The Gardening World, February 13, 1909. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ Of all pleasures, the fruit of labour is 
the sweetest.”— Vauvenargues. 
CONTENTS, 
Amateur’s Letter to Amateurs, An 95 
Azalea Indica .••• 96 
Competition Awards . 96 
Competition, Prize Letter . 102 
Enquire Within . 106 
Flower Garden, The (illus.) . 103. 
Fruit Garden, The (illus.) . 103 
Fuchsias, How to Grow (illus.) . 97 
Geraniums, Winter-flowering . 96 
Greenhouse, The Amateurs . 103 
Kitchen Garden, The (illus.) . 103 
Nicotiana, The Culture of (illus.) ... 101 
Orchids for Amateurs . 104 
Pot Herbs . no 
Sweet Pea A. B. Bantock (illus.) ... 99 
Sweet Pea E. W. King and Co’s 
White Spencer (illus.) . 99 
Sweet Pea Mrs. Andrew Ireland 
(illus.) .:. 100 
Sweet Pea Mrs. William King 
(illus.) . 98 
Salads for Winter . no 
Tomatos: Selecting Good Varieties 98 
Work of the Week . 103 
Rosa OUo vow T^ismaieck. 
The above is a Hybrid Tea Rose raised 
by J. C. Schmidt in 1908. It was raised 
from Mme. Caroline Testout as the seed 
parent with pollen from La F ranee. 
These are two of the most popular and 
useful Roses in cultivation, and as might 
naturally be expected something good 
would arise from them, and this is the 
case, judging from a coloured plate in 
' Rosen Zietung ” for December. The 
plant has the habit and the foliage of 
Caroline Testout, while the colour stands 
midway between La France and the other. 
To judge from the illustration, some of 
the petals at least are shaded of a darker 
rose colour than either of them, with a 
yellowish ground colour. The bloom is 
nearly globular, with very broad petals, 
beautifully reflexed at the edges like those 
of La France. The toning is fresh and 
clear. As far as W'e can see this is de¬ 
signed to be a popular Rose even for gar¬ 
den decoration or exhibition purposes, 
and seems to be of strong, vigorous growth 
with fine foliage. 
On Seed Sowing. 
There are certain seeds that, if we can 
command an equable temperature of 
about 50 degrees or higher we do well to 
sow early. F'erns are among the number. 
These take a considerable time to ger¬ 
minate, but if sown at this early period 
there is less fear of the tiny seeds being 
choked by mossy, sour growth on the sur¬ 
face of the seed pan or pot than at a later 
period. It may be a fancy of my own, 
but it has several times struck me that 
shiny black seed is especially slow in ger¬ 
mination, and fails altogether under the 
care of the novice more than other seed. 
When I find I have seed of this class to 
deal with I like to sow only a portion in 
the pot, and the rest in perhaps three or 
four different pots, and give slightly dif¬ 
ferent treatment; thus, in one pot the 
seed will have been soaked for twelve 
hours in water ; again, another will be 
kept on the dry side, and a third fairly 
moist throughout; and, where different 
temperatures are to be secured, it is in¬ 
teresting to experiment with some of the 
pots in one house, and some in another. 
Often I think we may fail to grow- a cer¬ 
tain subject and never discover why we 
have failed, but if we try different methods 
and fairly and honestly experiment, well, 
at any rate, we deserve to succeed. 
Sowing; Begonias, 
Begonias must be sown early if they are 
to be of real service during the coming 
season. The soil should be finely sifted, 
and the iiots filled, and watered the day 
before the seed is sown. It is advisable 
to mix the seed with a pinch of fine sand 
and sow the seed, but give it no covering 
of fresh soil, so minute is the seed. The 
pot may be covered with a square of glass, 
and this should be removed ever}' day and 
wiped. Begonias are not at all difficult 
to rear from seed, so long as the seed is 
sown as advised, and it is well worth while 
to procure the best seed. I have, for in¬ 
stance, beside me as I write a grand list 
of named varieties, double’ and single, 
and at the bottom of each list of plants 
is -written “seed from above,” two and six 
per packet for doubles, one and sixpence 
for the seed of the single. Yet many of 
the grown plants are listed at five shillings 
and three and sixpence each. 
When the seed-sowing time comes 
round I think it is interesting to take up 
some particular family.each season, some¬ 
thing we shall not need for display dur¬ 
ing the current year, but some family of 
perennials that we shall tend through all 
their stages, and in the autumn estab¬ 
lish in their flowering quarters, although, 
of course, we do well to-remember that 
quite a number of perennial and biennial 
plants will flower the first season if the 
seed be sown earl}' and the seedling 
plants be brought forward with no 
checks. Among these may be mentioned 
that grand border plant Anthemis tinc- 
toria, Iceland Poppies, Valerian, some of 
the Evening Primroses to name but a few. 
The Family of Saxifrages. 
But it was not of these I was especially 
thinking, but rather of the interest of 
making a collection of the different varie¬ 
ties of such large families as, let us say, 
the Campanulas, or the Primulas, or the 
Saxifrages, all beautiful families’, easily 
grown, and having many quite distinct 
and interesting varieties. How often do 
we find in a pretty rock garden the family 
of Saxifrages represented in the most 
meagre way, perhaps merely with S. hvp- 
noicles, the common mossy variety that is 
by no means the most effective or decora- 
tive. And how it adds to the interest of 
this rock garden or rock work edgings 
to pass from one variety to another. 
Really excellent kinds are S. Camposii, 
known also as S. Wallacei. It belongs 
to the mossy section, but the foliage is 
finer and larger, and also the individual 
flowers, than any other of this section, 
and of the purest white. S. oppositifolia 
major is a very beautiful variety, and it is 
interesting to know that it is one of our 
native alpines, a true alpine ; it is found 
growing on Snowdon, and in the Scotch 
Highlands. But, away up in the arctic 
region travellers tell us that S. oppositi¬ 
folia dyes large tracts of country a deep 
glorious purple. There is in S. Guild¬ 
ford Seedling a beautiful garden hybrid, 
and here the flowers are crimson. Even 
the delightful rock garden at Kew owes 
not a little of its early beauty to the blos¬ 
som of its Saxifrages, and I remember, es¬ 
pecially the charm of the pale yellow 
varieties of S. apiculata and S. Boydii ; 
both are in flower together and in the 
perfection of their beauty early in April. 
And among the Saxifrages must be num¬ 
bered those truly decorative plants in the 
Megaseas, with their large and effective 
leaves and handsome spikes of bloom. 
Rockfoils we call our Saxifrages, and 
where we plant them we know that we 
shall have great clumps of beauty. Ah ! 
We may well consider the pleasure and 
the interest of gathering together even a 
small collection, liven that old familiar 
plant, London Pride—S. umbrosa—when 
grown into a generous mass, and sending 
up its delicate spikes of flowers, is won¬ 
derfully beautiful, and never more beau¬ 
tiful than when growing out of an old 
wall at the level of the eves. 
F. Norfolk. 
- - 
It is estimated that 140 million tons 
of nitrate have been exported from the 
Chilian nitrate fields, and the beds are 
not likely to be exhausted for many years 
to come. 
Dried Strawberries. 
We are now promised sun-dried Straw¬ 
berries. In trade circles it is considered 
certain that if they can be shipped to 
England in quantities, they would prove 
a most popular novelty. An American 
specialist has sun-dried berries- of the 
Black Beauty variety which kept in per¬ 
fect condition to the end of the year. 
