28 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
July  13,  1899. 
Rose  Show  Fixtures  in  1899. 
July  14th  (Friday). — Ulverston. 
„  15th  (Saturday).- — New  Brighton. 
„  19th  (Wednesday). — Cardiff0.  Newcastle-on-Tyne.f 
„  20th  (Thursday). — Salterbebble  and  Sidcup. 
„  22nd  (Saturday). — Newton  Mearns. 
,,  25th  (Tuesday). — Tibshelf. 
Aug.  3rd  (Thursday). — Liverpool  j 
°  Shows  lasting  two  days.  f  Shows  lasting  three  days. 
{  Show  lasting  four  days. 
— Edward  Hawley,  Bosebanle,  Berkliamsted,  Herts. 
A  Welcome  Note. 
While  thanking  you  for  your  kindly  notice  of  me  in  the  Crystal 
Palace  Rose  Show,  I  fear  that  your  words  will  make  an  impression 
that  is  not  justified  by  facts.  I  am  thankful  to  say  that  I  am  in 
excellent  health,  but  I  have  been  greatly  troubled  by  rheumatism  the 
last  few  months,  so  I  thought,  as  a  loyal  subject,  I  would  follow  the 
example  of  Her  Gracious  Majesty  who,  I  read,  had  driven  through  the 
tent  at  the  Windsor  Show,  and  hence  the  cause  of  my  appearance  in  a 
Bath  chair,  which  added  greatly  to  my  comfort,  and  enabled  me  to 
exceedingly  enjoy  the  Roses.- — L).,  Deal. 
Tea  Roses  Under  Glass. 
I  fear  that  many  do  not  get  the  good  results  they  should  from 
this  section  of  Roses  when  grown  under  glass.  Alter  being  pruned 
in  winter  or  early  spring  the  plants  with  ordinary  care  succeed  and 
give  a  fine  crop  of  flowers  during  April  and  May,  and  are  then  often 
left  without  any  special  attention  being  given  throughout  the 
summer  beyond  that  of  occasional  watering.  With  the  strong 
growers,  such  as  Climbing  Niphetcs  and  William  Allen  Richardson, 
the  result  is  a  thicket  of  growth,  bad  attacks  of  mildew,  and  a  few 
flowers  of  inferior  quality,  instead  of  a  good  supply  of  beautiful  buds 
or  fine  blooms.  Although  large  numbers  of  flowers  may  be  obtained 
from  the  open  air  during  the  summer  months,  it  is  nevertheless  a 
fact  that  ive  cannot  get  too  many  Tea  Roses,  provided  the  quality  is 
good,  and  by  giving  a  little  extra  attention  to  those  grown  under  glass 
many  superb  flowers  might  be  produced  during  the  summer  months. 
The  popular  fallacy  that  Teas  do  not  require  much  pruning  has 
perhaps,  to  a  great  exteut,  been  the  cause  of  neglect  in  many 
instances. 
Undoubtedly  there  are  conditions  under  which  hard  pruning  is 
neither  necessary  nor  desirable.  Take,  for  instance,  bushes  grown  in 
the  open  air  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  quantities  of  cut  flowers,  or 
for  making  a  display  on  the  plants.  Hard  pruning  is  then  not  necessary; 
cutting  out  weak  growths,  and  moderately  shortening  others,  is  all 
that  is  required,  with  the  exception  of  a  little  extra  thinning  of 
growths  during  the  summer  months.  Roses  grown  under  glass  have, 
however,  a  longer  season  of  growth,  and  therefore  require  constant 
attention  in  the  matter  of  thinning,  especially  when  they  have  filled 
their  allotted  space.  At  the  spring  pruning,  too,  any  that  have  only 
weak  shoots  may  safely  be  cut  to  within  a  lew  inches  of  the  soil,  as 
there  is  no  danger  of  frosts  injuring  the  young  growths,  as  is  the 
case  with  those  grown  in  the  open  air.  When  once  strong  shoots  are 
secured  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  maintain  vigour  by  due  attention  to 
feeding  and  pruning. 
