156 THE FLORIST. 



THE LADIES' PAGE. 



« The Earth, till then 

 Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd, 

 Brought forth the tender plants, whose verdure clad 

 Her universal face with pleasant green." 



Milton. 



A SIMILAR transformation has lately taken place in the flower-gar- 

 den, if due diligence has been exercised in filling up all empty beds 

 ■with their summer tenants ; but this done, our labours are only 

 lightened, not finished. If the weather is dry, occasional waterings 

 must be given to the newly-set plants, the balls of which often get 

 quite dry, while the surrounding soil is sufficiently moist, and from 

 this cause many deaths occur. Then, again, all plants with a habit 

 similar to the Verbena ought to have their shoots fastened to the 

 ground as they elongate, in such a manner as to cover equally the 

 whole surface of the beds ; for if this precaution is neglected, all 

 former efforts at regularity of arrangement will be futile, and we 

 shall have, here a bare patch of ground, and there a thick mass of 

 tangled shoots. Various methods have been recommended for ef- 

 fecting this object. Some prefer small hooked sticks, and others 

 say that short pieces of bast-matting placed across the shoots, and 

 thrust into the ground at both ends, is less troublesome ; but per- 

 haps the readiest way of securing truant branches of trailing plants 

 in their places, is to press a joint into the ground with the finger, 

 and then draw sufficient soil over it to keep it there. 



The flower-stems of many herbaceous plants will now be tall 

 enough to need staking and tying. As the use of the stake is 

 merely to secure the stem or stems of the plant firmly in an upright 

 position, our aim in placing it should be to make it as inconspicuous 

 as is consistent with stabiHty. For this reason, stakes ought never 

 to be stronger than necessary, nor so high by several inches as the 

 top of the full-grown plant, the stems of which, when there are 

 several, should be distributed regularly round the support, and not 

 huddled clumsily together so as to resemble a faggot. Some plants, 

 as the tall Phloxes and Asters, throw up numerous shoots, the weak- 

 est of which had better be cut off before tying, leaving from three 

 to seven or nine, according to the strength of the plant. 



Annuals, when growing in patches in the flower-borders, are 

 seldom seen in perfection, and the principal causes of their com- 

 parative failure are, thick sowing in the first instance, and afterwards 

 the want of timely thinning. When half a hundred plants are per- 

 mitted to grow on a space barely large enough for half-a-dozen, the 

 natural consequence is starvation of all, and their beauty being 

 thereby greatly lessened, if not absolutely destroyed, we unchari- 

 tably call them "weedy" and "worthless," when the blame ought, 

 in justice, to be ascribed to our own bad cultivation. Always, there- 

 fore thin seedlings before they have grown large enough to injure 

 each other; retaining few or many according to the habit of the 



