October 7, 1905. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
787 
purple flower with ragged petals; Trafalgar, 
scarlet; Modesty, pink with cream centre; 
Mrs. Geo. Stevenson, fine yellow; and Glow, 
old gold. Messrs. Dobbie and Co. exhibited 
Dahlias in all sections, and carried off a Gold 
Medal; while yet a fourth Gold Medal went 
to Messrs. Spooner and Sons for a large collec¬ 
tion of Apples of very fine quality. 
Some other successful exhibitors were 
Messrs. W. Artindale and Son, Cactus show 
and Pompon Dahlias (Silver Gilt Medal); Mr. 
J. E. Knight, very prettily arranged stand of 
Cactus and other Dahlias (Silver Gilt Medal); 
and Mr. E. F. Such, whose display included 
some hardy Chrysanthemum and herbaceous 
plants. 
Certificates were awarded for new Cactus 
seedlings to Hobbies, Limited (The Pilot); 
Mr. M. V. Seale (Cynthia) ; Mr. H. Shoesmith 
(H. Shoesmith); Messrs. J. Burrell and Co. 
(Alight); Messrs. J. Stredwick and Son (Mrs. 
Macmillan, William Marshall, and Star); and 
Mr. J. T. West (Nelson and G. Stevenson), 
who also took certificates for a Pompon seed¬ 
ling (Kitty Barrett) and a Dahlia of the deco¬ 
rative type named Nellie Hemsley. Other 
Pompon seedlings accounted worthy of certi¬ 
ficates were Mr. Charles Turner’s Tliora, 
Messrs. Stredwick and Son’s Tom Tit, and 
Mr. H. Shoesmith’s Little Dolly and Freddie. 
Mr. S. Mortimer was awarded a certificate 
for a show seedling Blush Gem. 
Altogether 118 new seedling Dahlias were 
submitted for competition, the awards being 
made by a special committee of leading 
growers, who found the task of adjudication 
anything but a light one. 
The Showy Meadow Saffron. 
Colchicum speciosum. 
(See\ Supplement.) 
At the present time the bulb garden is 
being rendered gay by the numerous species 
of Colchicum or Meadow Saffron, which flower 
in autumn, and by a few species of Crocus, 
which come into bloom during the same 
period. The habit of the plants closely re¬ 
sembles that of a Crocus, but they belong to 
the Lily family, and have six stamens, by 
which they may be readily distinguished from 
a Crocus. Our native species, C. autumnale, 
and its varieties, also bloom ait the present 
time, and are certainly both showy and in¬ 
teresting ; but in point of size and display 
they have been completely superseded by the 
larger-flowered and more showy introductions 
fioin the south of Europe, the Caucasus, and 
Asia Minor. 
Of the large-flowered species, C. speciosum, 
represented on our supplementary illustra¬ 
tion, is at present the most common in 
gaidens. In the wild state the flowers are 
very- variable in colour, and several forms 
have received distinct varietal names. The 
ordinary form of the plant has rosy-purple 
flowers that are white on the lower half inside. 
The segments are narrowly obovate, blunt" 
and overlapping one another to a much 
gi eater extent that in our native species. It 
is not surprising, therefore, that hardy plant 
lovers should give attention to this and simi¬ 
larly large-flowered species. The tube of the 
plant figured is much stouter than in the 
British plant, and therefore less likely to be 
biokan down by wind and rain. It is also more 
or less tinted with purple, and although repre¬ 
sented in the early stages in our picture, it 
reaches a length of 6 in. to 9 in., so that this, 
together with the large size of the flowers’, 
makes the plant a really showy subject when 
planted in large groups in the border. 
The plant is perfectly hardy, and may at the 
same time be used upon the rockery, where 
it will make its presence felt, as flowers get 
scarce in September and October. It is also 
well adapted for culture in pots or pans, as 
may be seen by reference to the illustration. 
Each oorrn gives rise to one to five or six 
flowers, so that a clump or a pan of them 
presents a massive and showy appearance. 
An J light, rich soil will meet their welfare. 
As they come into 1 bloom at the time stated, 
it is necessary to pot them in July or August. 
The leaves are not produced until spring, so 
that when grown in pots they should be 
placed where the leaves can develop properly 
by exposure to light and air and the roots 
On the 26th ult., in conjunction with the 
R.H.S., the National Rose Society held their 
Autumn Rose Show. This is quite a recent 
institution, but the results more than justify 
the experiment. It is now quite evident that 
the Rose grower has varieties of Roses at his 
command to make a splendid display in the 
autumn, and even to participate in an exhibi¬ 
tion. Some years agoi the Rose grower had 
to- be dependent chiefly upon those varieties 
of hybrid perpetuals which bloomed the 
second time in the autumn. Since then, how¬ 
ever, large numbers of Teas and Rambler 
Hoses have been produced which bloom with 
certainty every autumn, and make it possible 
to carry out a successful autumn show of 
Roses. Besides the old H.P. on which one 
had to depend, the number of garden Roses 
that may be described as perpetual blooming 
is simply remarkable. In the olden times the 
poet said that “ The Rose has but a- summer’s 
reign, the Daisy never dies.” This, however, 
is altogether inapplicable at the present day, 
for Roses are now far more plentiful, or cer¬ 
tainly more easily obtainable, than Daisies at 
the end of September. 
