130 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE, 



tomer, and at p;ood nurseries the stocks of 

 liollies are generally large, and make an 

 item in inventories when leases change 

 liands. The wonder to me is how any 

 dealer in plants can supply hollies of re- 

 spectable size at from five shillings to luilf- 

 a-guinea apiece, when it will take fifteen 

 years at least to get a plantation up to a 

 saleable size. Once get roots, however, 

 and there is no fear of losses ; they are 

 sure stock both to grow and sell, but they 

 must often prove a downright loss in rent 

 of ground where a man must sell, and has 

 large pieces. 



Take hollies again for single specimens, 

 and among the variegates what a many 

 beauties there are to dot about on lawns, 

 break angles of walls, and form groups near 



%#>^"''^"^ 



MILKMAID. 



a seat or bower, and close iinder the draw- 

 ing-room windows. It is to be noted also 

 that small hollies lift well, and may be 

 used to any extent for furnishing winter 

 beds on the system of planting in October, 

 and removing to the reserve ground in 

 May. Use a mixture of very rotten dung 

 and gritty leaf-mould to fill in with at each 

 removal, syringe frequently after the May 

 lifting, and you need never lose a leaf or a 

 root-fibre, and as the balls get larger and 

 larger, the trees will grow dense and com- 

 pact, and if you live long enough to see 

 thpm grow to a Lu-rrer size than suits the 

 system, jrive them their last move to final 

 places, and in clear money value they will 

 pay for all the trouble they have occasioned. 



But there must be no trifling; the work 

 must be well done, and by grouping witb 

 small plants of Portugal laurel, Skimmia 

 Japonica, Grieslinia littoralis, arbor vita, 

 Pliillyrea, Chinese privet, Berberis inter-* 

 media, Pyracantha, Euonymus, sweet bay, 

 and Aucuba ; the beds now blank all the 

 winter may be made as gay as in summer 

 time, thougli different, because rich and 

 massive, and the effect chiefly dependent on 

 skilful assortment of distinct classes of 



BEONZE OB OEANGE. 



foliage. People often say, " We shouldn't 

 mind the expense of sucli platting, for the 

 beds do look wretched all the winter, but 

 what are we to do with the plants when 

 they-get too large ?" Now it happens that 

 for the majority of such subjects, you must 

 wait a good many years before the di- 

 lemma takes a definite shape, and then it 

 will simply require to make the fact known 

 that so many bundreds or dozens of hollies, 

 Phillyreas, etc., are to bo got rid of, and 

 if a private purchaser or nurseryman does 

 not come to the rescue with a good price 

 for the lot, it will be the strangest event 

 under the sun, for better plants than these 

 will be after such a regular course of lift- 

 ing, it is impossible to imagine. For years 

 past I have been in the habit of potting 

 up conifers and choice evergreen shrubs for 

 winter decoration, and though a vast many 

 long ago outgrew the possibility of using 



