28 



IRISH GARDENING 



February 



The Flower Garden. 



By J. H. Ci MMIXG, Overseer, Royal Dublin Society, 

 Ball's Bridge. 



FLOWER BEDS AND BORDERS. — It is 

 considered a settled point with experi- 

 enced flower gardeners that the majority 

 of the plants now used for long-continued 

 masses of bloom are as exhausting to the soil 

 and require to have as good a foundation laid 

 for their culture as 

 most of our vege- 

 tables, and it is a 

 matter of very great 

 importance that the 

 principles of good 

 cultivation in the pre- 

 laration of the beds 

 Nhould be specially 

 made. The miserable 

 appearance of many 

 a villa and cottage 

 llower plot owes its 

 origin to the idea that 

 John H. Cimming. oi,r present flower 



garden plants do not require careful cultivation 

 such as would be expected to produce good 

 crops of vegetables. In order to get fine, 

 healthy plants and a long-sustained array of 

 bloom in the case of the great majority of the 

 plants used it is necessary that the beds or 

 borders be well drained, deeply worked, and 

 well manured. 



Th£! extent to which manure is to be applied must be 

 regulated by the nature of the soil and dryness or wet- 

 ness of the district. If the soil is naturally shallow or 

 sandj' it is greatly improved by having a quantity of 

 heavy, loamy soil incorporated with it. The best 

 manure is cow-dung that has lain some months and lost 

 its rankness. For heavy, loamy soils well decayed stable 

 dung and leaf-mould is preferable. These manures 

 should be applied when the beds are being dug or 

 trenched, in autumn or early spring, and the present 



month is a suitable time for this work where it has not 

 already been attended to. Bone-meal is an excellent 

 manure for the majority of flower garden plants, and a 

 sprinkling sufficient to whiten the surface of the soil is 

 enough. This is a convenient manure in the case of the 

 owners of small gardens who may have a difficult}- in 

 getting the other manures referred to. Where the rain- 

 fall is great, and such things as pelargoniums grow too 

 much to leaf, the soil should be raised more above the 

 ground level, and of course manure should be more 

 sparingly applied generally. 



Dahli.vs. — The middle of February will be a suitable 

 time to take dahlia roots from their winter quarters, 

 when the roots should be neatly trimmed, and placed in 

 boxes or on the floor in a warm glass-house. The roots 

 will, of course, be arranged crown upwards, and should 

 be covered with some light material, such as leaf-mould 

 and old potting soil. In two or three weeks' time young 

 growths will make their appearance, and these, if very 

 strong and sapp\s had better be thrown away as useless. 

 Firm growths, about three inches long, make suitable 

 cuttings, and may be taken off with a "heel" if pre- 

 ferred. After careful dressing and the removal of the 

 lower leaves, the cuttings may be inserted in small pots 

 or boxes filled with somewhat sand\' soil, and placed on 

 bottom heat of, say, 70 deg. , where they will root in 

 from fourteen to twenty days. If only a few plants are 

 required, the roots may be started later, and broken up, 

 retaining to each shoot a piece of the tuber. These 

 roots may be potted up at once into five and six inch 

 pots, but the plants from cuttings will, when rooted, 

 take two and one-half inch size to begin with, shifting 

 into larger pots as required. 



Pla.nt L.\bels. — .An interesting feature in a garden 

 is in having things named. When freezing and thawing 

 take place give an occasional look to the labels, as they 

 are apt to be displaced, and renew any that are illegible. 

 Fine examples of how this should be done may be seen 

 in the Glasnevin Botanic Gardens and in the People's 

 Gardens, Phoenix Park. 



Wall Creepers for Towns.— Passing a suburban 

 villa lately I noticed an attempt being made to grow- 

 in the area the Fierj- Thorn ( Crataegus Pyracantha 

 Lelandi). Planted in a shallow box, and the shoots tied 

 to some trellis work, it was only in life, and certainly 

 would not afford its owner much pleasure. .Apart from an}" 

 sentimental desire for certain plants, situation and means 

 at command to ensure a measure of success should be con- 

 sidered. Suitable plants for such a purpose will be found 

 in Anipelopsis I'eitchi^ which seems a favourite creeper in 

 the areas of suburban houses around Dublin. The com- 

 mon Irish and other green ivies also do well. Then we 

 have the Chilian Glory Pea, Eccrenwcarpus sraber, 

 CennofhtiS Gioire de I'ersailles (this requires feeding with 

 manure water during summer). Wistaria sinensis, _/as- 

 nn'num nudiftotvm, for winter flowering, and y. hitmile 

 and officinale to give a summer display. Instead of 

 shallow boxes which can give so little root room for these 

 plants, small barrels about two feet high answer the pur- 

 pose nicely. These should have several holes bored in the 

 bottom, and drainage in the form oi broken pot shreds, 

 stones or clinkers, put carefully over the holes to allow 

 water to escape readily. On the drainage place some 



