262 THE FLORIST AND POMOLOQIST. [ Novembeb, 



colour, /. Lindeni being considerably the hardiest. I have noticed the same 

 difference among other plants, notably among Solanums and Castor-Oils. Let 

 the frost but look at them at the end of May and beginning of June, and they 

 perish ; but in October they will bear several degrees without injury. A -good 

 deal of this difference may be put down to previous coddling in the spring, but 

 hardly all of it. I suppose, like ourselves, the friction of the climate, like that 

 of life, makes them thicker-skinned, and hence they feel the cold less. Every 

 plant intended to bo saved from the flower garden and border must bo looked 

 Tip at once. As a rule, October may generally bo trusted not to kill half- 

 hardy bedding or subtropical plants ; but that trust must not be extended to 

 November. The frosts that come on the back of cold November fogs are 

 dangerous indeed. All such things as Carinas^ Ficus, Pelargoniums, Marvel of 

 Peru, Dahlias, Echcverias, and Salvias, roots or plants, should be at once stored in 

 frost-proof places for the winter. It is also a good plan, where space can bo 

 found, to pot up a few dozen of the shrubby Calceolarias from the flower-beds 

 or borders, lifting them with balls, plunging them in a mild bottom-heat of 55", 

 to force out fresh roots, which will be done in a week, and then placing them in 

 the greenhouse or conservatory. If plants are chosen bursting into blossom, few 

 things will prove more useful or ornamental at a season when we are scarce of 

 flowers, especially of yellows. 



The Herbaceous borders should be manured and dug over, reducing and 

 regulating the root-growths as the process proceeds. In all mixed beds or 

 borders great care should be taken to maintain a fair balance of space between 

 the weak and the strong ; the latter must be sharply reduced, and the former 

 encouraged with a little extra food. Good things should also be multiplied as 

 fast as possible ; beware, however, of excessive division ; few plants like their 

 crowns cut into too many pieces, and covetousness in the garden, as elsewhere, 

 like vaulting ambition, often o'erleaps itself, and falls on the other side. See 

 that all dormant things, and all bulbs are re-marked or labelled. Finish planting 

 bulbs of all kinds on beds and borders, and see to it that the mice and rats don't 

 feast on Crocuses and Tulips. A few hardy annuals may be sown at once, or bet- 

 ter still, transplanted out of the reserve ground. All spring flowers, as Anemones, 

 Myosotis, Daisies, Primulas, Violets, &c., should be planted where they are 

 intended to bloom. Roses should be planted this month. Make up all blanks 

 in old beds and borders, and prepare new root-runs for new ones ; a rich stiff 

 soil in a sheltered place is the position for Eoses ; exposure above, and stagnant 

 water at the roots, are their greatest enemies. Top-dress established Roses ; there 

 is nothing better than rich farmyard manure, and partially decomposed cow-dung 

 and night-soil. The Rose is a gross feeder, and manufactures its divine odour 

 from the most offensive of manures and the most pungent of sewage, Mr. Smee 

 and his sewage-poison theory notwithstanding ; and yet what faire ladye ever 

 whiffed sewage from a rose, or died of a rose fever in aromatic pain ? 



Flowers in-doors can hardly be kept too quiet — I mean, of course, the perma- 

 nent plants, as stove, greenhouse, or conservatory plants, orchids, &c. The sun's 

 power has sunk to zero, and nature ought to rest, or stop growth. Excitement 

 now, in the feeble light of November, means only injury. Thus let the plants 

 rest this month and next, and then — well, then, heat and moisture need only be 

 let loose upon them to loosen their arrested development, and let their growth go 

 freely forward. But, of course, a special class of plants is wholly exempted 

 from the resting regimen. The growing host, every year getting larger, of what 

 are called winter-blooming and forcing-plants, must be got fairly under weigh, 

 and pushed forward as instructed last month. And the first batch of Lilacs, 



