For July, 1921 



649 



Finally, either pot up into thumb pots or plant out into their 

 permanent quarters. In the latter case they will establish them- 

 selves better and give superior final results than imported adult 

 plants. Needless to add, each seedling should be lifted with a 

 ball of earth attached to the roots. .\s the plants grow on, 

 about the grand period of growth, a weak application of nitrate, 

 say one-eighth ounce nitrate of soda to the gallon of water 

 administered twice, at an interval of ten days, will still further 

 enhance the results. — The Garden. 



STAKING HARDY PLANTS 



THE beauty of borders tilled with hardy plants is often marred 

 through bad staking or choice of the wrong material. On 

 many occasions I have deplored the unlimited use of Batnboo 

 canes, which all too often spoil the graceful and varied growth 

 of hardy plants. For certain plants, such as Lilies, Camassia, 

 Hollyhock, some of the Michaelmas Daisies, and certain stiff- 

 stemmed plants. Bamboo canes may be used to advantage, but 

 even here it is inost desirable that the stake should be tied close to 

 the growth it is intended to support. 



I have not yet found anything so desirable as sprays of Hazel, 

 both for elfective support and natural effect. These, in their 

 various lengths, may be prepared during bad days and tied into 

 bundles for use as required. They should be so arranged as not 

 to destroy the natural disposition of the subject concerned, be 

 it large or small. Where taller plants require support from the 

 commencement of growth short stakes should be used at first, 

 taller ones being added as the plants advance. A plant should not 

 be allowed to squat, yet this often occurs, especiallv among 

 old-established groups. When it does, effective staking becomes 

 impossible. Anchusas are very liable to do this, also Oriental 

 Poppies, Larkspurs, etc., but if caught in time and Hazel boughs 

 applied intelligently these will, by the time the flowering period 

 is reached, be obscured by foliage and the natural growth of 

 the subject preserved. When staking, it is always advisable 

 to insert one or two in the center of large plants to prevent 

 swaying by rough winds, afterwards supporting the outside 

 growths with the least possible nuinber necessary to obtain the 

 desired object. 



This iTiethod of supporting hardy plants \i ill be found far more 

 attractive than the common practice of placing around the plants 

 a ring of Bamboo canes connected by lines of string. 



For Carnations and similar plants I much prefer these twigs, 

 for not only is the effect better, but the gathering of the flowers 

 may be done more speedily than is the case where each flowering 

 shoot is tied with matting to a cane. In the case of larger 

 herbaceous plants a careful staker will intersperse his supports 

 between and among his plants to such good effect that, with 

 the e.xception of the tips necessary for the advancing growths, 

 these are practically hidden from the first. One great error in 

 the growing of hardy plants is crowding, and, where this is so, 

 many plants lose their lower foliage early in the Summer and 

 are then troublesome to deal with, and rarely are effective. 

 Frequently a dozen plants are seen where three should be. all 

 true form being lost and the plants deprived of the sun and air 

 necessary for their future development. There is no reason why 

 a skilfully planted and judiciously staked border of hardy plants 

 should not show the natural grace and form of every plant it 

 contains, whether used individually or in groups. — Gardening 

 Illustrated. 



MORAINE GARDENING 



TH.\T the moraine has solved the question of how to succeed 

 with most of the difficult alpine plants is a well-established 

 fact by now, hut 1 have reason for believing that the very elaborate 

 instructions advocated by several enthusiasts, who recommend 

 concrete basnis, water inlet and water outlet valves at various 

 levels, in addition to very elaborate mi.xturcs of granite or lime- 

 stone chips, have frightened many lovers of alpine plants from 

 facing an e.xpensivc looking adjunct of this kind. 



I have for many years experimented with moraines, and have 

 had perhaps my greatest success with the siinplest arrangements. 

 1 hold that, when obtainable, quarter-inch limestone chips arc 

 ideal for nine-tenths of the plants grown in the moraine, most 

 of tlic plants that avoid limestone formations in the wild state 

 putting up with it quite well in gardens. Only here and there 

 (Iocs a lover of granite decline to settle down in lime chips, 

 rronounced peat lovers, mostly woodland or Heath dwellers, no 

 right-minded gardener would condemn to this treatment, of 

 course. Failing limestone chips, I have used grave! washed 

 clean with onc-(|uarter its bulk of finely sifted leaf-mold added. 

 Slate chips and leaf-mold, granite chips and leaf-mold, and even 

 old flower-pots ground through a crusher to quarter-inch size 

 and less, and mixed in tlie same proi)ortion I have also used with 

 success. The conclusion ! have come to is that the chemical 

 composition does not matter so long as the physical condition 

 is right. Provide a thoroughly porous, well-drained material 



that absorbs and lets water through readily and never cakes on 

 the surface, and you have the main essentials for success with 

 the rarer alpnie plants. If there be a slope facing southwest 

 m the rock garden that could be utilized for a moraine, dig it 

 out two feet deep, lay in six inches of rough drainage, over this 

 a layer of grass or peat turves, grass side down, and fill up 

 the remainmg eighteen inches with one or other of the mi.xtures 

 I have recommended. 



