172 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



your gardener digs them up to make the place look neat and tidy." 

 " Well, what are we to do — he must dig the ground, surely ?" To 

 that I answer with an emphatic " jS^o." My friend has now trained 

 his young gardener, and the collection is fast improving. When he 

 last visited me, he saw in my garden a grand lot of Japanese ever- 

 green shrubs thriving in a border of damp clay, on which the sun 

 never shines. I told him one of the secrets of their success was my 

 practice of strewing leaves amongst tliem in the autumn, for the 

 ground rarely freezes under a coating of leaves, and as these shrubs 

 begin to grow early, they should be kept as warm at the root as 

 possible during the winter. My friend said, " I'll take a leaf out of 

 your book ;" and in the following autumn he had the leaves scat- 

 tered over the borders, instead of being laid up in heaps in the 

 rubbish-yard ; and this practice greatly benefits the plants, and 

 exercises a powerful charm to keep invading footsteps ofi' the border. 

 When you have secured plenty of the fine old hardy flowers, and 

 they are in their places, prohibit, on pain of death, the insertion of 

 spade or fork amongst them. The ground may indeed be " pricked " 

 over with a very small fork, made for the purpose, in the month of 

 April, when all the plants are above ground ; but it should be done 

 with tenderness — there must be a little love, as well as judgment, 

 in the business. — S. H., in the " Pictorial World.'" 



THE CULTIVATION OF THE AURICULA. 



BT J. J.niES, 



Head Gardener, Eedlees, Islewortb, W. 



[jXHIBITIOJN'S of auriculas recently held in London and 

 Manchester, have proved pretty conclusively, if proof 

 were needed, that these flowers, if not cultivated so ex- 

 tensively as they were twenty or thirty years ago, they 

 have still plenty of admirers. These exhibitions did 

 not, it must be confessed, bring out many new growers ; but from 

 the manner in which the stages devoted to the auriculas were 

 crowded throughout the day, they demonstrated in the most forcible 

 manner that there are still plenty of people who take an interest in 

 them. As an old grower, like myself, it was especially gratifying to 

 see the visitors pass the more showy groups with the view to obtain 

 an early look at the auriculas, which, although very interesting and 

 very beautiful, do not cut such a dash at an exhibition as the 

 azaleas, rhododendrons, and other high coloured flowers, with which 

 they are usually associated. I should certainly like to see more 

 amateur growers put in an appearance at auricula shows, for I am 

 well assured that no other class of plants will afford a greater degree 

 of interest, or be cultivated with less expense. They are all per- 

 fectly hardy, or so nearly so that the protection of a cold frame is 

 all that is necessary ; and owing to the small space occupied by each 



