THE 



GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE, ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHA.N. 



Vol. XXI. 



MAY, 1879. 



Number 245, 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground, 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Many people are very impatient to begin 

 planting. If the sun shines warmly for a few 

 hours they think it is almost too late to plant 

 trees — even though the ground is half frozen. 

 Practical gardeners and expericHced nursery- 

 men, wearied with importunities and often sus- 

 pected of intentional delays, lose patience, and 

 on the principle that it is better to have peace 

 now though it bring trouble hereafter, send on 

 or plant the trees. The earth being wet, pastes 

 instead of powders, and but a meagre portion of 

 the roots come in contact with the soil. All roots 

 or parts of roots that do not touch the earth 

 might as well not be there. Far better to have 

 a poorly dug tree well replanted than a tree 

 with all its roots, that is reset in pasty ground. 

 Indeed it is a disadvantage to have a tree with 

 numerous roots when it is planted in pasty 

 ground, for it is still more difficult to get the 

 paste through the numerous little roots. And 

 so fibrous rooted plants are in more danger than 

 those with a few coarse woody roots. Hemlock 

 Spruce, Norway Spruce and Arborvitse often 

 die in large numbers when a few warm days in 

 May or June come, if they have been planted 

 when the ground was pasty. If the leaves com- 

 mence to fall it is a sign that the roots are not 

 in contact with the earth, and should receive 



attention at once. When the ground is dry the 

 surface should be beaten with heavy paving 

 rammers. Peradventure some of the earth may 

 be then pressed in about the fibrous roots. 



In transplanting flowers that have roots large 

 enough to admit of the practice, it is best to dip 

 the roots, immediately before planting, into 

 water. This will obviate the necessity of after- 

 watering, and its consequent injurious effect. If 

 the plants appear to flag, shade or put an in- 

 verted flower-pot over the plants for a few days ; 

 if this does not bring the plant to, it must have 

 water. 



Flower-gardening, as we have often said be- 

 fore, affords scope for many pretty fancies, be- 

 sides arrangement of color, which in the hands 

 of a person of taste, render a garden a paradise 

 of enchantment. Borders and edgings of ivy, 

 periwinkle or variegated plants, may be made 

 to appear as frames to the pictures of pretty 

 flowers enclosed by them. Waves and fringes 

 of green may be led along through a large flower- 

 bed, and the various divisions formed be filled 

 with its own color, making a natural and living- 

 bouquet ; different colored gravels may be chosen 

 for paths between beds ; difterent shades of green 

 may be made by the selection of grasses of dif- 

 ferent hues, where grass walks are employed. 

 Old stumps or roots may be occasionally intro- 

 duced in the centre of beds and covered with 

 green vines, or flowering climbers, as taste may 



