of Rural Art and Taste. 



109 



bed the best to show oiF these plants ; but do 

 not start with a bright scarlet variety in the 

 center, that would fix the eye and spoil the 

 effect of the whole bed ; a white or light color 

 is best for a center plant, and then put in as 

 many colors as you wish, placing each plant 

 about fifteen inches from another and about 

 twelve inches from edge ; note that the colors 

 are evenly balanced round the bed ; any lit- 

 tle inequality in growth can be shortened as 

 the plants cover the ground. It is a mistake 

 to raise flower beds, especially for Verbenas, 

 above the level of surrounding turf; it should 

 rather be below in this climate ; it requii'es 

 all the rain we receive, and if beds are raised 

 the moisture all runs away, leaving the soil dust 

 dry. We planted Verbenas a yard apart and 

 they covered the ground, but it was made very 

 rich, to get good cuttings for propagating. 



Plantiny Boscs.—This, should be done 

 as early in the month as possible, to get the 

 plants well started before the dry weather. 

 We have felt surprised to find Roses grow and 

 flower so well on our light sandy soil, but 

 there being clay underneath, plants never 

 suffer here from a dry summer so much as on 

 much stiffer soil ; and we are never troubled 

 with mildew until the heavy dews in autumn ; 

 then if the ground is dry, mildew is sure to 

 appear. 



We prefer planting Roses in beds to placing 

 single plants in borders ; the plants flourish 

 better and are more under control. 



If the best results are expected, the beds 

 require good preparation. In England we 

 used to dig the ground from two to three feet 

 deep, removing the bad soil from the bottom 

 and adding one-third clay marl and one-third 

 rotten manure, mixing the whole thoroughly 

 together, and planting the roses two feet from 

 each other, cutting the plants down to two or 

 three eyes the first season and leave all the 

 strong shoots the second, which were pegged 

 down. These shoots started and flowered 

 from every eye, and each year the old shoots 

 were cut out, also the weak ones, and the 

 strong ones pegged down as before. This 

 made a mass of the largest flowers. This 

 treatment refers to the hybrid perpetual class. 



The Bourbon, Teas and Chinas require differ- 

 ent management. The beds were mulched 

 with half decayed manure, which was removed 

 in the spring and the plants pruned to near 

 the ground, as usually the unprotected wood 

 was injured, but shoots started from the bot- 

 tom and the plants flowered very fine ; in 

 some instances from thirty to forty buds on a 

 shoot of Souvenir de la Malmaison. 



Previous to the winter of 1860 and '61, 

 most of the roses, even dwarf, were worked 

 on the briar, but that winter made a clean 

 sweep of all the budded plants in many places ; 

 we had more than ten thousand killed, and 

 the growers in the trade in some cases lost 

 nearly all their stock ; but, strange to say, seve- 

 ral plants of worked Gloire de Dijon escaped 

 with little injury. This learnt us a lesson, 

 not to plant worked roses if they were to be 

 obtained on their own roots. In that case, if 

 the tops were injured, the plants would start 

 from the bottom, and there was no trouble 

 with briar suckers coming up all over the bed ; 

 that trouble has sometimes been avoided by 

 taking up and cutting away all suckers and re- 

 planting the beds every second year, which 

 gave the opportunity of stirring the beds to 

 the bottom and adding more manure. With 

 care the plants were not checked in the least. 



Popular Flowering Shrubs. 



BV JOSIAH HOOPES, IN THE INDEPENDENT. 



[Concluded.] 



OUR native White Dogwood, when branched 

 from the ground, forms a lovely sight, 

 both in spring and autumn. The Double 

 Althaeas, almost as common as the Sunflower 

 and Hollyhock, are yet very attractive ; and 

 especially so are the newer varieties, that have 

 received such great attention from the hybrid- 

 izer. One with variegated leaves has flowers 

 as double as a rose. The French have sent 

 us one with milkwhite bloom, and still another 

 of the same snowy hue, but perfectly double. 

 Among the old-time shrubs we might enu- 

 merate the upright Honeysuckles ; and these 

 too have been greatly improved, as one enti- 

 tled rubra grandijlora will abundantly testify. 



