G8 THE GARDENER. [Feb. 



very beneficial; tliey will require little attention, except placing a stick 

 to the plant and tying tlie shoot to it as it grows. The plants should 

 be removed to the greenhouse as soon as the first flower on the spike 

 is fully expanded, where they will continue in beauty a long time. 

 After the flowering is over the plants should be removed to a cold 

 frame, where they should be kept during winter and planted out in 

 the spring, as previously recommended ; or they may be shifted into 

 larger pots (8 or 9 inch is a good size), and grown a second year in that 

 way. Finer spikes will be obtained, and opportunity afforded to 

 retard or accelerate the blooming period, by removing them to the 

 north or south side of a brick wall, or any similar convenient position. 

 The varieties of Phlox suffruticosa flower earliest; this section has 

 been much improved by cultivators in Scotland, and contains many 

 beautiful varieties. In the neighbourhood of London the varieties of 

 decussata or late-flowering are considered the best ; they are of a 

 robust and hardy nature, and the improvement of this section is even 

 more marked. Those who are intending to grow a collection should 

 procure some of each sort, as the season will thereby be much pro- 

 longed. The following list of sorts has been supplied to me by one 

 of the most distinguished florists, and may be depended upon. New 

 varieties of Suffruticosa : — Elvina, lona, John Watson, James Mitchell, 

 James Neilson, Miss Ainslie, Pladda, Robert Hannay, The Queen, 

 Waverley, William Blair. Of older sorts — Duchess of Sutherland, 

 George Wyness, James Laing, John Gumming, Miss Lucy, Hope 

 Johnstone, Mrs Duff, Othello, William Linton, The Deacon, William 

 M'Aulay, William Shand, W. W. Piatt. The following list contains 

 decussata or late-flowering varieties : — Aurantiaca superba, Aurore 

 Boreale, Comtesse de Chambord, Liervallii, Madame Barillet, Madame 

 Billy, Madame Domage, Mdlle. Hermine de Turenne, Mdlle. ]\Iarguerite 

 de Turenne, Mons. Joseph Heim, M. Muret de Bort, Mons. W. Bull, 

 Mons. Malet, Mons. Yeitch, Mons. Delamare, Mons. Hugh Low, 

 Mons. Marin Saison, Mons. C. Turner, Mons. Linden, Premices du 

 Bonheur, Queen Victoria, Roi des Roses, Souvenir des Ternes, Venus. 



James Douglas. 



WEATHER-WISE. 



We shall not be wrong in assuming that the minds of the gardening 

 fraternity have for the last three weeks been more concentrated on 

 the weather than on the war. Our atom of mind has and still can think 

 of nothing else but frost and its effects, and the means of defence in 

 the way of coke, mats, and litter. We have no special gift of weather- 

 wisdom, but have certain beliefs, among which the moon has no share 