The  present  is  an  excellent  time  to  thin  out  the  shoots  of  Roses 
under  glass,  as  the  first  crop  of  floAvers  will  have  been  gathered,  and 
strung  growth  is  being  made.  The  plan  I  adopt  is  to  freely  remove 
weak  growths  which  are  continually  being  formed,  cut  away  some  old 
ones  which  have  already  flowered,  and  leave  as  many  medium-sized 
shoots  as  room  can  be  found  for  without  undue  crowding.  Such 
shoots  usually  produce  fine  flowers  a  little  later  on,  and  in  many 
instances  the  buds  will  already  be  showing.  When  this  is  so  the 
matter  of  selection  is,  oi  course,  much  simplified.  If  we  want  good 
Roses  it  is  quite  as  necessary  to  keep  weak  growths  constantly 
removed,  as  it  is  to  thin  (reely  the  shoots  of  fruit  trees  in  order  to 
secure  fine  fruit.  Chemical  manure  applied  in  the  form  of  a  top¬ 
dressing,  and  ivell  watered  in,  is  a  potent  factor  in  keeping  Teas 
grown  under  glass  in  a  vigorous  and  florilerous  condition. 
When  the  trees  are  grown  in  light  modern  structures  I  find  it  an 
advantage  to  lightly  coat  the  glass  with  some  approved  form  of 
shading;  the  shoots  then  get  plenty  of  l'ight  to  ripen  them,  and  they 
are  less  liable  to  mildew  in  very'  hot  weather. — H.  D. 
LONDON  GARDENS  OYER  FIFTY  YEARS. 
No.  10. 
About  the  middle  of  this  century,  not  to  go  back  any  farther, 
folks  living  in  Pimlico  or  Westminster  regarded  a  visit  to  Vauxhall, 
Wandsworth,  or  Clapham  as  a  country  excursion,  so  little  had  bricks 
and  mortar  then  invaded  suburban  Surrey.  True,  they  had  neither 
train,  tramcar,  nor  cycle  to  take  them  out  of  London.  If  they  did  not 
walk  the  only  thing  they  could  do  was  to  ride  in  one  cf  the  old-fashioned 
omnibCises,  uncertain  as  to  time,  but  certain  to  be  stuffy,  often 
crowded ;  for  outside  seats  there  were  none,  save  a  couple  beside  the 
driver,  some  did  not  even  have  these.  Coming  from  the  City,  how¬ 
ever,  through  part  of  the  year  it  was  possible  to  travel  by  steamboat 
near  to  your  destination. 
Going  through  one  of  these  suburbs  we  feel  like  Rip  Van  Winkle 
of  the  story,  when  a  midday  rush  of  children  from  a  big  Board  School 
comes  upon  us,  or  we  pass  a  long  array  of  shops,  and  pinch  ourselves 
to  be  sure  of  our  identity.  We  think  of  the  Surrey  suburbs  of  the 
past,  their  Georgian  cottages  standing  in  old-fashicned  gardens;  of 
the  mansions  scattered  around  with  their  ha-ha  fences  and  broad 
lawns,  their  shrubberies  and  conservatories,  which  have  one  by  one 
been  removed,  and  the  grounds  taken  by  building  speculators.  Even 
yet  a  savour  of  rurality  lingers  at  Clapham  and  Wandsworth,  nor  can 
Ivennington  or  South  Lambeth  be  called  unattractive,  quite  a  con¬ 
trast  to  the  larger  and  more  populated  Lambeth  opposite  Westminster; 
yet  this,  too,  had  at  one  time  its  notable  gardeners,  one  of  these  being 
Tradescant,  people  cMIed  him  “Tradeskin.”  The  elder  of  that  name, 
gardener  to  Charles  I.,  brought  over  from  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa 
multitudes  of  species  unknown  in  England:  the  younger  was  the 
introducer  of  exotic  Ferns  from  Virginia.  The  later  garden  of  the 
Tradevcants  was  at  South  Lambeth,  Cunningham  says  on  the  site  of 
the  Nine  Elms  Brewery  ;  a  house  which  had  the  name  of  Turret 
House,  standing  not  many  years  ago  in  the  main  road,  is  supposed  to 
have  been  his  residence  and  museum.  Sundry  descendants  of  his 
favourite  plants  might  possibly  be  discovered  now  in  the  locality. 