Space precludes anything but an allusion to 
the features of the show in general, though we 
may single out the premier Roses and the 
new ones. The premier H.T. in the-amateurs’ 
section was La France, exhibited by Conway 
Jones, Esq., Huccleco-te, Gloucester. The 
best H.P. was Charles Lefebvre, staged by 
George Moules, Esq., Hitchin, Herts. The 
best Tea was a grand bloom of Souvenir 
d’Elise Vardon, shown by Mr. Adamson, 
Bedale, Yorks. 
In the nurserymen’s section the best H.T. 
was Helen Guillot, shown by Mr. Hugh Dick¬ 
son, Belfast. The best H.P. was Mrs. J. 
Laing, shown by Messrs-. Adam and Craig- 
mile, Aberdeen. Marechal Niel was the best 
T. or N. in this section, and was shown by 
Messrs. D. and W. Croll, Dundee. 
Two Gold Medals were awarded for new 
Scarlet Runner Beans. 
Once grown for their flowers alone. 
Down Cornwall way Scarlet Runner Beans, 
which are grown to a considerable extent by 
market gardeners, are not sown every year, 
and, owing to the remarkable mildness of 
the climate, the roots are scarcely even pro¬ 
tected, though most careful gardeners take 
the precaution to cover them with a little 
straw. It is claimed that, by leaving them in 
receive attention in the matter of watering 
until the foliage lias completed its growth. 
Amongst the varieties which have received 
names, one of the most distinct is C.s. album 
with pure white flowers as large as those of 
the typo. A dark variety has been named 
C.s. rubrum, and more recently an even 
darker variety has been singled out and named 
C.s. atropurpureum. This has flowers of in¬ 
tense dark purple, much more intense than 
those of C.s. rubrum. Another has been, 
named C.s. maximum, but unless well grown 
it does not seem to surpass the ordinary form 
in size under similar conditions. All of them 
are certainly worthy of a place in the garden. 
seedling Roses. One of these was Countess of 
Gosford, a Hybrid Tea of a nearly uniform 
soft silvery salmon-pink. The blooms are 
cup-shaped, and when a few of the outer petals 
fall down they display a fine conical centre. 
It is a shade of colour that we have not yet 
seen in this section. This was shown by 
Messrs. Samuel McGredy and Son, Portadown, 
Ireland. 
The single Rose Irish Elegance has five 
salmon-pink and veiny petals, though in the 
bud and other early stages they are tinted with 
deep saffron or orange-salmon on the back. The 
foliage is much tinted with bronzy-purple, and 
handsome. This also is an Irish Rose re¬ 
ceiving a Gold Medal, and was shown by 
Messrs. Alexander Dickson and Sons, Ltd., 
Newtownards, co. Down. A new seedling 
Rose named Dorothy Page Roberts was also 
exhibited by Messrs. A. Dickson and Sons, 
and received the Society’s Card of Commenda¬ 
tion. It may be described as a decorative Tea 
with cup-shaped flowers of a uniform soft 
salmon-pink. All the outer petals are much 
recurved, and ultimately open in the centre. 
The leading award for thirty-six blooms of 
Roses was taken by Messrs. J. Cocker and 
Sons, Aberdeen, with large and handsome 
blooms as good as might be seen in July. 
They included a large number of the well- 
known exhibition Roses, and some that are 
not yet very common. The finest bloom was 
Mrs. E. Ma-wley. The best eighteen Teas or 
Noisettes were shown by Messrs. D. and AY. 
Croll, Dundee, while Messrs. Adam and 
Craigmile, Aberdeen, were second. 
The exhibits of garden Roses, as might be 
expected, were decidedly a feature of the show. 
The method of staging them in pyramidal 
banks and in large bunches of each variety 
has the result of bringing out the fine effects 
of which this class of Roses are capable. 
Most of them appeared almost as fine as in 
summer, and there seemed to have been plenty 
of them, judging from the size of the bunches. 
The number of varieties was also great. 
the ground, stronger growths are produced 
and earlier crops obtained. Of course, such 
a method could not be pursued in the Mid¬ 
lands or northern counties, with their more 
rigorous winters. 
I note that a writer in a London daily re¬ 
cently observed that, if at the end of the 
season the roots be raised, housed secure from 
frost, and replanted in the spring, the plants 
will yield finer and earlier Beans, but the 
game is'not worth the candle, seeing that seed 
is so cheap and that great care is needed to 
keep the roots through the winter. Very 
few people probably know that the Scarlet 
AUTUMN ROSES «3- 
JOINT EXHIBITION OF THE R.H.S. & N.R S. 
