THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 177 



already formed at the greatest possible distance from the surface, 

 where they are comparatively safe against the exhaustive action of a 

 hot sun. As to watering, one or two liberal doses may be given 

 within the first ten days after planting, but it is far better to give 

 none at all if only the ground is moist enough to carry them on 

 safely until the next rains occur. A considerable quantity of bedding 

 plants are killed every year by watering them, or rather, by torment- 

 ing them, with a pretence of watering. As for varieties, there are 

 not many good ones, but the few that are most worthy of attention 

 are wondrously brilliant if they happen to behave well. Amplexicaulis 

 is the tallest in growth, the flowers are palest yellow. Aurea flori- 

 bunda, Canariensis, Gaines's Yellow, and Golden Gem have deep 

 yellow flowers, and in habit are dwarf and compact. The red and 

 brown varieties are simply useless. S. H. 



SUBTROPICAL GARDENING. 



BY A LADY'S GAEDEKEPw 



SUBTROPICAL gardening is, for the most part, pursued 

 under difficulties, for few of us have as yet sufficiently 

 studied the habits and requirements of the plants em- 

 ployed under the conditions in which we so unmercifully 

 place them when w r e plant them. Nor, indeed, do we 

 make a good use of facts previously gleaned. Look, for instance, at 

 the extensive use we make of such plants as the different varieties 

 of Coleus and Achyranthus ; yet at bedding-out time we seem almost 

 to forget that these are plants which must be tenderly nursed in the 

 winter in stove-heat. Now, if they require such care in our long 

 dark winters, how can we expect them to thrive through the summer, 

 with our commonplace preparations out of doors r 1 Tet too many of 

 us do expect it, as is evidenced by the number of plants we prepare 

 and rejoice over. From my own observations respecting these plants, 

 I am sure they require more earth-heat than they get from our 

 ordinary prepared flower-beds, and the careful observer can satisfy 

 himself of this if he will call to mind how much better these plants 

 thrive towards the close of summer, when the earth attains its 

 greatest degree of heat, than they do in the first months of the 

 bedding season. This, then, satisfies me, that if by any means we 

 can assist them to secure more warmth than the soil affords at an 

 earlier period of the summer, the better result will be obtained in 

 the use of these plants. For this purpose, the adoption of flower- 

 beds prepared by special drainage is the simplest and most economical 

 method ; and the drainage should consist of such materials as are 

 known to absorb and conduct heat, — on something like the plan 

 followed, with well-known success, by Mr. Gibson, at Battersea 

 Park. But to be more precise, all the soil should be taken out of 

 the bed two feet deep ; or if a line of the plants is wanted, a trench 

 a foot wide would serve the same purpose. Into this trench or bedj 

 VOL. VI. — NO. VI. 12 



