looked over and stopped-not allowed first to make long straggling growths, and then pinched severely back, but be regularly attended to, and have the mere points of the growths pinched off. Every sign of green-fly must be checked by the usual method of fumigating with tobacco smoke; for if once this insect is allowed to overrun the plants, they rarely ever thrive so well afterwards; and before planting out, all such plants as Calceolarias, Verbenas, etc., that are subject to green-fly, should be fumigated, if there are the least signs of the fly to be seen. When it becomes necessary to move plants from the protection of glass to temporary places, where all the protection they can receive is that of being covered with mats or canvas, they should be well established and hardened off previously. The position chosen for such temporary protection should not be shaded, although well sheltered. If placed in a position where they get no sun for weeks before being planted out, they become tender and weakly; and when ultimately planted out in the full sun, they invariably get scorched, and lose their leaves, and are sadly checked. This is more especially applicable to Pelargoniums of the variegated class, but to all it is very injurious. Flower Beds and Borders.-It is considered a settled point with experienced flower-gardeners, that the majority of the plants now used for long-continued masses of bloom are as exhausting to the soil, and require to have as good a foundation laid for their culture, as many or most of our vegetables; and although, in treating of the propagation of the various plants recommended, reference has been made to the soil that suits them best, I think it a matter of very great importance that the principles of good cultivation, in so far as the preparation of the beds is concerned, should be specially noticed. What has been already stated in connection with individual plants, bears more, and sufficiently as a general rule, on the application of manure, and the nature of the soil, than on its preparation. There are good reasons for fearing that the miserable appearance of many a villa and cottage flower-plot owes its origin to the idea that our present flower-garden plants do not require careful cultivation, such as would be expected to produce good crops of vegetables; consequently I wish to give prominence to the fact, that in order to produce fine healthy plants and a long-sustained array of bloom in the case of the great majority of the plants used, it is indispensably necessary that the beds be well drained, deeply worked, and well manured. To this rule there are of course exceptions in the case of some plants, concerning which I have, in treating of them individually, indicated a contrary course of treatment, in the case of manuring especially. Few crops are more exhausting to soil than masses of Verbenas, Heliotropes, Calceolarias, &c., and the unsatisfactory appearance which these frequently present is as often referable to the want of liberal treatment as to anything else. Jethro Tull was not far from the truth when he propounded that deep draining and deep cultivation were all that was needed to produce good crops; certainly such conditions lie at the foundation of all good culture, and are nowhere more applicable than in the flower-garden. An accumulation of water about a bed of flowers is productive of evils that will thwart the efforts of good management in all other respects: it will keep down the temperature of the soil, prevent the natural action of the atmosphere, and lessen the chances of getting the soil pulverised and sweetened. Every flower-bed that is wet should therefore be well drained, as the first step in successful flower-gardening. As to deep cultivation, the benefits derivable from it are so many that it would be difficult to enumerate them all. It gives a greater degree of openness to the soil, so that the roots can penetrate it more easily, and in dry seasons go down where the soil is more moist, and escape to a greater extent the evils of drought. In wet seasons the superabundant water escapes more freely to the drains or sub-soil. Many other benefits might be referred to, but these are sufficient to show that deep cultivation is of much importance in flower-beds and borders. I make it a rule to trench, every other year, every bed under my care. This is done in winter, and a rough. surface left exposed to frosts; and the beds are forked over and thoroughly pulverised before planting-time. The extent to which manure must be applied must be regulated by the nature of the soil, and dryness or wetness generally of the locality. Where the soil is naturally shallow, or light, or sandy, it is greatly improved by having a quantity of heavy loamy soil incorporated with it. The best manure for sandy soil is cow dung which has been in heap for at least twelve months, and has lost its rankness; the next best is old well-rotted hot-bed manure—that is, stable dung well decayed; but for heavy loamy soils well-decayed leafmould is preferable. These manures should be applied when the beds are trenched in the course of the winter, and incorporated well with the staple. All rank or partially decomposed manure should be avoided; and when well-decomposed manure cannot be had, spread it over the surface of the beds, and let it lie exposed to the air before digging or trenching it into the soil. The flower-gardener who has a deep, rather light loamy soil that he can trench from 2 to 3 feet deep, and a dry subsoil, has a great advantage over others who have either a shallow poor soil, or one that is wet and clayey. It is scarcely credible to those who have not seen it how gorgeously most plants grow and bloom in deep light loam, resting on a dry bottom, which should be the standard to be guided by. The Owners of small gardens particularly have great disadvantages to contend with where their soil is naturally bad. Generally they cannot easily get their few flowerbeds either entirely remade, or ameliorated where the soil cannot be wholly replaced. Clay is more effectually improved by burning the subsoil, and mixing it with the best of the surface soil, than by any other means. method of doing this is detailed in a subsequent chapter. Road grit or light sandy soil added to it will also improve it; and when soil is sandy and poor, the subsoil should be removed, and heavier soil mixed with the best of the natural soil. It need scarcely be said that, when the soil is naturally unsuitable, the most effectual way of remedying the evil is to entirely remove it to the depth of 20 inches or 2 feet, and replace with two parts fresh loam and one part decomposed leaves or leaf-mould. Where the rainfall is great, and many things, particularly Pelargoniums, grow too much to leaf, the soil should be raised more above the ground-level, and of course manure should be more sparingly applied generally. CHAPTER IV. ORNAMENTAL FOLIAGED PLANTS. Plants suitable for Planting as Single Specimens, and for Planting in Groups in sheltered places in the Summer and Autumn Flower-Garden, and that can be mostly wintered in a Greenhouse:-The whole of these thrive well in a soil composed of equal parts turfy loam, with a fourth part peat, a fourth part leaf-mould, and about a sixth part of the whole of sand: Acacia lophantha. SH Acanthus Lusitanicus. Aralia heteromorpha. Aralia Sieboldii. v Aralia Sieboldii variegata. x Areca sapida. H Arundinaria falcata. H Arundo conspicua. H Arundo donax. v Arundo donax variegata. Araucaria excelsa. Araucaria Cunninghamii. Araucaria Rulei. Aspidistra lurida variegata. v Agave Americana variegata. v Agave medio-lutea. Bambusa nigra. V H Bambusa Fortunei foliis niveis vittatis. Bambusa viridis glaucescens. Beaucarnea glauca. x Baconia caudata. Chamœpeuce diacantha. Chamaerops Fortunei. Cycas revoluta. Centaurea argentea. Clethra arborea. |