July 8, 1905. 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
,43 
aedinillas. 
. . . Beautiful Flowering Stove Plants. 
■ This very useful class of plants ought to 
find a place in every garden where accommo¬ 
dation can be found for them. As they are 
for stove cultivation it would not be advis¬ 
able for anyone to start growing them unless 
they have plenty of heat at command. The 
warmest end of a stove would suit them 
admirably, and together with plenty of atmo¬ 
spheric moisture they thrive luxuriantly. 
The compost that suits them best consists of 
equal parts light fibrous loam, peat, and leaf 
soil, with a moderate sprinkling of silver 
sand, and a few nodules of charcoal to keep 
the whole siweet. In potting see that they are 
made moderately firm. 
The different varieties of Medinillas are 
more or less erect-growing shrubs. I think 
it may be rightly said that M. magnifica and 
M. amabilis are the best. Magnifica we get 
from Manilla, first introduced in 1850, and no 
one could help admiring it when in full 
bloom. Its long racemes of pink-coloured 
flowers make an attractive display dlutring 
May and June. It is all the more valuable 
because of its) splendid lasting qualities. 
Amabilis comes from India, introduced in 
1874. The flowers of this variety, as in the 
latter, are of a rosy pink. A well-grown plant 
of this is very acceptable in the spring, which 
is its flowering season. 
Other good species are M. speciosa, M. 
Javanensis, and M. Sieboldiana. Besides these 
there ai’e others too numerous to mention and 
not grown to the extent of the foregoing. 
Those mentioned would prove most useful to 
anyone growing them for beauty rather than 
variety. As flowering plants for the stove I 
think they are in the front rank with all the 
other beautiful subjects of the present day, 
and anyone giving them a trial under favour- 
I able conditions would prove them to be such. 
W. 
The BLACK CURRANT MITE. 
. . . A Growing Scourge. 
There is every indication that this scourge 
is becoming worse, and when one contem¬ 
plates the total disregard of the Board of 
Agriculture one cannot wonder. Not only 
are badly infested bushes allowed to remain 
in plantations and gardens to the danger of 
others, but some nurserymen even send out 
infested stock. Moreover, thousands of 
bushes alive with mite come over from Hol¬ 
land, and these are sold by auction to the 
poor fools who know no better. 
Unfortunately there is no cure. Cutting 
down to the ground is useless, for the new 
shoots are at once infested. This would seem 
to indicate that the mite can live in the soil, 
for after cutting down some Baldwins the 
new growth was as bad as before, yet the 
adjoining varieties were free from mite. So 
far the only remedy is picking off the swollen 
buds and burning. This, should be done be¬ 
fore the mite commences to migrate in May. 
A Mr. Collinge supplements the picking by 
spraying with sulphur fluid, composed of 2 lbs. 
of sulphur made into a paste with hot water 
and 25 lbs. soft soap dissolved in 5 gallons of 
hot rain water. Mix the two together, and 
make up to 50 gallons. Spray with a coarse 
nozzle twice a week from mid-May to mid- 
June. This spray will settle all migrating 
mites without injuring the bushes. I would 
strongly advise readers to act at once. 
Cap. 
OCCASIONAL 
~e INTERVIEWS -S3- 
Mr. HENRY ECKFORD. 
Seed Grower, Wem, Shropshire. 
It seldom falls to my lot, or indeed to any¬ 
one in the horticultural world, to interview 
such a veteran in the profession as Mr. Henry 
Eckford, of Wem, Shropshire. He has now 
been before the world for a period of eighty- 
two years, during which time he has acted the 
part of a professional gardener in various 
capacities for a long period of years, after 
which he took to seed growing upon his own 
account. At the present day he is being 
honoured in all parts of the civilised world 
where Sweet Peas can be grown, and it would 
be difficult to say whether he is receiving 
more honour from his own countrymen or 
Mr. Eckford was born at Stonehouse, Liber- 
ton, Midlothian, on May 17th, 1823, so that 
he has now completed his eighty-second year. 
At the age of sixteen lie had made up his 
mind to a gardening career and was appren¬ 
ticed in the gardens of Lord Lovat at Beau¬ 
fort Castle, Inverness. Here he spent the 
usual time devoted to an apprenticeship to 
the gardening profession in Scotland. After 
completing his apprenticeship he returned to 
the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and in the 
capacity of journeyman and foreman he suc¬ 
cessively passed through the gardens of New 
Liston, near Edinburgh, Fingasb Castle, 
Me. Henry Eckford. 
from his brethren on the western side of the 
Atlantic. 
It is certain that few things have received 
such wide and ample recognition at the hands 
of lovers of flowers of every persuasion as has 
Mr. Eckford’s favourite flower, the Sweet 
Pea. Naturally he has received more recog¬ 
nition in the British Isles than on the Con¬ 
tinent, but it is questionable whether our 
cousins in America have not sung his praises 
to a greater extent than we have in this 
country. The Sweet Pea was first grown ex¬ 
tensively in America, where it is usual to 
grow anything worthy of special attention on 
a large scale. The area under Sweet Peas 
has certainly been immensely increased in 
this country since our cousins set us the 
example. 
Perthshire, and Penicuick House and Oxen- 
ford Castle, both in his native county of Mid¬ 
lothian. 
He next came under the notice of the 
celebrated Mr. McNab, of the Edinburgh 
Botanic Gardens, who gave him letters of in¬ 
troduction and sent him to Mr. Hugh Low, 
of Clapton. After a time he found himself in 
the gardens of Col. Baker at Salisbury, where 
the gardener was much interested in the im¬ 
provement of flowers, but particularly 
Dahlias, which have emanated in such 
numbers from that Wiltshire town for so 
many years. Like all other journeymen of 
those days, he thought it unwise to settle 
for any lengthened period in one garden, as 
he wished to see as much as possible before 
settling to take the charge of a garden on 
