William Jackson Bean

"The greatest disaster that has ever been been recorded in connection with the plant-houses at Kew occurred on August 3rd, 1879. In the morning of that day a storm of hail wrecked the glass roofs of most of the houses. The hailstones are recorded to have averaged five inches in circumference. Nearly 40,000 panes were smashed, and the weight of the broken glass amounted to eighteen tons. A grant of £7,000 for repairs was sanctioned by Parliament, and an army of glaziers was set to work. The tropical plants suffered from cold and exposure, but the houses were made whole again before winter."

"One of the most frequent mistakes made in planting trees of any size is in burying the roots too deeply. If trees that have grown naturally from seed are examined, it will always be found that the place where the uppermost roots push from the stem is about the level of the ground, and this is what must be aimed at with planted ones. The normal buttressed base of a trunk is due chiefly to the thickening of its big main roots. The stems and bark of most trees are intended by nature to be in free air, and when buried even in a few inches in the earth perpetual darkness and damp frequently cause a ring of buried bark to rot. In light sandy soil the danger is not so great, but in heavy clayey soil it must be strictly guarded against."

"Silver or gold trimmings may be inherent in the plant, or they may be caused by a virus. The virus does not add to their beauty. I have a camellia that is disfigured by a scattering of discolored leaves. Even the natural variegation, if you can call it natural, is sometimes very unattractive. "Perhaps more rubbish is foisted on purchasers of trees and shrubs in the shape of variegated sorts than of anything else," [William Jackson] Bean writes. "A variegated plant should have its leaf colouring bright, well-defined and abundant to be of value. Yet by some dealers every spotty or muddy coloured form is thought worthy of a name and flattering description." As thoroughly as I agree with Bean about the prevalence of spotty variegations, especially the that looks as if yellow paint had been splashed on it, I don't think nurserymen are to be blamed for providing what people want and a great many people want the hideous aucuba."