252 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
March  25,  1897. 
RHODODENDRONS  AT  KEW. 
Rhododendrons,  evergreen  and  deciduous,  form  one  of  the  most 
striking  of  the  many  groups  of  beamtiful  hardy  shrub3  at  Kew  during 
spring.  When  the  weather  is  mild,  from  the  beginning  of  January 
until  the  end  of  June,  one  or  more  representatives  of  this  charming 
genus  of  plants  are  to  be  found  in  flower.  At  the  present  time  (March 
9ch)  several  very  pretty  species  and  varieties  are  to  be  seen  in  flower  in 
the  Rhododendron  dell,  and  in  the  borders  devoted  to  Ericacsous  plants 
near  the  temperate  house. 
In  the  dell  some  of  the  most  striking  are  R.  fulgens,  R.  Thomsoni, 
and  R.  Nobleanum.  The  first-named  is  a  most  beautiful  species  with 
bright  deep  red  flowers.  Of  this,  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  wrote,  “  This  is  the 
richest  ornament  of  the  Alpine  regions  of  the  Sikkim  Himalayas.” 
The  individual  flowers  are  about  2  inches  across,  and  produced  in  closely 
packed  medium  sized  trusses.  It  is  figured  in  the  “  Botanical  Magazine,” 
t.  5317. 
R.  Thomsoni  is  also  a  native  of  the  temperate  Sikkim  Himalayas. 
The  flowers  are  fleshy  in  texture,  blood  red,  drooping,  2  inches  in  length, 
by  the  same  in  diameter  across  the  mouth,  and  produced  nine  to  twelve 
together  in  loosely  packed  trusses. 
R.  Nobleanum  is  a  red  flowered  hybrid,  between  R.  arboreum  and 
R.  caucasicum,  and  besides  being  a  useful  garden  plant  it  is  interesting 
on  account  of  its  being  the  first  to  be  introduced  of  the  many  fine 
garden  varieties  now  in  cultivation.  Those  in  existence  in  the  Ericaceae 
collection  all  belong  to  the  dwarf  section.  By  far  the  most  showy  of 
the  dwarf  Rhododendrons  in  flower  is  R.  praecox.  Ochers  to  be  seen  are 
R.  dauricum  and  R.  daphnoides  with  rosy  purple  flowers,  and  R.  parvi- 
folium,  a  small  species  with  purple  flowers,  interesting  botanically  but 
not  otherwise. 
In  the  winter  garden  several  Rhododendrons  are  flowering.  A  large 
plant  of  R.  arboreum  is  carrying  about  seventy  trusses  of  bright  red 
flowers.  Several  plants  of  R.  ciliatum  and  the  sweetly  scented  R. 
formosum  are  just  coming  into  flower,  whilst  a  plant  of  a  charming 
dwarf  Rhododendron,  called  Queen  of  the  Dwarfs,  is  smothered  with  pure 
white  blossoms. — W.  D. 
A  GARDEN  IN  THE  ISLE  OF  WIGHT. 
[An  Address  (amplified)  by  Rev.  H.  Ewbank  to  the  members  of  the 
Horticultural  Association  at  Newport.] 
( Concluded  from  page  188.) 
One  thing  which  I  most  earnestly  recommend  is  an  exquisitely 
lovely  climber  from  Chili,  Mandevilla  suaveolens.  It  is  nearly  always 
grown  in  a  greenhouse,  and  is  classed  among'  tender  things,  and  few  ever 
dream  of  giving  it  that  measure  of  liberty  which  it  knows  so  well  how 
to  use.  According  to  the  idea  that  protection  and  restraint  are  indis¬ 
pensable  to  it,  I  kept  it  for  years  under  glass,  and  it  filled  up  a  large 
part  of  my  greenhouse,  to  the  exclusion  of  many  other  good  things  ;  but 
this  is  what  happened  to  it— it  blossomed  and  grew  to  a  great  extent, 
but  it  became  infested  with  red  spider  and  other  abominations.  I  had 
the  greatest  possible  difficulty  in  keeping  it  free  from  vermin  ;  if  it 
were  beautiful  and  fragrant,  as  certainly  was  the  case,  it  became  a 
beautiful  and  fragrant  nuisance,  for  it  could  be  called  nothing  else. 
I  therefore  determined  to  try  it  in  the  open  air,  and  to  let  it  live  or  die, 
as  it  saw  fit.  To  my  great  satisfaction  it  determined  to  live,  and  it  got 
through  the  terrible  frost  of  1894-5,  though  it  was  cut  down  to  the 
ground.  It  has  since  then  quite  come  round,  and  it  touches  the  eaves 
of  my  house  again,  and  is  strong  and  vigorous  as  before.  Every  building 
here  with  a  suitable  exposure  ought  to  have  this  very  beautiful 
climber.  It  grows  immensely,  and  blossoms  in  July.  It  should  be 
planted  in  April,  and  should  not  be  pruned  very  much.  It  wants  to 
Rave  little  more  done  to  it  than  the  excision  of  the  weak  and  feeble 
sprays,  and  perhaps  a  slight  protection  in  very  hard  frost  may  be  given 
to  it. 
