturtiums in various 
shades of red and yellow, as well as several 
varieties of half-hardy Grasses. This is a 
