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IRISH GARDENING 



OCTOBER 



IRISH GARDENING. 



AN ILLUSTRATtD MONTHLY. 



Offices-53 Upper Sackville Street. Dublin. 



, copy, anJ pbotographi 



Subscription. — 3; per annum, pi 



Bdltorial.-AII Editorial Commun 

 should be addressed to "The Editor.' 



Business Communications.— All letters regarding Subscnptu 

 Advertisements, and other business matters must be addres-^ed 

 •• The Manager," 



Two Gardeners. 



E.XCH of them had a horse to mind, and so 

 the hoiir.s of their labour were reallx 

 longer than from six till six in summer 

 and from daylight till darkness in winter. .Seven- 

 teen shillings a week and their cottages were their 

 wages. Potatoes and vegetables had, of 

 course, to be grown, but their specialities 

 were flowers and raising new \ arieties of 

 potatoes. The cottages are covered with 

 honeysuckle and roses, a good index to the 

 "•ardens themselves, full of roses, dahlias, bulbs, 

 chrysanthemums, svveetwilliam, geraniums, 

 wallflowers, London pride, phloxes, pansies, 

 aipple ringie (apple balm), heather reenges 

 (hydrangea), feather foullie (fever few), and 

 many others, both annual and perennial, with 

 plenty of rhubarb and a lot of young and well- 

 kept currant and gooseberry bushes. 



Each had several small home-made glass 

 frames, in which flowers were protected and 

 propagated, and in which the new potatoes were 

 sown and grown. The seeds from the potato 

 apples were sown in shallow trays filled with fine 

 sand and peat. They were sprouted under 

 cover and transplanted to the open garden only 

 when all danger of frost was past. 



In autumn the tubers were dug up and stored 

 dry till next spring, when they were planted. 

 Selection and elimination did not begin till the 

 second crop was reaped ; and when the tubers 

 were three or four years old they were either dis- 

 carded or " put upon the market." But putting 

 them upon the market did not mean selling 

 them and making a big profit. It merely meant 

 giving a few tubers to this friend and a few to 

 another, and so on. Yet, though they were 

 neither pushed nor puffed, and although Jimmie 

 Kerr and Rob Forrest have been dead for nearly 

 twenty years, some of their potatoes are still 

 grown in the parish in which they lived. 



Rob Forrest's garden had one unusual feature — 

 there was a ring of Druid stones in its midst ; 

 and Rob set these up and formed a rockery 

 around about and among them. He was a 



w ood carter, and so had opportunities oi picking 

 up rare ferns and other woodland plants, and 

 with these he clothed his rockery, which is 

 partially shown in the photograph opposite. Nor 

 were these the only accomplishments of Jimmie 

 Kerr and Rob Forrest. Jimmie was the best 

 rider in the parish and the best hedger in the 

 county, if not even in all the south of Scotland. 

 No man in the parish could sing a better song 

 than Rob, and at quoits, or on the bowling green 

 or on the ice 'curling), he had scarcely an equal. 

 James Wilson. 



G 



The Gloxinia. 



LOXINI.AS will now have finished flower 

 Ing, and water must be gradually with- 

 held. It is bad practice to withhold 

 water all at once, as the corms are likely to 

 shrivel, causing a weak growth the following 

 \ear. A temperature of 45^' or 50'' suits the 

 plants during their period of rest. 



Some growers turn the corms out of their 

 pots and lay them in boxes of sand during the 

 winter. Others allow them to rest in their pots, 

 care being taken to keep the corms dry and also 

 to exclude frost from the structure where they 

 are stored. It is necessary to keep the corms 

 from coming in contact with hot-water pipes. 

 In February a batch of corms may be started 

 into growth, and a month later another. This 

 provides a succession of flowers. If the corms 

 have been allowed to rest in their pots they will 

 require to be taken out and all the old soil 

 shaken off". Re-pot them in small pots, and just 

 cover the crowns with soil. They will not re- 

 quire watering till growth has commenced. 

 The svringe should be used frequently to damp 

 between the pots. When roots fill the small 

 pots the plants should be potted into larger 

 ones. A 5-inch or 6-inch pot is considered 

 large enough for ordinary purposes. 



A good potting soil consists of loam, leaf- 

 mould and sharp sand in equal proportions. 

 Two-year-old corms usually give best results. 

 If the plants are required to flower during the 

 early part of the summer the temperature of an 

 intermediate house is required, but very satis- 

 factory results can be had by giving the plants 

 perfectly cool treatment. 



Grow the plants in a greenhouse till the end 

 of May, then remove them to an ordinary 

 garden frame. They will make slow, firm 

 growth in this wav, and towards the end of 