Another  great  triumph  of  the  Isle  of  Wight  and  of  my  surroundings 
here  is  Poinciana  Gilliesi  ;  perhaps  I  may  call  it  the  best  success  I  have 
ever  had.  It  is  a  most  beautiful  flowering  shrub  with  very  nice  foliage. 
The  leaves  are  scattered,  alternate  and  bipinnate,  and  the  bast  part  of  the 
matter  is  that  it  seems  to  do  better  in  the  open  air  in  my  garden  than  it 
does  in  a  stove  or  even  its  own  native  habitats.  It  is  grown  at  Kew  in  a 
pot  in  the  temperate  house,  and  could  not  have  been  much  more  than 
3  feet  high  when  I  saw  it  last.  In  fourth  volume  of  the  “  British 
II  lower  Garden,  ’  by  Sweet  (which  is  a  kind  of  sacred  book  among 
gardeners),  these'words  occur  about  Poinciana  Gilliesi.  He  says,  “  We 
have  seldom  so  interesting  a  product  as  the  present,  and  one  so  eminently 
deserving  the  attention  of  cultivators.  It  belongs  to  the  order 
Leguminosas,  and  grows  on  the  banks  of  a  river  near  Mendoza  in  South 
America.  The  flowers  are  large,  yellow,  in  a  terminal  corymbose  raceme  ; 
the  petals  are  five,  alternating  with  the  calyx,  nearly  equal,  sulphur 
coloured,  an  inch  long,  spathulate,  slightly  obcordate,  wavy  and 
crumpled,  thin,  many-nerved,  longer  than  the  calyx;  the  stamens  are 
ten,  separate ;  the  filaments  are  long  and  slender,  awl-shaped,  bright 
red  ;  anthers .  dark  red.”  Sweet  says  his  drawing  was  taken  from  a 
specimen  which  flowered  in  Mr.  Knight’s  nursery,  Chelsea,  where  the 
tree  has  stood  several  years  placed  near  the  wall  of  a  stove,  which  it 
overtops,  and  even  exceeds  the  height  which  it  attains  in  its  own  native 
country.  No  doubt  this  stove  helped  it  very  much,  but  here  it  had  no 
stove  at  all,  My  thinking  about  it  came  from  a  remark  which  Canon 
Ellacombe  made  when  we  were  talking  together  in  his  study  more  than 
twenty  years  ago.  He  said  : — 
“  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  Poinciana  Gilliesi  would  do  well  with 
you,”  and  this  turned  out  to  be  a  very  fruitful  suggestion.  I  bought  a 
packet  of  seed  from  Mr.  Thompson,  for  which  I  gavefourpence,  of  Ipswich, 
and  though  I  had  to  wait  a  long  time  for  results  I  have  been  since  amply 
rewarded.  It  was  twelve  years  before  any  of  my  young  trees  blossomed, 
but  since  then  the  one  I  have  here  has  gone  on  increasing  amazingly  in 
size  year  by  year,  and  flowering  with  increasing  profusion.  It  is  now  a 
picture  of  strength  and  beauty,  and  as  its  elegant  foliage  waves  about  in 
a  very  lightsome  joyous  manner  it  seems  to  say,  “I  have  never  given  you 
a  moment’s  anxiety  in  my  life,  and  I  never  mean  to  give  you  one.”  But 
what  it  is  coming  to  I  cannot  possibly  tell.  Already  it  is  very  nearly 
twice  the  size  to  which  it  attains  in  its  own  country,  and  it  nearly 
touches  the  windowsill  of  the  second  storey  in  my  house,  and  it  is 
growing  still.  The  eminent  traveller  and  scientist,  Mr.  Alfred  Russell 
Wallace,  paid  me  a  visit  a  short  time  ago,  and  he  took  a  great  interest  in 
my  beautiful  shrub.  He  said  that  he  was  not  surprised  at  its  well-being 
at  all — he  should  have  expected  it  from  what  he  had  seen  abroad.  It  is 
a  matter  of  great  regret  to  me  that  I  have  no  specimens  of  Poinciana 
Gilliesi  left  to  give  away  to  my  friends.  I  did  give  some  away,  and  the 
others  were  lost,  as  I  did  not  know  their  value  in  time. 
Another  handsome  tree  is  Paulownia  imperials.  It  is  very  different 
from  but  nearly  equal  to  the  foregoing  in  beauty.  It  comes  from  Japan, 
and  is  by  no  means  unknown  in  the  Isle  of  Wight.  There  is  a  large  one 
in  the  garden  at  St.  Clare,  and  there  are  two  or  three  at  Yentnor.  But 
it  is  possible  that  its  great  love  of  water  may  be  new  to  some  persons. 
