THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



107 



between, to loosen the surface and destroy 

 weeds. The frequent use of the hoe will 

 obviate the need of watering in dry 

 weather. It is only where the ground is 

 allowed to bake into an impervious crust 

 that kitchen crops suffer by drought. 

 Cauliflower and brocoli will make finer 

 heads and come in quicker with the help 

 of manure water given liberally and 

 pretty strong, with plain waterings to 

 alternate. Sow cauliflower for late autumn 

 use. 



Kidney Beans may be sown in the open 

 ground now ; sow also a few in pots, to 

 make good any that miss in the rows. 

 Sow also in pots or pans sufficient seed of 

 scarlet- runners for a first planting, to give 

 an early supply. They will be a fortnight 

 earlier in fruit than those sown in the open 

 ground next week. The old scarlet-run- 

 ner is the best for general purposes ; the 

 best white is the Case Knife. 



Parslty. — Sow on a rich border, very 

 thin, and cover the drill with tiles or stones 

 for about ten days ; then remove the 

 covering, and the parsley will be found 

 peeping through. This plan hastens the 

 germination of the seed, which is gene- 

 rally very slow. 



Sow cucumbers, gherkins, peas, parsley, 

 and spinach, according to anticipated re- 

 quirements. 



Vegetable Marroivs and Ridge Cu- 

 cumbers tOj,be planted out under hand- 

 glasses on moderately warm beds. Dung 

 three parts rotted will generally give heat 

 enough, if not less than two feet deep; co- 

 vered with a foot of good loam. If no con- 

 venience to cover the plants for a few days 

 after planting, wait another week, and 

 meantime get the plants hard for the pur- 

 pose. 



Flower Garden. — Annuals will re- 

 quire thinning out, and the straggling 

 kinds will be the better for topping. There 

 are very few who know all that may be 

 done with annuals by giving them a rich 

 soil, plenty of room, and occasionally 

 pinching out the points of the leading 

 shoots. 



Bedding out. — Choose dull dry weather 

 if possible, while the ground is moderately 

 moist. Have the plants pretty dry, by 

 withholding the water the day they are to 

 be turned out. By watching the barome- 

 ter, and getting all planting done just be- 

 fore rain, much labour in after watering 

 will be saved. Everything in the way of 

 bedders may be put out now. 



Flower Beds are supposed to be turned 

 once or twice during winter, and to be 

 manured if necessary in spring. Sup- 

 posing them to have had such proper at- 



tention, now is the time to turn the soil 

 once more, and break the clods and make 

 all tidy. But beware of making the 

 ground over-fine. When muddled into 

 fine powder with rake and hoe, it will 

 either exclude air and rain from the roots 

 of the plants, or if the rain forces admis- 

 sion the soil will become a sort of paste. 

 We are no advocates for raking beds to 

 the fineness of peat dust, and would sooner 

 see the surface rough with clods broken to 

 the size of one's fist than looking as if it 

 had been run through a sieve. Plant out 

 lobelias, pentstemons, calceolarias, verbe- 

 nas, and all the hardier kinds of variegated 

 edging plants. If very hot sun, or very 

 cold nights, shelter with inverted pots or 

 branches, or if trouble and expense are not 

 thought much of for the sake of an early 

 bloom, hoop them over with tiffany, as 

 tulip beds are treated. 



Hardy Herbaceous Plants that have 

 bloomed should now be propagated. Take 

 cuttings of double walls, alyssum, arabis, 

 and Iberia sempervirens, the best of all 

 the white-flowering plants for early bloom 

 out of doors. 



Ivy does not generally figure as an item 

 in garden calendars. But it may be well 

 to remind our readers that now is the best 

 time to propagate it ; the plants struck 

 from young shoots now will have tremen- 

 dous vigour if well managed. Now is the 

 time to strike cuttings for the purpose of 

 growing ivies to form umbrellas and 

 canopies for use at fetes and festivals ; 

 take them up in clean rods to the required 

 height at which they are to be stopped to 

 form a head. These should be grown from 

 the first in pots, and never be put in the 

 open ground until discarded for the purpose 

 for which they were originally grown. 



Phloxes struck from cuttings now will 

 bloom well in the autumn ; strong stools 

 in the border will need thinning, to reduce 

 the number of shoots to a few manageable 

 leaders, which are to be staked neatly and 

 separately. Phloxes are now being grown 

 in pots, but are scarcely the best of sub- 

 jects for that method, though it is conve- 

 nient for showing, and enables the exhibi- 

 tor to put up complete plants, which are 

 always preferable to cut blooms when it is 

 possible to show them. 



Roses beset with grub and green-fly, if 

 neglected (as in too many instances they 

 have been already), the first bloom will be 

 worthless. There is no effectual process 

 but hand-picking for the grub, and pure 

 water used with force is the simplest 

 agency against green-fly, and will vastly 

 benefit the roses. 



Spergula planted this season will need 

 P 2 



