276 



THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



the planting of evergreen shrubs at this 

 season, though we confess to doing it our- 

 selves and seeing it done by everybody 

 else. It would be much better for tlie 

 trees to be content now with marking the 

 places where they are to go by stakes, and 

 leaving them untouched till April, when 

 the shift will distress them less, and they 

 will commence to make new roots imme- 

 diately. This plan allows of the planting 

 of deciduous trees and the finishing of all 

 tli3 rough work in laying out a shrubbery, 

 and it may even be carried so far as to the 

 making of the holes for the evergreens, 

 laying the stuff taken out in heaps beside 

 them to get completely pulverized for 

 rilling in. Every cultivator of flowers 

 should secure now a good supply of turf 

 from a loamy pasture, and of bog, peat, or 

 silky yellow loam, in which the common 

 brake grows plentifully. These should be 

 stacked up in high ridges like walls, so 

 that the frost will penetrate the whole 

 mass, and the grass will rot quickly. 

 Manure, roughly spread among choice 

 shrubs, will assist in protecting their roots 

 from frost. In spring the manure can be 

 levelled, and all rough stuff raked off. 

 This is a good time to make banks and 

 rockeries, as during frost the wheeling 

 can be done without harm to the walks. 



Alpines suffer more from wet than 

 frost; choice kinds had best be potted and 

 put in frames, as during January there is 

 usually much havoc committed among 

 alpines on rockeries. The only safe way 

 to keep up a collection is to have dupli- 

 cates of all the species in pots. 



Flower Beds not occupied should be 

 deeply stirred and left rough. The fear 

 of an untidy appearance causes many a 

 flower garden to get sour and full of 

 vermin, whereas the soil should be as tho- 

 roughly broken and pulverized as that of 

 the kitchen garden. The beds may be 

 manured now where the positions are com- 

 paratively dry, but it will be as well to 

 defer the manuring till the spring. If 

 supplies of turf are wanted for next year's 

 potting, get the material in at once, and 

 stack in long narrow ridges like dwarf 

 walls. 



Flower-sticks are important items of 

 garden furniture, and during dripping 

 weather, time may be well spent in-doors, 

 or in company with the furnace fire, in 

 preparing a plentiful supply for next 

 season. For ordinary purposes, the best 

 flower-sticks are made by splitting what 

 arc known as four-foot double-selected 

 laths, which the bricklayer or lathrender 

 will supply. These should be split and 

 cut to proper lengths, the edges rounded 



off, and the ends pointed, and then the 

 whole should have two coats of paint. 

 They will last longer if the pointed ends 

 are dipped in hot pitch, which prevents 

 their rotting in the soil. Flower-sticks of 

 this sort are generally painted green, but 

 they should be separated into two or three 

 lots in sizes, and be painted two or throe 

 different colours, such as reddish-brown, 

 green, and dark umber. These three 

 colours will match nearly all the various 

 kinds of stems of plants which the sticks 

 may be used, to support. The strong shoots 

 of fuchsias that have been cut down in the 

 open ground make excellent flower-sticks, 

 and need no painting, because of their 

 natural colour ; the hardy fuchsia, called 

 Riccartoni, makes first-rate flower-sticks, 

 and the common Snowberry may be cut 

 down for the same purpose, and the stout 

 rods trimmed for sticks, and the light 

 ones put aside for use as pegs, for which 

 purpose they are very tough and trust- 

 worthy. 



Rhododendrons that have been many 

 years planted require a little refreshing at 

 the root, and this is the best time to do it. 

 A mixture of very rotten cow-dung and 

 leaf-mould is an excellent surfacing mate- 

 rial, or two or three inches of rotten cow- 

 dung only will do; nothing stronger must 

 be used. This is a job that may be done 

 during frost better than while the ground 

 is wet. 



Hoses must now be protected where 

 they are much exposed to north-east 

 winds. This is especially necessary in the 

 case of standard tea roses, which in hard 

 weather are often killed back to the work. 

 If it is not thought advisable to take them 

 up and pack their roots in earth in a shed, 

 tie some haybands in and out among the 

 shoots which form the head, so as to pro- 

 tect all the lower parts of the main 

 branches, leaving the t. p unpruned, to 

 bear the full severity of the weather. The 

 ends of the shoots may be killed back 

 some inches, but the ripe and stout wood 

 of the head will escape through being pro- 

 tected, and at the March pruning all the 

 frosted parts will be cut away. Dwarfs on 

 their own roots are easiest protected by 

 putting fern or straw loosely about them, 

 and then laying a few heavy tiles or bricks 

 over the roots ; these keep the litter from 

 blowing away, and preserve the roots from 

 ! the effects of frost. Roses to be planted 

 should be got in without delay while there 

 is yet a chance of fair weather; as, if neg- 

 lected now, it will be better to defer plant- 

 I ing till the end of February. All newly - 

 ! planted standards to be securely staked. 

 ! In damp soils, iron rods are the best stakes, 



