4G4 THE GARDENER. [Oct. 



TUBEROUS BEGONIAS AS BEDDING - PLANTS. 

 One of the many tilings that will make the summer of 1879 memorable 

 in the experience of gardeners is the comparative, indeed total, failure 

 of many tender plants that in ordinary seasons have done well in 

 flower gardening, after the fashion which has been so popular for the 

 last forty years. Any plants, therefore, that have done anything 

 approaching to " well," in spite of the unprecedented rain, absence of 

 sunshine, and consequent cold which has prevailed this year, are cer- 

 tainly worthy of being noted as plants that will be most likely to give 

 satisfaction in ordinary seasons. 



Tuberous Begonias have sprung into a very prominent place as 

 decorative plants in pots under glass. For this purpose they are 

 superb ; and from our own experience of the behaviour of some 500 

 or 600 planted out this wonderful summer in by no means a favoured 

 locality, we do not hesitate to pronounce them superb bedding-plants 

 as well. Through storm and rain and dull weather they have grown 

 and flowered much better than anything except Violas and Harrison's 

 Musk. The impunity with which they stand long downpours of rain 

 is such as we would not have credited had we not proved it. We do not 

 know of any bedding-plant — not even excepting Violas — that sustain 

 less damage from heavy rains ; and notwithstanding the coldness of the 

 season, they have grown better than Geraniums have done. On the 

 1st of September they were stiff with frost, and in bending the leaves, 

 ice as thick as a threepenny piece scaled off them, and neither in 

 leaf nor flower did they suffer from it. 



For wet localities we consider that they will become invaluable for 

 bedding, and take to some extent the place of Scarlet Geraniums. 

 Begonias are so easily raised from seed, that they can be quickly got 

 up, — a pinch of seed sown in heat the last week in January, and 

 forwarded by the usual system of pricking ; and if the plants are ulti- 

 mately potted singly into 4- and 5-inch pots, they can be planted out 

 early in June — strong plants that will make an early display. They 

 like rich soil, and wherever planted this condition should be seen to. 



Sedenii is what we consider the best type of a bedding Begonia, 

 and all our seedlings raised from it are of good habit and the most 

 productive of flowers of a telling colour. Consequently we are saving 

 seed carefully from this variety for bedding next season. Charles Raes 

 are equally good ; and for a deep rich scarlet, Monarch must be a good 

 parent. 



NOTES ON THE HOLLYHOCK. 



At the commencement of this year Mr Brotherston gave us an article 

 on the culture of the Hollyhock, and as his experience of this grand 

 old flower was unfortunately the same as that of too many of its cul- 

 tivators, I thought at the time that a few notes as to what had come 



