THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



11 



bulbs are used alone. Cannas make ex- 

 cellent supporters to beds of Gladioli, 

 Tritomas, and Tritonias, and the same 

 drenching with water all the summer as the 

 Tritomas require, suits them equally well. 

 Asparagus and crimson beets mix well in 

 beds of grass-like plants, but few English 

 people have courage to use such things in 

 ornamental gardening. Arundinaria fal- 

 cata, Earfugiuni grande, and Cineraria 

 maritima offer their foliage for the forma- 

 tion of a good bottom and relief to the 

 grassy character of the bulbs. 



The best place out of doors for the 

 choice hybrid Gladioli is among Americans, 

 for peat suits them exactly, whereas the 

 best place for Tritoma uvaria is a deep, 

 rich, wet loam, and a clump of it should 

 have a deluge of water all summer, and oc- 

 casionally a deluge of something stronger. 

 Still, it is easy enough to make up the 

 ground for them, and bring them together 

 on the best of terms. 



Eor out-door display there is no occa- 

 sion for expensive named seedlings, which 

 are best adapted for pot culture. The 

 hybrids of Gandavensis and Brenchleyensi3 

 are very effective. Plant in April, and 

 whatever the soil, use plenty of sand. The 

 situation should be well drained, and the 

 best soil is peat. Animal manures they 

 have a positive dislike to, and hence the 

 best refresher is leaf-mould. To get early 

 bloom out of doors the bulbs should be 

 potted in January, and put in a cold pit 

 plunged to the rim, to be turned out with 

 roots ready formed in April. Where the 

 soil is clay, or stiff loam, Mr. Standish 

 advises burning one-half of it, then break- 

 ing it to pieces, and adding sand and leaf- 

 mould. Whether in-doors or out, good 

 varieties of Gladioli should be taken up in 

 October, and dried quickly, and stored 

 away in dry sand. When potted for the 

 house, use fresh turfy peat, if you can get 

 it, if not, a mixture of loam, leaf-mould, 

 and broken charcoal. Pot them early in 

 April, and reserve a few to pot at the be- 

 ginning and end of May for a succession 

 of blooms. 



Whoever would see the Tritoma uvaria 

 in fine bloom next season, should plant at 

 once in the richest loam that can be pro- 

 vided for it. If made the centre of a bed, 

 sink that centre a little below the general 

 level as a basin to hold water, and be 

 sure you give it plenty all next season. 

 Like the pampas grass, it will make a fine 

 clump on the lawn, and can be planted in 

 the same way in a hole prepared with well 

 manured loam, and mulched with half- 

 rotten dung a couple of inches below the 

 general level. With plenty of water 

 the flower spikes will rise six feet high, 

 and the clumps enlarge even so as to 

 furnish stock for the whole garden by re- 

 moval of offsets. Tritomas are now offered 

 at a guinea a dozen, and thus one of the 

 most gorgeous and tropical-looking pro- 

 menade plants becomes henceforth the 

 poor man's property. The pretty little 

 Tritonias, now getting numerous, are too 

 generally treated as tender bulbs, and are 

 spodt by coddling, and by being compelled 

 to rest against their will. They are bulbs 

 that never rest, they grow all winter, and 

 if under glass, should be put on the same 

 shelves as Lachenalia, Ixia, Sparaxis, and 

 other nearly hardy kinds, and to have as 

 much water as they do to prepare them 

 for their spring blooming. But in truth the 

 Tritonias are as hardy as Vallota purpurea, 

 which we know of as wintering out of 

 doors in many places not over well sheltered 

 on the north side of London. Turn out 

 your potted Tritonias next April, treat 

 them all summer as half aquatics, and let 

 some of them remain in their places next 

 winter, and you will have confidence to 

 leave them out ever after, and be rewarded 

 with a larger increase, and such blooms as 

 make contemptible those you have been 

 content with on the plan of flowering in 

 pots and seasonal drying up. I forgot to 

 mention Agapanthus as a proper inmate of 

 a bed of Tritomas and Cannas, add Tri- 

 tonia aurea, and if you leave it out all the 

 winter, give it a covering of four inches of 

 coal ashes. 



An Old Gakdener. 



SELECT GEEENHOTTSE PLANTS. 



NERirjH SPLENDEN8. 



One of my employers had a present of a 

 plant made him, which came under my 

 care fifteen months ago, at which time it 



was a lank, gawky plant of about four feet 

 in height, in a 40-sized pot. As it was 

 too late in the summer to do anything 

 with it that might induce it to bloom that 

 season, it was placed with other green- 