Ivennington,  like  Kensington  and  Kingston,  evidently  refers  to  a 
royal  residence.  There  stood  a  palace  of  our  kings  in  this  village  till 
the  sixteenth  century;  later  a  mansion  was  built,  called  Caroone 
House,  which  had  attached  to  it  a  deer  park  and  large  orchards. 
Nine  Elms,  near  the  Thames,  took  its  name  from  nine  trees,  con¬ 
spicuous  to  passers-by  on  land  or  water — a  rather  moi>t  spot,  which 
the  gardeners  turned  to  account  for  the  cultivation  of  Pumpkins  and 
Melons.  But  the  neighbourhood  of  Ivennington  was  liable  to  sudden 
irruptions  of  water,  and  these  were  sometimes  damaging  to  gardens, 
till  Fentiman  by  raising  the  ground,  and  also  by  effective  drainage, 
checked  the  car-rices  of  Father  Thames.  Upon  what  had  been  the 
“Wash way”  Fentiman  formed  gardens  and  planted  shrubberies  a 
century  ago;  modern  progress  has  interfered  with  these,  and  most  of 
them  have  made  room  for  streets  or  terraces.  Vauxhall,  a  name 
given  to  that  part  of  Ivenuinuton  nearest  the  river,  does  not  seem  to 
have  had  anything  to  do  with  Guy  Fawkes,  though  such  is  the 
common  belief.  There  is  good  evidence  it  was  named  after  Fulke,  a 
follower  of  King  John.  Nearly  two  centuries  Vauxhall  Gardens, 
called  at  first  the  “  New  Spring  Garden,”  wa3  a  favourite  resort — not 
for  the  water  only,  but  for  stronger  beverages,  and  fruit  grown  here, 
especially  Gooseberries,  Cherries,  aud  Apples.  The  spree  diminished, 
its  spring  of  refreshing  water  dried  up,  but  the  London  public  were 
still  attracted  by  the  amusements  of  Vauxhall.  I  saw  the  remnant 
of  the  land  cleared  about  1852  or  1853,  when  there  yet  survived  some 
fine  trees  and  shrubs. 
Of  the  thousands  that  visit  KenDington  Oval  during  the  summer 
to  watch  the  vicissitudes  of  our  national  game,  few  can  be  expected 
to  know  that  the  field  of  play  was  once  a  beautiful  nursery  garden. 
What  had  been  waste  land  was  transformed  by  Michelson  into  a 
home  of  flowers,  and  he  held  his  own,  under  various  changes,  till 
advancing  years  obliged  him  to  retire  about  1830,  but  he  attained 
the  age  of  a  hundred,  one  proof  this,  amongst  others,  of  the  healthi¬ 
ness  of  a  gardener’s  work.  In  his  establishment  several  men  received 
a  training  which  enabled  them  to  start  nurseries  elsewhere.  One  of 
these  was  Denyer,  whose  establishment  at  Loughborough,  near 
Brixton,  had  many  years’  success.  Memories  of  horticultural  worthies 
crowd  upon  us  in  this  suburb.  We  think  of  Curtis  of  last  century, 
great  also  as  a  botanist,  who  had  a  garden  at  Lamleth  for  some  Avhile, 
with  an  extensive  collection  of  British  and  exotic  plants,  which  he 
afterwards  took  to  the  purer  air  of  Brompton. 
Then  Robertson,  an  amateur,  but  devoted  to  gardening,  inspired 
perhaps  by  Curtis’s  example,  formed  a  botanic  garden  a  little  to  the 
-west  at  Stockwell,  and  lelt  all  his  property  towards  its  maintenance 
for  the  public  benefit.  But  the  Court  of  Chancery  did  not  favour  his 
scheme,  and  his  will  was  set  aside.  Fifty  years  ago  Andrews  was 
just  retiring  ;  he  had  extensive  houses  at  Lambeth,  being  famous  for 
sending  early  forced  fruit  into  the  market.  Much  fruit  was  raised  in 
the  open  air,  too,  particularly  along  he  Wandsworth  Road;  indeed 
