48 



IRISH GARDENING 



rind giaftiug, are the methods most ruminoiily 

 adopted in private gardens. 



Whip or Tongue Grafting. — This is the most 

 suitable for worlving young stoclis, or where tlie 

 stock and scion are of equal dimensions. The 

 scion is prepared by making a long slanting cut 

 at the basal portion. Next make an upward cut 

 in the stock to correspond with that of the scion. 

 Make a slanting cut downards in the stock, and 

 then with a second take out a small wedge. On 

 the scion make two corresponding cuts. Tlie scion 

 sliould then be inserted, and make certain that 

 there is a union of tlie bark at least on one side. 

 Tie in vcit firmly, and then cover with wax or clay 

 to keep out the air. 



Crown or Kind Gr.akting. — The scion is cut in 

 the same manner as tor whip grafting. A slit is 

 cut down the bark of the .^tock about three inches. 

 Carefully lift the bark wdiere the cut was made and 

 insert the end of the scion, and push it down until 

 its cut surface is covered by the bark of the stock. 

 See that the bark fits firmly to the sides of the 

 scion, and bind it lightly in position and cover 

 with wax or clay. The grafts should be left with 

 three or four buds for future growth. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Grounds. 



Violet. — Autumn-rooted runners that is now 

 making growth should be planted in a well- 

 manured piece of ground with plenty of leaf- 

 mould. The plants may be planted 15 inches apart 

 for the single varieties and the doubles 9 inches 

 apart each way. Give them a damping in the 

 evenings and pull off the runners that appear 

 during the sunmier. 



SweIet Peas. — Plants that have wintered in 

 boxes and pots and are well hardened off should 

 be planted out in their permanent positions. Fork 

 plenty of lime and wood ashes in the ground they 

 are to occupy. 



Annuals should be sown in quantity in pre- 

 pared borders tor cutting, and a few little patches 

 of Matliiohi liirvinis (Night-scented Stock) in any 

 odd corner for its perfume. A few varieties that 

 are always popular are The Shirley Poppy, Mig- 

 monette, Nigella, Miss Jekyll (Love in the Mist), 

 iMCdtcrci rufea splcmlens (Rose Mallow), Phai'elia 

 campanularia, African and French Marigolds, 

 Asters, Stocks and Larkspurs. 



Rockeries. — Plants will need top-dressing now, 

 especially wliere roots are exposed through the 

 winter's rains. A good .soil for most alpine plants 

 is made up of loam, leaf-soil and sand, some plants, 

 such as the Silver Saxifrages, are better for a 

 top-dressing of the above, with the addition of 

 some lime or old mortar rubble crushed up. 



Lawns should be rolled and swept when the 

 surface is dry. Graiss seed sown on any bare 

 patches, moss raked out with an iron rake. A 

 top-dressing of lime or wood ashes will destroy 

 moss. 



Award of Garden Merit. 



At their meeting on 2;)rd February, 1922. the 

 Council of the Royal Horticultural Society gave the 

 Award of Garden Merit to ''/•.,(■».; Toiiuisininiuix 

 and to C xpccKjsim. 



The general grounds for the making uf this award 

 have been set out in an earlier note, but some 

 comments upon these two plants may be of value. 



Both are good doers and will, with ordinary care 

 increase rapidly in any well-drained British gai- 

 den. Their only enemies are field mice and 

 pheasants. Both produce seed .so freely and 



nndtiply by the formation of so many small conns 

 that so long as their foliage is allowed to remain 

 until it becomes brown (about the end ol April) 

 permanence and increase are assured. The only 

 attention they require is an occasional replanting 

 when they become too thick. The one brightens the 

 garden m the early spring, the other tones the 

 browns, reds and yellows of the dying year. 



Crocus Toiufisiiiianus flowers, as a rule, just 

 before most forms of ('. ccinus, and about the 

 tune of the old Dutch yellow Crocus. It has a 

 slender grace that niost of the Dutch forms of C. 

 i-enius lack, and is, when open, of a clear and 

 delicate colour described l^y Maw as sapphire- 

 lavender, and by Bowles as amethystine-violet. 

 No Dutch Crocus, excejrt the one I hold the most 

 beautiful of all, " Margot," is so tender and pleasing 

 in shade. When closed the flowers of most forms 

 are of various shades of grey. It is a variable 

 plant, especially perhaps in the colour of the 

 liuds. but there is a deep purple variety, a pure 

 white, and a particularly pleasing one called 

 " pictus," with flowers marked at the tips with a 

 darker blotch, below an apical white spot. 



(.'locus Toiiiasinlanus does well in many places 

 at Wisley, in the open and in the light shade of 

 shrubs and trees, but does not prove quite so 

 happy as many in the grass. Its best place is on 

 the higher parts of the rock garden where it may 

 seed down and gl&dden the early days of dull 

 February with drifts of lavender violet, which will 

 not interfere in the least with the flowers that 

 are to follow after. It i5hould be planted in August 

 or September, and seed should be sown as soon as 

 ripe in the open to germinate with the growth of 

 the cornis in the spring. 



Cro(».s spiiinxus flowers in September and 

 October, and is the most reliable and showy of 

 all the autumn-flowering species, unless it be C. 

 iiudiflorus, great drifts of which form one of 

 the beautiful autumn features of Wisley, and 

 which, though so abundant in its easily accessible 

 native home, is scarcely known in the nursery- 

 man's catalogues. ('. spcciosus should be planted 

 in July. It will grow in short grass where, as at 

 Wisley, it may be left alone for years, and every 

 year will give stretches of blue among the green 

 of the grass and the brown of the falling leaves 

 without any further care. It will grow under light 

 shade and in the open, and is proper for the 

 herbaceous border and the lighter shrublicry, 

 the grassy bank and the rock garden, the 

 edge of the wide woodland walk and the field 

 garden. A strong and vigorous flower, it is 

 calculated to withstand all reasonable buffet- 

 ings of autumn. In its typical form it is 

 beautifully pencilled with blue on a pale 

 lilac ground, but varies nuich in colour and size, 

 and a munber of names have been given to more 

 or less distinct forms, the most remarkable of 

 which are the var. Aitchisonii, the giant of the 

 species, and flowering later than the tyjie, collected 

 by Mr. H. J. Ehves in the East (for while C. 

 Tomasinianus is more Western in its distribution, 

 C. spcciosus stretches away into Armenia and, 

 perhaps, into Persia); Van Tubergon's var. Aifahir 

 iutennedidte, in colour and season between var. 

 Aitihisotiii and the type var. glohosus, a bluer, 

 later-flowering variety; and some white and grey 

 form.5 which Mr. Bowles has raised which are 

 still rare but beautiful in their blue pencilling on 

 a white groiuid, and therefore preferable to the 

 better known pure white form, which is rather 

 starrv in shape. 



F. .1. Chtttenden. 