Keep the surface on a good slope, and if the moraine is large 

 embed in it stepping-stones here and there to enable one to 

 attend to one plant without standing upon aother. If there is 

 no rock garden and one wishes to grow a few of the rarer alpine 

 plants, take out a hole upon the lawn, say eighteen inches deep 

 and as large as you think fit. Put in the d'rainage as before, then 

 turves, then the porous mi.xture nearly level w^ith the surface of 

 the lawn, make this firm, and set up an edging of rough stones 

 all around upon the mixture and fill in the resulting well with 

 more chippings, make it slightly highest in the middle and bed 

 into it here and there a stepping-stone if the bed is large. A 

 formal little moraine bed that will grow choice plants quite 

 as well as the elaborate underground watered moraine will be 

 the result. A minimum depth of eighteen inches I consider 

 necessary for a serviceable moraine, and no good purpose is 

 served by making it deeper than twenty-four inches. Such a 

 luoraine will retain a lot of moisture for a long time, and a can 

 or two of water once or twice a week during Spring and Sum- 

 mer will keep the plants going happily, and quite as contentedly 

 as in the elaborate structure with a constant trickle of water 

 through it. — Gardening Illustrated. 



PLANTS IN STEPS AND PAVEMENTS 



1r wa.s the example of the natural growth of small plants in 

 the joints of steps and at the edges of pavements that led to 

 their being so planted intentionally, and in very careful hands 

 it is a charming way of gardening. What Nature does in this 

 way is full of surprises, for it sometimes happens that what one 

 would have considered a most unlikely plant places itself in dry 

 wall or pavement and justifies its intrusion by a distinct success. 

 But though plants will of their own accord do well in most 

 unlikely places, when they are intentionally placed it should be 

 with the fullest sympathy with what is known of their needs. 

 It is also important that it should be done in strict moderation, 

 tor there are gardens that should be taken as warnings where 

 the plants in pavements are so much in excess that it becomes 

 impossible to use the paving for its original purpose as a place 

 to walk on. and there are steps so much crowded with vegetation 

 that no one can go up or down without some crushing or bruising 

 of pretty plants. Plants are never so happy as when self-sown 

 in the joints of stonework. Some rough sandstone steps lead up to 

 a loft over a stable. They have a partial coating of Moss, but 

 where they join the wall an accumulation of dust and various 

 small debris h'i\c fonried a little deposit of soil in which Erinus 

 thrives, and this year is accompanied by the pretty w-ild Herb 

 Robert (Geranium robertianum). Higher up in the same flight 

 of steps a bush of Rosemarv' has come, also from self-sown seed, 

 and has thriven so well that it has been necessary to cut back 

 all the front branches to allow of free passage. — -Gardening. 



UTILITY AND COMFORT IN GARDEN SEATS 



AS£.\T is a thing meant to be sat upon. Whether it belongs 

 to the garden or any other species, if it fails in fulfilling that 

 object it is a redundancy. .\ seat within doors may be an im- 

 possible object as a seat and yet good art. In the garden it is 

 wholly bad. Unfortunately for us, and our gardens, we have 

 a great many of these latter to endure. They vary in uselessness 

 and disfigurement, from the armchair clipped out of an unfortu- 

 nate Box tree to that awful travesty, the "floral design," molded 

 in iron. Between these extremes we have an infinite number of 

 more or less painful (in more ways than one) objects called 

 seats — objects they are which invade our gardens like an erup- 

 tion, and oftentimes quite good gardens, too. 



Even the soul of old Topiarius himself would writhe in con- 

 demnation should it, in visiting one of our modern gardens, 

 come across one of his offspring, just as he himself would have 

 condemned any other insane interference with the ethics of his 

 ancient art. But let me not tread too heavily on the toes of 

 any to whom the vegetable world in molded iron has peculiar 

 attractions. These things are very well, perhaps, on the terrace. 

 They may fittingly companion ye nymphs and storks and cemetc- 

 rial urns in stone, or plaster or lead. Of the "formal garden" 

 they are a part: but don't, don't for the love of Natnre. put them 

 in the wrong place and by so doing commit the "ridiculous 

 excess" of endeavoring to "throw a perfume on the violet." 

 The "rustic" genus in wood, plain or peeled, twin-sister in 

 deception of the living tree to its prototype in iron, is at best 

 a thing that has neither beauty nor utility. Before you can 



