IRISH GARDENING. 



91 



The Month's Work. 

 The Flower Garden. 



By J. H. Cl MMiNt;, Overseer, Royal Dublin Society, 

 Ball's Bridge. 



STAKES .AND PEGS.— Where flower beds are niucli 

 exposed such things as calceolarias are verv 

 liable to damage from high winds, and it is a good 

 plan to stick some stiff, leafless spruce branches round 

 each plant. The plants 

 grow amongst and over 

 them, and are soon lost to 

 sight while giving support. 

 It is also well to pinch off 

 the first flowers of calceo- 

 larias, as it enables the 

 plant to make a good 

 foundation, and so prolong 

 its period of life and 

 beauty. Provision should 

 also be made to peg down 

 verbenas. Mangles pelar- 

 gonium. Phlox Drum- 

 mondi, and such like. 

 The wind is ruinous to 

 these plants when first set 

 out, and no time should 

 be lost in securing them. 

 Suitable pegs for the pur- 

 pose may be made of thin 

 wire cut into six - inch 

 lengths, and a bent hook 

 made of one end. In the 

 country, where the com- 

 mon bracken grows freel)', 

 the leaf stems make fine 

 material for this purpose. 

 When carnations begin to 

 "spindle" for bloom, 

 stakes should be put to 

 them and the flower stems 

 loosely tied as they grow. 

 In the herbaceous border 

 avoid the too common 

 practice of tying a bushy 

 plant to one stake, giving 

 the appearance of a glori- 

 fied broom top. It is pre- 

 ferable to use several 

 stakes round a plant simi- 

 lar to staking peas, and 

 beech or elm branches are 

 very suitable for this, 

 when, if done in time, the 

 branches will be covered 

 by the plant's growth, and 

 a free, natural appearance 

 result. 



Reserve Stock. — When 

 the work of bedding out 

 is finished and the plants 

 all healthy and hardy, few 

 blanks may occur. At the 



same time a reserve stock of all plants used should be 

 formed to fill up any blanks, and where space permits 

 the reserves should be potted into various sized pots 

 and placed in a sheltered, open place. They are thus 

 in a position to fill up gaps in the course of summer if 

 wanted. 



Watering. — From what one sees around the suburbia 

 of our large towns, watering the newly planted flower 

 beds after a fashion forms to the inexperienced one of 

 the most pleasing recreations which their spare morning 



P.\R.\siTic Rose-Canker. 



ng tile life history of Coniothyrium Fuckclii (S.icc.) on the stem 

 (For description see text on opposite page.) 

 [Rtproduced through the courtesy 0/ the Royal Horticultural Society oj England.'] 



of drawing illustr 



