270 THE FLORIST. 



THE LADIES' PAGE. 



" Now the leaf 

 Incessant rustles from the mournful grove ;" 



and the partially denuded tree.?, from the branches of which the 

 condensed fog drips like a shower of tears, seem to be weeping over 

 the loss of their green mantles. 



" Fled is the blasted verdure of the fields ; 

 And, shrunk into their beds, the flowery race 

 Their sunny robes resign." 



Although this aspect of desolation is caused by the unchangeable 

 laws of Nature, yet no true lover of flowers can repress a feeling of 

 sorrow for the loss of his favourites. It will be well, therefore, to 

 divert the mind from dwelling upon and deploring that which is un- 

 avoidable, by planning and preparing for that hopeful season, when 



" The penetrative sun, 

 His force deep darting to the dark retreat 

 Of vegetation, sets the steaming power 

 At large." 



It is presumed that amateur managers of gardens have, during 

 the past flowering season, made notes of any defective arrangements 

 that may have been apparent as regards colour, stature, and habit of 

 the various plants composing the beds, and have determined upon 

 whatever improvements their resources may enable them to make. 

 Some part of this innovation upon former systems might possibly be 

 the employment of early-blooming plants, in accordance with the 

 hints we have before given ; and if circumstances should have pre- 

 vented the necessary preparations from being made during the last 

 month, they ought to be commenced immediately. Hardy plants, 

 whether herbaceous or woody, succeed better when transplanted in 

 autumn than in spring ; and, in addition to this, another great ad- 

 vantage is gained by doing every thing that can be done before that 

 busiest season of the gardener's year comes on. Trees and shrubs of 

 all kinds may therefore be removed now with almost perfect safety, if 

 the operation is properly performed, though the end of September and 

 beginning of October is perhaps preferable for conifers and evergreens 

 generally; that most desirable of all under-shrubs, the Rhododendron, 

 might, however, be safely transplanted at any time up to April, or 

 even later if the weather is moist, as its numerous fibrous roots retain 

 so much soil amongst them, that it is next to impossible to take up a 

 plant without its having what some planters so much covet — a baU 

 of earth attached to the roots. This plant is specially mentioned for 

 the purpose of correcting the erroneous but general notion that it 

 will thrive only in peat-earth, whereas we lately saw it in Messrs. 

 Lane's nursery at Great Berkhampstead, growing and thriving well 

 in the common soil of the locaUty, a sandy loam ; also at the place 

 from whence this is written, there are immense bushes of Rhododen- 

 dron ponticum and its varieties grossing and flowering freely in very 