In  this  respect  it  resembles  the  Quince.  I  had  a  specimen  in  my  dry 
flower  garden  near  the  house  for  ten  years  or  so,  and  it  never  did 
anything.  I  do  not  think  it  ever  flowered  in  that  situation,  and  it 
scarcely  grew  at  all.  As  soon,  however,  as  it  was  moved  to  the  lower 
part  of  the  kitchen  garden,  and  was  placed  at  the  bottom  of  a  slope,  it 
altered  all  its  performance  at  once  ;  it  increased  in  size  as  if  by  magic, 
and  blossomed  abundantly.  The  trunk  of  the  tree  is  now  nearly  4  feet 
in  girth — before  it  was  moved  it  was  only  like  a  thick  stick.  The  flowers 
are  Gloxinia-like  and  of  a  beautiful  violet  colour,  and  at  a  little  distance 
one  might  fancy  that  a  violet  gauze  had  been  spread  over  the  tree.  As 
it  overhangs  the  Ventnor  Road  it  is  the  commonest  thing  in  the  world 
to  find  carriages  stopping  close  by  it  that  the  occupants  may  enjoy  the 
sight ;  and  though  I  do  not  know  what  they  say  to  each  other,  they 
sometimes  look  as  if  they  thought  that  they  were  gazing  upon  a  vision 
which  is  not  of  earth,  but  of  heaven.  For  the  rest  I  can  give  little 
more  than  names.  Magnolias  ought  to  be  much  more  grown  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight  than  is  at  present  the  case.  I  have  some  six  or  seven  specieB  and 
varieties,  and  some  two  or  three  of  them  are  beyond  all  praise.  Exogonium 
purga  is  a  splendid  climber,  and  year  by  year  it  touches  the  eaves  of 
my  house.  Choisya  ternata  (fig.  55)  is  one  of  the  best  all-round  shrubs 
I  have.  Edwardsia  grandiflora,  Carpentaria  californica,  Xanthocereus 
sorbifolia,  Plerostyrax  hispidum,  and  Exochorda  Alberti  are  much  to  be 
recommended  for  this  part  of  the  world.  Camellias  are  more  hardy 
than  Laurels.  Sikkim  Rhododendrons  do  very  well  indeed  here  if 
only  they  have  some  protection  over  their  heads  in  a  hard  winter. 
Ipomsea  pandurata  would  soon  cover  the  whole  place  if  it  were  allowed 
to  have  its  way.  But  the  enumeration  must  cease.  Let  me  only 
say  that  if  my  remarks  have  proved  anything  they  have  tended  to 
show  that  the  Isle  of  Wight  offers  advantages  which  are  of  a  very 
unusual  kind. 
We  have  a  fringe  or  margin  here  for  good  which  is  by  no  means 
commonly  known.  Narcissus  triandn’s,  Poinciana  Gilliesi,  Rosa  berberi- 
difolia,  and  Mandevilla  suaveolens  all  unite  in  saying  that  gardening 
is  carried  on  here  with  more  of  promise  than  can  be  easily  found  else¬ 
where.  Of  course  I  know  there  are  losses  to  be  endured.  Who  could 
expect  it  to  be  otherwise  where  so  many  trials  are  made  1  I 
have  had  the  finest  specimen  of  Fremontia  californica  in  the 
whole  country  smitten  to  death  by  the  sun,  and  soon  after  bleeding 
to  death  ;  but  one  must  expect  to  put  up  with  some  adversity  if 
after  all  the  balance  is  right,  and  of  that  I  am  certain  ;  and  not 
only  is  it  the  case  that  so  very  many  good  things  will  consent  to 
live  here,  but  what  is  vastly  important  from  one  point  of  view  is  that 
the  season  for  them  is  at  least  three  weeks  earlier  than  it  is  at  Kew,  and 
another  thing  is  that  the  colours  of  the  flowers  are  much  brighter  here 
than  about  London  or  in  places  which  are  more  northerly  still.  I  say, 
then,  that  we  have  every  encouragement  here  for  enterprise  in  our  horti¬ 
cultural  efforts,  and  I  have  often  had  a  vision  before  my  eyes  as  to  what 
the  Isle  of  Wight  would  become  if  it  were  really  to  be  adorned  with 
some  attention  and  skill.  Imagine  for  a  moment  how  the  Undercliff 
would  look  if  it  were  properly  taken  in  hand,  and  Mandevilla  suaveolens 
were  festooning  itself  over  many  a  crag  and  Poinciana  Gilliesi  were  to 
be  common  in  villa  gardens,  and  Ipomasa  pandurata  were  allowed  to 
reach  the  eaves  of  the  houses,  and  soon  in  a  thousand  other  ways  that 
could  very  easily  be  given  the  aspect  of  the  whole  place  would  be 
changed  and  know  itself  again  no  more.  It  is  a  paradise  now,  but  it 
would  then  be  a  Paradise  eclipsed,  and  the  Riviera  itself  would  have  no 
greater  attraction  to  offer  than  might  be  found  here. 
A  friend  of  mine  and  a  very  eminent  horticulturist,  Mr.  J.  F.  Wilson 
of  Weybridge  and  Wisley,  was  at  Yentnor  for  his  health’s  sake  for  some 
weeks  last  spring,  and  he  very  earnestly  bewailed  the  let-alone  condition 
