OCTOBER. 313 



well next season. The great drawback to one part of hardy fruit cul- 

 ture has been the gooseberry caterpillar, whose devastations have laid 

 bare some scores of acres of Gooseberry and Currant trees, and seriously 

 compromised the chances of next year's crop. If no better and more 

 easy way of putting a stop to the depredations of this plague than 

 what we have read of cannot be discovered, Gooseberry growing in 

 some districts must be abandoned. 



The omission of the effects of the season on flowering plants, in my 

 last Notes, I must now endeavour to supply. It cannot be questioned 

 but that a dry hot season, or the reverse, produces the same effects on 

 flowering shrubs and plants as it does on those of a more ligneous habit, 

 and therefore the abundant flowering of such plants as Rhododendrons, 

 Azaleas, Spirseas, Ribes, Cytisus, Althaea frutex, &c., so noticeable 

 this season, is owing to the same causes which have obtained for us a 

 prolific fruit year ; and the same may be said of plants of an herbaceous 

 character, as Paeonies, Delphiniums, &c. 



Last year was a favourable one for fully developing the beauty of our 

 modern system of grouping, and consequently English flower gardens 

 were in a full blaze of splendour from July to October. This present 

 season has not been so favourable altogether, but the last month has 

 had a favourable effect on scarlet and other Geraniums, Verbenas, 

 Fuchsias, Salvias, Petunias, and other plants, comprising the gems of 

 the flower gardens, but still the effect is scarcely so brilliant on the 

 whole as last year. Perhaps there is no greater difficulty that our 

 English gardeners have to contend with, than satisfactorily managing a 

 large flower garden, where all ought to burst into bloom at the same 

 time, and the uniform height of the various plants employed be kept 

 almost to a mathematical nicety, as well as prolonging the blooming of 

 each to the latest period. Now with a score or so of varieties of plants, 

 differing in habit and varying with the season, this is a task of no ordi- 

 nary kind ; in fact, it is the great gardening puzzle of the day, and 

 requires an amount of forethought, a thorough knowledge of the habit 

 of each plant employed, and of the effect produced on them by different 

 soils, and under the conditions of wet or dry seasons, which can only be 

 obtained by long experience and constant attention. Scarlet Geraniums, 

 which last season (hot and dry) bloomed profusely, would, if planted 

 exactly in the same description of soil, scarcely do more than produce a 

 luxuriant crop of leaves in a wet summer ; and the same with many 

 others. These apparently trifling matters assume an air of conse- 

 quence, when the harmony and uniformity of highly-kept parterres are 

 entirely dependent on the successful blooming of these plants. 



As a general rule, for all plants which grow too much in wet seasons, 

 we strongly advise planting them in the shallowest and poorest soils ; a 

 deficiency of growth can be amended by the application of manure 

 water, but nothing can be done when such plants are in too deep or too 

 rich soils, and your best arranged design of colours may be marred in 

 consequence. 



G. F. 



