36 



IRISH GARDENING, 



MARC 



to dark iMdit;^ blue, ami also whiu- .ukI ioso- 

 coloiirod \atietios. 



Cicnisla .L-lluicn.Nis is a liiiH>in ol \ ci \ ditVL-rcnl 

 hahil to the sprint; llou crors. It tonus a tall 

 slender bush with loiii; whip-like ueepint; 

 slender branches eo\ered with small, brit;hi 

 yellow llowers, indeseiibably beautiful aiul 

 j,''racel\il in the autumn sun. It comes from 

 Sicily, but is (.|uite har».ly at Kew , where there 

 are some strikiiii^ betls ot il near the retresli- 

 nienl pavilion, (.lenisia tinctoria. I)\ers W'oad, 

 is a ver_\' variable sjiecies scattered o\er l^urope, 

 includini^" Hritain. I-Vom the dwart native 

 form, with its double \ariety, there is e\ er\ 

 y^radalion to quite uprit;ht bushes of three 

 to four feet. .\s would be expected, it rejoices 

 in a multitude o( synonyms, but this need not 

 deter enthusiasts from growinj^- it, as all forms 

 are ^ood and worthy of g^arden room, beins^ 

 especially valuable for their late flowerini,'- season. 



Olearia Haastii, from New Zealand, would, 

 I think, win in a competition for the freest 

 flowerini;- o( all sluubs. It is no exai;yeration 

 to say that when at its best not a leaf 

 can be seen, it is quite w hite. The flowers are 

 small. It is ver\ hardy. A number of spira;as 

 remain in .Auj^ust and others open. Spinx^a 

 Doug-lasii is g-ood. It lias nice thyrse-shaped 

 panicles of pink flowers. The hydranj^eas also 

 commence in Aug-ust. H. japonica is good, and 

 H. hortensis gives a few preliminary flowers, 

 but it is not at its best until the late season and 

 spring. H. paniculata hardly needs commenda- 

 tion. We all know and prize it. and onh wish 

 it were hardier. l.avenders. buddleias, and 

 rhus are other good things. 



In September many of the .\ugust plants 

 continue — ceanothus, buddleias, &c., and not- 

 able additions are Hibiscus svriacus, in all 

 colours ; Erica stricta, the upright South 

 European heath ; K. vagans, the prostrate 

 Cornish heath, and its white variety: and a 

 number of nice hypericums, St. John's Wort, 

 late flowering veronicas of the Autumn Glory 

 and Gauntleti type, which unforlunateK- are 

 tender, and generally get cut up in the winter 

 if not killed outright. Spartium junceum. from 

 South Europe, known as the Spanish broom, is 

 the most striking of all, and a glorious plant for 

 autumn work. 



October adds little to our list and much is 

 gone. Decreasing daylight, diminishing heat 

 of the sun, occasional frost, all work to the 



same <.'nL\ as far as plant life is concerned - 

 lesi. 1 Ik' arbutus commeiues its four or ti\e 

 ir.oiuhs' flowering season, the nnrtle struggles 

 on, jasmines are gootl. (.'oronilla emeroides is 

 wortli .1 place, anil can stand o\er twenty 

 degrees ot trost w itlunit injury ; \eronicas 

 tlower until cut liy Irost. The most striking- 

 shrub, wlieie it will staml out. is the Chinese 

 C aryopteris m;istacanthus, with lumierous 

 heatis of jiale IMue flowers, not a plant for 

 cold or sunless places. 



.Xovember ami December onl\ bring us 

 okl (riends — arbutus, chinionanthus, hamamelis, 

 Jasniinum nuditloruni. antl heaths. The xear 

 opened with them and litly ends with them ; 

 but what wealth and glory we can have in oiu' 

 gardens din-ing the course of a xear tron-i flower- 

 ing shrubs 1 fear is only imperfectly ami scantily 

 revealed in this paper. 



Pruning Small Fruit. 



Hy Fkkm. \V. Ham.mom.. 



I.\ nian\- places where the pruning of the top 

 fruit, apples and plums, is carried out in 

 something like the proper manner, the 

 poor gooseberry and currant trees often come 

 in for very rough treatment, being frequentl\ 

 either hacked about in a merciless way or left 

 to become overcrowded with wood, showing 

 that the proper system of pruning- them is not 

 understood very well by those w'ho perform 

 the operation. And, indeed, it is not by any 

 nieans the easiest thing ii-i the world to prune a 

 gooseberry bush, particularly if it happens to be 

 one of the varieties which have a pendulous 

 habit of growth. 



In this, as we have seen in all the others, the 

 pruner niust use his head as well as his hands. 

 No two varieties can be treated alike, and 

 indeed the same variety in different soils and 

 situations often needs different handling in 

 pruning it. The first question to consider is — 

 What is the best fruit-bearing wood in a 

 gooseberry bush and how to secure as much of 

 it in a tree as possible? and after that — how 

 best to shape the tree in order that the fruit 

 niay come to perfection and also be easily 

 gathered. Looking at a tree in fruit one finds 

 that fruit is borne on almost all the wood from 

 one year up to nine or ten years or even more, 

 but that the finest berries are to be found on the 



