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THE LADIES' GABDEN.— No. IX. 



BY J. C. CLAUSE, 



Head Gardener at Cothelston House, Taunton. 



SWEET-WILLIAMS AND INDIAN PINES. 



iHE tribe of plants to which these two subjects belong, 

 and the carnation and picotee which formed the subject 

 of my last article, are perhaps the most useful class of 

 plants for the lady's garden, considering that many of 

 them are quite hardy, and numbers of others nearly so. 

 In the gardens here we have large spaces devoted to such and 

 similar subjects, and although, for the sake of variety, there are in 

 these mixed borders a great number of plants of all kinds, it would 

 be hard to find another tribe so easy as this to grow, and yet so 

 valuable for their continuous flowering. 



Taking the Dianthus harhatus (or Sweet- William) first, it may 

 be said that there is nothing in the whole garden more easy to 

 manage than this, and when a nice variety of colour is obtained, few 

 things are prettier. It is very much in their favour that they are 

 indifferent as to soil and position, -for they will grow and flower 

 superbly either on a suuny bank or under the shade of a north wall. 

 The better the soil, the better will they grow. The only position 

 in which I have not yet succeeded successfully with them is under 

 the drip of trees. Eor a mixed border there are but few things 

 that will beat them ; but much of course will depend upon the par- 

 ticular strain the cultivator has secured. Probably the best is 

 " Hunt's Strain," for the colours of his flowers are chaste and 

 beautiful, and they are usually fine in form. The exquisite 

 markings of some of the flowers may be compared to the wings of 

 the very handsomest of our British butterflies ; the lovers of 

 natural history will quite understand the value of these flowers, to 

 be worthy of such a comparison. 



To keep up a good stock of Sweet-Williams, it is necessary to' 

 sow seed every year. Sow very thin in an open border in June. 

 If they come up too thick, thin them out to four inches apart ; 

 there let them remain until the next October, when they must be 

 put out to where they are intended to flower. 



When they have ceased flowering they should be pulled up and 

 thrown away ; for after a damp or severe winter old plants usually 

 become worthless, and even if they survive the winter, they have a 

 ragged and untidy appearance. 



According to my experience of this tribe of plants, or rather of 

 those that are increased by seed every year, there are none so liable 

 to degenerate from their original characters. This is of course 

 owing to a number of varieties being grown in the same garden, 

 where, through the action of insect life, they undoubtedly get mixed 

 up, the bad ones dragging the good down to their own low level. 

 As a proof of this I may instance that particular variety of 

 Dianthus Chinensis called Heddeiuigi. That was a fine subject 



