The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-03-09 00:00:00

HORTICULTURE.

WE cannot help thinking that our Liverpool gardeners
are much to blame in not paying more attention to the
culture of the hollyhock, which is now so great a favourite
in other parts of the kingdom. There is hardly :any
flower in cultivation for out-of-door decoration, which so
well repays a little care; and the ease with which fine
new varieties may be raised cannot be equalled. We 'can
never forget a long avenue of these noble flowers which
we saw last season, raised by an amateur, withoat any
other care than merely saving the seed of those varieties
which skewed signs of improvement. By attending to
this, and sowing every year, this gentleman had raised
enough to form a complete fence on each side of a walk
nearly 100 yards in length. They were all semi-double
or double, the flowers thickly placed, and the colours
clear, brilliant, and varied. The hollyhock is not a
flower for every garden ; its qualities as an ornamental
plant should be well understood before it is employed for
decorative purposes, nor is it a flower which can be placed
with effect in the midst of verbenas and other gorgeous
bedding plants, its legitimate place being the shrubbery
border, where, backed by dark masses of twergreens, its
noble spikes of gaudy-coloured flowers form a fine relief.
It may also be employed on lawns, where it can be viewed
from a distance, and for this purpose should be planted in
groups of ten or a dozen plants each, and the brighter and
more striking the colour the better. The only attention
hollyhocks require, after being once planted out, is to
supply each with a good stake, securely fixed, and attend
from time to time to the bandages, lest they should be
broken by the wind. It is the want of attending to these
trifles which has driven this fine flower from small zar-
dens, where two or three broken-down hollyhocks are
sufficient to disfigure the whole garden. S,-I,eral of the
eminent nurserymen of the midland and southern counties
have lately paid considerable attention to the hollyhock,
and some magnificent varieties have been raised by them.
Messrs. Paul and Son, Lane and Sons, Chater, Rivers,
Barron, Bircham, Parsons, Bragg, and others, have been
particularly successful. The following list of first-rate
varieties, from the Gardener's and Farmer's Journal,
may be useful to those of our readers who admire the
flower:-" Attraction (Barron). Aurantia (Rivers),
Comet (Chafer), Coccinea (Barron), Charles Tur-
ner (Black), Enchantress (Chater), Flower of the Day
(Bragg), King of Roses (Bragg), Lilacina (Bragg),
Model. of Perfection (Barron), Magnum Bonum
(Barron), Meteor (Bircham), Fireball (Bircham),
Purpurea Elegans (Gilmer), Perfection (Bragg), Rosea
Grandiflora (Barron). Rosea Alba (Chater), Pulchella
(Chater), Obscura (Chater), Queen (Barron), Mr. C.
Baron (Chater), Sulphurea Perfecta (Rivers), Spectabilis
(Chater), Satisfaction (Bragg), Lady Braybrook (Chater),
Watford Surprise (Long), White Perfection (Cheer),
Walden Gem (Chater), Queen of Lilacs (Bragg); these,
taking variety of colours, are the very best out ; there are
also some new ones of a fine character, we believe to be
let out this season, that have been exhibited by Bircham,
Parsons, and other raisers. The Scotch varieties are
also getting very first-rate, a list of them will appear
shortly."