214 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



the season of gusts and heavy rains, their 

 beauty is often spoiled for want of timely 

 care in this respect. Give them strong 

 manure-water twice a week, to promote the 

 swelling of the bloom-buds, and in blight 

 weather drench them overhead with pure 

 soft water, morning and evening. Sow 

 hardy annuals for early bloom next season, 

 choosing poor, hard ground, which is not to 

 be dug but simply raked over. 



Greenhouse. — All plants that require 

 to be well ripened before being housed should 

 have free exposure to sunshine under a 

 south wall, so as to set the wood hard and 

 prepare them for receiving the stimulus ne- 

 cessary for early growth. Cinerarias, Chi- 

 nese primroses, and other plants for early 

 blooming indoors, should have the best 

 places in the house, but there should be no 

 coddling, or undue haste in pushing them 



into growth ; plenty of light and air, will 

 induce a close habit, and robustness of con- 

 stitution, that hereafter will result in the 

 production of an abundance of fine bloom. 



Stove. — Keep pines in as free a growth 

 as possible, by means of manure water, and 

 a moist atmosphere while the weather is 

 bright, and dispense with shading for the 

 season, so as to induce a stocky habit, and 

 thus avoid losses in the winter. Succession 

 stock must be kept in growth, to prevent too 

 early a formation of fruit. In vineries, 

 shade the fruit that is to hang any length 

 of time, and give ai r, and keep the house as 

 cool as possible. Where the fruit is not ripe, 

 use fire moderately, but at the same time 

 keep a look out against insects. Vines that 

 fruited early, will now show a disposition to 

 break, and should be encouraged very gently. 

 I Bottom heat for pines in growth, 84 degs. 



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TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



List of Hardy Perennials, etc.— C. R. S.— It is 

 almost too late now to raise perennials for next 

 year to have them strong; but hollyhocks, wall- 

 flowers, sweet Williams, antirrhinums, phloxes, 

 silenes, arabis, alyssum, aquilegias, perennial 

 poppies, perennial asters, aubretias, daisies, pe- 

 rennial valerian, campanulas, centaurea, cistus, 

 delphinium, dianthus, eschscholtzias, hardy gail- 

 lardias, perennial lupins, forget-me-nots, penste- 

 mons, potentihas, saxifrages, veronicas, and 

 violas may still be sown, and will have the best 

 chance if in pots, and kept in frames all the 

 winter. If sown in the open ground, a dry slope 

 would be the best place, and some seed should 

 be saved to sow early next spring, and the ma- 

 jority will bloom the same season. Order sorts 

 of any good seedsman, and you will be sure of 

 the most showy varieties. Lovers of fine sweet 

 Williams should secure a stock of plants from 

 Mr. Hunt, of High Wycombe, Bucks. He is 

 now sending them out at the rate of 50 for 6s., 

 from the finest strains in the country. For flowers 

 to come between the spring bulbs and May-day 

 there is a great need. The yellow alyssum and 

 the purple aubrietia are two splendid things, 

 and make a most beautiful contrast if in con- 

 tiguous patches. Daisies and anemones are use- 

 ful; cinerarias would be if they were good bedders 

 in April. Delphinium pictum sometimes blooms 

 in March, but is not to be depended on. Cowslips, 

 primroses, and violets, especially the, double 

 sorts, are good early bloomers. Belgian daisies, 

 kept over winter in frames, and encourazed to 

 bloom early, make a splendid show in April, and 

 many of the hardy species of scilla make beauti- 

 ful patches of colour from March to May, to vary 

 the effects of other hardy bulbs blooming at the 

 same period. Early and late tulips, planted in 

 patches in the border-, increase the glow of colour, 

 and continue it till the season of summer flowers. 

 On your north-west wall plant hedera regne- 

 riana and cotoneastcr mycrophylla, the latter 

 bearing abundance of red berries, to cover the 

 lower part, and the ivy to ruu to the top. The 

 white jasmine, "Virginian creeper, and common 

 clematis will do well there, but are not evergreen. 



Difficulties of a Chalk Soil.— E. G. — To grow 

 roses in such a soil as you describe, and in a dis- 

 trict where loam is not attainable, is, indeed, a 



difficult matter. You must certainly not have 

 one rose worked on a brier stock, nor must you 

 venture with expensive roses of any kind, unless 

 you can positively make a soil for them. Cab- 

 bage roses, and hybrid Chinas, on their own 

 roots, are those with which you have the best 

 chance. Of worked plants, those on the Manetti 

 stock are the most likely to answer, as this often 

 flourishes on very poor soils. You must do all 

 you can to improve your flower-beds by the 

 addition of leaf-mould, sheep-duug, and what- 

 ever other manures you can get, and your 

 gardener should be instructed to use the house 

 sewage freely, as supplied to him every day, 

 diluting it with clear water. The mowiugs "of 

 grass lawns make useful mulchings, to retain 

 moisture on the surface, and, perhaps, you 

 might get some charred parings from some of 

 the adjoining wastes, which would form an ad- 

 mirable basis for a soil for flowers. By the 

 formation of a muck-pit, to which green stuff, 

 and dead leaves, and all kinds of waste, should 

 be carried, and on which the house sewuge 

 should be poured when not wanted for the gar- 

 den, you may, every spring, refresh your 

 choicest plots with a rich and retentive compost. 

 By all means, avoid American and heath plants, 

 which detest chalk, and use abundance of water, 

 as far as your supply enables you. It takes time 

 to create a surface-soil on so poor a bottom ; 

 but, in time, it may be done, and the way is, to 

 economise every scrap of material, animal and 

 vegetable, that will rot into mould. Concrete 

 paths are the best for you. By referring to page 

 20, you will see how to make it, and, in place of 

 gravel for the surface, any hard stony material, 

 of a suitable colour, that the district will afford 

 you, rolling it iu well with sifted chalk, or lime, 

 and choosing damp weather for the opera- 

 tion. 

 Calceolaria species. — Novice. — The following 

 extract, from the treatise on the Calceolaria, in 

 " Garden Favourites," gives just the information 

 you require : — " The Calceolaria is a native of 

 high altitudes on the mountains of Peru and 

 Chili. The first species seen in Europe was 

 introduced in 1773 : it was C. pinnata, a green- 

 house annual. The next, C. FothergiUH, was 

 introduced in 1777, from which date no otb 



